Hockeytalk will never forget:

GRAIG WOODBURN

Rest in Peace

A great hockey writer and friend.

Graig Woodburn at center ice shortly after the Ducks won the Stanley Cup at Honda Center in Anaheim, June 6, 2007 (Photo: Hockeytalk)

MICHAEL ALTIERI
(Vice President, Communications and Content - Los Angeles Kings)

Graig Woodburn will be dearly missed by all of us who worked with and knew him. I always enjoyed how no matter how difficult or serious an issue, Graig always found a way to bring a chuckle or a smile to the situation. It is always so difficult to lose someone at a time most of deem as premature but as long as your life is spent doing what you love and being with the ones you love, then I believe that is life lived to the fullest. Graig embodied these ideals throughout the time I knew him and I am grateful for the opportunity to have known him.

JEFF MOELLER
(Senior Director, Communications - Los Angeles Kings)

Graig was a great hockey enthusiast who really enjoyed doing his (many) jobs. He would always take that extra bit of time to try and make his story “special,” to try and make his story “stand out.”

Over the years, he made a tremendous amount of effort – including travel – to cover the Kings, the Ducks and the NHL, and he never seemed to take his position in hockey for granted.

JOSH BREWSTER
(Anaheim Ducks Radio/Hockeytalk.biz)

Audio Tribute to Graig (click to listen)
--from "Duck Calls on AM830", December 20, 2010  

 

CURTIS ZUPKE
OC Register

I remember Graig as quite a knowledgeable hockey writer with a witty style, and he was also good for an offbeat anecdote in the press dining room before games.

The details might be murky but this one sticks out:

He played in a recreational hockey league in Aliso Viejo, and sometimes he would have to get to a Ducks game afterward. Once he was pressed for time and had to change at Honda Center. He went to one of the dressing rooms and discovered it was occupied by the band Pennywise, I believe. He asked them if he could quickly shower and change and they very graciously said “Yeah, go ahead!”

That’s the visual I have when I think of Graig – him hanging out with a punk band.
He was so easy to get along with. I never knew he had cancer until I found out from some colleagues. When I last saw him at the NHL draft, he was as upbeat and happy as I’d ever seen him.

My deepest condolences to his family.
 

ANITA ICENOGLE
(Assistant Municipal Court Judge, Greeley, CO)

Damnit, Graig. You’re not supposed to be gone. I only had the privilege of knowing you for 9 years and that’s just not long enough. When we met you were the guy in the press box lightly flirting with the new girl. Can’t say I minded. You took me under your wing and showed me the ropes in Anaheim. You gave me grief and took mine as well. You supported me personally me when things were tough and I needed a shoulder. You were a great legal mentor as well and I enjoyed working on those projects with you. Although I still think you should have sued that loan company. We’ll take that up when I see you again.

Our friendship continued without skipping a beat after I moved to Colorado. I remember when I was asked to cover a Denver Broncos game. I knew nothing about football. I took an internet crash course and then called you and asked for tips and further explanation of the game. You gave me a run down and then told me that you’d be watching the game and to call if I needed to. And thank God for that. I had a new to me laptop because mine crashed. When I got to Invesco field I could not get the damn wifi to work. Panicked because the story was due at the end of the game I called you and, as usual, you saved the girl. You watched the game, wrote the whole damn story while I ran down to the locker room and got some quotes – and you submitted the story for me. Totally saved my butt.

I hope that I gave as much as you did – but I’m not sure that’s possible. I wish I would have known when I saw you in Beverly Hills in 2008 that it would be the last time I saw you. I would have hugged you tighter and for a little longer. You were a kind, gentle, giving man, Graig and I’m very, very fortunate to have had you in my life. Since you share a birthday with my little one we will make sure to celebrate your life every June 19th. My thoughts and prayers are with your family during this difficult time. Missing you already. 

DAVID LASSEN
(Riverside Press-Enterprise)

Graig was one of those people who make sportswriting enjoyable — a warm, funny guy who absolutely loved hockey. I always enjoyed it when we crossed paths in the press box. When I was laid off from my last job, he had just become ill (although he hadn't told anyone yet), and recommended me for some of the assignments he would not be able to take — an incredibly thoughtful gesture which becomes even more so when you consider what he was dealing with.

Graig told this story on himsefl: On the night the Ducks won the Stanley Cup — when the photo accompanying these tributes was taken — as the on ice-celebration went on and on, media members were let out onto the ice to conduct interviews. At one point, with everyone else occupied, the Stanley Cup was left sitting unattended on the table used for the presentation. Graig looked around, saw no one looking, and slipped over and triumphantly lifted it over his head like a celebrating player. I wish I'd seen it. I wish we had a photo.

Most of all, I wish he was still with us. At a time when we need more good people, one has been taken from us far too soon. I still can't quite grasp the idea that I won't be joking with him in the press box again.
 

JON DAVIS
(The Hockey News)

There was never a day he didn't have a smile on his face. My life was better for having a chance to meet him. He will sorely be missed.

PATTI JO WOLFSON
(New Directions for Youth, Los Angeles)

Graig visited us on occasion when he was in Southern California. What impressed us the most was his zest for life and the effort he made to keep in touch with his friends. Even though knew that it meant to have panceratic cancer, he fought his way through this horrific disease. Graig will always be an inspiration to us and he will hold a special place on our hearts as a great writer, great athlete, great fighter and great friend.

