I'm in shock this morning over the news that Vancouver Canucks beat reporter Jason Botchford passed away over the weekend of apparent heart failure at the age of 48.
Botchford worked tirelessly to drive the narratives surrounding the Vancouver Canucks, but if you were a listener to The Patcast, you know that he was also a husband and a father to three young children. My thoughts go out to his family members as they try to navigate this sudden change in their life's course.
My thoughts also go out to his podcast partner, Jeff Paterson, who has worked so closely with Botchford over the past few years.
Botchford's former editors at
The Province do a great job of summing up what he meant to our city's hockey coverage.
“When Jason joined us in 2005 as a news reporter, he immediately stood out,” Province and Vancouver Sun deputy editor Paul Chapman
told Patrick Johnston on Wednesday morning. “Aggressive, passionate and intense, Jason would attack every story he was given.
“He had a hunger to get the story and get details that no one else had. We recognized how well those skills would translate to the hockey beat and gave him the job covering the Canucks and I think it’s fair to say he changed the way the sport was covered.
“For 20 years I had been going to professional development conferences where they would discuss how to reinvent the game story. No one ever did, and then Jason came up with The Provies, a whole new way to read about the game.
“Despite every game being on TV and being discussed ad nauseum, The Provies became our best-read post every day.
“That was Jason, innovative, driven and whirlwind of energy. Not to disrespect sportswriters but there are many that have shied away from hard news or controversial stories. Those are the ones that made Jason thrive, and I always knew if there was a massive earthquake or any other catastrophic news story breaking, I could call on Jason to cross the floor and get the story, any story, for us.”
“He was a gutsy, honest reporter who turned the hockey writing business on its head,” added former Province sports editor Jonathan MacDonald. “He could be really difficult, but uniquely difficult. I remember once asking him to do a story and his response was, ‘That’s a stupid story.’ I didn’t know what to say. He was so brazen. He wrote something else that day.
“The next morning he called me and said, ‘You know that story you asked me to write? If you want me to write a story, just tell me to write the story.’ That was his funny way of apologizing.
“Jason was a polarizing figure who loved to be polarizing. But there was unexpected sweetness. A few years ago, before Christmas, I went home and found an envelope in my work bag.
“It was a Christmas card … from Jason Botchford. What the?!? He wrote, ‘In case I never tell you this, thank you for believing in me.’
“I also want to acknowledge that there were few people as creative as Jason. The Provies is one of the greatest things we ever created at Province Sports and it was all Jason, responding to my challenge to come up with new, unpredictable content we hoped would connect with readers. It was uniquely his.”
I feel like the Botchford that we saw in recent years hatched when he reported Joe Thornton's infamous "rooster" comment when the Sharks were in town back in October of 2013. For a refresher,
click here.
As he was called on the carpet in many media circles for 'crossing the ethical line' by reporting Thornton's off-colour comment, he stood by his story and became more and more defiant. I feel like that was the jumping-off point that made him so daring with his coverage as The Provies, and then The Athletties, evolved.
And the reference is now a part of hockey lore. The entire media horde was gunning for Thornton to get that magical fourth goal when he recorded his hat trick against Boston back in February.
I didn't always agree with his takes, but I always wanted to know what he was talking about, because he drove such a large part of the narrative surrounding the Canucks in this town. I almost always stayed up after games until The Athletties came out, and listened regularly to The Patcast.
From the hockey side, it seems so wrong that he won't get to see the evolution of the Canucks' young core. There was no bigger fan of Elias Pettersson, and he was pushing for the Canucks to make big moves this summer, believing the team was now on the cusp of contender status and could use some star players to support the young talent that's already in the fold.
His last piece, posted last week, was a terrific look at the success that goaltending coach Ian Clark has had in helping to develop Jacob Markstrom's game this season. It's unlocked right now, so you can read it even if you're not a subscriber to The Athletic.
I'll give the last word to Botchford's TSN1040 colleague Ray Ferraro.
RIP, Botch.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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