Boston Bruins: Who Is a Better Broadcaster: Jack Edwards or Dave Goucher?

Boston Bruins followers are blessed with a pair of bona fide homegrown play-by-play announcers who never needed to be taught how to put themselves in their listeners’ position. Television’s Jack Edwards and radio’s Dave Goucher are both New England natives and Hockey East school alumni who never cease to embrace their coveted gigs on the “Ninth Floor” at TD Garden.

One of them is slightly more seasoned in this field and had already cemented his name on a national platform at ESPN before assuming a steady diet of hometown action after the 2004-05 lockout. The other penned somewhat of a blue-collar broadcasting log, spending seven years in minor-league hockey booths, including five with the AHL’s Providence Bruins, before getting a permanent promotion to WBZ in 2000.

Per the generally accepted nature of team-specific broadcast journalism, Bruins buffs ought to appreciate Edwards and Goucher alike for their dense formulas of knowledge and passion. By the same token, deciding who you prefer to listen to is at times comparable to head coach Claude Julien’s internal debate over Tim Thomas versus Tuukka Rask.

Indeed, Edwards’ and Goucher’s games each bear their similarities, contrasts and differences within the similarities.

Since linking up with fellow University of New Hampshire alum and New England Sports Network analyst Andy Brickley, Edwards has never had a dollop of difficulty remembering that his job is to inform and entertain. His fervor and at times overwhelmingly radiant vocabulary all but put him on a par with NHL on NBC counterpart Mike Emrick or Pittsburgh Penguins broadcaster Mike Lange.

His mounting multitude of original, unusual or outrageous sayings reached a point where NESN started posting “Jack Edwards Bingo” games on its website.

In a paradoxical kind of way, Edwards can sometimes enjoy more freedom to give creative descriptions of what he is seeing because his audience is watching the exact same thing. For instance, this past February, when the Bruins’ Gregory Campbell and Dallas’ Steve Ott dropped the mitts at puck-drop and blood stains soon emerged on the ice surface, he observed, “Somebody’s leaking!”

Naturally, the Boston University-bred Goucher does not always have the same freedom. He can usually be creative if he so chooses, provided he ensures his listeners have an easy mental picture of what he is allegorizing.

Most of the time, Goucher is forced to set that aside and focus exclusively on developing an image that isn’t there for his fans. But he tackles that task fearlessly and proficiently.

Before every opening draw, he makes a point of describing each team’s uniform from the dominant jersey color to the trim to the logo. That way, listeners know from the start whether the Bruins are wearing their traditional home or road garb or their black alternate sweaters. Ditto the opposition.

With that fundamental piece of knowledge secure in their minds, everybody is free to enjoy the ensuing listening experience without the distracting guessing games.

For NESN viewers, a different sort of guessing game is not a requirement, but one is strongly advised not to expect 60 minutes of bland broadcasting.

Depending especially on what opposing teams and/or individuals are on deck for the Bruins, Edwards is bound to reap an off-the-wall remark over something that develops through the night. That can be either spontaneous, premeditated or a combination of the two.

When that happens, Edwards inevitably reiterates his reputation as the play-by-play equivalent of a Brad Marchand or a PK Subban. If he’s on your side, that being the side of Boston’s fanbase, you probably love him. Otherwise, his blatantly biased tendencies are bound to spike your blood pressure.

As expected, more than one YouTube user has compounded a marathon of wild Edwards sound bites. But based on the Bruins’ recent success against rival Montreal in two of the last three playoffs, the example that juts out the most is his penchant for likening the Bruins to 18th-century American colonial rebels and the Habs to British imperialists. He evoked that analogy both in the waning seconds of Game 3 in 2009 en route to a first-round sweep and in the aftermath of Nathan Horton’s Game 7 overtime goal that spring.

Comparatively speaking, Goucher is more placid and, shall we say, more rational. But he has his own way of letting a viscous degree of homerism ooze out, which dates all the way back to his arrival in Providence in 1995.

For every Bruins’ goal, radio listeners will hear an archetypically excited “Score!” from Goucher. But when the opposition tunes the Boston mesh, he utters the same monosyllabic call in a matter-of-fact, deadpan tone.

Even Edwards, who has occasionally performed “neutral site” tasks for Versus, doesn’t do that. All of his goal calls are created equal, even when it’s off the twig of a Montreal Canadien or a Philadelphia Flyer.

Then again, that just speaks to his energy and a perpetual craving for a mutually competitive matchup. Goucher doubtlessly wants the same thing to make his job as fun as possible.

But is one better than the other? If so, it can’t be a very broad margin of victory.

Just like Julien with his goalie guild, Bruins fans can almost always bank on one high-quality announcer if and when the other is not readily accessible.