BRIAN HAYWARD
(Anaheim Ducks TV Analyst)

Most of my interaction with Greg happened in the Honda Center Press Box at Duck games, either 10 minutes before the opening face-off or during the between period breaks. He always had a smile on his face and would often have me laughing within seconds... He was the master of what I like to call the bulls-eye one-liner, straight to the point yet always delivered with a twinkle in his eye and without any hint of malice. I knew Greg for 5 years before I had any sense of how diverse his life really was, and I never had a clue that he was ill and in a fight for his life. So now I feel like I've lost the opportunity to know a great guy just a little better. I will always think of him fondly and my sincerest condolences go out to his family.

JOHN AHLERS
(Anaheim Ducks TV Play-by-Play)

I first met Graig during my initial year with the Ducks ('02-'03). We were traveling and he was on the road with us somewhere having lunch at the same location and I introduced him to a friend as Bill Plaschke. We obviously hadn't been officially introduced and my mistake was taken in stride, like everything with him, and quickly corrected by Graig. He laughed and told me he wished he was Bill, maybe for the money he said, but I always got the feeling he was exactly who he wanted to be.

I remember being so impressed that he was a full time attorney as well as a hockey scribe and marveled at the time he took to do both jobs to the best of his ability. He was my linemate at a Ducks fantasy camp a few years later and that was the subject of our last conversation this past Spring. He told me he was shooting for being re-united on a line with me again at the next Fantasy Camp in August (he could do better)and while we briefly discussed the challenges that lay ahead of him for that to happen, it was a goal firmly planted in his mind. We used to talk all the time about how far he would travel to play hockey with his buddies in the Beer League despite having rinks so much closer to his home, because it wasn't any fun to just play as it was fun to play the game with his friends. For me that says all anybody needs to know about Graig.

He made a huge point to tell me this past May how much it meant to him that the Ducks made a video and sent it to him while thanking me profusely for the emails and voicemails sent his way. He wanted me to pass along his appreciation to all who had reached out to him as well. That was Graig, it never seemed to be about him. He was always a pleasure and it was my pleasure to have known him. Here's hoping he saves a spot for me on his line in the ultimate Fantasy Camp.
 

J.P. HOORNSTRA
(LA Daily News)

My Graig memories are brief, but the most impressive is this: In the 10 months that he had cancer, we spent all of two seconds talking about it. We talked cycling, Patriots football, a little Red Sox baseball, and a lot of hockey. And two seconds about cancer. It was easy to forget he was sick, almost as easy as it was to forget that he was a lawyer. Graig knew his stuff and was great to bounce ideas off of, which was especially great when you're covering something you have no clue about (looking at you, Tour of California).

In September I caught wind of a freelance assignment about the Patriots and passed it along to Graig. He readily accepted. Maybe that's what I'll remember the most. He wanted to make the story good, to give it "more flair," and so he took his time with it.

It was so easy to forget that he was sick.

DENNIS BERNSTEIN
(The Fourth Period)

My friendship with Graig extended over the past decade, he was one of the first hockey writers I got to know when I came to Los Angeles. Like me, he chose Santa Monica, CA to start fresh from his Boston upbringing, smartly choosing to enjoy the warm sunshine and Pacific beaches. He possessed the unique combination of being an accomplished writer as well as holding a law degree and the many discussions we had about hockey were definitely like a cross-examination at times!

Once of the fondest memories I have was during the 2007 Premiere Series in London, England. We both decided to fly over to cover the Kings-Ducks series and as fate would have it, we wound up on the same plane. The O2 arena and the surrounding hotels were located in South London, a long distance from Heathrow Airport. With the cab fare estimated to be close to $75 one way, Graig thought we should take the famous London Underground to save on expenses.

During rush hour.

In the rain.

With luggage and computers in hand.

By the time we got to our destination, we were both exhausted (me probably more so than him) but had a great laugh out of it and over the years still chuckled over it. We spent time during the week before the games, even lifted a drink of two with Brian Burke at the bar one night and got to meet his daughter, who made the trip from Boston as well.

He was dedicated to making the best life he could for his daughter and I was grateful that when he learned of his affliction and the odds of beating it, he returned home to spend his last days with his loved ones. Everything Graig did, he did with gusto, from his writing to his biking, the last time my wife and I saw him was as he was undertaking a ride from Santa Monica to Malibu. We had a frank discussion about the prospects of surviving pancreatic cancer and while he was fighting the good fight, you could see the concern in his eyes, not necessarily for him but for his family. He lives on by the memories his presence generated and the light he brought into other people’s lives.

There is no explanation when good men like Graig are taken from us far too early, it’s only another reminder that life is profoundly precious and every day is a gift.

AL BALDERAS
(formerly Orange County Register)

I last spoke with Graig in the fall. He was trying to get his NHL preview done for The Sporting News but was laid up in the hospital for a couple of days. Deadline was coming up and since I was out of work, he called to see if I could lend a hand. We talked about hockey. We talked about teams. We talked about players. We never did talk about his health. He wouldn't allow it.

By the tone of his voice, you would have thought Graig was laying by the pool someplace and not in a hospital bed. That was typical of Graig. He didn't want his health problems to become his friends' problems.

Graig and I enjoyed many laughs together with most coming at Staples Center or Honda Center. He was a smart and knowledgeable colleague but prefer to remember him as a friend.

He was always positive about work, life, his family and whatever else was going on in his life. I like to hope that some of his upbeat attitude has rubbed off on all of us. It would make the world that much better.