The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - God Bless Hockey: Kenny Albert and Roy Bellamy!

Episode Date: June 3, 2023

Roy gets us ready for Panthers vs. Golden Knights, plus the guys are joined by the voice of the Stanley Cup Final, Kenny Albert. Kenny tells the guys what it was like calling 4 sports in 4 days, which sport he finds the hardest to call and what Stugotz was like as an 8-year-old. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

God bless hockey gentlemen. Yeah. Roy is lashing out. He's screaming at us like we did something to him. He's complaining that he's getting old. He pulled out his back. Like why are you yelling at me and Billy? What's going on with you Roy? Well first of all you idiots picked the great day

to tell me to stay home and work from home. Because you guys had Anthony declare on the show. Right. I wasn't able to talk to him. See if you guys had a good time in that studio. Okay, this is gonna air Friday, that was Wednesday, but Roy, like you're acting, you're acting like I schedule things.

They tell me to take off on Thursday. You make it seem like Billy Gild decided to tell Roy to not come here. I have nothing to do. I looked around and I said, where's Roy today? I don't know, did you? You didn't know it, Roy. I said to God, I looked at,

I looked at you guys and go, where's Roy today? I said the same thing, Roy, have you noticed You didn't? Roy. Roy. I swear to God, I looked at it. I looked at it. I was right today. I said the same thing. Roy, have you noticed that me and Billy have no clout over there? Like, by the way, we don't need to go down this path. I have, I feel bad. I, I, um, and I didn't tell you this to you guys, and I don't think I told Roy this, but I texted, uh, Junju and Tony during game, what was I think game four when the panthers swept and I was like, we should have to be game four. We should do God bless hockey. And I told, and I planned on doing it with them.

I was like, it'd be great if the three of us did God bless hockey. And now we're actually doing it. And I didn't tell them because I didn't think that we were actually going to be doing this. So I have to apologize to them for doing this without that. I don't think they'll be too hurt though. We're going to have Kenny Albert on. He is the, he is the voice of hockey. He took over for Doc Emrick.

He is the voice of hockey. He'll be calling all the Stanley Cup games on TNT. Roy's very excited for this. I have told Dan several times the only person on our show that should have an open microphone to be allowed to talk about hockey because he's the only one who cares. He's the only one who has followed this team over the years and he's the only one who really truly knows the sport and cares about the sport is not you Billy. He's Roy. Okay. Roy cares in a way. We have all hopped on the bandwagon.

Roy goes to game 32, where there are 20 games under 500 and have no shot of accomplishing anything. That's where Roy is. And so Roy, put us like, what are you feeling here a couple of days out from your second Stanley Cup as a Panther fan? We have one of 97, they lost.

And now we are back again, 2020-23. You thought it would be last year. Nope, it's this year. So what do you think, Roy? You're excited a couple of days out here. Oh, I absolutely am. And I think these guys got it. Because I got them winning in six games in this series.

Wow. So I think they have it this year. Hmm. Why are you doubting that, Billy? I have them winning in five. Oh, okay, all right. Four you doubting that Billy? I have them winning in five. Oh, okay. All right. I think Roy won.

I got him winning in three. What? What? Look who just made the periods. Got the bad one again. Yeah. Got the Takie. I think Roy wants him to win in six

so that he could see the clinching game. I think I'm going to game five. Oh, I'm going to game five. Yeah. Roy's going, listen, if this thing won 700 games, Roy would be at all 700 of them. Is that fair? Yes. On Middle-Walk's dime.

Yep. Roy, do us a favor, explain to people who don't follow hockey. You're not one of them, but we are the most of the audience. For Mike EA. For Mike EA. For Mike EA. Do it for Mike EA, right? Exactly. Because the Panthers won the president's cup,

which is really a person of the skies, right, exactly. And then they lost, like most teams who win the president's cup, like the Bruins did this year for the Panthers. But the Panthers went out after having the most points in the NHL, and they made a huge trade for Matthew Cuchuck. So just talk about the scene a little bit Roy,

like get people prepared for what they're about to see because I was talking with a name drop, I wish we had the look at B. Louis. I was talking to Tony Yamante over the weekend. Oh wow. And he told me Kuchuk is the best in the game right now. So go ahead Roy, talk about your team. Well, the last month of the season,

the Panthers are basically out of the playoffs. In fact, kind of written them from dead after the Ottawa game. Like, oh, they lost the Ottawa, like they are like four points out with this many games left. Ah, it might as well be over. But during the Toronto game, we noticed on the bench that Paul Marisse pitched the fit. Like, he was angry and that seemed to have been the line of demarcation in the season and where the

