Hello friends, welcome back!
For this week's On the Other Side, we interviewed Julian McKenzie!
Julian covers the Calgary Flames for The Athletic and is a podcaster host on The Chris Johnston Show from SDPN and Zone Time on Yahoo Sports.
Our new bit is trying to guess our interviewee's sun sign (because we’re Astro girlies!) without looking anything up - just vibes and wild assumptions. Luckily, we're two for two, but we'll create a new segment when we get one wrong.
For Julian, his passion and high energy got us guessing Aries, and because we're never wrong, we were right!
Since we love talking, this one is also a bit long, but as always, worth it!
N.B.: Some questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
How and why did you end with hockey as your main focus in the media?
Growing up in Montreal, hockey's like the thing to talk about. During elementary school, I conversed with my friends as young as 8-9; we just talked about whatever Canadiens game was on the other night. So everyone knew that I wanted to be a journalist one day, so whenever people would hear me talk about that stuff, it made sense for them.
Later, I went away to grad school in the States right after P.K. Subban got traded for a year, and that's also when my Canadiens/hockey fandom ended. At that point, I was in America and thought, "maybe they don't care about hockey nearly as much as they do in Canada." I ended up working for NHL affiliate Syracuse Crunch as a broadcast intern and met Scott Matla (Habs Eyes on The Prize) in the press box when the Crunch played a first-round playoff series against the St. John's IceCaps. We connected when I moved back from the States to Montreal in 2017. He reached out to me, and he was like, "Hey, do you want to write for the site?" That site, in terms of blogging about the Canadiens, you only get as big as writing for Habs Eyes on The Prize.
Charlie O'Connor, my colleague at the Athletic, writes in Philadelphia: he wrote for the Philly site Broad Street Hockey and still collaborates with them with their podcast. Scott Wheeler wrote for the Toronto site before (Pension Plan Puppets); now, he's a big deal. James Mirtle, who runs everything more or less for the NHL side at the Athletic, came up as a blogger.
There's a pathway from being a blogger to becoming a prominent time writer. I should have mentioned Andrew Berkshire and Marc Dumont, two guys I respect out of Montreal, who essentially made Habs Eyes on The Prize what it is.
So when I got that opportunity, I was like, okay, I have to do it. I was still doing all these freelance jobs and trying to make that work, which then became opportunities with Yahoo Sports. The Canadian Press allowed me to get credentials to go to games and cover them at any chance. Afterwards, the Athletic came calling, which snowballed into this opportunity in Calgary.
So, I've been writing about hockey in some fashion for six years. Of course, we talked about the culture and how it needs to be so much better, but hockey has given me so much. I'm eternally grateful to anyone who's ever opened a door for me to write for them, talk about hockey on a podcast, or anything like that.
We've seen your impressive resumé and how much you've hustled in this industry that isn't easy to break into. What is some advice that you would give to young journalists about dealing with things like burnout?
Having friends and family who have nothing to do with your job is really good. That's like right up there - there's a lot of self-care stuff you can do, such as take days for yourself or listen to music. You do as much of the stuff as you need to, but the biggest thing for me is to have people who know nothing about my job and don't care about hockey. It's not that they don't care about my well-being or that I'm getting whatever success I'm getting, but it's cool to hang out with friends without that pressure. It's fun to argue whether New Girl is the best sitcom series or if we can consider the short time after The Office ended before Lip Sync Battle was a thing, a comeback from John Krasinski. By the way, I had real arguments concerning these with friends a few years ago.
Where do you think the future of hockey media is going, and how do you see yourself in it?
Now it's much easier than ten years ago to be a part of the hockey media. At least, the way I see it is so much broader than it was before. There was a time when, if you watched TV, you saw Ron Maclean and whoever's on his panel or whoever was the columnist giving you the stories and info - you're like, okay, that's hockey media, and maybe that's still more of the traditional sense nowadays. However, I think that term has expanded to the point where you could have someone whose day job is as a lawyer, but they talk shit on a podcast and then dunk on people all the time. (hmm, we wonder if we know someone like that - Hi Sam!)
However, there is a space now for people to create their own opportunities and build themselves into people you would consider hockey media like TicTacTOmar. Some people do not like to put power on social media, and I get it. It's good that we don't give it so much importance because it is a bubble at the end of the day. We could give so much crap about so many random things on social media, and then you go to your grandma's house, and she's like, "I don't know what the heck you're talking about." It happened so much, especially in hockey. Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and all these different social media spots, are hotspots for fans to enjoy the sport that might now reflect "the real life."
Regarding where the traditional media spaces are, it's tough to tell what we see with all these different job cuts and whatnot. But for people who want to join the digital space and make names for themselves, it is easier than ever to do. As long as we still have those platforms where at least people can write about hockey or talk about hockey, it will be easier to put yourself into quote-unquote hockey media.
It's just that they're different tiers. People would look at me as a more mainstream guy while still being an Internet guy. I think you know this is just how I see it, but like there is a tier, and it's not necessarily like low on the bottom, that no one should think of them, but like there is a tier of people who shit post, but also people, take notice of them in this space, and that's part of it. That's how I see it.
