{"id":472509,"date":"2026-02-11T09:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/472509\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:04:09","slug":"chris-cuthbert-is-at-the-hockey-broadcast-helm-ready-for-another-golden-canadian-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/472509\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Cuthbert is at the hockey broadcast helm, ready for another golden Canadian moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Sidney Crosby celebrates his gold-medal winning game, scored against the U.S. in the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Chris Cuthbert had the iconic call of that game. He hopes for another historic moment in Milan, as NHL players return to the Olympics in 2026.CHANG W. LEE\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

Chris Cuthbert called his first gold-medal hockey game at the Winter Olympics on Feb. 28, 2010.<\/p>\n

As Canadians across the country perched on the edge of their seats, Sidney Crosby, then just 22 years old, carved a place in history when he scored the winning goal a little more than seven minutes into sudden-death overtime to beat Team USA 3-2.<\/p>\n

From the Pacific northwest to the Arctic and then to Iceberg Alley, folks leaped and screamed and danced around their living rooms, the way that those dopes in pizza and wings commercials pretend to. This time it was real, however, a magical moment and genuine celebration of national pride.<\/p>\n

\u201cSidney Crosby!\u201d Cuthbert shouted as the puck found its way into the back of the net off a pass from Jarome Iginla. \u201cAnd Canada has a once-in-a-lifetime Olympic gold!\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s men\u2019s team had last mined gold in Salt Lake City in 2002 \u2013 which ended a half-century\u2019s dry spell. They have won just once since, in 2014 over Sweden in Sochi, Russia.<\/p>\n

Many of Crosby’s Canadian teammates were kids when he scored the golden goal<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say that 2010 was the top of the mountain for me and I was not sure there will ever be one any bigger,\u201d Cuthbert said recently as he prepared to travel to Italy, where beginning on Thursday he will call Canada\u2019s men\u2019s contests at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. \u201cI still get emotional because it was so big. To call goals for Canada that are so big, that\u2019s pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuthbert is 68 and shares the same birthdate (but not year!) with the late Hockey Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur and Toronto Maple Leaf John Tavares. He grew up in Brampton, Ont., but lives now in Georgetown, Ont. <\/p>\n

Cuthbert has hopped between networks for much of his career and covered more than 800 Canadian Football League games for TSN, including 25 Grey Cups. He is considered Sportsnet\u2019s lead play-by-play hockey commentator and calls most regional and national games for the Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n

He will be behind the microphone for each of Canada\u2019s matches in Italy, beginning on Feb. 12 when they take on Czechia at 10:40 a.m. ET. Its following games before the playoffs \u2013 the presumption is that Canada will qualify \u2013 will be against Switzerland on Feb 13 at 3:10 p.m. ET; and, against France at 10:40 a.m. ET on Feb. 15. If Canada reaches the gold-medal game, it will be held at 8:10 a.m. ET on Feb. 22.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Connor McDavid (middle) celebrates his game-winning goal at the 4 Nations Face-Off final last year against the U.S. McDavid heads to his first Olympics this year, leading Canada into its quest for gold.Charles Krupa\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Last spring Cuthbert provided play-by-play during The Four Nations Face-Off in Montreal and Boston. The four-team tournament, which was arranged to take place instead of the NHL All-Star Game, was a gambit staged by the league, its players\u2019 association and the International Ice Hockey Federation.<\/p>\n

He is also one of the many voices behind an exceptional CBC documentary called Rivals: The Four Nations Face-Off that aired for the first time on Feb. 6.<\/p>\n

The hope was that the event would serve as a prelude to a return by NHL players to the 2026 Olympics. They had last skated in the Winter Olympics in 2014.<\/p>\n

NHL players had been withheld from the Olympics since then. A dispute over issues such as travel costs, insurance costs and marketing rights for the NHL players led to the decision to not to send them to South Korea in 2018. In 2022 an agreement for the players to return fell apart at the last minute amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n

There were doubts that it would ever happen until The Four Nations Face-off was established and provided the best-on-best hockey that fans had yearned for now for many years.<\/p>\n

Canadian to the core, Sidney Crosby’s legacy is already untouchable<\/a><\/p>\n

It took on a whole larger significance when, shortly after his election, U.S. President Donald Trump increased tariffs on Canadian goods and began calling Canada the 51st state. He also took jabs at former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling him Canada\u2019s governor.<\/p>\n

A fire was lit under Canadians, who mostly think of themselves as a friendly neighbour, America\u2019s greatest trading partner, and a partner that has long fought beside the U.S. during military conflicts.<\/p>\n

Canada won its first game in the preliminary round against Sweden at Bell Centre and then took on the U.S. That night Auston Matthews, the Maple Leafs\u2019 captain, was booed during introductions, as was The Star-Spangled Banner.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven from the broadcast booth, you could not only feel the tension, but there was an undercurrent of hostility,\u201d Cuthbert said in Rivals. <\/p>\n

\u201cToo many players had been waiting for this. But we had no idea the next nine seconds would be unforgettable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contest started with three fights in the game\u2019s first nine seconds. It was a total powder keg on ice. The U.S. won that night, 3-1, but something bigger had been ignited in the audience watching. <\/p>\n

In a less fight-happy final at TD Garden, Canada got its revenge on the scoreboard and gave Cuthbert another monumental Canadian hockey moment to put his voice to.<\/p>\n

Canada won in overtime, on a goal by its captain, Connor McDavid.<\/p>\n

That whetted the appetite for these Winter Games. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was excited about the Four Nations,\u201d Cuthbert said. \u201cA lot of people believed it would become a glorified All-Star Game. And I never bought that and it never became anything like it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it brought us something I\u2018m not sure any of us expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all, Canada has won Olympic gold six times in men\u2019s hockey from 1920 through 1952, and then three times since 2002.<\/p>\n

They are back, as is Cuthbert, who loves another golden opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy anticipation for the Four Nations was that it could be a preview for the Olympics,\u201d Cuthbert said. \u201cThis could exceed the crescendo that we saw last February.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 2010 I have told myself that if I had another chance to call another gold-medal game, I know what I\u2019d say.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Sidney Crosby celebrates his gold-medal winning game, scored against the U.S. in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85,22600],"class_list":["post-472509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-topstory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}