On Wednesday night, the NHL on TNT will begin its second season with a doubleheader of action. In Game 2 of the doubleheader, Kenny Albert will be on the call with Eddie Olczyk, Keith Jones, and Jackie Redmond as the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche host the Chicago Blackhawks (9:30 PM ET).
Albert was a guest on the latest episode of The Wormcast: How Sports Media Happens Podcast on Tuesday and he said NHL on TNT in its first year went very well and mentioned how having ex-players ask questions to current players before the game made for better answers.
“I thought year 1 went very, very well. I loved some of the things that Turner decided to do with the pregame crew. Those guys would do the interview with players before the games on the ice for example. Those of us in the booth can ask the same 2-3 questions to a player before the game and you might get the same stock answers. What are the keys tonight? What are the biggest challenges against your opponent? When you have a Wayne Gretzky or a Rick Tocchet or an Anson Carter or a Paul Bissonette asking the questions, the players certainly react to that.”
Going into that first season, Albert mentioned that they wanted to take the great work that NBC did in the prior 15 years and add to it.
“I think the mantra was to take what NBC had done over the decade and a half and move forward and enhance the broadcast. I thought both networks did an outstanding job.”
Albert has one of the unique distinctions of having been a play-by-play announcer for all four major sports (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA). To the surprise of many, Albert said that hockey is the easiest one to call and if you don’t call baseball everyday, it will be a challenge.
“There are similarities to all 4, but also major differences. To me, hockey is the easiest and most people think it would be the hardest…On the radio, you have to be so descriptive and give the time and score a lot more often no matter what the sport is. Hockey, on radio in particular, you are just calling the game for 60 minutes. Football is the most rhythmic. Baseball to me is the most challenging if you don’t do it every day because there is so much down time in between pitches and you have to rely even more so on the analyst.”
