There would inevitably come a time when Mike Babcock, gathered for a beer with familiar faces from his time in the Western Hockey League, excused himself from the table. Within moments, one of those familiar faces would launch into their best impersonation of him: Usually landing somewhere between Yogi Bear and Doug Mackenzie, or maybe his brother, Bob.



“Almost never was it about hockey,” said TSN analyst Darren Dreger, who was one of those familiar faces around the table. “It was always about something silly.”



He slipped into his own Babcock impersonation seamlessly over the phone: “You know what, I got up this morning and I saw that huntin’ season is opened up in Montana, they got big brown bears there, I haven’t shot a bear in my lifetime — that’s on my bucket list and I’m gonna do it this summer.”



Around the table, as over the phone, the audience would howl.



Dreger was born in...