Dan Boyle answers if he’s ever known any openly gay hockey players, how a locker room would react to one, and how he’d personally feel about it:
“Would I care if there was a gay player on my team or not? I don’t give a shit, as long as he helps me win hockey games.”
transcript under cut
Sheng Peng: And kind of a separate question, but also a very good question: without outing anybody, were there any openly gay hockey players when you played or that everyone kind of knew about or you knew about, and how do you think in general an NHL room would react to a player coming out?
Dan Boyle: I don't mind the question, but like, yeah, no, in 18 years I actually don't know if--has there ever been a gay hockey player come out?
SP: Not in the NHL, not in like, I think-
DB: At the NHL level, of course, I mean, yeah. Yeah, no, so no, I mean yeah, it's not something that has ever come up in the 18 [years], not just in--it's never come up in the NHL as a whole. Now if you use statistics and life, you would think, you would think that's not possible. But, and then how would we, you know, I think the truth is, can I sit here and say there wouldn't be jokes and jabs? No, a locker room is a tough place to be, no matter if you're gay, straight, your dick size, your color of your- you know what I mean?
[SP laughs and adds something here that I'm unable to make out.]
DB: Yeah, yeah, but it's fair game for everybody, and it's one of those tough, just, it's locker room love, I call it. Like, you just--everybody kind of makes fun of each other, but at the end of the day you're all brothers. So, there would, I'm sure, be some jokes, but that being said, would I care if there was a gay player on my team or not? I don't give a shit, as long as he helps me win hockey games. I couldn't care less, and it's--there's nothing wrong with that. So it's not even-- it's, yeah. I didn't expect to have that [question]. I didn't have this on my bingo card either, but.
[Talking over each other, unclear.]
DB: I don't think it would be a problem because it's who we are as a human race. We--that's who we are.
SP: Well, let me go deeper though, because I do have a follow up. Do you think though that you would have teammates that might have an issue with it? Like you don't, and probably most of your teammates wouldn't, but you know it might be possible.
DB: Well, again, based on statistics in the world, then yeah, then there would be some guys that would have issues with it.
SP: That's normal, right. That makes sense, yeah.
DB: There's racism, there's sexism, there's homophobia. You would think, you would think that somebody would have a problem with it. Not me.
SP: Okay. Thank you-
DB: Unless, unless, unless you didn't work hard, and didn't fucking make us win games, then I'm coming---
[Video description: NBC commentators Dan Boyle and Alan Hoshida speaking to each other during the second intermission of the Washington Capitals @ San Jose Sharks game on 2025 Mar 15.
BOYLE: Yeah, I—obviously, you never wanna be out of the playoff picture but at this point if you're the GM, you wanna see what you got... in the minors, too. Call up the guys you want: (pointing at Alan) defenseman that we talked about—I'm gonna mess up his name—the, the shorter defenseman? (He holds his hand level to the floor and lowers it slowly to communicate Luca Cagnoni's short stature.)
HOSHIDA: (in an approximation of an Italian accent, holding out one hand to the camera with his fingers pinched together in a stereotypically Italian gesture) Cagnoni!
BOYLE: Okay, that guy—
HOSHIDA: Yeah.
BOYLE: Bring him up, bring up that goalie, let's see what you got. And, uh, this is the time of year—you never wanna be out of playoffs, but this is the time to see what you got.
On this date, Mar. 18, 1996, the St. Louis Blues' Wayne Gretzky scored his 1,000th pro hockey goal (including NHL, WHA, regular season and playoffs) joining Hockey Hall of Famers Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull in the 1,000 pro goal club. In honor of that accomplishment, we are re-publishing this...
(alan and boyler sound so bad. so so bad. it's so crunchy)
Outline:
Alexander Ovechkin/The Great Chase (0:00)
Drew's players to watch (veterans) (0:55)
#1: Mario Ferraro (1:19)
#2: Barclay Goodrow (1:54)
#3: Tyler Toffoli (2:17)
Dan Boyle on being the point man of the power play (3:33)
-> Luca Cagnoni (5:11)
[Transcript below the cut.]
Ovi/Great Chase segment:
ALAN HOSHIDA: Three week stay at San Jose, SAP Center continues; Alexandar Georgiev making his 7th straight start coming off a solid 24-save performance against the Blackhawks, and he will be tested against Alexander Ovechkin, who has scored 10 times against Georgiev. But you know what, things... He's won six straight! Let's get to our Remenda Rush and bring in Drew. The fans here at SAP Center should really enjoy Alexander Ovechkin 'cause we don't know how many more times he will be here on this ice.
DREW REMENDA: Yeah, absolutely, and we're gonna talk a lot about Alexander Ovechkin, and I was listening to... to Danny Boyle earlier, talk about how it's different now for him scoring these goals and what makes it even, maybe even a better—better accomplishment than Wayne, although that's really tough to say. When you look at Alexander Ovechkin, these fans—and you can feel it right here—they're excited, they're down here watching warmup, lots of signs. It's gonna be great. And a veteran of the league, 20 years in the league; he has been really special.
