On a mid-February evening in 2025, I stood in a dusty Mexican bar filled to the brim with Canadians, belting out the lyrics to O Canada. All of us were there to watch Team Canada battle Team USA in the championship game of the Four Nations Face-Off. (Happily, Canada won!)
That night, O Canada was our battle cry. It was our identity. Chills ran up and down my spine as I watched a few hundred of my fellow Canucks sing in unison, all of them praying for victory over the Americans. Later, as the passions of that night passed, I realized that there are times when national anthems and those who sing them have power. They can raise a moment from routine to unforgettable.
So, who are the NHL’s greatest national anthem singers? And how did they sing their way into the annals of hockey history?
The Importance of National Anthems to Hockey
National ballads weren’t always important at sporting events. In fact, it wasn’t until the World Series in 1918, sparked by the patriotic fervour of World War I, that Americans started singing the Star-Spangled Banner at baseball games. And that was only during the seventh inning stretch at a time when that broadside ballad wasn’t even the official national anthem of the United States. (The US Congress didn’t adopt it as such until 1931)
O Canada wasn’t Canada’s official national anthem until 1980. That designation belonged to God Save the Queen, although O Canada was the country’s de facto national anthem many years before. Even so, it was often The Maple Leaf Forever that stirred the hearts of Canadians at the start of hockey games in Canada. It still does on many of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ opening nights when it’s played by the storied 48th Highlanders Pipes and Drums.
National anthems often have militaristic themes – O Canada and The Star-Spangled Banner being no exceptions. The American anthem sings of the red glare of rockets and bombs bursting in air, juicing the patriotism of American hockey fans before important games against archrivals like Canada.
O Canada is infused with militarism too, whether Canadians like to admit it or not. It was originally written to commemorate St. Jean Baptiste Day in 1880, and the French lyrics were meant to assure all who heard them, especially English Canadians, that “les Canadiens” knew how to wield the sword and the cross to defend their homes and their rights.
While O Canada was then the battle hymn of French Canadians demonstrating their iron will to survive, today it often serves the same purpose at Canada-USA hockey games. Often in those games, Canadians sing it loudly and defiantly to display their resolve not to become the 51st state – the avowed goal of more than one American president over these past 250 years.
Selecting the Greatest NHL National Anthem Singers
There’s much debate about who qualifies to be considered among the NHL’s greatest national anthem singers. To help narrow down the choice, here are a few criteria I think are important.
Only Singers From the Television Age Qualify
It wasn’t until the television age that national anthem singers had the ability to stir entire nations at important hockey games, be they Olympic gold medal matchups or the seventh games of Stanley Cup championship series. So it’s only NHL balladeers who sang from the 1960s onwards that make my list.
Only Long-Time Anthem Singers Make the Cut
In my book, only singers who performed consistently over a long period of time deserve to be on the NHL’s list of greatest national anthem singers. In many rinks today, singers of the national anthem appear only a few times at most. Many seem to be chosen simply to showcase local talent or support worthy causes and institutions.
That’s not to say that the occasional singer brought in to sing before important games aren’t memorable. Who could forget Kate Smith’s rendition of God Bless America before the Philadelphia Flyers’ Stanley Cup win in 1974? She became the Flyers’ good-luck charm, and the team erected a statue of her outside the Spectrum. It was removed in 2019 when it came to light that she had sung racist songs back in the early part of her career in the 1930s.
And what of Quebec’s one-time songbird, Ginnette Reno inspiring the Montreal Canadiens in their 2014, 2015 and 2017 playoff series? Les Habitants faithful roared in the background, singing along with her powerful, emotion-laden renditions of O Canada, willing les Glorieux on to victory.
Related: A Guide to NHL Arena Traditions
As magnificent as Reno and Smith were on many occasions, neither chanteuse was a fixture at home games in Montreal or Philadelphia. Reluctantly, I’ve excluded them from my list of the NHL’s greatest anthem singers.
Great Anthem Singers Make it About the Crowd
Great singers are at one with the crowd, capturing the emotional tone of the game about to unfold when they put their microphone down. They don’t try to show off, taking tasteless poetic license with the anthem’s lyrics or its traditional rhythm and pace. They don’t try to exaggerate their talent with over-stylized pop interpretations of the anthem or finish it off with insipid, often unpredictable vocal gymnastics.
