John Davidson (ice hockey)

John Davidson (born February 27, 1953 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), is the president of hockey operations of the St. Louis Blues and a former goaltender for the St. Louis Blues (1973–75) and New York Rangers (1975–83) of the National Hockey League. He is also well-known as a long-time hockey broadcaster.

Growing up in western Canada, he played left wing until age 16, when he was moved to goaltender. Drafted fifth overall in 1973, he became the first goalie in NHL history to jump directly from major junior to the NHL. While his hockey career was fraught with many significant injuries, he is perhaps best remembered (as a player) for leading the Rangers to the 1979 Stanley Cup Finals on an injured left knee. His jersey numbers were 35, 00 and 30 [http://www.newyorkrangers.com/tradition/ATR/bio.asp?PlayerID=324] .

After retiring due to injury, he joined MSG's hockey coverage staff in 1983, and was the color commentator for Rangers games from 1986–87 to 2005–06. Davidson, often known by the nickname "J.D.", has become one of the most prominent color analysts in sports, and his hockey insight is so well respected that he currently sits on the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee. Long-time network TV partner Mike Emrick also sits on that committee, and the two shared the 2004 Lester Patrick Trophy for service to hockey in the U.S. [http://edit.usahockey.com/usa_hockey/main_site/main/home/04_lesterpat_announ/]

Davidson (like his former MSG booth-mates Sam Rosen and Al Trautwig) has also contributed to NHL coverage on various national television networks (including CBC, FOX, ABC, ESPN, NBC and Versus when it was the American version of the Outdoor Life Network (OLN)). The following timeline is a list of all season-long hockey coverage he has done, such as in-game commentary and post-game analysis shows. It does not include special events such as the Winter Olympics or Canada Cup. Davidson was known as a broadcaster for his signature phrase of "Oh baby!".He was also featured in full motion videos shot for the EA Sports videogame NHL 97.

Davidson was named President of Hockey Operations for the Blues on June 30, 2006. He has committed to building a strong American base for the once-proud franchise.

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Period = from:1980 till:2007TimeAxis = orientation:horizontalScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1980ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1983

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PlotData= bar:main align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:20 shift:(0,-5) from:1983 till:1984 color: green text:MSG from:1986 till:2006 color: green text:MSG bar:sec align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:20 shift:(0,-5) from:1984 till:1986 color: yellow text:CBC from:1996 till:2006 color:yellow text:CBC bar:tri align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:20 shift:(0,-5) from:1992 till:1994 color:red text:ABC from:1994 till:1999 color:blue text:FOX from:1999 till:2005 color:red text:ABC bar:quad align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:20 shift:(0,-5) from:1990 till:1994 color:pink text:NBC from:2005 till:2006 color:pink text:NBC bar:quin align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:20 shift:(0,-5) from:1997 till:2006 color:purple text:NHL.com bar:sext align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:20 shift:(0,-5) from:2005 till:2006 color:orange text:OLN

Achievements - playing

* Alberta Junior Hockey League - MVP (1970–71)
* Alberta Junior Hockey League - Best goalie (1970–71)
* Alberta Junior Hockey League - Second team All-Star (1970–71)
* Western Hockey League - MVP (1971–72)
* Western Hockey League - Del Wilson Trophy as best goalie (1971–72)
* Western Hockey League - First team All-Star (1971–73)

Achievements - broadcasting

* CableACE - "Outstanding Live Event Coverage" (1994)
* New York Emmy - "Outstanding On-Camera Achievement" (1995, 2001)
* Lester Patrick Trophy - "Contribution to American hockey" (2004)

tatistics - Regular season

Trivia

Davidson was accidentally the inspiration for the title song of the 1978 hit album Double Vision by the rock group Foreigner. Members of the band were watching a 1978 Stanley Cup Playoff game between Davidson's New York Rangers and the Buffalo Sabres the team members of the band were fans of when Davidson was shaken up when an unknown member of the Sabres took a hard shot that hit Davidson's goalie mask. As he was recovering announcers Jim Gordon and Bill Chadwick said Davidson was suffering from "Double Vision" [ [http://rangers.nhl.com/team/app?service=page&page=NHLPage&bcid=tra_lookback_DoubleVision John Halligan NY Rangers Website] ] , [John Halligan Blueshirt Bulletin February 2008 issue]

References

External links

* [http://www.msgnetwork.com/ourteam_jdavidson.jsp JD's official bio]
*hockeydb|1262|John Davidson