Toronto Maple Leafs radio announcers Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph will no longer have to call games from far away during these playoffs.
According to The Athletic’s Sean Fitz-Gerald, Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment announced Monday that “the team and its broadcast partners will have a broadcast crew covering the action in person at home and on the road starting Tuesday.”
MLSE Statement: Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph will be on the road for the second round series out of Toronto.
"The team and its broadcast partners will have their podcast crew covering the action in person both at home and on the road starting Tuesday."
– SeanFitz_Gerald (@SeanFitz_Gerald) May 1, 2023
Bowen and Ralph have been calling Leafs home games directly from Scotiabank Arena, but they’ve also been calling road games from far away while watching telecasts since the league resumed play from the COVID-19 pandemic. Although all COVID-related restrictions have been lifted for the 2022-23 NHL season, Bowen and Ralph have not returned to travel with the team on the road.
That was also the case during Toronto’s Game 6 victory over the Lightning in Tampa Bay on Saturday. John Tavares scored in overtime to send the Leafs to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2004, but Bowen thought Morgan Riley had scored and exclaimed “They score! They score! Holy Mackinaw, score! Morgan Riley! Mo, Mo, Mo Reilly!” in radio broadcasting.
When the TV shot doesn’t show Tavares celebrating until long after the fact that it’s hard to make the call from the TV screen. By the initial celebration it looked like Morgan Riley had scored. My fault! https://t.co/94wxLbabNw
– Joe Bowen (@BonsieTweets) April 30, 2023
As Bowen himself noted on Twitter, it’s very difficult to call a game out of a telecast because you’re on a whim of whatever camera is looking at at a given time. No one in their right mind could blame Bowen for the mistake, so fans took their frustration out on MLSE for not having the team’s legendary radio duo live and in person at such an important moment.