The great singers know the crowd didn’t come to see them, and are confident they don’t need to prove their talent to anyone. They know they just have to sing and give voice to the emotions, energy and passions of the crowd.
Great Anthem Singers Are Exceptional Talents
To state the obvious, the NHL’s greatest anthem singers were powerful voices with an exceptional and memorable vocal quality. Their renditions of the anthems they sang were consistent night after night, year after year. Not only that, but they became part of the culture of both their team and the city in which they plied their trade.
The great balladeers had a brand, and brands are first and foremost consistent. For a singer, that means they sounded the same on a Tuesday night as they did in the seventh game of a playoff series. Each night, they used the same phrasing, paused where they always did and delivered the same ending. They didn’t speed the anthem up on big nights or drag it out for drama. In a sense, they are what hockey culture is – full of ritual and tradition where those who are part of it do not make themselves the centre of attention.
The Top 5 NHL Anthem Singers
Roger Doucet – Montreal Canadiens
Roger Doucet sang O Canada for the Habs in the 1970s when the team won six Stanley Cups. His bilingual renditions of O Canada in hockey’s holiest of cathedrals – the Montreal Forum – were dignified and powerful without being showy – exactly right for the culture of hockey in Montreal.
Sportswriter Paul Zimmerman said of Doucet that “he brought the house down. I mean, people would cry when he finished that song. And it never ran longer than 47 or 48 seconds” (from Paul Zimmerman, “Singing the blues”, Sports Illustrated, 2/26/04).
In 1980, a year before his death, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada – Canada’s highest civilian honour, “in recognition for the feeling of pride he has instilled in his fellow citizens.”
Rene Rancourt – Boston Bruins
Rene Rancourt, who traces his roots back to Quebec, sang the Star-Spangled Banner at home games of the Boston Bruins for 42 years before retiring in 2019. Dressed in his trademark tuxedo, he had the bearing and power of an opera singer.
His playoff performances, especially with the Bruins crowd roaring behind him, are some of the most iconic performances in NHL history. His trademark fist pumps at the end of the anthem, followed by a salute (he served in the US Army in the 1960s), were much loved by the Boston faithful.
Lyndon Slewidge – Ottawa Senators
Lyndon Slewidge was the Senators’ official anthem singer from 1994 to 2016 and is still called upon occasionally to sing at Canadian Tire Centre. Through much of his time, he served with the Ontario Provincial Police and performed decked out in full uniform.
He is a classic anthem singer in the old-school mold. He is deeply respected in Ottawa, especially for his playoff performances and dignified presence. Fans love his finish to O Canada – a salute, a wink and a thumbs up.
Jim Cornelison – Chicago Blackhawks
Jim Cornelison has been belting out the American national anthem in Chicago since 2008. He is a dramatic tenor who sings backed up by an old-style organist. He has a strong voice, impeccable timing and a deep understanding of when to let the crowd lead. He is considered a big-game specialist, and his talent is recognized beyond the hockey world having performed the US anthem at Chicago Bears games and NASCAR events.
He’s probably one of the most credentialed anthem singers in the NHL, holding a master’s degree in music from Indiana University and membership in the Lyric Opera Centre for American Artists.
Paul Lorrieau – Edmonton Oilers
Another national anthem singer tracing his roots to Quebec, Paul Lorrieau sang O Canada at Edmonton Oilers home games from 1981-2011. He was a powerful singer capable of evoking great passion among lovers of The Oil. Perhaps there’s no better example of this than Game 5 of the Western Conference Final at home in Edmonton against the Anaheim Ducks. Have a look.
For context, this game took place a few days after O Canada had been booed in Anaheim. Not only was it a message defiant Edmonton fans wanted to send back to the Ducks and their supporters, but it also shows that great anthem singers know they don’t supply the emotion – fans do. It’s why there are moments they can stop singing after just a few lines, as Lorrieau did, and watch the fans take over the anthem without missing a beat.
The National Anthem Is Part of Hockey
National ballads are part of hockey’s soul. It matters who sings them, and how they do that often becomes part of the game’s rich culture and history. Teams should choose them wisely.
