from Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News,

The only drawback to the play-by-play stylings of Mike (Doc) Emrick is he works with two analysts.

This is like spray painting over the Mona Lisa.

When you have a virtuoso performer (in the current world of sports broadcasting you can count them on one hand), he should fly solo, especially in a frenetic-paced sport such as hockey where radio-like play-by-play on TV is a necessity.

Emrick’s wingmen on NBC, Eddie Olczyk and Pierre McGuire, apparently are aware of this. Neither is prone to jaw-jacking. They are valuable informants who figured out hockey is one televised sport in which the play-by-play man is as much a star as the analyst.

That’s why, once the Stanley Cup Final starts rolling Wednesday night, there won’t be the usual fan backlash in both cities about the “national” announcers favoring one team. Over many moons Emrick, 67, has provided an abundance of that he calls what he sees — without embellishing.

continued