With his hard-nosed, often brutally honest approach to covering the New York Rangers as the preeminent hockey journalist on the beat, Larry Brooks ruffled more than a few feathers in the organization over the years. Apparently, however, Rangers owner James Dolan, who’s often called out for being thin-skinned, appreciated the veteran scribe’s honest take, right up until Brooks died Thursday at the age of 75.
“Besides the stellar job that Larry did covering the New York Rangers, what few people know is that he and I would meet on occasion and he would give me his unabashed opinion on how the franchise was doing and what we needed to do to win,” Dolan told The New York Post, for whom Brooks covered the NHL for nearly four decades.