Thank You Doc Emrick!
After 50 years of announcing hockey, one of the greatest broadcasters of all time Mike “Doc” Emrick announced his retirement on Monday.
From 1983-86 Doc was a spot announcer for the Flyers and then an in-studio analyst from 1986-88 and finally, from 1988-93 he was the Flyers lead broadcaster with Bill Clement.
For most of America, Doc has been the voice of the NHL and hockey since the late 80’s as he’s called 22 Stanley Cup finals, 6 Olympics, 14 NHL All-Star Games, 2 World Cup of Hockey’s, every Winter Classic to date, and 5 editions of the EA NHL video game series.
Doc has made some of the biggest calls in the history of the NHL and he was such a wordsmith that every game felt like it had importance no matter if it was a regular-season game between the Panthers and Coyotes or game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.
He had a calm and mystical calling style for such a fast-paced and intense game and used verbs throughout the game like regathered, collared, pitchforked, shuffleboard, soccered, skittered, and careens. The game never got away from Doc, and that’s what made him such a beloved broadcaster and ambassador for the game.
Now, not to make any readers feel old but I was born 7 years after Doc stopped broadcasting for the Flyers, so my memories of Doc are from his calls of national broadcasts specifically with NHL on Versus and NHL on NBC. Growing up, the only way to watch the NHL was the Flyers on CSN Philly or national games on NBC/Versus so for most of my life the voices of hockey were Jim Jackson and Doc Emrick.
Doc has voiced every Stanley Cup final that I’ve ever watched, especially the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals between the Flyers and Blackhawk where he called the infamous cup clinching OT goal by Patrick Kane in game 6 which no one knew went in besides Kane and Patrick Sharp. He also lent his voice to the 2012 first-round playoff series between the Flyers and that team from Pittsburgh, which has gone down as one of the most memorable playoff series of the past 20 years.
Members of my generation might also know Doc a little more for his 5 appearances on the EA NHL video game series from NHL 15 to NHL 19. He was the voice that rang through my many wasted hours playing the game, where I coached the Flyers into a countless amount of Stanley Cup finals (playing on an easier mode, I’ll shamefully admit). Doc left the series last year but as someone like myself who loves to play the older editions of the series, his voice will live on forever.
In general, I’m not an emotional guy but I’ll admit that a shadow of sadness came down on me when I saw the headline that Doc retired because he has always been my favorite national broadcaster. Though I knew this was inevitable as he has been calling fewer games in the past couple of years and mainly just focused on the primetime games, it still stung.
Though, his voice will live on forever in my sports memories as he’s voiced some of the greatest games that I’ve ever watched especially the 2014 Winter Olympic hockey thriller between the U.S. and Russia where T.J. Oshie made a household name for himself. There have been a few broadcasters in each generation that you’ll watch or listen to games to specifically hear their calls.
A couple of names that come to mind for me would be Harry Kalas, Merrill Reese, Al Michaels, Vin Scully, and Keith Jackson.
I hope that no one would fight me too hard with putting Doc among some of the greatest to ever do it as he has been the voice of hockey in the United States for so many years.
It’s been fun Doc, thanks for so many memories for myself and hockey fans across the United States.
Featured Image: NHL.com
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