Hockey Night in Canada, in a lockout shortened 2012-2013 season, celebrated its 60th anniversary, which is no small feat in the world of broadcast media. As a program that has gained acclaim for its video montages in the last two decades, it was a given that musical director Tim Thompson, with the help of musician/writer Dave Bidini, would put together a short video truly emblematic of the Hockey Night brand, and what it has meant to Canadians over the past six decades.
When the NHL lockout ended early on the morning of January 8, the CBC told Thompson they needed such a video, and that they needed it by the start of games, which would be five days later. Luckily, as Thompson told Sports Illustrated’s Stu Hackel, he had numerous interviews he had done previously with famous Canadian musicians, actors, and athletes, archived, and he was able to pull together those, mixed with clips and commentary, and create something truly special.
The video begins with a view of the great snowy outdoors of Canada, and the ambient sound of wind sweeping across the plains. What is clever about this use of sound, however, is that it seems like it’s diegetic sound. What your mind thinks you’re seeing is video of a snowy path with the accompanying wind, but what you’re actually seeing is a picture of that path, slowly zooming in, with non-diegetic wind sound taken from elsewhere. It’s an effect more than anything to draw you in and pique your interest, and it does a good job of that.
The early music, which kicks in following this sequence, is an instrumental mix of horns and strings, made to sound like the sort of classic sound one might hear while sitting around a fire in a living room in decades past, which is fitting because the topic of conversation between the interviewees is precisely that: reminiscing about watching Hockey Night in Canada in just such a setting in their youths.
At 0:49, deeper baseline tones can be heard, as the narrator utters the words “the cheering from cities and arenas you’d heard of but never visited.” This deeper music makes the viewer feel somewhat small in a large country, and more instruments are added, which catalyzes this effect.
At 1:55, the narrator says, “one thing you did not forget was the taste and feeling and sound of those Saturday nights.” At this point, Thompson incorporates crowd noise with arena visuals, although once again — this is a commonly used technique in these videos — the sound is in fact non-diegetic.
At 2:18, Alan Doyle speaks of renowned play-by-play man Bob Cole, now in the twilight of his career, and states that “if I don’t hear anybody else doing the play-by-play, Bob Cole is in my head.” At that moment, Thompson transitions to Cole calling an all-time famous goal from a past broadcast — Mario Lemieux scoring in his return to the game from retirement — but the transition itself is impressive. The audio for the call kicks in with Doyle still on screen, to promote the idea that this call is going on in the musician’s head, as he had implied. Delaying visual transition behind audio transition is a technique commonly used by video editors, but it is especially effective here because of the context.
Near the end of the video, at 4:40, the music ends as we approach the climax. The narrator discusses the nation as a whole, and then Thompson transitions into more crowd noise and a very fitting final song.
“Footsteps” by Canadian Indy band Petty Victories isn’t a well-known song in Canada, but it is fitting. The lyrics, “These are my footsteps” fit well with the theme of the video — the legacy of Hockey Night being passed on from generation to generation — and the tune itself is reminiscent of various other niche Canadian bands, which feature a female vocalist, numerous backing instruments, and constant use of percussion.
One such band, Metric, saw its song “Gimme Sympathy” used for a Winter Classic intro montage a few years ago, and Thompson enjoys finding lesser-known bands to share with the Canadian population. There is no better stage to promote your music, accompanying the emotion and magic of hockey.
Hockey Night Analysis 