Monday, Nov. 09, 2009

Davidson's ability to give viewers what they craved helped him earn spot in hall

Blues president will enter and be given Foster Hewitt Award

ST. LOUIS -- Looking for a way to remain in hockey beyond his career as an NHL goaltender, John Davidson knew two things.

He had bad knees and a bad back at age 29, but he also had an extreme love of television that began as a boy growing up in western Canada.

Suddenly a new career path materialized.

"I've always loved television," said Davidson, who will receive the prestigious Foster Hewitt Award today in Toronto and enter the media wing of the Hockey Hall of Fame. "I remember growing up as a kid in Calgary watching Baseball Game of the Week on Saturdays -- and that's why I'm still a Yankees fan. I never missed Hockey Night in Canada, either."

He later became a mainstay on Hockey Night in Canada as well as New York Rangers broadcasts, the Olympics and the Stanley Cup playoffs during a 23-year career in television.

Twenty of those were spent with the Rangers before he was named president of the St. Louis Blues in 2006. He also did work for NBC, ABC, ESPN, Fox, CBC and Versus.

How good was Davidson behind a microphone?

"He's the best analyst we've ever seen in hockey, no questions asked," said Darren Pang, now the color analyst for the St. Louis Blues who has done extensive work on numerous national broadcasts. "I don't even think that's debatable."

As an ex-player, Davidson had great insights into the game through his own experiences and hundreds of friendships built through time with the Blues and Rangers.

Once he shifted to television work, those friendships helped him build a network of sources and information providers.

Davidson said in many ways, the team approach that it takes to do a successful broadcast -- producers and directors and behind-the scenes personnel working with on-air talent -- mirrors that of a pro sports franchise.

"It's like a team, so I went from a team on the ice to another team within the same context," Davidson said. "I wanted to find a job to stay in hockey and I wanted to do it for a long time. I was the luckiest guy in the world to be able to do that."

Davidson's best trait may have been the way he went about his job on a daily basis, carrying a yellow legal pad with him from dressing room to dressing room and looking for intimate details he would later share with the television audience.

"I did a lot of Edmonton Oilers game during the years and I'd go talk to Wayne Gretzky before every game," Davidson said. "We talked about anything; his dad, the way he handled the stick, the way he worked with Jari Kurri and Paul Coffey.

"I think the viewers deserved that."

Davidson will have knee replacement surgery Nov. 17, but don't expect a little limp to keep the man known universally as "J.D." off the podium at the Hall of Fame tonight.

"I really do appreciate it, there's no question," said Davidson, who will be joined by his wife, Diana, and daughters Lindsay and Ashley. "For me, it's more about the people who helped me get this thing. This thing doesn't just belong to me, it belongs to a whole lot of people -- including my family.

"I was away from home and missing birthdays and family things and birthdays."

Blues radio play-by-play man Chris Kerber has seen Davidson work a room as a television analyst and as team president.

He is totally impressed on both fronts.

"When you can be at the top of the business for as long as he was, that tells you everything you need to know about not only the talent, but the hard work and dedication that it takes to do that," Kerber said of Davidson's TV career, much of which involved giving fans the insider information they desperately craved.

"There is a special talent to translating what you see in practice and what you hear in the (dressing) room," Kerber said. "He obviously mastered it."

Davidson has gathered trunk loads of info over the years. His insights were so good that many general managers sought him out before making trades or other personnel moves.

Davidson explained his typical game-day approach.

"If Calgary was playing Edmonton, I would ask Joel Otto what it was like to play against Mark Messier and ask Mark Messier what it was like to play against Joel Otto," he said. "If you were going to do a game with the Blues, you'd better talk to Brett Hull -- because you know you're going to see Brett Hull up close on the screen four or five times."

Like Davidson, Pang was a former NHL goalie who switched to broadcasting work. During his early days as a broadcaster, a producer in Chicago told Pang that Davidson was always ravenous for juicy nuggets from players that might help improve the broadcast.

Pang introduced himself to Davidson at the old Chicago Stadium and told him defenseman Chris Chelios was using the same model stick as former Canadiens great Guy Lafleur.

Pang watched Davidson jot the info down on his legal pad, but the story doesn't end there.

"He didn't just use the story, he spent about 20 minutes talking to Chelios about the blade and the background," Pang said. "One thing I learned from J.D. is you prepare -- and you'd better have as much information on the other team as you have on your own team."