Panthers actually made the playoffs. It was that instance. It was then put in Alex Lyon and net instead of Sergey Burbowski. And they made the playoffs. You're like almost miracle. It took the Pittsburgh penguins to lose to the Chicago Black Ox, the worst seem to lead for the Panthers to clinch a playoffs. But so they get into playoffs. Who did they face? The greatest regular season team in any chill history to Boston, bronze. They come back from a three one series deficit, the win game seven Miracle basically magic a chuck Like he used all over the place in that game caught up a hegi saved him the overtime is crazy

And then they go on the Toronto debuting my five games and basically Got the GM fired because of it. So they move on they sweep call Carolina which was the they sweep Carolina, which was the toughest matchup for the Panthers and somehow they got past Carolina. Now even though their coach maintains it wasn't a sweep, which it was, I mean, it was a sweep. I don't know what Rob Brinnamore is saying. But yeah, it was Matt DeKonchak and Sagan Pobroski. Those are the two

catalysts for where the Panthers are right now in the postseason. And how about they match up with Vegas? And Vegas is a very good team, right? In fact, I would say that no team has ever really started this, like, how long have they been in existence, like, five years of what a great start they've had? But how do they match up with the Vegas guys? It's basically gonna be kind of like the Carolina series.

Like, it's gonna be this week, tough as match up they've had. Of course, the Panthers ended up sweeping them. But again, I think the Panthers are going to win in six. Okay. I have a question, Roy. Are the Vegas Golden Night? Are they one of your team? Because you have a couple hockey teams or you have historically had a couple hockey teams? Well, Vegas ended up being one of my hockey teams for a couple of seasons because of Jim Fervola, because we know Jimmy Frieda is still got to, so he's a friend and he was in the front office there. So that really my team anymore, but it's, it was Chicago. Then it was Buffalo. Then it was Florida because I started watching in 1992,

black horse went to the cup final. And then I I saw and then I started rooting for the Sabers and now I'm a paintless fan because that's my home team So that's what we are right now. I feel like it could have been a win-win for you though You know to me if you still rooted for the nights. No, no, it's all panties right now Billy Roy, I'm sure you've heard the saying the enemy of my my enemy is my friend. And as a New York sports fan, all the teams I hate are from Boston. So first I want to say thank you to you for not only what the Panthers done, but also the heat. And I'm just wondering,

do you have any sense of pride in particularly beating that Boston team or beating the Celtics even from the heat? I have pride in the Panthers being the Bruins because again, the greatest regular season team in initial history, they defeated a giant. So I have much, much pride in them. And I hate the Celtics.

So does that too? Roy, do you feel like the Panthers, like are we gonna have a parade down sunrise, Boulevard that wraps around Patsolero, I'm not sure which parade I want to see more. One down the Vegas strip because it would be fun. And one around sawgrass mills mall because it would be sad. What do you think here? I think they're going to be on boats. The guys. A boat parade.

A boat parade. I'm not sure which parade I want to see more. One down the Vegas strip because it would be fun. And one around sawgrass mills mall because it would be sad. What do you think here? I think they're going to be on boats to the guys. A boat parade. Yeah, it's going to be on the boat.

So you know, goalie agreed to put us goalie the voice of the Panthers, by the way, agreed to put us in that parade as long as we can secure a bandwagon. Okay. All right, let's get on that. Let's get the money to get and get this bandwagon together. But a bandwagon boat. Bandwagon boat. Oh, okay.

Yeah, if it's gonna be a boat for a writer, I mean. Yeah. Yeah, that's some ores and everything, yeah. Roy, how long did you stay in the game after they made it to the Stanley Club? Like I texted you probably an hour afterwards and I know no one else was there. Certainly not Greg Cody.

