The NHL Kings are "trying to find a way" for longtime TV announcer Bob Miller to call a potential Stanley Cup-clinching game, according to Elliott & Mitchell of the L.A. TIMES. NBC's broadcast deal prevents a team's local broadcaster from televising a Stanley Cup Final game live, so Miller and analyst Jim Fox "will record the game, which will be available at a later date for Kings fans to listen to." This comes in response to "an outcry from Kings fans online who wanted to hear the legendary announcer count down the seconds should the Kings win the Cup." Kings VP/Broadcasting & Communications Mike Altieri said that the club's "options are limited because the NHL owns the broadcast rights to Stanley Cup Final games." He added that Miller, out of "respect for radio play-by-play announcer Nick Nickson, would not ask Nickson to step aside at that moment." Nor will the Kings "ask Nickson to yield the microphone." Elliott & Mitchell note that would "probably mean a recording that would be available for fans to hear on the team's website" (L.A. TIMES, 6/1).
DOC'S ORDERS: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir writes NBC announcer Mike Emrick's "precise, exhilarating, loud and exhausting play-by-play hockey calls are memorable for their accuracy, inventiveness, honest emotion, fluidity and speed." Emrick has an "all-star team of extremely active verbs." Sandomir: "Pucks careen and carom. They squirt, squib, squirrel and skitter. They are hacked and whacked, shoveled and feathered, paddled and rattled, ladled and lobbed." In Game Six of the Devils-Rangers Eastern Conference Finals, Emrick "unfurled 41 action elements in 1 minute 47 seconds." Sandomir writes, "Sounding authoritative and nearly breathless for two minutes sounds difficult." However, Emrick claims that "it is not" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/1).
TESTY TORTORELLA: In N.Y., Bob Raissman notes NHL Rangers coach John Tortorella granted "extended interviews to two local sports-talk radio stations" Wednesday, and all WFAN-AM's Mike Francesa and WEPN-FM's Michael Kay and Don LaGreca "had to do was mention critics of the Rangers shot-blocking style to get him to respond indignantly, trashing some of the reporters covering the Rangers." Tortorella called the reporters "'idiots' unable to understand the game." He said that those "critical of the Rangers' reliance on defense are know-nothings who 'disprespect our players.'" Raissman writes, "The heat didn't come from his interviewers." They were "non-confrontational" and neither Francesa nor Kay and LaGreca "challenged any of the aspersions Tortorella cast on the reporters." It was clear Tortorella "had a message to deliver." Meanwhile, Raissman sarcastically writes it was "just a coincidence" the interviews took place the same day the Devils played Game One of the Stanley Cup Final (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/1).
WISHFUL THINKING: In N.Y., Daniel O'Leary notes WABC-TV "reported that the New York Islanders -- not the New Jersey Devils -- were taking on the Los Angeles Kings for Lord Stanley's chalice." This was during "Thursday's broadcast, AFTER Game 1 had already happened" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/1).
