"A Day in the Life" is a feature in SBD examining the daily habits of interesting personalities in sports business. This week, NBC NHL analyst PIERRE MCGUIRE walks us through his preparation process for calling games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and how he winds down afterward.
5:30am: If I don’t need to fly somewhere, I’ll get up at 5:30 no matter what. I’ll sit down and I’ll break down what happened the night before just watching tapes or replays.
7:05am: I’ll do radio usually in the morning back in Toronto and then at 8:08 in Ottawa. We never rehearse any of them. I try to prepare as much as possible, and I’ll look over things I may have made notes on. In Toronto it’s a 10-12 minute show and in Ottawa it’s about a 25 minute show. They’re a little different, but usually during the regular season they focus on the entire league and in particular the teams in the towns I’m doing the radio show in. It’s fun to do. After that I’ll take a shower, and I’ll grab a cup of tea and go right to the rink.
9:00am: I’ll hang out at the rink. I’ll talk to trainers and other people. I’ll watch practice and see if a team’s roster changes. For instance, I was watching Tampa in a morning skate and Tampa made an adjustment on their power play entry into the zone, and after I saw it, I went into our truck and talked to our tape operators. I said, “Okay, here’s what Washington is doing to Tampa from Games 1, 2 and 3, and here’s what Tampa’s doing to try to counteract it.” So we’ll have that ready. We’ll build the tape in the morning. I’ll go back in and talk to the other team’s coaches and other team’s players.
11:30am: I go back to the hotel and take a nap for about an hour and go to the gym. It’s really important and critical for me because usually the travel during the first two rounds of the playoffs have me traveling every single day. You want to try to get as much rest as possible. Fortunately I can sleep on the plane, but going to the gym and getting that hour nap is really important for me. I had prostate cancer surgery in January so a lot of my routine in the gym has changed. It’s taken a while to figure things out. I used to ride the bike a lot, but I can’t ride the bike anymore. Now it’s more of the treadmill and elliptical along with isometric exercise. Just trying to get back to where I was before I had the surgery.
McGuire has been working on NHL games for NBC Sports since the 2006 seasongetty images
3:00pm: I’m always at the rink at 3:00, whether it’s a 7:00pm start for a night game or an 8:00 start. I’ll always be there by 3:00. I’ll work on notes. I’ll talk to DOC EMRICK. I’ll talk to EDDIE OLCZYK. I’ll talk to coaches, talk to players.
8:00pm: The game usually starts at 7:00 or 8:00 depending on what town it is. I typically have notes with stats that I think are critical. I’ll pay attention to different things that players have been doing. The preparation is very thorough. The biggest thing is that I’m grateful for every day. To be able to be covering such incredible athletes and such a high tempo game during such an important time of the year for players, coach and fans, you don’t want to let anybody down.
11:00pm: Usually I’m back at the hotel at 11:00-11:30 unless there’s overtime, and I’m out the next day. Usually I get up at 4:00am and catch a plane that’s at 6:00 to wherever I’m going the next day. Sometimes you’ll go out with your group, whether its for an adult beverage or a piece of pizza. It just depends on where you are. I’m always traveling so I’m always with a different crew which is kind of interesting.
Know someone who should be featured in "A Day in the Life"? Shoot us an email at jcarpenter@sportsbusinessdaily.com.
