- Chris Cuthbert calls the Foster Hewitt Award the “ultimate honor” for an NHL broadcaster
- The Sportsnet voice grew up with Hewitt on the radio under his pillow
- Read below for his Crosby “Golden Goal” memories and the 1988 blackout game
Chris Cuthbert is about to join the names he grew up listening to.
The Sportsnet play-by-play voice, who won the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame, called it “the ultimate honor for an NHL broadcaster for sure” while talking with NHL.com. He gets the award at the Hall of Fame media luncheon in Toronto on Nov. 9.
Cuthbert was asked what Hewitt meant to him. The 69-year-old said he may be one of the last winners who grew up with the man on the radio.
“He was the first guy to set the dream in motion,” Cuthbert said. “I’d go to bed at night with Foster Hewitt on the radio under the pillow listening to him.”
His own signature moment came on Feb. 28, 2010. Cuthbert called Sidney Crosby‘s overtime winner against the United States at the Vancouver Olympics: “Crosby scores! Sidney Crosby, the golden goal and Canada has a once-in-a-lifetime Olympic gold!”
Cuthbert talked about how that goal sits next to Paul Henderson’s in 1972. Watch the Golden Goal told by the players who were there:
“I don’t think there will ever be anything like the ‘Golden Goal’ and Sidney Crosby and that moment,” he said. He remembers throwing it back to the panel as they debated whether it compared with Henderson’s goal. His first thought was “No way; it can’t be.”
The route there started at Queen’s University and with the Yorkton Terriers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. Cuthbert still tells the story of a 15-year-old Ken Daneyko introducing himself on the first road trip and promising he would play in the NHL.
Then came Montreal, where Cuthbert sat in the Forum press box seat Hewitt once used. After that came Edmonton and the Oilers dynasty for CBC, and a night in April 1988 that made him a national name. A power outage at the Forum left CBC without the Canadiens-Bruins game, so Cuthbert carried the network from Washington, calling Capitals-Devils and handling the intermissions himself for about two and a half hours.
Check out the call again with the broadcasts from around the world:
Cuthbert took over as Sportsnet’s lead NHL voice after Jim Hughson retired and now works with Craig Simpson. We covered his apology for calling the wrong Svechnikov in overtime last spring, and he is on the Sportsnet team in our look at Saturday Night Hockey replacing Hockey Night in Canada.
Ray Ferraro, who sat next to him for the Golden Goal, told NHL.com Cuthbert is “just one of the best of the best.” Ferraro said Cuthbert even slipped Brian Burke’s “Swiss Army knife” line about Joe Pavelski into the broadcast within 15 seconds of puck drop and celebrated with a fist pump.
Simpson said Cuthbert treats “every moment in the booth like it’s the most important moment of his life.”
