\u201cFrom the flowing locks of his distinctive mullet to the flared lapels of his trademark long suit coats, Barry Melrose cut an unmistakable figure whenever you were fortunate enough to run into him at a rink or catch him on your television screen,\u201d NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. \u201cYou were even more fortunate if you engaged him in conversation or listened to his analysis, because he never failed to boost your love of the game of hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cA rangy and rugged defenseman from Kelvington, Saskatchewan, Barry fashioned an 11-year pro career in the NHL, AHL and WHA. But it was as a coach, who guided the Los Angeles Kings to the 1993 Stanley Cup Final, and as a broadcaster, who spent 27 years at ESPN, that he truly made his mark upon the game. And during those countless encounters over the years with players, coaches, fans and viewers who couldn\u2019t help but be drawn in by his enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe mourn the passing of a hockey original. And we send our deepest condolences to his wife, Cindy, their sons, Tyrell and\u00a0Adrien, and all of his teammates, colleagues and admirers around the hockey world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Known for his sense of humor as well as the mullet and fancy suits, Melrose became a star on\u00a0ESPN, endearing himself to hockey fans everywhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He’s bigger than any team,” Gretzky said in a video the day Melrose announced his Parkinson\u2019s diagnosis. “For decades, he’s been suiting up — and I mean suiting up — for the game, for the sport, for hockey. … You see, hockey is more than a game, it’s a community — a finely tuned orchestra — and Barry was our conductor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cFrom the flowing locks of his distinctive mullet to the flared lapels of his trademark long suit coats,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-890108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}