A losing team can take a toll on anyone associated with it. That includes the broadcasters whose job is to watch every game and compel an audience to stay tuned.
As the Blackhawks fell deeper in the standings the last three seasons, Pat Boyle felt the effects.
“Like any fan, when I’m that close to the team and things are going south, naturally, it’s not always fun to come to work,” said Boyle, who’s beginning his 12th season as NBC Sports Chicago’s studio host for Blackhawks coverage. “Some of those days were certainly much longer than anything I had experienced during the Cup-winning days.”
That began to change in May when the Hawks beat the odds and won the NHL Draft Lottery, serving up phenom Connor Bedard just for them. Boyle watched the announcement on the set of NBCSCH’s draft special and threw his arms up in euphoria.
“I think that reaction shows you maybe how low I had gone,” Boyle said, “because it was pure excitement and celebration, and it was kind of like a sense of relief. Like, this is now going to be much, much better.”
Boyle saw others’ euphoria firsthand when he hosted NBCSCH’s draft show during the Hawks’ draft party at the Salt Shed. About 5,000 attended to watch the team announce Bedard’s name in Nashville.
He’ll see four times that many Saturday at the United Center for the Hawks’ home opener against the Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights (7 p.m., NBCSCH, 720-AM). Boyle will host an hourlong pregame show starting at 6 p.m. that will include the players’ red-carpet entrance and visits from Hall of Famer Denis Savard and chairman Danny Wirtz. Caley Chelios and Tony Granato will be the studio analysts.
“Everybody is invigorated,” Boyle said. “I haven’t seen hockey talked about on ‘SportsCenter’ during the day basically ever, unless it’s the Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s been pretty cool to watch.”
Boyle, 54, has ridden the Hawks’ wave since NBCSCH made him the team’s studio host in 2012. He arrived at the network in 2004 from ESPN, where he was an anchor on “SportsCenter” and ESPNews. ESPN had offered Boyle a three-year contract extension, but Comcast inquired about his interest in joining the nascent Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
Boyle had been part of ESPN’s NHL coverage, backing up John Buccigross on “NHL 2Night.” But the league was leaving the network, and Boyle’s experience at Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia from 1997 to 2000 told him to return to the company.
He anchored “SportsNite” and “SportsNet Central” and hosted Bears postgame coverage with Jerry Azumah, Richard Dent, Dan Jiggetts and Marv Levy. But then the network brass decided to make a change.
“I think they wanted me to be aligned with one of the owners of our network,” Boyle said. “At the time, the Bears were the only team in town that did not have a piece of Comcast SportsNet. At first I was like, to leave covering the NFL, the NFL is king. And we were looking at a lockout in the NHL, and the Hawks had had back-to-back one-and-dones in the playoffs. There wasn’t a ton of momentum there.”
But hockey had always been a part of Boyle’s life. He played as a kid growing up in Troy, Michigan (yes, he was a Red Wings fan), and his mother is Canadian. He gravitated toward the NHL in Philadelphia, where he covered good Flyers teams and made professional connections. So when CSN Chicago moved him to the Hawks, he accepted it and adjusted.
“That’s what it’s all about in this business: You have to learn to adapt,” Boyle said. “It’s a changing industry. Like when I moved from ‘SportsNet Central’ because they were phasing that out, you adapt or you become extinct. I adapted and took on this role as a pre/post host for the Blackhawks.”
It worked out pretty well. The Hawks began the lockout-shortened 2013 season with 24 consecutive games without a regulation loss. They made the cover of Sports Illustrated – when making the cover was a big deal. And they won the first of two Stanley Cups in three seasons.
Boyle also is connected to Chicago radio. He was the legendary Steve Dahl’s sports anchor on WCKG-FM and JACK-FM and continued with Dahl on his podcast.
“The biggest thing he taught me was when in your everyday life something starts to go sideways, remember everything that is going on,” Boyle said. “It actually served me well because while I did his show, whenever something would go sideways, I would switch into, OK, this can become a bit for Steve.”
Boyle has hosted “The Hockey Show” on ESPN 1000, and he’s in his 18th year hosting the TV show “Pro Football Weekly,” which airs on NBCSCH and is nationally syndicated.
But in these parts, Boyle is best known for his association with the Hawks. And after enduring the team’s fall from grace, he’s in a much better place.
“There is fan in me,” Boyle said. “When you’re this close to the team and you’re covering the team on a daily basis, quite honestly a lot of your professional happiness or lack thereof depends on wins and losses.”
Blackhawks driving viewership
From his first faceoff, Connor Bedard has drawn major ratings increases for NBC Sports Chicago.
The network’s two games, Oct. 14 against the Canadiens and Oct. 16 against the Maple Leafs, averaged a household rating of 2.0 in the Chicago market, a 233% increase from NBCSCH’s first two games last season (0.6). The game against the Maple Leafs peaked at 3.1, with over 112,000 homes tuning in.
This followed NBCSCH recording its highest-rated Hawks preseason game in 10 years when Bedard debuted Sept. 28 against the Blues. The broadcast peaked with over 71,000 households in the market.
ESPN and TNT also have benefitted. ESPN’s broadcast of the Hawks’ season opener Oct. 10 against the Penguins averaged 1.43 million viewers, making it the network’s most-viewed regular-season game on record. The game Oct. 11 against the Bruins on TNT averaged 917,000 viewers, making it the network’s most-watched regular-season game, excluding Winter Classics.
