Obviously, I don't visit this blog as much as I once did. Occasionally, someone might make mention or retweet something I wrote here four or five years ago. Other than that, it's not a place I often think of coming back to.
I made it a point to return tonight.
If you've ever read something on here or something I've written for the MHL website; if you've ever watched or listened to me on radio, TV or the internet and enjoyed it (or rolled your eyes and flipped to reruns of The Big Bang Theory), there is one person above all others that you should thank (or if you're in the latter category, curse). His name was Les Stoodley. If you're a fan of the QMJHL from a certain time period in the Maritimes, particularly in Moncton, you already know who he is. Les was many things to many people, myself included. How I came to know Les was so purely coincidental it borders on the absurd.
In the fall of 2005, I was a season ticket holder for the Moncton Wildcats. Like many other fans during that time (particularly that season, in which the Wildcats were gearing up to host the 2006 Memorial Cup), I also followed the team on the road somewhat frequently via what was then a free and fairly newfangled webcasting service (this was prior to the team broadcasting its games on radio). I knew who Les was. I enjoyed listening to him, even if I didn't have any real appreciation for the job he was doing. During a home game early in the season I was chatting with a friend of mine and, when the topic of Les and the broadcasts came up, I nonchalantly quipped "I should go on the air with Les and see what people think of my opinion." My friend quickly replied that he knew Les (in fact, he was related to him through marriage) and that if I wanted to look into the idea, he could arrange for us to meet. My immediate thought was to say that I was just being a smart ass (wouldn't be the first or last time...). Before I had a chance to say that, my reply somehow changed to "Yeah sure... make it happen!"
Talk about a twist of fate.
A short time later, Les and I did in fact reach out to one another. He was looking at establishing some sort of "Hot Stove" type intermission show between the first and second periods of Wildcat home games. Les would host the segment while his color commentator, Frank Robidoux, would join the discussion panel that would also include various other personalities. He asked if I wanted to sit in and listen to a segment during the next home game and would I be interested in joining in the following game. I said I would give it a shot. And so it was, on October 19, 2005, a very nervous Will MacLaren made his broadcasting debut during the first intermission of a game between the Wildcats and Chicoutimi Sagueneens. Here was a guy with tons of experience behind the mic; the primary voice of what was one of the very best teams in the CHL that season, a longtime vet with the CBC in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia... and he was interested in giving some random jabroni plucked from the stands - all but a complete stranger - the opportunity to talk about the game! Do you know how many people would be willing to give that a shot? It's a pretty short list.
Nonetheless, I got through the first intermission, was signaled to speak up during the segment by the host (the first and last time that was required), got a couple of points across and was asked by Les on air, at the end of the segment, "And hopefully, Will, we will get to hear from you again next home game?". The answer was yes (what else could I say?). Besides, I didn't pass out or drop an F-bomb... and I was in this deep. More importantly, I enjoyed it and was pretty much hooked on seeing how far this fledgling opportunity could go. Twelve years later, I still don't have an answer to that question.
I think it's safe to say that nobody else but Les Stoodley would have offered up that sort of opportunity. Nor would anyone else have been a better person to help someone break into the broadcasting world. Les was an amazing storyteller. By extension, he was one of the very best conversationalists I've ever encountered in my life. I didn't realize it at the time but in hindsight, I wouldn't have lasted five minutes on the air if I didn't have someone with the capabilities of Les pulling the strings. Whether I needed that softball question to get through a segment or, when I had the chance to eventually do a bit of color work, a kick under the press box table because I was rambling on, he was there to provide whatever was needed. Les made the first few years of my time on the air as easy as the situation could possibly allow. More importantly, he made me want to continue. I didn't fully appreciate that fact until I was working games without him there.
That phase began when I started doing work for Rogers TV in 2008. Hosting, reporting, color, play by play... I was doing a little bit of everything. Early on, I was doing most of it for the first time. It took a long time to reach some sort of comfort zone and there were a few nights where I figured this would be my last game. However, I kept plugging away (Rogers was also short on volunteers and kept calling). Eventually, time with Rogers calling minor and high school hockey became calling MHL games. The MHL games on Rogers turned into a prolonged period as the webcast voice of the Dieppe Commandos (which allowed me to continue working with Les' color guy and my good friend, Frank, as well as another great voice in the hockey world, Mike Sanderson - not to mention my long time broadcast partner Craig Eagles). The Commandos gig (as well as this blog), led directly to the communications job with the MHL. Eventually, I returned to Rogers... this time as a play by play guy, color commentator or host (depending on what was required) for Q games. Occasionally, I found myself at the exact same spot in the Coliseum press box where I had began about a decade earlier. Only this time, I was calling the game. The small sign in front of me in the booth, reading, simply, "Voice of the Wildcats", was put there while Les was still calling the games.
