from Matthew Coller of WGR 550,

Sitting across from Marty Biron at a small circular table with barstool-style chairs that watch over the empty HarborCenter ice, it finally makes sense how a guy who was playing hockey less than 800 days ago for the New York Rangers has become one of the NHL’s best analysts. It’s clear now how a bilingual, high-pitched speed talker made the transition from player to sportscaster look so smooth - how a middle-of-the-road goalie who never sniffed an All-Star Game now has a chance to become one of the best of all time behind the microphone.

After a few minutes of talking with the former Sabre goaltender, you realize that his mind doesn’t work like yours. His brain is systematic, like there are gears and levers that shift automatically inside his head at a higher rate than most of us can imagine. Ask him a question and his mind flips through catalogs of thousands of experiences until he finds the one he’s looking for and spews it out with the same sort of natural reflex in which most of us blink. And he does it with a grin fit for an elementary school picture.

Goalies are trained like Jason Bourne from the time they clomp out onto the ice as toddlers to repeat the same motions over and over and over, to visualize and go over every possible scenario, to create muscle memory by picturing the angle, every move, every shooter’s tendencies. Marty’s wiry fingers take the form of glove and twitch while he talks hockey.

“There are a large number of goalies that get into broadcasting, I think because the game unfolds right in front of them,” co-host of NHL Network’s “NHL Live” EJ Hradek says. “They’re always reading where the play is going to be, part of the job is almost to be an analyst in net.”

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