And you, Roy, you were still in the press box. Like what are you doing? Get the hell out of there. Go home. No, I was there at 12.30. And so was some other people. I think Brooks Cup Cup was in his sweet potty in as well. So there were people still in the arena,

but yeah, I left at 12.30. I was just basking in the grow and the glow, looking at a very empty sheet of ice on the ground. It was I was asking David Dwork. Hey man, maybe we should go on the ice and just walk around. He's like, no, no, we might get arrested. Uh, Billy, I have an assignment for Roy. If you agree with me, since he goes to all these games, pick up that name. He just dropped with David Dwork. I can use and pick up a new name, uh, Brooksepka. I want you to go knock on his suite, okay?

Roy, if you want to be a part of God Bless hockey, the Stanley Cup could go on for a month, okay? I want you to try to get Brooks Kepka to join us and be a co-host on God Bless hockey, okay? Oh, we'll try. I will try during game three to see what happens. We should take a quimmon and just rush up them with a mic.

Yeah. Yeah, let's do that. That won't get us in trouble. No, you got you got credentials. Let's do it. I do. And to be honest with you, there's nothing more dangerous than someone who's not worried about losing those credentials. Yeah, that right. All right, let's get to, uh, let's get to Kenny Albert. He is the voice of hockey. He'll be calling the Stanley Cup for Turner Sports, and he's going to join us right now to break this whole thing down.

Hey guys. How are you, man? It is just audio, right? I didn't shave. I don't work. I'm not a man either. Me neither audio right? I didn't shave. I don't work. I'm not a man either. It does look like we should play off here. Exactly.

It's a playoff. Perfect. We were kind of making fun of you because you gave me a landline to call you earlier. You still have an AOL email address. I'm not going to give it out of course. We were just marveling at how old you are. Yeah. You know, that old guy.

I do have a cell phone. I do have a cell phone, but. Wow. Oftentimes on radio shows and interviews, the landline seems to work better, right? I do have it while I'm old school. I admit that. Right.

Uh, do you still have the paper thrown on your front door? Like what's going on there? Mm-hmm. It's funny. You should say that I do, although I get the same papers that are thrown at my front door on the iPad, so I'm paying double, but I still like the feel of an actual newspaper occasionally. Kenny, I will tell you that of the four of us in here,

not including you, of course. The only one who's really qualified to speak to you was Roy, okay, because he loves hockey in a way that we don't. He follows the path there's in a way that we don't. He follows the panthers in a way that we don't. So, you know, apologies in advance for my questions. A Roy will deliver the... I know you were an islander fan back in the day, so... Back in the day.

Well, Billy doesn't, Billy doesn't really believe. I don't think Billy believes that you and I knew each other growing up. Now, Kenny was very good friends with my brother. And Kenny would come over all the time, my brother would go to Kenny's house, but I'm certain Billy doesn't believe that I poke Kenny at all.

I think the last time we saw each other, you were probably about eight years old. Yeah, that makes us friends. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense is that you guys knew each other and passing at a lot of different stage in your lives. And then all of a sudden here you are about to call the Stanley Cup final. So you guys like, Hey, want to do me a favor

for all time, sake? It's confirmed. I was good friends with Eric, his brother from about third or fourth grade on, I guess. Yeah. I was at their house all the time. Harbor Acres, right? Yeah. Yeah. I was at their house. He was at my house really all the time between about fourth and 10th or 11th grade. So it's probably been a good 40 years since you thought about him. I thought about it, but I haven't seen it. So I just thought he was the little four or five six year old running around the house. Well, okay, then let me ask you something because he was being very fondly of something that he called the basement Olympics and said that you would love to talk about this.

Do you have any idea what he's talking about? Well, I'm pretty sure it had to do with the Atari video games. Yeah, back in the day. So I think we're about four or five years apart, right? I'm 55. Yeah. That was the big thing. You know, there were no shooters, not many video games. about four or five years apart, right? I'm 55. Yeah. That was the big thing.

There were no cuters, not many video games, and then these Atari cartridges came out. And the other three of you were probably too young to remember it, but that was a huge deal. It was ping pong, tennis, space invaders, packed it, but all started with a Atari, and we would all get together in the basement and

uh play the entire video games as well as other uh sporting events that you be able to do inside. We, uh, we took it one step further, Billy, we combined the video games with we had uh, we had construction blocks,

we had talking toys, we would do a high jump, a long jump. I mean, it would ping pong. It was a whole deal, you know, and getting always one, jump, a long jump. I mean, it would ping pong. It was a whole deal, you know, and Kenny always won. He won a lot of gold medals. You know, it was a lot simpler time, right? Well, we weren't all staring at our cell phones or our hardware.

