NHL on NBC commentators

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From 2006 to 2008, NBC's studio show was originally broadcast out of the rink at New York's Rockefeller Center, at the foot of NBC's offices during January and February. This allowed the on-air talent, including commentators for NHL on NBC , and their guests (often ex-players and youth hockey teams) to demonstrate plays and hockey skills. From April onwards, and during inclement weather, the studio show moved to Studio 8G inside the GE Building, where NBC produces its Football Night in America program. For the Stanley Cup Finals, the show was usually broadcast on location.

Contents

Beginning in 2008, the studio show originated from the game venue. In 2012, the studio show moved to NBC Sports’ new headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. The studio show now usually goes on the road for special events like the Winter Classic, All-Star Weekend, the Stadium Series, and the Stanley Cup Finals.

List of personalities

Full-time

Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk working a game on NHL on NBCSN (2019) Mike "Doc" Emrick & Ed Olczyk.jpg
Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk working a game on NHL on NBCSN (2019)

Part-time

NBC Sports Regional Networks personalities

NBC Sports Regional Networks personnel may occasionally appear on NBCSN broadcasts during the latter part of the season and the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

NBC Sports California

Both Hahn and Hedican fill in on games broadcast on TNT

NBC Sports Chicago

NBC Sports Washington

NBC Sports Philadelphia

Jackson fills-in on game broadcasts on TNT

Other on-air staff (occasional appearances)

Former

Broadcast teams

1966 Playoffs (broadcast as special extended editions of "NBC Sports In Action")

  1. Win Eliot-Bill Mazer-Bill Cullen and Jim Simpson

1972–75

  1. Tim Ryan-Ted Lindsay-Brian McFarlane

For the 1966 playoffs and 1972–75 coverage, play-by-play is listed first, followed by color commentator, and studio host or hosts. "Inside The Glass" reporters were not utilized by NBC until the 2005–06 season.

2005–06

  1. Mike Emrick - John Davidson - Pierre McGuire
  2. Dave Strader-Brian Hayward- Joe Micheletti
  3. Chris Cuthbert-Peter McNab- Cammi Granato

During its first 2 seasons, NBC used 3 regular broadcast teams for its regional coverage of the NHL. For its first season, they brought in Mike Emrick and John Davidson, the lead broadcast team for NHL on Fox , and added popular is Pierre McGuire was used as "Inside the Glass" reporter (the one who stands between-the-benches).

For both broadcast seasons of the NHL on NBC, the #2 team consisted of Dave Strader, Brian Hayward, and "Inside the Glass" reporter Joe Micheletti .

For the 2005–06 NHL season, the #3 broadcast team was Chris Cuthbert, Peter McNab, and "Inside the Glass" reporter Cammi Granato .

2006–07

  1. Mike Emrick - Eddie Olczyk - Pierre McGuire
  2. Dave Strader-Brian Hayward/Peter McNab- Joe Micheletti
  3. Chris Cuthbert-Peter McNab/Brian Hayward- Darren Pang

For the 2006–07 NHL season, the 2nd season of the NHL on NBC , John Davidson left NBC to become the president of St. Louis Blues, studio analyst Eddie Olczyk was used with Mike Emrick and Pierre McGuire. The trio remained as NBC's lead broadcast team until 2020. Furthermore, Darren Pang was used due to Granato's son being born.

During 2006–07, the #2 and #3 broadcast teams were mixed up, due to travel constraints. An example of this is color commentators Peter McNab and Brian Hayward often switching roles during the season and playoffs.

During the season, due to Pierre McGuire's TSN commitments, a variety of "Inside the Glass" reporters have been used with the #1 team, including Joe Micheletti, Cammi Granato, and Peter McNab.

2007–09

Due to NBC's move to flex scheduling & only broadcasting one game a week, Only the team of Emrick, Olczyk, & McGuire is now used. Also, NBC has scrapped the studio-based intermission show and fired Bill Clement and Ray Ferraro. Pierre McGuire, who continues his role as the "Inside the Glass" reporter, serves as host from the game venue. Former Boston Bruins head coach Mike Milbury is the new analyst. [3] During the Stanley Cup playoffs, NBC Sports reporters like Bob Neumeier and Bill Patrick served as a moderator for Pierre McGuire & Mike Milbury's analysis.

