"The Voice" may be gone, but Dave Strader beat cancer

As weird as it sounds, thanks to Twitter I knew Dave Strader was still with us.

I last spoke to Dave in April, around the time it was announced the Hockey Hall of Fame would honor him with the 2017 Foster Hewitt Memorial Award.

But over the last five months Dave was active on Twitter. Simply seeing him retweet line rushes from a September practice or a factoid that Martin Hanzal was practicing, it was a constant reminder that one of hockey’s greatest broadcasters was still with us.

And not just with us, but still honing a craft that he’d mastered in close to four decades of hockey play-by-play.

Simple little retweets. You probably didn’t think anything about them at the time, but it was a small reminder that while he was fighting for his life Dave Strader was still taking notes on line combinations and was prepared to call a game at a moment’s notice.

So checking my email on Sunday morning and seeing “Dallas Stars Mourn The Passing Of Dave Strader” in the subject line felt like a punch to the gut. That feeling is still there hours later, and I’m sure it’ll be even worse when the Stars inevitably honor Strader in some fashion before their opening night game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday.

And I only knew Dave in a limited capacity. I can’t imagine how his family and close friends are feeling today.

The five games he worked last season were the highlight of the Stars season. Normally I don’t listen to the broadcast while covering a game, if anything I might have it playing in the background and pop in a headphone after a highlight or questionable play.

But when Dave Strader was back in the booth for five games I listened to every second of the broadcast. He wasn’t sick on the broadcast, he was still “The Voice” and it was a joy to listen to.

Cancer sucks.

It’s a frustrating, destructive disease. It’s impacted everyone.

We often say someone beats cancer if they live, and that’s true. But it’s not a blanket statement.

My mom has had cancer twice, I called her this morning. She beat cancer.

I can’t call my one grandfather, who I called “grand daddy” anymore, he had cancer. But he still beat it. He may not have lived, but he beat cancer with his sense of humor. He had to wear an eye patch at times, and he let his grandson pretend he was a pirate while playing pirate LEGOs up until the end of his life.

And Dave Strader beat cancer.

Dave beat cancer when he returned to the booth. He beat cancer when the Stars saluted him after his first game back. He beat it when he called a playoff game on national TV while a disease tried to destroy his body.

Cancer sucks, but it doesn’t have to win. Dave knew that.