I can see the screens back then back in the 70s. Yeah, he is the voice of hockey. He is Kenny Halbert. He'll be calling the Stanley Cup, the Vegas Knights and the Florida Panthers for Turner Sports. Kenny, if I told you when we were growing up, you would, you had one point in your life, we'll be calling a Stanley Cup that involved a team

from Florida and a team for Las Vegas. We should all apologize to Canada. You would have told me what? Well, that's a good point. Back when we were growing up in the 70s, it was the Montreal Canadians and the islanders and then the Edmonton Oilers in the early 80s. But first of all, if you told me that I would be calling a Stanley Cup, I would have thought you were crazy. You know, we were calling the games in our heads and the driveway back then, whether it was Street Hockey, Roller Hockey, Basketball, throwing

around a football, but so fortunate to be involved. It's my second Stanley Cup on the TV side. I've worked eight others on the radio side, but it couldn't be more excited and to have these two markets, Vegas and Florida, both from marketable stories. The Vegas Gold and Knights are in their six season in the NHL, and it's their second trip to the Stanley Cup final. The Panthers obviously went through a long drought. They went to the final in final. The Panthers obviously went through a long drought. They went to the final in 96. Never want to play off series for another 25 years,

but here they are. They finished with the best record. The regular season, last year, lost in the second round, and now they've had a tremendous run through the playoffs after almost not making it. The last week of the season, they were out of that eighth spot,

and they wind up getting into the playoffs, down 3-1 to Boston in the first round, almost not making it the last week of the season. They were out of that eighth spot and they wind up getting into the playoffs down three one to Boston in the first round. A Bruins team that set records for wins and points in the regular season and got past Toronto and Carolina losing

only one game in the last two rounds. And here they are in the cup final against Vegas. Kenny has a new book out a mic for all seasons and we'll get to that. It just a second and promote that for you on the way out as well. Listen, you are very deserving of what it is you do. You should be the voice of hockey, you love hockey, you're great at your craft, but I

would imagine, and I can't imagine there's too much that intimidates you at this point, but what was it like taking over for a legend? The legend that is Doc Emmerick, because he did it forever, he did it as well. As anyone, you took it over last year. Was that daunting to you? Were you nervous doing that? I wouldn't necessarily say nervous,

but it's definitely a bigger stage, calling the cup final than regular season games or playoff games in the earlier rounds. Doc Emmerick to me is one of the greatest of all time. He's the Vince Scully of hockey. That's how I refer him and I've known him for 30 or 35 years. Not as long as I've known you, but pretty close. And a big honor. I took over called the 2021 Cup Final in NBC after Doc retired. And now in year two at Turner, we rotate the final with ESPN every year.

They had it last year. We'll have it this year and again in two years. So it's a big honor. I've been real fortunate to call NFL playoff games throughout my career. Some NBA and MLB playoff games as well. But to call the championship of any sport is really special. There aren't many of us to get to do it. So I couldn't be more excited and proud to work with the crew. Eddie Olchak and Keith Jones and then the great studio crew that will be traveling with us as well.

So can't wait to get started. You know, Mike for all seasons is a pretty good name for a book for a guy who did four sports in nine days. Talk about that stretch. I've had a couple of stretches like that, usually in October when everything overlaps. There were a couple of years where I had football games on weekends and baseball playoffs. I did for a number of years and then

NHL regular season and some NBA either free season or regular season. There was one year, I think it was 2019. I also called the boxing match. I think I had five sports within about 12 or 13 days of one another. To me, those are always the most exciting times when you're involved in so many different sports. I love the variety. And as long as you're organized and get the work done, and I tend to get more work done on planes and airports and hotel rooms anyway. So not as big a deal when there's so many things going on at once.

