You notice, first, the vast expanse of white nothingness. No signs on the boards, no advertisements on the ice and no colour on the screen.
It is May 2, 1967, and Hockey Night in Canada is airing the sixth game of the Stanley Cup final.
Ralph Mellanby, the rookie executive producer, is with the crew in the broadcast truck.
In the booth at Maple Leaf Gardens, Bill Hewitt and Brian McFarlane are getting ready to call the game.
More Stories
"Tensions are riding high," Hewitt says as the game begins.
Well, yeah.
The Cup is in the building. An era in hockey is about to end. It's Canada's centennial year. And bragging rights for the country's two most famous sports teams are on the line.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, of course, won the game to capture their fourth championship of the 1960s, making them the dominant team of that decade. (Toronto's three consecutive Stanley Cups, plus one, trumped Montreal's twin doubles.) Needless to say, Leafs fans are still waiting for the next one.
That's why the ceremony tomorrow night at the Air Canada Centre for the 1967 team is getting plenty of attention in Toronto. It was a pivotal time for hockey, but also transitional for television.
"It was probably the last bastion of the old Hockey Night in Canada," Mellanby said yesterday. "After that, everything changed."
Instant replay, already in use, would soon be enhanced by slow-motion replays. Graphics would be used. The switch to colour television was beginning.
At the end of the series, Montreal host Frank Selke Jr. would leave the show to become the president of the expansion Oakland Seals.
A few years later, Mellanby would fire the Toronto host, Ward Cornell, ending a long friendship, and replace him with Dave Hodge.
One of Mellanby's goals when he arrived at Hockey Night from variety programming at the CBC was to showcase the players, but that wasn't easy.
In 1967, the NHL had a rule that prohibited between-period interviews during the playoffs.
After Leafs coach Punch Imlach made headlines by disparaging Canadiens rookie netminder Rogie Vachon to Red Fisher of The Montreal Star, calling him a "junior B goalie," Mellanby tried to get Imlach to go on the air.
"He wouldn't say it on television," Mellanby said. "It was funny. They were so free and easy with the press. But he just said to me, 'Go [expletive] yourself.' "
The telecast of the sixth game stands up pretty well. The main play-by-play camera gave viewers a good picture of the action. Close-ups and reaction shots were incorporated into the telecast. The cameras went tight regularly to Imlach and his counterpart, Toe Blake.
Hewitt delivered a clean, accurate account of the game. His voice had a nasal tone, but it was strong and he had no difficulty rising to the occasion.
For the famous faceoff in Toronto's zone near the end of the game, Hewitt kept it simple, but captured the drama of the moment.
"The puck is dropped," he said. "Kelly, up to Pulford."
His voice started to rise.
"Pulford gets it up to Armstrong! Armstrong waits! Takes a shot! He scores!"
It certainly wasn't fancy. But it was effective and as fine as anything you will hear today.
"I thought he was great," Mellanby said.
"That series might have been Bill's finest moment."
Still with the 1967 final, the radio broadcast was called by Foster Hewitt, with Don Chevrier as his colour commentator. Hewitt mandated that Chevrier could provide commentary only three times in each period.
The 1967 ceremony is expected to last about 15 minutes, Joel Darling, the head of Hockey Night, said yesterday.
Cassie Campbell ofHockey Night will work as the colour commentator, with Don Wittman, for tomorrow's Carolina Hurricanes-Habs game.
Mike Kitchen, fired as the coach of the St. Louis Blues this season, will work as an analyst on the Atlanta Thrashers-Ottawa Senators Hockey Nigh telecast tomorrow afternoon.
You're a star
Congratulations to Sean McCormick. You're posted on YouTube under the headline "Sportsnet F-Bomb," with video and audio showing you using the f-word during a Rogers Sportsnet telecast. When the picture disappeared for a few seconds, McCormick, a Sportsnet anchor, obviously thought the audio also was off.
A spokesman said the network received two complaints.
The Toronto Raptors' showdown with Vince Carter and the New Jersey Nets on Wednesday produced The Score's largest Raptors audience ever -- 227,000 viewers, rising to 338,000 for the final 30 minutes.
Also on Wednesday, TSN pulled in 554,000 for the Vancouver Canucks-Minnesota Wild game, peaking at 675,000 near the end.
28