Legendary NHL announcer Doc Emrick announces retirement
98.5 The Sports Hub staff report
The NHL on NBC will have a different voice on the microphone next year, as legendary play-by-play announcer Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick announced his retirement Monday morning.
“I hope I can handle retirement OK, especially since I’ve never done it before,” the 74-year-old Emrick told The New York Post. “But I’ve just been extremely lucky for 50 years. And NBC has been so good to me, especially since the pandemic, when I was allowed to work from home in a studio NBC created.
“Now, into my golden years, this just seemed to be the time that was right.”
Emrick, whose play-by-play career included a stop in Maine as the voice of the long-defunct Maine Mariners of the American League Hockey, served as the voice of the Flyers, Rangers, and Devils before (and/or during) going national.
Most notably, at least to those of us in Boston, Emrick was the voice on NBC’s calls of deep playoff runs by the Boston Bruins in 2011, 2013, and 2019. Emrick, in fact, called the B’s final game of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In additional to his work during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Emrick also provided the voice for countless Olympic hockey contests for NBC, and has career accolades including a Lester Patrick Trophy (2004) and Foster Hewitt Memorial Award (2008).
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