On a more personal note
I would love to go back into broadcasting at some point. I love what I'm doing at the Athletic and would love to still be there in 5 years. I would love for all the podcasts I've been doing to continue to be successful. The Chris Johnson Show has legitimately changed my life. It has changed a lot of people's perceptions. I also enjoy doing The Athletic Hockey Show with Ian Mendes, one of the greatest podcast partners, and then Zone Time, which I think of it as the little show that doesn't have the same reputation as the Athletic Show or the CJ Show, but the people who like it like it, and I think it's just fantastic. I get to be a part of a show with many people who don't look like the usual people in hockey. Ultimately, I hope I'm working somewhere and still achieving success - that's my main hope.
Okay, so as you know, we have a very serious Hockey Hotties ranking. So we’re asking the same question we asked Arpon Basu, tell us who would be your number one on the hotties list?
One of my best friends has asked me at different points to try to get to set them up with Josh Anderson.
I remember one time the Habs were playing in Calgary, and, funny enough, Arpon, I, and a few other people were hanging out at this bar. It just so happens that many Canadiens players were sitting next to us. We're off the clock and not trying to disturb them or anything, but I remember going to the bathroom. When I returned to the dining area, I locked eyes with Josh Anderson for a brief moment, and I was like, okay, I get women are very attracted to this person. I don't have a definitive ranking, but I feel confident in saying that many people would find Josh Anderson attractive.
Rapid fire questions
Since you moved to Calgary and they are known for the Stampede and their western heritage, which country artist do you have on repeat?
Kacey Musgraves
We know that you are a big music fan (without limiting genre), what would be your goal song?
Ante up (Remix), but specifically Busta Rhymes’ verse where he’s like, “Busta Rhymes now, M.O.P. now, What you want now (What you want now) x3” - play that. That’s my goal song!
What is one rule you would change in the league?
There are a lot of rules I would change, but let's definitely get rid of the offsides challenge rule. Once a play happens, and the referees don't call it, let it go.
I'm all for referees getting stuff right, but the idea that you could challenge a play for offside 15-20 seconds after the play is stupid.
What's the one stadium every hockey fan should try to visit?
The Bell Center still has the best atmosphere of any rink. I haven't been to every arena in the NHL, but the Bell Center is as close to a religious experience as you can feel going to a hockey game.
One of the most incredible things I remember seeing was a game last year when Marc-André Fleury was still a member of Chicago. He was about to win his 500th NHL game, and in the final seconds, everybody was getting up because they knew this was about to happen. This guy doesn't play for the Canadiens, but because he's a guy de chez nous, everybody is celebrating, and they're praising him. If this happens in any other rink, you would be like, what? Why are they doing this? But because It happened in Montreal, it's like, oh okay - they're cheering for their guy.
Faves
Fave Beyoncé Song?
I don't think Beyoncé has made a more perfect song than Crazy in Love. I know it's an oldie, but it's a song that will stand the test of time.
Fave Criminal Minds episode? (The shock on Julian’s face knowing that we did our research!)
Oh, man, it's the episode Where? Oh, God! This is crazy! I've got to make sure I get this answer right because there are a lot of good ones.
I would say episode 100 (season 5, episode 9). I love going back to the episode, as heart-wrenching as it can be, where Hotch has to fight off the reaper who has taken hostage his ex-wife and their kid.
Julian proceeded to explain, with passion, the plot to us and the emotions he went through while watching just for Gaby to compare Hotch to the civil rights king, John Tavares. Unserious woman!
Fave self-care activity? (No fishing, no golfing per THWL rules)
Playing Nintendo's - Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, or MLB The Show.One thing I can't do as much because I don't live with my family anymore is watching The Bachelor/The Bachelorette with my sisters every Monday. It was less, "Oh, you know, I want to see who's getting the rose this week," and more of a dedicated time where my siblings and I can hang out and shut our brains off for two hours. We laugh at how ridiculous the idea is that you could be a contestant on this random show. You're away from your family and your phone for two months so that you can find love with somebody. I am curious if it works out, but if it does, that'd be great; that is a self-care thing for me.
Fave (non-serious) hockey scandal
The day Kodak Black went to a Florida Panthers game.
I mean, Kodak Black is a bit of a controversial artist because of some of the other transgressions he had, but the fact that he is someone you would never associate with hockey jumps into that. You're like, wait a minute. Why? Then we find the video of him in the box with a lady friend - the judgment is still inconclusive on how close they got to each other in that box. Still, that was something people talked about on Hockey Twitter that night, and I could discuss the next day on shows I was doing were wild.
Fave sports/movie or T.V. show?
My sisters and I watched a show called The Game which followed these fictional football players playing for a fictional professional football team and their lives with their wives and girlfriends.
Fave THWL article?
I really should have thought about that. I'm sorry, guys!
Julian then asked us what Zone Time episode we liked, at which point we informed him that they had been included in our End of Season Awards, lmao. Don’t play with us about research, sir!
It was really enjoyable to talk to him and to get a different perspective on getting into the industry.
With Love,
Perrye and Gaby