Former goalie was fun-loving, dedicated fixture in broadcast booth for more than 3 decades
© Jonathan Kozub/NHLI
MONTREAL — Greg Millen was sitting in Bell Centre’s Jacques Beauchamp Media Lounge at dinnertime on April 6, 2019, chatting about a dear friend, longtime colleague and a man who was woven into the very fabric of Canadian hockey.
That night, legendary “Hockey Night In Canada” broadcaster Bob Cole would call the final game of his remarkable 50-year career. For now, Cole was sipping a glass of milk a few tables over, quietly reviewing the night’s lineups on his handwritten roster cards.
Millen soon would be in the center-ice broadcast booth about a stick length to his iconic partner’s left, analyzing the action in a 6-5 shootout win by the Montreal Canadiens against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.
“What do I tell you about Bob Cole that this entire country doesn’t already know?” Millen said, expressing his profound admiration for Cole and his sense of privilege to be working alongside the man who for many Canadians had been the voice of the game for nearly a half-century.
© Noah Graham/NHLI
From left: Kathryn Tappen talks with analysts Barry Melrose, Kevin Weekes and Greg Millen during NHL Live at the 2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic on Dec. 30, 2013 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
News of Millen’s death Monday, the former goalie and broadcaster gone much too soon at age 67, hit the hockey community like a thunderous bodycheck.
Millen played goal for six NHL teams across 14 seasons between 1978-92 before finding his way into broadcasting with the Ottawa Senators in 1992-93.
Selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the sixth round (No. 102) of the 1977 NHL Draft, Millen’s playing career with the Penguins, Hartford Whalers, St. Louis Blues, Quebec Nordiques, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings saw him compile a record of 215-284 with 89 ties, a 3.88 goals-against average, .873 save percentage and 17 shutouts in 604 games.
In 59 Stanley Cup Playoff games, he was 27-29 with a 3.43 GAA and .885 save percentage in 59 games.
© Graig Abel/Hockey Hall of Fame
Goalie Greg Millen with the Quebec Nordiques, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, three of his six NHL teams.
For more than three decades, Millen’s broadcast career would allow him to bring his keen analysis to CBC “Hockey Night In Canada” viewers and those watching the NHL on Rogers Sportsnet. He also covered the Olympics three times, the World Cup of Hockey twice, the Stanley Cup Final 12 times and the NHL All-Star Game 12 times.
In a statement Monday, Sportsnet said Millen was a “trusted and familiar voice in the homes of millions of Canadians for more than 30 years. … As both a player and broadcaster, Greg left an indelible mark on the sport, as well as everyone who had the pleasure to know him, watch him and listen to him.”
On Monday night, hours after Millen’s death was announced, Sportsnet chose not to produce its own telecast of the Calgary Flames’ 3-2 win at the San Jose Sharks.
“Greg loved life, loved his family and loved hockey,” Sportsnet announcer David Amber said. “And we loved him. Out of respect for Greg’s family, his fans, his friends and colleagues, tonight Sportsnet will not be producing a Flames telecast. We will instead be showing the San Jose Sharks broadcast of tonight’s game. Rest in peace, Greg.”
© Graig Abel/Getty Images; O-Pee-Chee/Hockey Hall of Fame
St. Louis Blues coach Jacques Demers and goalie Greg Millen discuss strategy for a 1986 Stanley Cup Playoff game in Toronto, and in a late 1970s photo with the Pittsburgh Penguins, used in his 1980-81 O-Pee-Chee hockey card.
NHL senior executive vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell was one of Millen’s best friends, their bond going back decades, to late coach Roger Neilson’s early 1970s hockey school in Peterborough, Ontario, and then as teammates with the 1978-79 Penguins, Millen’s rookie season.
“He was a good man, a throwback,” Campbell said of Millen on Monday. “As a broadcaster, he’d complain a little bit about some of Bob Cole’s goofy things and I’d tell him, ‘Suck it up, ‘Millsy,’ you’re working with a legend. You’re not going to appreciate him until five years after he’s gone,’ and he’d smile and say, ‘I know, I know.'”
There would be no five years, sadly, Millen having died in his sleep early Monday morning in a hospital north of Toronto not quite a year after the passing of Cole, who died April 24, 2024 at age 90.
Millen had experienced a few minor health issues since last fall but in recent days he had been given a clean bill of health; until late last month he had been an active member of the Calgary Flames broadcast team. The Flames were among many NHL teams, the League, NHL Alumni Association and others Monday to express their condolences on social media and beyond.
“Millsy would jump on a hotel piano after a Penguins team meeting and just start playing,” Campbell fondly reminisced of his versatile friend, speaking from Toronto as he monitored a handful of NHL games. “He learned it by ear. He was a talented guy.”