But I do product for that. Some of those situations in the book, Mike for all seasons as you guys mentioned. It was a project that I started during the pandemic when we all had a lot of time at home and my family had been bugging me, my wife and kids to put my stories down on paper because I often speak with high school and college broadcasting students, camps throughout the summer and always wind up telling the same stories on radio shows and podcasts. So to put it all down on paper, wrote it myself, no-goong sprider wanted it to be my own word. So it's a combination of stories about my early life growing up in

Port Washington, Sanst point, New York, not too far from the Weiner family. The early days broadcasting high school games along Island in college at NYU. And then my first job in minor league hockey with the Baltimore Skipjacks where my road roommate was our assistant coach Barry Trots who's now the third-winner of coach in NHL history to save money at the minor league level. They had the radio guy room with the assistant coach. And there's a great story in there about when Barry set up a prank. I was arrested, a fake arrest, up in up in Canada during a road trip. So I chronicled out in the book. One of my other favorites is in 2003, after game seven of the Yankees Red Sox championship series, the Aaron Boone Home Run game. I was the sideline reporter for Fox. And it's about one

in the morning, game went late, extra ratings. Yaki Redsakames always took a long time and I'm in the locker room during the ceremony interviewing Joe Tory and Mariana Rivera and the trophy presentation. I'm sort of emceeing it. And I sent it back up to the booth and we're off the air at that point. And to my left, I see out of the corner of my eye mayor Bloomberg the New York City mayor at the time and his public relations person came over to me and whispered Can you have the mayor on next and I said well we're off the air. He says can you fake it so Getting one of those is job so we called up mayor Bloomberg I told the camera person pretend like you're rolling on this and I did a five-minute interview

with the mayor that never went anywhere. So it's stories such as that some travel tales about crazy situations I've been in trying to get from one city to another. Stories about the 250 or so color analysts I've worked with in the various sports. stories about memorable games I worked at 20 inning baseball game once on Fox the Metz and the Cardinals I never went to the bathroom once in seven hours never left the To go to the bedroom. So Just worked at four overtime game last week. I did go a couple of times between

Peridians at night, but Stories about memorable games. I worked the Jose Batista home run bat flip in the playoffs in 2015. Some football playoff games, Olympics. So it was a lot of fun to put together and can't wait until it comes out this September. Does the mayor know that interview never aired? I don't know, probably not, follow-up story with the City Mayor six years later, Yankee's Angels, ALCS, New Yankee Stadium, I'm doing the interviews, and the producer is yelling in my ear, don't turn to your left, don't ask the mayor a question.

This time he came onto the podium, but it turns out it was the election season, and if we had interviewed him, we would have had to give equal time. Oh, there's a poem. So there are actually two stories involving Mayor Bloomberg. I'm not sure if he's aware of any of them. I told stories on some radio shows throughout the years. So perhaps I'll hear about it once the book is published. Had you done the first interview during election time, would you have had to do a fake interview with his opponent? That's a good point. have had to do a fake interview with his opponent? That's a good point. They had to do a fake interview. Actually, the second time when we didn't interview him, his office got, and I write about

this in the book, his office got upset because he was actually on TV standing there, and I never turned to him, and they threatened to take away from Fox, the special parking for their production truck. Oh, no. When the equal time was explained to them, they backed off. You mentioned you did extra entertainment games, and of course you did game one of a game Carolina, Florida, which went 140 hockey minutes there. Like, how do you prepare for long games like that?

You really don't. I mean, when a game goes that long, at that point, I'm hoping it breaks a record, right? You want to be part of history. Right. And only five games in the history of the sport had gone longer. Five games had gone to a fifth over time. This one ended with what, 12 seconds, 13 seconds left

in the fourth over time. But it actually, it doesn't seem like it's as long as it is while you're calling the game for a couple of reasons. Number one, you think it could end at any time, right? You're not expecting it to go four over time. But it actually it doesn't seem like it's as long as it is while you're calling the game for a couple of reasons number one You think it could end at any time right you're not expecting it to go Four over time just like I wasn't expecting the baseball game to go 20 innings The intermissions are a little shorter. They're 15 minutes during the overtime and they're no commercial breaks

Right no TV time out so it definitely goes quicker than the other periods and if you remember Roy in that game the paththers actually scored a goal three minutes into the first overtime. Yeah, it's over turned. Right. We're going to be in a fair and so we all thought it ended. Some of the fans started to leave the building, but they wound up playing a total of almost four full overtime.

So Kenny, that's interesting. You're not rooting for the game to end because you want to go home and get the hell out of there. You're saying, hey, I've gone this far. I might as well be a part of history. Exactly. Now I can't say the same for my partners. I think they wouldn't have been upset if the game had to go here. I kept getting lost from any old check.

