Former NHL goalie Brian Boucher has been either calling games or in the studio as an analyst since 2013 with either NBC Sports Philadelphia, NHL Network, NBC Sports, and currently at ESPN. While Boucher is comfortable doing any role for ESPN, there is one place he prefers to be.
Boucher was a guest on the You Know I’m Right podcast with Nick Durst and Joe Calabrese and he said while he would never say no when ESPN asks him to work in the studio, he prefers to be at the game as an analyst because he could interact with players and former teammates who might now be coaches.
“I like doing the games, but I’m not going to say no to doing studio work either. I’m a team player. If ESPN wants me in studio, I’ll do studio. If they want me at the game, I’ll do the game.”
The key for Boucher when he is in the studio is he wants to still listen to the broadcast because it allows him to get the right tone of the game as if he were actually at the arena:
“In the studio, you have to really pay attention. I like to listen to the broadcast personally because what they are saying is important. You want to play off what the play-by-play and color guy is saying. If there’s a narrative they are saying or there is a tone to the game, you want to make sure you have it. You can’t be distracted. Imagine you are at the game.”
Last year, Boucher wasn’t inside the glass on games for ESPN as much as he was for NBC Sports. When he was on the ice, he told the guy it was tougher to see the play develop because of what is going on as he tries to analyze everything.
“Last year, I didn’t do a lot of Inside the Glass for ESPN. I was upstairs. The difference between those two things is on the ice, you miss some stuff. There’s stuff off to the side, the benches are in the way, it’s fast down there. You need another set of eyes upstairs that can help you out. Upstairs, you see the play develop a lot easier from a bird’s eye view. I think it is easy to analyze from up there.”
While in this era of social media allows fans to think broadcasters have a bias against their team, Boucher doesn’t care what people say about the broadcast or who wins the game.
“When you are analyzing the game, it’s all encompassing, it’s both teams. There is no bias. I know fans get mad on Twitter and say you are cheering for one team. I don’t care who wins, I really don’t. Sometimes, I don’t even remember who won the game a day or two later. All I care about is we do as good a job as we can in the production, our replays are on point, we are factual, and we document the game as it should be documented.”