© Dave Stubbs/NHL.com; Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Dick Irvin Jr. (l.), who worked with Greg Millen in the “Hockey Night In Canada” broadcast booth for a half-dozen years in the 1990s, in September 2021; and Colin Campbell, NHL senior executive vice president of hockey operations and one of Millen’s dear friends, speaking at the 2011 NHL Draft.
Campbell recalled Millen’s long-ago introduction of a trophy at a hockey school that the former ran, an award that was hugely coveted by camp participants and is still warmly remembered.
“We had games every day after the morning technical stuff and Millsy said, ‘We need a Stanley Cup here,'” Campbell said. “So he took a pylon, taped it up with red, blue and yellow tape and tin foil and called it the Stanley Pylon. Kids carried it around and the team they had beaten had to stand in the middle of the rink and watch it.
“There are guys today who still remember winning or losing that trophy. I told my daughter today that the tradition is done now. The promoter and founder of the Stanley Pylon has passed away.”
Campbell spoke of an ongoing rib session that he and Millen had going with a Toronto Pearson Airport shoeshine old-timer. Campbell would tease the man, a huge Canadiens fan, about his team, the man telling Campbell in reply that Millen told him Campbell “was doing an awful job” with the NHL. The friends’ messages went back and forth over shoeshines for years.
© Paul Bereswill/Hockey Hall of Fame
Blues goalie Greg Millen dives to make a save against the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Greg Terrion, defender Lee Norwood at left, during Game 5 of the 1986 Norris Division Final on April 26, 1986 at St. Louis Arena.
Among those deeply moved by Millen’s death is Dick Irvin Jr., the retired Montreal broadcast icon who called more than 2,500 NHL games during 35 years with “Hockey Night In Canada,” countless more on the air announcing to Canadiens fans that their team was “skating from left to right on your radio dial.”
During Irvin’s last few years in the broadcast booth, retiring at the end of the 1998-99 season, he considered Millen and current Rogers Sportsnet lead play-by-play announcer Chris Cuthbert among his favorite partners. On Monday on his social media platform X account, Cuthbert posted: “Absolutely heartbreaking to lose an esteemed teammate and good friend.”
On May 4, 2000, the Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers played 92:01 of overtime, the Flyers’ Keith Primeau ending it at 12:01 of the fifth extra period in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference Second Round series.
Twenty-four hours later, Cuthbert and Millen were in Denver calling the Colorado Avalanche’s 4-2 win against Detroit, eliminating the Red Wings in their five-game Western Conference Second Round series.
“I was proud of my two proteges, the way they came through,” Irvin Jr. wrote with an almost parochial pride in “My 26 Stanley Cups: Memories of A Hockey Life,” his 2001 autobiography.
© Paul Bereswill/Hockey Hall of Fame
Hartford Whalers goalie Greg Millen sprawls to make a save against the Washington Capitals during a 1984 game at Capital Center in Landover, Maryland.
“I really didn’t know Greg as a player that well, but I remember him as a goalie for the Whalers,” Irvin Jr. said Monday. “I interviewed him a couple of times, the way a broadcaster would talk to a guy and then maybe not see him for a year.”
Millen’s retirement as a player and arrival in a broadcast booth would bring him to the side of Irvin Jr. and Cole, a three-man team who worked together for about the final five or six years of Irvin’s career, Millen subsequently working regularly as an analyst with Cole.
“His enthusiasm was the main thing,” Irvin Jr. said, thinking of what made Millen a success behind a microphone. “Greg was really into the games. He learned very quickly when to talk, when not to talk. He picked it up.
“Greg had lots of questions for me in the early days that we worked together, he wanted to be good at it and he worked at it. He was appreciative of my help.”
© Denis Brodeur/NHLI via Getty Images
St. Louis goalie Greg Millen kicks at a shot by Montreal Canadiens forward Mike Keane during a 1980s game at the Montreal Forum.
And if Campbell knew well of Millen’s talent as pianist, Irvin Jr. saw another musical side of their friend.
“We did a playoff series one year and one night between games in St. Louis, Greg knew some guy who had a band that was playing not far from our hotel,” Irvin Jr. said.
“We walked down there and Greg sat in on the drums for a couple of songs. I didn’t know until that very minute that one of the things he did was play the drums. I got a kick out of that.
“Greg never lost his love for the game or his interest in the game, no matter where we were. I wasn’t surprised that he was good at it. He really did want to be good. I haven’t done a game in 25 years and Greg was still doing it, almost to the end.”
Top photo: “Hockey Night in Canada” analyst Greg Millen looks on as Jeff Skinner of the Carolina Hurricanes reacts to a play at Winnipeg’s Bell MTS Place on Oct. 14, 2017.