Sharks veterans segment: (Drew is the sole speaker in this segment)
And speaking of veterans, I wanna talk about the veterans. Last game, at the end of the game—yeah, the kids are alright. Talked about Collin Graf and his goals, we talked about Will Smith and the play he made, William Eklund and the pass to help, uh, Will get his first goal, and of course Macklin Celebrini, they really boosted and lifted a fire—lit a fire under the San Jose Sharks. But! You can't be doing all of that this year without the leadership of the veterans.
Three guys in particular I wanna talk about; number one: Mario Ferraro. Has anybody else noticed how hard and consistent Mario Ferraro has been playing this season? He has straightened out his game where he doesn't go chasing his mistakes anymore, he's still aggressive but not overly aggressive where he takes himself out of position, he blocks shots, he makes hits, he's moving the puck really well, and with him he is able now to start jumping up in the play and getting some plays where he's keeping pucks in the zone to help create or extend a forecheck, so I think Mario Ferraro is one guy that we're looking at and maybe don't talk enough about.
The other guys: Barclay Goodrow. Is there anybody else on the team who sticks up for his teammates like Barclay Goodrow? Is there anybody else on the team that in the defensive zone, goes through defensemen, blocks shots as a forward, tries to get pucks out? Also a guy that when he plays his game, it's simple, straight ahead, get the puck deep, go in on the forecheck, create as much havoc as possible.
And the last guy is Tyler Toffoli. These three veterans have been terrific. Tyler Toffoli, yes, we know what he does when he's scoring goals. 25 goals already, gets to the front of the net, great set of hands in front of the net, not afraid to take a little abuse in order to score the goal. But I tell ya what, his relationship with Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini, in our estimation—or at least, my estimation—has really helped those two young guys understand, you know, it's okay to have fun. You've gotta have somebody to help show you the way, and Tyler Toffoli's that guy. And I'll tell you what guys, on the ice, when anybody's chirping at Mack or chirping at Will, Uncle Tyler comes by, and in a great big voice puts everybody on the other team at—on notice, and everybody pays attention.
The big thing for me was, you watch those three guys: they've all got a couple of factors. And Danny Boyle would know this better than anybody, because he was one of these guys as well. One: consistency, and two: trust from the coaching staff. And three: leadership abilities. They've helped everybody on the team. They're the types of guys that pull you into the fight. So, those are the three guys that I'm really particularly interested in today, guys, going out against Alexander Ovechkin.
Power play segment:
HOSHIDA: Yeah, that leadership that he's talking about, that's something that you desperately need here with this group, especially down the stretch with these last so-odd games. And something else you know very well is the power play; and we're gonna talk about the power play because the Sharks need a point guy. They need a guy running the point. You over your career have over 100 assists on the power play; 50% of your points with the San Jose Sharks came on the power play—what does it take to be a productive, point man with the man advantage?
BOYLE: Uh, you gotta have good players around you. (laughs)
HOSHIDA: (laughs) Okay.
BOYLE: Number one, I think skating is a big part of it. Obviously, my job when I was here was to carry the puck in, and, uh, puck possession is key and, uh, the less you can keep it on that wall the better. And then the last thing I think is just vision, hockey vision. Being a quarterback on the power play, you gotta be able to read and see and, um, as the other guys adjust to their positions; you gotta give it to the right guy at the right timing. I was fortunate enough to have a pretty good power play, uh, around me for many years.
HOSHIDA: Is vision something you can teach or is it something, uh, a god gift; the hockey gods...?
BOYLE: I think a large portion of it is God's gift, uh, I think there's probably certain things you can do, uh, help from coaches, watching video was huge for me, always watching my shifts, learning by watching video, but I think a lot of it is, is God-given.
HOSHIDA: Alright, so tonight you're gonna see a five-forward group from the San Jose Sharks their first power play; what do we think of this? (giggles)
BOYLE: (laughs) Not my favorite! Uh, that usually means that you don't have a guy on D that can do the work, so, um, not my favorite. Obviously, the Sharks need somebody to be back there, the quarterback. They're gonna find him—I don't know where he is right now, but they're gonna to find him.
HOSHIDA: Well, I might know where he is. He might be just across the way with Luca Cagnoni with the San Jose Barracuda—walks the line great; he has 9 power play goals which leads the Barracuda; he's an undersized guy; he's—a lot of offense, 42 points, also is top 10 in the league—what would you tell him? Or, actually, let's start with this: if the Sharks wanna bring him in—because being a defender is hard at 20 years old—
BOYLE: Yep.
HOSHIDA: How could they ease him into this role?
BOYLE: You know what man, I don't know if you're gonna like this answer, but I, I—they should bring him up now. They got, we got 20 or something games, throw him into the fire. Obviously hes gonna learn by mis—he's making mistakes, which is gonna happen, but from the few clips I see there... Obviously being undersized can be an issue, but if you skate, and you're smart, and it looks like he is, I think he can do a great job. Give him—I think give him some games to get under his belt so he's ready for next year.
HOSHIDA: And what would your—what would your advice be to him?
BOYLE: Believe in yourself. Obviously, uh, coming up, you watch these guys on TV you—starstruck. You got Alex Ovechkin over there; you start to get a little nervous. Obviously, just believe in yourself, trust in yourself. Breathe! (laughs)
HOSHIDA: (laughs) Yeah.
BOYLE: Breathe, don't forget to breathe, but play your game, man; play your game—you're here for a reason.
