Just as Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann would rather shoot pucks than strap on goalie pads, former Seattle Kraken TV analyst Eddie Olczyk never aspired to do play-by-play. But once, early in his broadcasting career, he had no choice.
Olczyk dropped by the 100% Hockey podcast to discuss his recent resignation from Kraken Hockey Network after four seasons – and discuss his most terrifying TV assignment.
It happened in the Pittsburgh Penguins booth at Nassau Coliseum, where the Islanders were hosting the Penguins.
“Mikey Lange, my first partner, took me under his wing,” Olczyk recalled. “It’s my first year. He goes, ‘I’ll be back.'” Then Lange told his stunned partner, “If I’m not back, you’re going to have to call the game.” Olczyk remembered replying, “What do you mean? Where are you going?”
Mike Lange (image at left) was as beloved among hockey fans in the Steel City as John Forslund is in the Emerald City. But Lange liked to take smoke breaks. “I got to go have a ‘dart,'” he informed his color man.
To do that, Lange had to leave the broadcast booth through a door that would lock behind him if not propped open.
“There was no urgency. The only urgency was to get to the end of the dart. He goes, ‘Ah, don’t worry. I’ll be back.’ He goes into the back staircase and one guy said, ‘Keep the door open.’ Then the security guy disappeared and the door closed. Mikey couldn’t get back in. He had to walk all the way down the flight of stairs, go to the media entrance.”
Kraken Hockey Network Never Asked Edzo To Do This
The Pittsburgh telecast was returning from a break before Lange would. “Our producer and director go, ‘It’s all you.’ So I’m like, ‘What do you mean it’s all me?’ It was, ‘Yeah, you got to bring us back on the air.’
“There I am calling my first game. It was brutal, by the way. Of course Alexei Kovalev has to score on a power play. It ends up being the call of the game, because they wanted to embarrass me.” And it got worse. Edzo had borrowed a famous catchphrase from a legendary New York Rangers announcer.
“I had to give Sam Rosen like $19 because I said, ‘It’s a power play goal.’ Mikey would never let me (forget) about that. He goes, ‘Ah, you went Sam, you got a little Sam Rosen in you there.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah.'”
Earlier Kraken:
— Kraken Vet Wishes He Could Say ‘I Do’ To More Golf