But I don't have. No, at that point, I think you want to be a part of history. And I felt fine during the game. I had the energy, didn't feel tired. It ended at 1.54 AM. But the next day when I woke up, I felt like I, didn't feel tired or ended at 1.54 a.m. But the next day, when I woke up, I felt like I was hit by a truck or or just got me off a red eye flight without sleep. I was feeling the effects for another couple of days, so I don't have the players to do it.

Of the four major sports, which one for you was the most difficult to call? That's a question that I get all the time and and everyone is always surprised by the answer. People always think hockey would be the most difficult because of all the the and everyone is always surprised by the answer. People always think hockey would be the most difficult because of all the foreign names, European names, and the fact that the players change on the fly, they don't have to wait for a stoppage to make a line change. To me, hockey is the easiest, maybe because I've done it for the longest, 33 years.

It's like riding a bike. I've had so many reps. Basketball is similar. I do about 15 mixed games on TV every year with walk-life razor. It's not the same pace as hockey. It's slower, but it's similar in that the balls and action for the entire 48 minutes.

The puck's in action for 60 minutes. You're calling the game, setting up your color analyst. Football, which I've done now for 29 years, is the most rhythmic. It's one play and then it's 20 or 25 seconds. It's one play and then it's 20 or 25 seconds. I set up the play, call the play, recap the play and then your color analyst comes in. It was probably the most challenging when I worked in the three man situation with Moose Johnston up in the booth and the great Tony Sarah Goose and the late great Tony Sarah Goose

and down in the field because he was hundreds of feet away from us and it was amazing how little Darrell and Tony or myself stepped on each other, talked over one another. We all had a feel for it and one of us would stop talking and then Tony would come in every couple of plays. Baseball to me is the most challenging. I've never done a team. So I've only done about at most 15 to 20 baseball games a year with Fox. To me, that's the most challenging because you have so much downtime between pitches. Not as much now because of the pitch clock.

So it's definitely different, but that's my long answer to a short question. It's different now, but has again easier with the pitch clock. I've only done one game with the pitch clock because I've been focused solely on hockey. It is probably easier from from a broadcast standpoint. And it does have a quicker pace with the pitch clock. There's not as much time to fill in between pitches. Kenny, what's the best piece of advice? Obviously your dad, legendary broadcaster,

uh, Marv Albert, uh, what, what's the best piece of advice your dad gave you as you were getting into this business? You know, it was mostly from what I observed by us Moses. It wasn't anything he necessarily told me, but it was the preparation from a play-by-play standpoint. That's the thing that I learned from him more than anything else was the amount of preparation that goes into it. To me, it's work, but it's fun. I'm sitting at my desk where I do a lot of my prep work when I'm home and what am I doing?

I'm watching sporting events, I'm reading about sporting events, I'm pouring through statistics and articles. So it certainly beats doing something you hate for a living, right? So preparation, organization, I learned the passion that he had for it. And what I tell youngsters, high school and college students, is to get as much experience as possible. A lot of schools, high schools colleges have

some kind of broadcasting programs, radio, television, a lot of the college conferences, the big tent network, the ACC network, for example, lip kids get involved, try and get internships and really, even if it's not the exact area, you're interested in, get as much experience as possible. There are so many jobs behind the scenes as well. On a typical NFL game that I work on a Sunday. There are 75 to 100 people working on that broadcast from the producer, director, cameraman, camera women, graphics, replay technicians.

There are so many different jobs available aside from the people that you hear or see behind the microphone. Let's talk about the cup final for a second because I think that the panters are hidden into a series which could very well be similar to the series they had with the Hurricanes. I'm gonna write about that. Hi, Greg. I think it's two evenly matched teams. Even though they swept the Hurricanes, every game was one goal. The first two went to overtime. So it really could have gotten either way. You have players with with cup experience on both sides. Five members of the

gold and nights have won the cup. Three members of the Panthers of one the cup. You have coaches who have both been in the Stanley Cup final before, neither of them won, but they both been there. The gold tent is interesting. You have the veteran and Sergei Buprovsky for the Panthers, 13 years in the league. He's won the Vezonatrophie twice as the top gold tenderer in the NHL. And you have sort of the unproven younger Aiden Hill, who kind of came out of nowhere. He was not even the starter at the beginning of the playoffs, but he shut out the Dallas stars twice in the last round. He's been outstanding. So an interesting contrast there amongst the goalies, but two pretty similar teams. Do you think there's going to be any rink rust for the panthers with this long layoff?