Circle of life, indeed...
Despite not working together after Les' retirement in the spring of 2010, we stayed in more or less constant contact. I'd send him the occasional clip from my Commandos games and he'd give his thoughts on my call. Usually however, we talked about how things were... how we were... how the Wildcats were. At this point in his life, Les had taken sick with cancer and was - sometimes unexpectedly - rather nomadic, moving three times over the next few years before finally settling in Edmundston. Our emails were essentially the old intermission show stripped bare. I still have those emails.
Les also had a way of popping up at the most opportune of times. Two stories to illustrate what I mean:
Back in about 2013 or so, my wife and I were on one of our frequent trips to Boston (I loves me some Fenway). One night, we were walking towards one of our favorite Italian restaurants when, completely out of the blue, I said to my wife "I really should reach out to Les when we get back home." Minutes later, while standing in line to get into the restaurant, my phone goes off... it's an email from Les. He was asking about me, how the Commandos games were going and what about this blog that he heard I was writing? How could he find it and read it? Needless to say, I was surprised. It would turn out to be only my second most surprising "Les moment".
The one that takes the cake took place about two years later. During the second round of the 2015 playoffs, I headed to the Coliseum to take in Game 2 of the series between Moncton and Halifax. I wasn't working this game and only intended on watching from the press box. I got to the box, greeted the friendly Lion's club member that has worked as press box security at the Coliseum for years and stopped dead in my tracks when I heard a voice behind the security guard say "I see they still let anyone up here."
There was Les... sitting on a stool, grinning from ear to ear.
Remember how I said Les had a way with conversation? He also had timing. This was perfect timing. I had just gotten over a very bad cold that made calling the recently completed 2015 MHL Final challenging at best. I was in the midst of what was sometimes a stressful transition in my daytime work life. Most importantly, my father had passed away six days earlier. If ever there was a time that I could've used a evening of unwinding and chat with a guy that could converse like Les, this was the time.
And there he was.
I didn't tell him about work or my dad or the fact that I barely scratched my way through a couple of the most important games in the MHL that season (credit Mike Sanderson with a massive save on that front). I asked how he was (he was in town to see his oncologist), we talked about the days in the booth, how the Wildcats were doing, how the game and series was unfolding and how those two guys on the Mooseheads, Timo Meier and Nicolaj Ehlers, were pretty talented and that they might win the series for Halifax largely by themselves (which very nearly happened). It was a three period long edition of the intermission show. At one point, l'Acadie Nouvelle reporter Stephane Paquette (who was on those intermission shows on an almost nightly basis) turned to us and said "wow, this sounds just like the old days".
I suppose you could say it was Les and I's series finale.
The leukemia never went away and upon returning home from a vacation that October, I received an email from Les' partner, Micheline. The end was near. There were a couple more updates before the final one came two years ago today. Les was gone.
Though sad, at least the suffering was over. The cancer took its toll, even if the victim didn't always let on that it did. The guy had so much to say and so much to give - as a broadcaster, a public speaker, a dedicated spokesperson for Alcoholics Anonymous, helping his fellow people in recovery and an overall outstanding friend and family member to so many - that there just wasn't much of time in Les' world for self pity or negativity.
I sent my condolences, went to the funeral. The Wildcats put together a nice little tribute video. However, the best tribute that I saw came from former Wildcats business manager Bill Schurman. When Les passed, Bill tweeted this out:
RIP Les Stoodley. Great person,friend, broadcaster. We always teased he was a play behind @monctonwildcats @QMJHL Truth is he was way ahead.
Well said, Bill.
And in an outstanding example of irony, if Les was still around, he probably would've kicked me a dozen times under the table for rambling on this much. It is definitely worth the metaphorical bruised shins. And besides, he's the one who put the mic in front of me to begin with.
Thanks, Les.
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