It’s been a couple months since his abrupt departure from the network he called home for over a decade, and whether you feel his dismissal was just or not, fellow journalists and internet commenters alike are agreeing that it was at least a little silly on the part of Sportsnet. Now that Jeff has broken his silence (in the form of tweeting or X-ing about this early NHL season), we’re reflecting on what his brand of somewhat “alternative” reporting has meant to us.

Jeff has been an inspiration for us long before the inception of Crease, with his brilliant and consistent work covering the topical, statistical, and existential aspects of hockey. Maybe it’s a trip through the past, commenting on breaking situations, or speculating on future considerations, he can take listeners and readers on a ride through constellations of seemingly unconnected facts and anecdotes that almost always make their way neatly back to whatever point he intends on landing on — and he usually leaves the thought just a little open-ended so that we can decide for ourselves maybe what was the intention. In addition to dedication the preparation, it’s his uncanny knack for improvising through hours of shows, especially through the dog days of early January-February, that prompted us to tune into The Jeff Marek show throughout the season, even where there was seemingly “nothing of note” to discuss. The guy earned his checks. Or cheques.

It’d be remiss to say that his work on the 32 Thoughts podcast helped to set the standard of what modern day sports reporting has now become. Along with his SportsNet radio/pod show, Jeff and Elliotte Friedman produced the most nourishing portion of current hockey related news and entertainment, served up in a reasonable block of time and digested easily within the minutes of a few commutes. We’ll miss it dearly, at least this version of it (Elliotte has continued with new host Kyle Bukaskas), and we’ll miss the artist spotlight at the end of each show that’s been respectfully dropped in the new version of the show — there were some bangers on there, like this fuzzy Ukrainian outfit.

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That being said, what drew us to Jeff’s work initially was what’s considered to us, his debut album: The Marek Vs. Wyshinski. It was his Kill ’Em All, Enter the Wu, Three Imaginary Boys, etc — and sure he was around earlier, pressing some independently funded EPs in the trenches of radio and TV, but the point stands. We were fortunate to be part of the audience that first tuned in during the early days of MvW, when the rules of internet output were a little different than what we’re all used to now — it was the wild west, as overused as that term may be. We were there, man. The show started in 2011, as a partnership between the pair’s corporate overlords at the time (Sportsnet and Yahoo!) that intelligently allowed them the opportunity to build upon their online popularity. Cheers to whoever above them stamped that through. Although it was far from an “anything goes” pirate radio broadcast, there were pretty insane takes and subject matter that were woven into some of the most joyful and fun knowledgeable hockey commentating of the mid-aughts. They named names, they called out management and fellow media personalities unabashedly, they constantly criticized the utter lack of progress of the NHL compared to other professional leagues, and it was funny. And it was thoroughly authentic. They also made a point of highlighting folks within hockey that the other guys were ignoring, like women, minorities, people who weren’t from Canada... They signaled virtues without virtue signaling, and that’s something that both of them have gracefully continued to do ever since.

The show went on for a little over six years, clocking in at 819 episodes that we rarely missed. And if we did we have this. Luckily for us, when we needed them the most, they ended up getting the band back together in 2021 for a weekly block on Jeff’s aforementioned radio show that wasn’t exactly the same, but still hit the same beats that us OGs knew and loved. Jeff held the rhythm while Greg solo’d and often this occurred vice versa.

Looking back on the type of loose banter the two shared during every episode (along with some uneasy borderline shout matches), it’s hard to describe how new and important this type of honest content was for hockey because this is basically the standard now. Spittin’ Chiclets, Empty Netters, Missin Curfew, and all the other popular outlets have all taken direct cues from their brand of neo-gonzo reporting, along with the conversational chemistry that’s needed to keep the wheels rolling along during a show. Jeff’s role as the glue guy with the footnotes that could easily be steered off the road, is now basically of the template for an interesting program. Granted, a lot of these shows feature ex-players instead of career broadcasters like M&W, but many of them have now ex-players turned broadcasters. This notion no longer seems isolated because as most of us know, a successful podcast can be made from your house with some decently affordable equipment and a POV, and it’s now looking like it can be a farm league of talent for major networks to tap.

We reached out to Jeff through a casual DM when Crease was first actualized and it shouldn’t have been a surprise when he responded enthusiastically. He wanted to check it out, it was a weird hockey thing he had no knowledge of, why wouldn’t he be interested? That’s his shit. We sent some copies of the first issue out the next day to both him and Elliote. And even if he was just being nice, his words of encouragement were humbly validating. He understood what we’re after, and although he deflected our praise and exaltation in our follow-up conversation, it was understood that his work was instrumental in us taking a shot at actualizing Crease’s alternative format in covering this game.

We’re hopeful that we’ll see Jeff back in the picture before long — maybe that’s with a new major network, maybe it’s with an independent podcast group, or maybe we get our wish and he takes the opportunity to start his own operation on his own terms. Whenever we find out, we’ll be sure to tune in.