Forslund worked 14 national playoff games last year and this year called over 100 regular season contestsGETTY IMAGES
Hurricanes TV broadcaster John Forslund has worked the Stanley Cup Playoffs for NBC in recent years, but the team's return to the postseason this year has "complicated his already complicated schedule," according to Luke DeCock of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER. When Forslund is "not calling" the Hurricanes-Capitals series for FS Carolinas, he will be working the Blue Jackets-Lightning series on USA Network. Other than the Hurricanes being involved, this kind of workload is "nothing new for Forslund, who worked 14 national playoff games last year and has already hit triple-digits this season with his FS Carolinas and NBC schedule." Forslund has been "double-dipping like this for years; the new wrinkles are the Hurricanes being back in the playoffs combined with the radio simulcast of the television broadcast, something the Hurricanes did for the first time this season with the summer departure of longtime radio voice Chuck Kaiton." How that will all work out if the Hurricanes advance is "uncharted territory; Forslund is used to having carte blanche with NBC this time of year, but the network worked with him to get him an East Coast series with non-conflicting dates to allow him to work a full NBC schedule without missing any Hurricanes commitments" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 4/10).
SECOND LINE: The Penguins will start the playoffs "without their radio voice in the broadcast booth," as Mike Lange is set to miss tonight's Game 1 against the Islanders because of an "adverse reaction to medication for pneumonia." Lange was hospitalized last week, though he "plans to phone in during the first intermission." Josh Getzoff will "handle play-by-play duties in Lange's absence" (POST-GAZETTE.com, 4/9).
