Chicago Blackhawks Flashback: Joey The Junior Reporter

This ought to be fun.

It’s Wednesday, meaning some Blackhawk Up readers are about halfway through their work week. So I’m going to provide a blast to the past each Hump Day to give you all a little extra oomph and help you get to the weekend. The Chicago Blackhawks have done a lot of funny or endearing video spots since the organization emerged from its dark days. Those spots will be the topic of these flashback posts.

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We’re going to start this series with a look back at everyone’s favorite Blackhawks beat reporter. Sure, guys like Chris Kuc and Mark Lazerus and ladies like Tracey Myers are great. But you can’t start talking about Blackhawks coverage without mentioning Joey the Junior Reporter.

There are a surprising number of Joey the Junior Reporter videos on the interwebs, but the whole series started with this one:

That was posted in December 2010, which is kind of crazy to think about. The Blackhawks were just coming off their first Stanley Cup in 49 years, and they were starting to open up a bit as an organization. Though Joey the Junior Reporter is a funny spot, it is also part of that opening up.

But back to the video. Joey is just 5-years-old in his first interview segment, as we learn later in the video. His attention span is … fleeting, we’ll say. He’d ask a question and kind of stare off at either his parents or someone else behind the camera while the Blackhawks he was interviewing would just keep talking. But it was and still is hilarious.

In his debut, Joey gets right to the point by asking which Blackhawk is the biggest turkey on the team. John Scott and Jack Skille were the most popular answers, and that seems appropriate. The players fight back though, testing Joey’s knowledge of the Blackhawks by asking him who wears which jersey numbers. I don’t know if the kid actually knew Nick Boynton‘s number or if someone told him off camera, but he was able to identify it pretty quickly. That quite possibly made him the only person who knew that information in 2010.

Joey showed he had spunk, too, when he shared with Brian Campbell that he had been a Blackhawks fan for six years despite being alive for five. But the best part of this video, for me, is that Joey totally looks like Jonathan Toews‘ kid.

Dead ringer. (Screenshot from YouTube)

Joey’s first appearance on camera isn’t too long, but it wouldn’t be a one-off job. Showing reporters are never truly on vacation, Joey was back in the locker room for a Christmas special.

He starts off asking some players if they’ve been naughty or nice. And we get our first Joel Quenneville sighting in this video!

“Can I put you at second-line center?” (Screenshot from YouTube)

But we all wanted to know who in the locker room was getting coal that Christmas. Luckily, Joey demanded names from players like Campbell and Marian Hossa. And again, John Scott was the top choice. Now, Scott was pretty much useless as a Blackhawk, but he’s clearly a really nice guy behind the scenes. His interactions with Joey are probably some of the best across all the videos in this post.

Duncan Keith showed us how much the Blackhawks confided in their youngest beat reporter by sharing that defensive partner Brent Seabrook would be getting coal in Christmas 2010 because “he owes me 100 bucks … actually 200.” And Campbell believed Toews would be getting coal because the captain got either a parking ticket or a speeding ticket, which seems like something he should’ve been able to work his way out of. Also, Troy Brouwer wanted an adult onesie for Christmas, to which Joey says, “That seems kinda weird.”

But we can’t forget Hossa having no idea what video games are toward the end of this segment. Joey shared with Hossa that he wanted a Nintendo DS for Christmas, after which Hossa says that he too wants a “Nintendo GS” with some games.

Those were just two of several Joey the Junior Reporter videos. The rest of the series is below, with the most recent video including Joey’s two younger brothers. It contains a pretty hilarious moment at the end involving Patrick Sharp that’s definitely worth a watch.

Got any favorite Chicago Blackhawks videos you want to see covered in our Wednesday flashbacks? Let us know in the comments section.

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