In this era, Darren Pang will fill in for McGuire when he has TSN commitments.

2010–2021

For the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals, Jeremy Roenick returned as a guest analyst for the intermission reports. For Games 5 & 6 on NHL on NBC, Dan Patrick was the studio host. For the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs, Liam McHugh served as the host while Mike Milbury and Pierre McGuire returned as analysts for the intermission reports.

In the era, after NBC purchased VERSUS and renamed it NBCSN, there was generally a sharing of talent that led to Emrick, Olczyk, and McGuire calling the Sunday afternoon Game of the Week but frequently appeared on Wednesday telecasts on NBCSN. In addition, Dave Strader and Brian Engblom called Sunday night and Tuesday night games on NBCSN.

Cuthbert returned to the network and John Forslund came over from VERSUS. Frequently, a mix of Emrick, Albert, Strader, Cuthbert, and Forslund led NBC's Stanley Cup playoff crews with analysts Olczyk, McGuire, Joe Micheletti, Engblom, and Darren Pang providing analysis. TSN commentators such as Cuthbert, Gord Miller, Ray Ferraro and Mike Johnson also worked regular season and playoff games and especially helped out with the network's coverage of the NHL Draft once those rights transferred to Sportsnet in Canada.

At the start of the 2018–19 season, NBC rotated Pierre McGuire and Brian Boucher on the lead broadcast team with Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk. Boucher joined the pair for Wednesday Night Hockey early games while McGuire called the late game. [4] [5] McGuire, however, was still assigned to work with the lead team on single select Wednesday Night Hockey, Game of the Week broadcasts, and the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals. [6] However, as of the start of the 2019–20 season, Boucher now works with the lead team while McGuire continues to appear on other broadcasts. [7] [8] In addition, NBC began using U.S. women's ice hockey stars A. J. Mleczko and Kendall Coyne Schofield as game analysts on select broadcasts, and NBC even assigned Mike Tirico to call play-by-play on a few broadcasts.

Similarly, the studio show was largely a mix of NBCSN's Liam McHugh and Kathryn Tappen with analysts Mike Milbury (until his firing in 2020), Roenick (until his firing in 2020), Keith Jones and later on, Anson Carter and Patrick Sharp. Mike Tirico would occasionally substitute as a host and play-by-play announcer.

Towards the end of the NBC era – and with Milbury and Roenick's departures, Engblom moving to work full-time with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the retirement of Emrick and play-by-play man Dave Strader's death – the network began cycling in new talent. Brendan Burke, who eventually became the #2 play-by-play voice of the NHL on TNT and Alex Faust called several playoff games for the network. Recently retired players like Dominic Moore and Ryan Callahan were hired as a color commentators and studio analysts, and A. J. Mleczko became the first woman to regularly work for an American national hockey broadcast. Former coach Mike Babcock joined as a studio analyst in the network's last season.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, NBC often had commentators call games from studios as a safety precaution, with a mix of studio and in-person work during the 2020–21 NHL season and a return to largely full in-person commentary during the postseason. Occasionally, commentators would work multiple games per day from NBC's studios in Connecticut.

NBCSN broadcast one of the final games before the pandemic suspended the season, a Wednesday Night Hockey telecast on March 11, 2020 between the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks, with the network providing updates on how the pandemic was beginning to affect the league. Emrick, Olczyk, and Boucher called the game, the last one Emrick worked in-person at an NHL arena in his career.

During the NHL's 'bubble' Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2020, Forslund, Gord Miller, Boucher, and, until his firing, Mike Milbury worked in the league's Toronto bubble, while Albert and McGuire called games from the Edmonton bubble, with some commentators working from the studio or, in Emrick's case, from home. Emrick called the last of his record 22 Stanley Cup Finals from a home studio in Michigan, with Olczyk (both Emrick and Olczyk are cancer survivors), Boucher (working his first Stanley Cup Finals), and McGuire providing analysis and reporting in Edmonton.

