from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

Who was your toughest interview?
Grant Fuhr was exceptionally humble. You sweat a little if players have short answers. Grant was the [Stanley] Cup winner, the Canada Cup winner; he was right there as the goaltender. He was like a cowboy. He refused to take any credit for his performance or explain his performance. You loved that about him, but because he was the No. 1 star, it was a challenge.

Mostly I remember the good interviews. [Wayne] Gretzky was at the forefront. Scotty Bowman has a fascinating stream of consciousness. Dino Ciccarelli was stunningly great. Tony McKegney. Steve Konroyd was a tremendous interview, a surprise.

Do hockey players get a bad rap for being too cliché or too safe in interviews?
It’s changed. I feel like Sidney Crosby is just like Gretzky—same love of the game. He has hockey card collections and an unbelievable reservoir of stories. But I think social media has scared him off. The new player is just terrified of making a misstep, and it’s in perpetuity. It’s there, and it’s distributed. It has shackled the player of today.

The way we do interviews has changed. We used to bring Wayne into the studio, drape a towel over him, and it was a controlled setting. You didn’t feel like you were being overheard. Most of the interviews are conducted in a public forum now—in a hallway, on the ice in front of other players. Guys are wary of being overheard. They don’t want to be laughed at. A sit-down interview is much the preferred forum, like what we’re having.

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