For most people, Keith Jones is perhaps most known for his work as an NHL analyst. He began his career in TV during the 2005-06 season for the NHL on NBC, but he’s always been on duty for NBC Sports Philadelphia. He’s also appeared frequently on TSN.
Jones did have a great NHL career, though, as he scored 258 points in 491 NHL games. He was some of a late bloomer, as he played his first NHL game in 1992 as a 24-year-old. After that, he had some decent years with the Washington Capitals, but in 1996, something happened.
“I’d gone about two or three weeks when I was in Washington playing for the Capitals and Jim Schoenfeld, the head coach, and I had not been feeling great, so I’ve been to the doctor’s office, and I was waiting for these tests to get back,” Jones said on the NHL Storytime.
“We played a game in Long Long Island against the Islanders, and I’m still wondering about these results. It’s on my mind, as everyone knows, when you’re not feeling great, you’re always wondering what the heck’s going on. So I came in from that warm-up and sat down for the 20 minutes where you get prepared for the game, and the coach usually comes in and gives you a little speech.”
“I had one skated on, and one skate was getting repaired, when all of the sudden Jim Schoenfeld showed up in the office and said, ‘Jonesy, I want to see you in my office.”
“I’m thinking, ‘He must have got the results. This will be some terrible news that he can’t tell me here.’ I sat in his office, and he looked me right in the eye and said, ‘Keith, I have some terrible news for you.”
“I thought that I was dying. But he just said that I’d been traded. So I just looked at him with a huge smile and said, ‘Thank God.”
“I loved him, but we didn’t get along, but I was just thinking I’m happy to be alive. I had no idea that that message was going to be one about being traded. I just thought it was all about getting some terrible medical news.”
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