How Gary Thorne kept me from being an NYR fan

By Kevin Canessa Jr.
NewJersey-Devils.com

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — I’ve been asked numerous times, over the years, how I became a fan of the New Jersey Devils. Most laugh and do not believe the story because when I fell in love with the sport we all love so much, I absolutely despised hockey. It wasn’t baseball — so to me, it simply wasn’t worth watching.

MY FIRST HOCKEY IDOL
WAS NOT A PLAYER — IT
WAS BROADCASTER
GARY THORNE!

It was 1988. And I happened to be at my aunt and uncle’s place. My uncle Pat had a room in the back of the house — and whenever I went to visit, that is where I hung out. So one day in April 1988, my mom and I went for a regular visit.

I headed for the back room and heard, on TV, a voice I’d grown to love as an aspiring broadcaster. It was Gary Thorne.

What had surprised me the most was the Mets weren’t playing that day — so it made no sense why Thorne’s voice would be so prominent. At the time, he was the no. 2 play-by-play man for the Mets on WFAN. So it was all perplexing.

As I got further into the room, I saw a hockey game — and it just so happened to be the very first Devils’ home playoff game against the New York Islanders — and Thorne was announcing it. I had no idea the broadcaster I loved so much was calling Devils games.

And would’t you know it — I suddenly fell in love with hockey. Because of Thorne.

The Devils would go on to a magical run through the Wales Conference Final. But I was hooked because I actually paid attention to the game for the first time.   In years past, when I went to hockey games, all I ever wished for was that I was at a baseball game instead. (This all comes into play down the line).

THE FIRST HOCKEY TEAM I ACTUALLY PAID ATTENTION TO — THE 1987-88 NEW JERSEY DEVILS.

The nerves were palpable from the get-go, something that has stuck with me to this day when watching hockey, and especially playoff hockey. Game 6 against the Islanders was the first test of the nerves. Up 6-1, the Devils would go on to win 6-5, with the Islanders shooting the puck at Sean Burke at the buzzer.

Burke made a surreal save — had it missed it, the Islanders tie the game, and who knows what is next.

Then there was a Game 7 in round 2 against the Caps, a game the Devils won — on the road.

And then, the entire Wales Conference Finals was enough to cause a 13-year-old to have an myocardial infarction (that’s doctor-speak for heart attack for all you non “ER” and “Grey's Anatomy” fans out there.

There was Don Koharski and Jim Schoenfeld with the “Have Another Donut” nonsense — and then the next game where the officials were literally amateurs.

The Devils would ultimately lose in 7 to the Boston Bruins — but my fandom was born ... and all rightfully, it should have been born years before — and as a fan of the New York team. And here is why.

‘This isn’t baseball — I hate hockey!’

My earliest hockey memory was around 1986. My mother used to work for a company that had a grand total of eight seats to Rangers games. And every Christmas, they’d simply lay the tickets on a table, and employees could take whichever game or games they wanted.

My mom would always pick up games against the Islanders and Devils — for my uncle Mike. Most of you know him as “Mugga.”

But for my mom, giving Mugga the tickets sometimes — not all the time — came with a caveat. He could have the four seats. But one of them had to be for me.

THE ARROW POINTS TO WHERE MUGGA AND I WOULD SIT AT MSG. THE SEATS WERE ORANGE AT THE TIME, HOWEVER.

I would go because any time as a kid I got to spend with Mugga was priceless. He was the closest to me in age — 15 years separated us — and when you’re a kid and can spend time with your best uncle, it doesn’t matter where it is. It’ just that it happened and that is all that mattered.

I’d go — but I never really enjoyed it.

“You’d much rather the Rangers win this game than the Islanders, right Kev?” I recall Mugga saying to me once. I responded by asking him what the difference was? They were both New York teams.

What I didn’t know at the time was that I wasn’t paying attention to Hall-of-Famers. The Isles were just two years removed from their last Cup. And I just wanted to be at Shea. Not at a hockey game.

I once recall seeing Imus walking the concourse, and that being my favorite part of the game.

This happened countless times.  I had spectacular seats — in the first row of the old orange seats, one level from the ice. And I never appreciated what I was seeing.

If you think about it, by all rights, I should be a fan of the New York Rangers. In my early years, theirs were the only games I saw. I liked John Vanbeisbrouck.  I liked Pierre Larouche. Yet I knew not the difference between a 2-minute penalty an a 2-line pass.

PIERRE LAROUCHE, THE FIRST NHL
PLAYER WHOSE NAME I COULD RECALL.

So yes, excuse me if I experience a little nostalgia as the Rangers are on the precipice of another Cup. Mugga was the absolute best uncle a kid could ask for. He tried all he could — for years — to get me to be a Rangers fan. And there is no doubt in my mind that if Gary Thorne had never taken that job with Sportschannel to call Devils’ games, in all likelihood, I would be preparing to watch my team in the Stanley Cup Finals (that’s Finals with an ‘s’ Gary Bettman).

Unfortunately for Mugga — and in some eyes, unfortunately for me — Thorne’s voice was louder than Mugga’s was. And for anyone who knows Mugga and how he is at hockey games, anyone being louder than Mugga is a major accomplishment.

And believe me, Mugga once had the scars to prove it (he once put his hand through a wall in the Blue seats celebrating a goal, and once single-handedly removed the Chief’s hat at a game).

So here’s to all those games I never paid attention to, Mugga, back in 1986, 1987 and early 1988, If you had just kept me away from Pat that one day in April 1988, who knows what the course of my hockey history and fandom would have been!

Enjoy the Finals. And thank you for always doing all you could to make me love this great game we all so treasure.