TORONTO -- With the NHL season shut down, arenas usually ringing with crowds cheering and announcers booming out goal calls are now silent.
But one NHL announcer is working to keep the sound of the sport alive on social media — by allowing hockey fans to send him requests for personalized shout-outs as if they have scored a goal themselves.
Al Murdoch is normally the Vancouver Canucks’ public address announcer, helping to commentate the games and keep the crowd hyped up.
“With the NHL season postponed for the time being, I’m not working,” he told CTV News Channel. “But I wanted to bring a little of that in-game experience that Canucks fans are used to when they go to games at Rogers Arena, or they watch it on TV. I wanted to bring that back into their lives.”
So Murdoch took to TikTok.
The announcer put his distinctive vocal stylings to use by filming himself calling out goals, assists and saves performed in imaginary games.
He said that at first he asked followers and hockey fans to send in the names of their favourite Canucks players for goal announcements, “because I was treating it like the season was still going on.”
But then he got the idea to include the audience themselves.
“So I started asking fans to send in their personalized goal announcements,” he said.
Hockey fans responded wholeheartedly, requesting goal announcements with the names of family members, neighbours, coworkers -- or just their own name, as a pandemic is probably a time when everyone needs to feel more like a winner.
“And I would announce them just like I would announce a goal at Rogers Arena,” Murdoch said. This means all the panache and enthusiasm one would expect to hear within an arena.
He said he’s had requests from people from all across Canada and the U.S., but also from other countries too.
“I’m getting requests from Mexico, from Australia,” he said. “Canucks fans are worldwide.”
But it’s bigger than one team.
“There are a lot of just hockey fans that are missing hockey,” he explained.
So far, the NHL has racked up two cases of COVID-19: an Ottawa Senators player and a Canucks staff member have tested positive for the virus over the past week.
Many have found themselves laid off by their employers as the stress of COVID-19 shutters businesses, workplaces and events connected to sports and the arts across the country. The NHL season was officially put on hold on last week, after the NBA cancelled their season due to a player testing positive for the virus. Some teams have announced plans to pay the salaries of arena workers whose livelihoods were cut off with the end of the sporting events that the arenas revolved around, but others have offered no solutions.
Although Murdoch can still work as a voice actor from home, he said he understand the need to inject some levity into the daily lives of people who might be struggling.
“I’m just trying to … maybe distract people a little bit about what’s going on,” he said. “We want to keep our eyes on the ball, obviously, but just … bring back a little bit of joy, albeit for sixty seconds.”
