Scott Oake shares "After Hours" stories and how he's honouring his late son

When most Canadians see longtime CBC and Sportsnet broadcaster Scott Oake, they’re probably watching him chat with one of the NHL’s biggest stars on the After Hours program each Saturday to wrap up Hockey Night in Canada.

But nearly every Tuesday and Thursday, the 72-year-old is still taking to the ice himself at Winnipeg’s River Heights Arena, sharing the rink with the same group of pals he’s skated with for the last decade-and-a-half.

“I’m the worst guy out there… they let me play because I collect the money and bring the beer,” Oake laughed in an interview with Daily Hive. “Those are two of the best days of the week, because everybody plays in the spirit of the game, and there’s never been a harsh word exchanged, no tomfoolery.”

Trying to celebrate the happy moments has been at the core of Oake’s life, particularly since a life-changing phone call nearly 14 years ago.

In March 2011, Oake got the news that his 25-year-old son Bruce suffered a fatal overdose in Calgary, ending a five-year journey with opioid abuse.

In a memoir titled For the Love of a Son, published by Simon & Schuster this week, Oake detailed Bruce’s struggle and how he and his late wife Anne have hoped to create a legacy left behind by their son.

Honouring Bruce Oake

When he’s not at a rink, you’ll often find Oake at the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre in the west end of Winnipeg, a long-term residential treatment facility that opened in 2021.

“It’s a magnificent project, and this is his legacy,” Oake said.

Much of Oake’s work at the facility comes with meeting with residents and their families, just as he did while Bruce was actively working through his addiction.

“We weren’t really very private about it. We were always willing to talk about Bruce’s problem when on his journey. When he was struggling, the last few years of his life… [he was in] that terrible cycle of active addiction, recovery, relapse, active addiction, recovery, relapse,” Oake said.

“He tried. I mean, he went to detox probably 10 times, and he went to treatment centres four times. And people would ask Anne or I, ‘How’s Bruce doing?’ And we would tell them that, ‘He’s struggling with addiction right now, but we’re doing everything we can to help him.'”

When Bruce’s life came to an end, Oake took a brief absence from his career, as one would expect.

“That was horrible. I took that weekend off,” Oake said. “Ron McLean did a beautiful tribute to Bruce that night [on Hockey Night in Canada]. It was really, really tough. But I got through the week.”

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs around the corner less than two weeks after Bruce’s death, Oake chose to return to work, with his first game back on the air being in Calgary in a Flames matchup against the Vancouver Canucks.

“It was hard, because Bruce died in Calgary, and there I was landing to do a game,” Oake explained. “Everybody handles their grief in different ways, and I just decided that going back to work was the best thing for me to do. And so I did… there’s no book on grief.”

Approached about three years ago to write a book of his own about his career, Oake declined but shifted the conversation to the recovery centre, realizing that putting the story into his own words may end up helping other folks struggling with addiction.

“Our story is the story of many families, hopefully minus the tragic ending.”

With the passing of Bruce in 2011 and his wife Anne in 2021, Oake’s closest family member has been his son, Darcy, who has made his own name in the world as a world-class illusionist, perhaps best known for his appearances on Britain’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent.

“When Bruce passed away, Darcy really threw himself into that career. Like a lot of brothers, [they were] incredibly close. Darcy wanted recovery for Bruce just as much as [my wife and I] did.”

Darcy, his wife Leslie, and their two young kids reside nearby in Winnipeg, with plenty of family time to go around when they’re not on the road.

“A lot of kids move away from home and parents and grandparents don’t have that luxury, but I do, I really appreciate it,” Oake said. “Our day usually starts with a FaceTime call with him and the older grandchild… it’s beautiful to be in the same city as him.”

From campus radio to Hockey Night in Canada

Born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Oake began his broadcast days at the radio station of Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

“I always joke and say I fell in love with the sound of my own voice. There might be some truth to that,” Oake said.

Some five decades later, much of Oake’s work centres around trying to get the most out of a given guest each week on After Hours, which includes a popular segment of fan-submitted questions.

“We want the guests to feel comfortable and to be ready to be able to share stories,” Oake said of his role on the show. “In every one of those shows, the goal is to make sure that people learn something about the player that they might not have known before.”

And with the guests picked each week in advance, a tough loss might cause a guest to perhaps be a little less open than the viewers would like.

“It sometimes can be a challenge to get the guy relaxed after a difficult evening… goaltenders are a real roll of the dice,” Oake explained. “But most of the guests that we’ve had on the program are smart enough to know that it’s time to relax, no point in me appearing frustrated on the air.”

One particular show stuck out to Oake — the one on March 9, 2019, following a 6-2 win for the Vegas Golden Knights over the Vancouver Canucks.

Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom was the scheduled After Hours guest on the evening but gave up five goals on just 11 shots and was pulled midway through the first period, the first time he’d been pulled that season. The show’s producers offered Markstrom a chance to say no to the show after the bad loss, but he honoured the commitment.

“He got blown up that night,” Oake recalled. “The first thing he said [to us before we recorded]: ‘I’m never doing this again.'”

Having first been hired by CBC full-time in 1974 as a correspondent out in Newfoundland, Oake has had an illustrious career and recognizes he’s “a lot closer to the end than the start.”

“I’ll know when it’s time,” Oake said of possibly calling it quits from his broadcasting days. “It’s not going to last forever. They’re not all great, obviously, but doing [a show] that I particularly liked, I still get a real gas out of it.”

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