You know, it's a good question, Roy. It could go either way. You know, think there's going to be any rink rust for the panthers with this long layoff? You know, it's a good question, Roy. It could go either way. You know, either there's some rust because they will not have played in nine or ten days, or they could be well rested, right? Vegas has played three games since the Florida Panthers played their last game. Kenny, what impressed you? You spent a lot of time with the Panthers calling those games. What was the thing that impressed you the most about their team? You know, I think first of all, when you look at what Matthew could chucked it, he's been a great player in the league. His dad was a great

player, his brother. So it's a terrific hockey family, but it's his first year playing in Florida, six years in Calgary, late games, playing in, you know, obscurity if you want to use that word because the Calgary flames aren't on national TV a lot. The games are late. It's not as much attention on them in the US. We all knew he was a great player, but to see him in Florida and what he's done this year, especially in the last series against Carolina, scoring the two overtime goals and then the game winner in game four against the Hurricanes. But I think from top to bottom,

they're deep both up front and on defense. The defensemen are probably better than the summer of their parts, or the summer of the parts. I guess it's probably better than if you look at the six guys individually, but they've done a terrific job. Aaron Eclaves, the only homegrown defenseman, the other five who came from elsewhere. Their captain Alexander Barcock is an outstanding

player on both ends, offensively and defensively. They have a card of rehaigee scored over 40 goals and some big ones in the play off. Sam Bennett, St. Ryan Hart.

You know, players that do not have a lot of playoff experience, but they've stepped it up during this postseason. Seems like Paul Marisa is taking a hands-off approach and is getting pretty relaxed beyond a bench and it's pretty much showing that the players have accountability on the ice that they

can clean up their own mistakes and forget things out for themselves. Am I right? He really does seem relaxed, doesn't he? Yeah, and a guy that's been a coach for a long time, he's sixth all time and wins in the NHL. But when he wanted to put the screws to his club, he did. You know, we also have the videos during the regular season on a couple of occasions when he really gave it to them on the bench, but his style, his attitude seems to be working and Bruce Cassidy on the other side, same thing. A coach who reads the cup with Boston in 2019, lost in game seven on home ice, fired after last season and he takes his new club all the way to the Cup final. Kenny, bring them more, not calling that a sweep, refusing to call it a sweep. Is that the most acid I think you've ever heard a coach say?

Yeah, I understand what he was saying because every game was one goal. So, you know, I guess if you're Rod Brindamore, you want to defend your team and in his mind because it was such a close series, every goal was a one goal game, but it wasn't sweet. They did lose it for. Right. So what do you think? You got game one coming up Saturday night on TNT. I don't want to ask you for a prediction here because you're calling the game. You got to remain neutral. You got to remain biased. But let me do it this way. The Panthers will wouldn't the Stanley Cup if they do Blake.

If Babrovsky continues to do what he's been doing, uh, left into the last 12 games. If he continues to stand on his head, um, I think that would be the number one thing among others. But if they continue to get the unbelievable goal tending from Bibrofsky, I think they win the cup. Kenny, do you have the most embarrassing moment on air? Do you have one? Nothing major. There are a couple.

I did get the hiccups on air one time when I was holding a Rangers game on the radio. Oh, that's tough, Daryl. You could do that during baseball, but hockey. Yeah, fortunately, I was able to reach for the cough button. There's only major mistakes as far as I know. It's live TV or live radio. So mistakes are going to happen, but no major ones. I think they're in hockey, and in particular, the playoffs, you want to make sure you get all the goals right. Obviously, and

in hockey these days, there are so many deflections and tips in front of the net that sometimes it's hard to tell if it went off a player's stick or off a defenseman. But during the Florida series, you know, that was one of the from a play by play standpoint, all of those winning goals scored by Kachuk were pretty clean. There weren't any issues. So that would be the big thing while calling hockey games. So was it like great save by the it was close. It was close. It was a radio late night rangers game in LA at the old forum. You know, I always tell the story about not going to the men's room during that 20 inning game.

