NHL NOTEBOOK: JEANNERET PASSES, TOEWS SAYS GOOD-BYE
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – Rick Jeanneret, who will always be regarded as the voice of the Buffalo Sabres after a 51-year broadcasting career and the Hockey Hall of Fame’s 2012 Foster Hewitt Award recipient, died on Thursday. He was 81.
The Sabres released a statement from Jeanneret’s family saying he died with his family by his side following a two-year battle with multi-organ failure. “He will be loved forever,” the family’s statement said.
Jeanneret – or RJ as he became affectionately known – was a part of Sabres broadcasts on either radio or TV since the 1971-72 season, the franchise’s second, until he retired following the 2021-22 season. He had the longest play-by-play announcing career in NHL history.
“Rick was indeed a very special and very loved man, to and by all, who knew him and listened to him, his magic, and his command,” Sabres owner Terry Pegula said. “How glad I am to have known him. How lucky were we all to have been around him and to have listened to him.
It was in part through Jeanneret how Pegula became a fan of the Sabres and their famed French Connection line of the 1970s by listening to the team’s games on radio while living in Pittsburgh. Pegula and his wife bought the franchise in February 2011.
Jeanneret was known for having various signature calls including, “Top shelf, where mama hides the cookies,” whenever a Sabres player scored by roofing a shot high into the net.
One of his most memorable calls was “May Day! May Day!” after Brad May scored the decisive goal in a 6-5 overtime win to clinch a four-game series sweep of Boston in the first round of the 1993 playoffs. It was also Buffalo’s first playoff series win in 10 years.
His other notable calls included “La-la-la-la-Fontaine!” which followed whenever former Sabres captain Pat LaFontaine scored in the 1990s. And there was his, “Now do you believe?” call during the 2006 playoffs, during the Sabres’ run to the Eastern Conference final.
He achieved the NHL’s highest broadcasting honor in 2012, upon earning the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Foster Hewitt Memorial Award.
CHICAGO (AP) – Former Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, a free agent after 16 years in Chicago, says he is stepping away from hockey to get healthy after playing in just 53 games last season.
“I’d like to announce that I am not fully retiring, but I am taking time away from the game again this season,” Toews, who also missed all of the 2020-21 season with symptoms of long COVID and chronic immune response syndrome, posted on social media. “I cannot deny my love for the game of hockey and still feel the passion for competing at my highest level. However, these last few seasons have been very difficult considering my health challenges.”
A three-time Stanley Cup champion, Toews had 15 goals and 16 assists last season, the final year of an eight-year, $84 million contract. Blackhawks General Manager Kyle Davidson said at the end of the season that the team would not re-sign him.
“The thought of playing for another team right now is so far in the back of my mind right now, especially after that moment,” Toews said after receiving an emotional sendoff from the Chicago fans in the April 13 finale. “I always thought I’d retire a Blackhawk and part of me still believes in that, so we’ll see.”
The No. 3 overall pick in the 2006 draft, Toews was 20 years old when he was named Blackhawks captain. He scored 372 goals and 511 assists – all with Chicago – winning the 2010 Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, the Selke Trophy in ’13, the Messier Leadership Award in ’15 and in 2018 was named one of the 100 greatest players in NHL history.
(CP)
