With the NHL on ice, this commentator is doing play-by-play for fans' pet videos

Originally published March 27, 2020.

When a hockey-loving family reached out to Conor McGahey to do some play-by-play of their cats fighting, McGahey was immediately onboard.

"I thought the idea was brilliant," he said. 

McGahey has called plenty of hockey melees — he's the radio voice for the Colorado Avalanche and previously did play-by-play for the University of Denver athletics department. But this was his first foray into feline fight commentary.

"[Cats are] a little less predictable because hockey fights, you know the sequence … and it's a little bit easier to predict," he said. "With cats, you have no idea what they're going to do. Maybe they don't know what they're going to do either.

"They got paws, they got tails, they just stop in the middle for 30 seconds and stare at each other, and they just bring the punches back out of nowhere."

McGahey's commentary was a hit on Twitter. At the time of writing, his video has amassed over 53,000 views and 1,000 likes.

The feedback was largely positive, so McGahey decided to take more requests. 

With the coronavirus putting sports on pause for the time being, those involved in the sports world — athletes, fans,and media personnel like McGahey — have had to turn to other means for entertainment.

And while McGahey likely didn't predict what he'd end up doing at this stage of the season, he's happy to provide fans with a distraction.

"We're not exactly doing a whole lot right now with sports on pause and a lot of our lives on pause as well. So to me, there is no reason not to do it. It's made a lot of people very happy," he said.

Written by Mouhamad Rachini. Interview produced by Rachel Levy-McLaughlin. To hear more, download our podcast.