Leafs' radio broadcast will be on location for road games in Florida

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have at least two more supporters in their corner when they take on the Florida Panthers on the road later this week.

Toronto’s popular radio broadcast team of Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph will be on location in Sunrise, Florida when the Leafs visit there for games three and four.

Typically, Bowen and Ralph had only been calling home games this season, while calling all road games — including the first round of the playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning — by TV monitor in either the Sportsnet or the TSN studios.

The remote nature of the broadcasts was highlighted this weekend when Bowen incorrectly identified Morgan Rielly as the Leafs’ goalscorer for their series-clinching goal over the Lightning on Saturday night when John Tavares was actually the one credit with the goal.

Yesterday, Bowen took to Twitter to explain that the call was harder to make due to his broadcasts being remote, a cost-cutting measure invoked over the past three seasons for road radio broadcasts on both Sportsnet and TSN.

“When the TV shot doesn’t show the Tavares celebration until well after the fact, it’s rather difficult to make the call off the TV monitor. By the initial celebration, it appeared Morgan Reilly [sic] had scored. My bad!” Bowen replied to a fan who criticized him for missing the call.

When the tv shot doesn’t show the Tavares celebration until well after the fact it’s rather difficult to make the call off the TV monitor. By the initial celebration it appeared Morgan Reilly had scored. My bad! https://t.co/94wxLbabNw

— Joe Bowen (@BonsieTweets) April 30, 2023

Toronto will be hosting Florida for game one tomorrow, Tuesday, May 2 at 7 pm ET, as well as game two on Thursday, May 4. The time for Thursday has yet to be announced, but if history holds any indication, puck drop will be set for somewhere between 7 to 8 pm ET.

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