In the 2020–21 season, Kenny Albert – who had been calling the conference final that Emrick's crew did not work – replaced the retiring Emrick as the lead voice and called the top semifinal with Olczyk and Brian Boucher. Meanwhile, John Forslund worked with Micheletti and McGuire on the other. In addition, McGuire joined the lead team as an on-site reporter for the Stanley Cup Final, making him the only person to contribute to every season NBC carried the Stanley Cup dating back to 2006, when he was on the top team with Emrick and John Davidson. During the first two rounds, Burke and Mleckzo and Faust and Moore were the other broadcast teams, with Cuthbert having accepted the job as the voice of Hockey Night in Canada.

McHugh hosted the studio show from NBC's home base in Connecticut with Jones, Carter, and Sharp, while Tappen and McGuire worked from a setting on-site at each arena.

The two networks combined for a final broadcast on July 7, 2021. Both McHugh and Jones in the studio and Olczyk and Albert on-site in Tampa thanked several people behind the scenes before wrapping up the post-game show. Emrick, who narrated short features for the network in his retirement, was the last voice heard on NBCSN's post-game coverage to end that year's Stanley Cup Finals.

Inside the Glass Reporters Used After NBC & Comcast Merger Beginning in 2011

Main commentators for NHL on NBC & NBCSN: [9]

  1. Pierre McGuire
  2. Brian Engblom
  3. Darren Pang
  4. Joe Micheletti
  5. Darren Eliot
  6. Billy Jaffe

2011–2013 on NBC & NBCSN

  1. Mike Emrick - Eddie Olczyk - Pierre McGuire
  2. Dave Strader-Brian Engblom
  3. Kenny Albert-Joe Micheletti
  4. Gord Miller-Daryl Reaugh-Pierre McGuire
  5. Rick Peckham-Daryl Reaugh (2012 Stanley Cup playoffs)
  6. John Forslund-Brian Hayward (2012 Stanley Cup playoffs) or Daryl Reaugh (2013 Stanley Cup playoffs)

2014–15 on NBC & NBCSN

  1. Mike Emrick - Eddie Olczyk - Pierre McGuire
  2. Dave Strader-Brian Engblom
  3. Kenny Albert-Joe Micheletti
  4. Gord Miller-Ray Ferraro
  5. Chris Cuthbert-Bret Hedican
  6. John Forslund-Anson Carter
  7. Randy Hahn-Jamie Baker- Bret Hedican

Notes

    1. ↑ Clark, Ryan S. (January 29, 2021). "Seattle Kraken's John Forslund sees 'truly special' play-by-play chance". theathletic.com. The Athletic . Retrieved January 29, 2021.
    2. ↑ "NBC SPORTS PRESENTS THREE SUNDAY NHL MATINEE MATCHUPS DURING NEXT THREE WEEKENDS ON NBC". NBCSportsGroupPressBox.com. NBC Sports Group. 8 February 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
    3. ↑ Sandomir, Richard (2008-01-23). "Booth in One Ear, Benches in Other". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-03-27.
    4. ↑ ""WEDNESDAY NIGHT HOCKEY" BEGINS TONIGHT ON NBCSN!". NBC Sports Pressbox. 2018-10-03. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
    5. ↑ "STANLEY CUP CHAMPION WASHINGTON CAPITALS HOST BOSTON BRUINS IN DEBUT OF "WEDNESDAY NIGHT HOCKEY" ON NBCSN". NBC Sports Pressbox. 2018-10-02. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
    6. ↑ "NBC SPORTS ANNOUNCES GAME AND STUDIO COMMENTATORS FOR 2018-19 NHL SEASON". NBC Sports Pressbox. 2018-09-24. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
    7. ↑ "Report: Pierre McGuire removed from NBC's No. 1 NHL team in favor of Brian Boucher". Awful Announcing. September 4, 2019.
    8. ↑ Cowan, Stu. "NHL analyst Pierre McGuire insists he hasn't been demoted at NBC". montrealgazette. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
    9. ↑ Fang, Ken. "NBC Sports Network - Fang's Bites". Fang's Bites. Wordpress. Retrieved April 13, 2012.

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