But aside from that, not too bad. It's amazing to be that you do both radio and television because they are so different. Is there one you enjoy doing more? Because I mean, with radio, you have to fill in so much more that empty space. Yeah, that's a great question. Hockey's really the one sport where I go back and forth between TV and radio. In the other three, I've done primarily TV. I've done a couple of radio games, basketball, baseball, football, but it's been 99% television. But the biggest difference is between radio and TV on radio,

you have to be so descriptive as far as where the puck is and hockey, where the players are on the ice. You have to give this score in the time a lot more because the listeners can't see it on the screen. They're both a lot of fun. Radio, I think, is where you learn your fundamentals and I would certainly recommend that any young broadcaster gets their start in radio. But on television, there are usually a lot more eyeballs on it than there might be on a radio game. It's certainly higher profile. You know, I've done NFL playoff games that are probably 40 million people watching some

baseball playoff games and obviously now the Stanley Cup finals. So on television, you have a producer and a director talking to your ear, you have to follow along with what's going on on the screen on radio. You're pretty much your own producer. It doesn't matter what you're talking about because they can't see it. follow along with what's going on on the screen on radio. You're pretty much your own producer. Doesn't matter what you're talking about because they can't see it. So both are a lot of fun.

My goal when I was in high school in college was to do hockey on the radio. And obviously it developed from there. None of us expected Fox to make this crazy deal to get the NFC package back in 1994. Never in my wildest dreams that I think I would be doing NFL football games on TV at the age of 26. And Fox decided to hire Pat Summer all and John Madden, Dick Stockton and Matt Millen as the two veteran crews. And

then they went with four younger, unproven play by play broadcasters. Myself, Joe Buck, Tom Brennan and Kevin Harlan. And I'm so proud to say that I'm heading into year 30. Joe Buck, one of the greatest of all time now with ESPN Monday Night Football. Kevin Harlan does a great job now with CBS and TNT. Tom Brennan moves with Fox for over 25 years. So again, none of us expected to be there. We were in the right place at the right time. And again, hard to believe, it's 30 years. He's the voice of hockey. He'll bring you all the Stanley Cup games starting Saturday night on TNT. He also has a new book out. A mic for all seasons, Kenny Albert with us, Kenny quickly here. We appreciate the time on the way out. Tell people where they can get the book, promote the book one more time on the way out here. All right, I appreciate it. So it's about for pre-order. It won't be published until around August.

It comes out in early September. And I think the pre-orders will be sent out in late September or early October. So if you Google it, a mic for all seasons, MIC like a microphone. And like I said, it's a compilation of stories about my early life calling the four sports, color analysts, travel tales, Olympics, how we did things during the COVID year, years.

I was in the bubble and Edmonton for 37 days, calling Playoff Hockey, you know, the stories I mentioned regarding Barry Trots and Mayor Bloomberg, among many, many others. It was really a lot of fun. I wrote it myself. The forward, two forwards, Wayne Bresky and Walk Clive Frazier. I was a huge fan of both as a kid and wind up working with both. I call about 15 next games a year with Clyde and Wayne Bresky is part of our TNT crew and he'll be on the road in Vegas and Florida.

Along with the pregame and intermission postgame crew Liam McQ Paul Bisonette and Sincarter Henry Blunkwist and Wayne And Wayne worked a game with us last year in the booth and So gracious along with Clyde to take part so their names will be on the cover they wrote the forwards and Can't wait to see it in print, but it could be ordered online Through Amazon and Barnes and Noble if you if you put in the title of Mike for all seasons in the Google search, it'll pop right up. So appreciate you allowing me to do a sales pitch here.

No, we appreciate your time. We'll come see you when you're down here in South Florida. If you need help in the booth with anything on your guy, you need a color guy. I'm here for you, OK? No, the Keith Jones, who is wrapping up his broadcast career. Right. Which become the president of pocket operations for the Philadelphia Flyers.

He would appreciate a slice of pizza after the first period. Okay. Don, and listen, if I don't see you, I'll see you again in 40 years. Okay? There you go. I love to challenge you in one of those Atari games. Don, you probably still have an Atari with your AOL address. I'd probably do. Kenny, this has been great. We know it's a busy time for you and we appreciate your time.

Plus with Brady up by the way, I failed to mention, don't need to shave. Right? You don't need to stay up for it. Yeah, it's great. All right, we're looking forward to your call, Sarah and I, sir. It's been great catching up and we'll we'll come see you out of the arena. Thanks guys really appreciate it. Alright thank you Kenny. you