Don’t look now, but there’s a new NHL Broadcasters’ Fraternity member and his name is Ryan Johnston. When longtime Bruins’ TV Play-By-Play broadcaster, Jack Edwards announced his retirement last season, it set off a chain of events that led to Johnston becoming the team’s new radio play-by-play announcer.
With Edwards hanging up his microphone, Judd Sirott – who had been the team’s radio man since 2017-18 when Dave Goucher left to call Vegas Golden Knights games – has now become the new TV guy and the broadcaster who backed him up on radio – Ryan Johnston – has finally gotten his opportunity to become an NHL team’s full-time radio man.
With Johnston now in the fold, we figured it would be smart to do a story on him so fans across The League can learn about him and perhaps tune into Bruins’ radio broadcasts to listen to the newest member in a long line of beloved Bruins announcers.
As an Original Six franchise, the Bruins have a long, proud tradition of excellent broadcasters. And that’s something Johnston is keenly aware of, even as the euphoria in landing the gig is still relatively fresh.
“It’s really amazing,” Johnston exclaimed. “Someone on Twitter the other day posted the list of radio broadcasters that the Bruins have had, basically throughout their entire history. The names that are on that list, people like Fred Cusick and Bob Wilson. Dave Goucher, who does an amazing job out in Vegas, and then Judd Sirott. To see my name on that list, it kind of took my breath away and it also reinforced to me that there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with this. Bruins fans have been incredibly lucky over the years with who they’ve gotten to listen to, both on TV and radio. I want to do my best to try to keep up that level of broadcast. That’s gonna drive me here, especially in the early going. I have to try to live up to that level of responsibility and that tradition.”
When asked to elaborate further about how he plans to uphold that tradition and live up to that “responsibility,” Johnston said, “I think it’s just about the work that you put in. The two-and-a-half or three hours of the actual broadcast is the result of hours and hours and hours of being at practices, talking to the players, talking to the coaches, doing research on your own, and getting things that you can add to the broadcast. I’ve had this job for a (little over) a week now and in that time, I’ve basically been nonstop, every waking hour and just getting as prepared as I can be to hit the ground running for the pre-season and then, game number one.”
That prep work is the linchpin of any good broadcaster’s arsenal and it helps distinguish the truly great ones from the rest. Another thing that helps is the passion a broadcaster brings to their calls. For Johnston, the passion is the easy part as he’s been in the New England area for many, many years and is a self-proclaimed Bruins fan. However, before anybody accuses him of being a homer, he most certainly is not. Johnston, like any good broadcaster, does not allow his personal feelings to interfere with his professionalism and work.
“I’m not gonna lose the fandom,” Johnston explained. “That’s for sure. We’re always gonna be more excited when the Bruins score than when the opponents score. That being said, you do have to be fair about the game, especially on radio, because we are describing everything for everyone who’s listening and I want to give them an accurate picture of what’s happening. We may not agree with a call that goes against the team, or we might. What it comes down to is I’m always gonna look to paint an accurate picture of what’s happening because the people who are listening deserve that. They deserve to know what’s really happening.
“I’m not gonna go on there and say that the Bruins are the best team on the ice if they get beat 6-1. You have to be realistic about it. I’ve never really thought of myself as a Homer. I’m not going to go out of my way to be overly critical the way a sports talk show host might in this market. But when things aren’t going well, we have to say that. And when things are going well, we’re gonna say that too.”
Boston and the entire New England region are extremely passionate about their sports. The fans are fanatical about their teams and they’d easily see through any broadcaster who doesn’t call a game with the utmost professionalism. Lucky for them, Johnston is a picture of professionalism and as an added bonus, he’s been working in the region for years and has already built up some equity. As he put it, if he was going to make it to the big time, he wanted to make it in Boston.
“It’s what I was hoping for,” Johnston expressed. “I didn’t wanna leave the Boston area, as much as I wanted to get into the NHL full-time as a broadcaster. I’ve applied to other places as well. You know how competitive these jobs are and how difficult they are to get. This was always where I wanted to be. I married a Boston area girl. We’ve settled here and we want to be here for hopefully for the rest of our lives. It was always the dream to make it to The NHL. But more than anything else, it was to be with the Bruins. For several years I’ve worked for the Bruins flagship station, The Sports Hub, as a talk show host. I’ve also hosted their hockey show on Saturday mornings.
“I’ve gotten some opportunities to fill in. I’ve called a bunch of college games around here. I spent nine-years in the American Hockey League in Lowell, Massachusetts, which is about 20 miles north of Boston. So, if it was going to happen, more than anything, I wanted it to happen here. And I’m really glad that it did. I’ve covered the team in that regard and hopefully, I’ll have credibility — with the fans — right off the bat, because they know I’m not coming in from somewhere else. I haven’t been calling games in Calgary or wherever it might be and then blowing in here and trying to take over. Most of the fans who are gonna be listening to me call these games already know me, already know my credentials. They know that I know about the Bruins and they know how I cover the team.”
Even with all that experience, there are still several games on the calendar that Johnston is especially looking forward to.
“Opening night in Florida, when they’re raising the banner, is certainly number one on the list,” Johnston explained. “That’s turned into a heck of a rivalry between the Bruins and Panthers. So that’s gotta be up there. My first trip to Philadelphia, because it’s my hometown and I still have family there, is gonna be very special. Beyond that, we get to go to Utah pretty early. I’m interested to see how all that works out. There’s a lot of places around The League that I’ve just never been to and so I want to experience those cities. I want to experience the arenas.
“I’ve never gotten a chance to call a game at Madison Square Garden. I’m gonna get to do that in the pre-season and then a couple of times during the regular-season. So that’ll be a big deal. My first trip to Toronto or Montreal is gonna be something. There’s a lot of that. I was talking to one of our beat writers at practice the other day about that and he asked me how many of the buildings have I been to. I said, ‘Not many.’ He said, ‘You’re gonna love it.’ So, just being able to experience all those places for the first time is really something cool.”
Cool and special indeed! The NHL’s Broadcaster Fraternity’s newest member is just getting started and he’s going to make sure the team and its fans enjoy the ride; hopefully for a long, long time.
