BOSTON — Tom Caron on Monday was named the recipient of the 2018 Joe Concannon Hockey East Media Award.
The NESN on-air personality was presented the award, which is annually given to “an individual who has demonstrated an outstanding body of work” in covering Hockey East, at TD Garden during the conference’s media day. The award first was given out in 1992 and was named in 2001 in memory Concannon, a beloved Boston Globe sportswriter.
“Tom Caron makes every game he works special,” Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna said in a statement. “Hockey or baseball. Pro or amateur. He is energetic, he is prepared and he is authentic.
“All of us at Hockey East have been the beneficiaries of his unique contributions and I am happy we are honoring him with this award.”
Many fans know Caron mostly for his work in covering the Boston Red Sox for NESN. But his love for hockey equals — and perhaps even surpasses — his love for baseball, and it shows during his play-by-play calls of Hockey East games.
“While the Red Sox might be my favorite team, hockey is my favorite sport,” Caron said. “There’s something about the fabric of the sport, the people in the sport.
” … I don’t think there’s anything like a packed college hockey arena on a Friday night.”
Caron also talked about Hockey East’s long history with NESN.
“I want to thank everybody at NESN,” Caron said. “Really, when you go back to the beginning of NESN, 1984, (college hockey) was a cornerstone.
“We think about the Red Sox, we think about the Bruins as being the cornerstones of NESN, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that Hockey East has been that third pillar of the network since the beginning.”
Bertagna began the presentation by expressing Hockey East’s appreciation for Caron, and Caron closed it by showing the feeling is mutual.
“I just want to thank all the people at Hockey East,” he said. “You guys have done such an amazing job to make this the best college hockey conference in the country.”
