This week, NYP TV Sports’ Andrew Marchand spoke with Devils’ play-by-player Mike Emrick. With the NHL in a lockout, Emrick is calling college hockey for CSTV. When the NHL resumes, Emrick is expected to be the voice of the Stanley Cup Finals on NBC. He declined to comment on his expected new role.
Q: What are you doing with yourself during the lockout?
A: Basically, these college games are the only things I’m doing. There are a dozen of them. It is exciting because I get to see some of these guys before they eventually get to the NHL. I’m doing some paper shuffling on my desk and some other projects that I just put off doing because I didn’t have time during the regular season.
Q: Do you think there will be NHL hockey this year?
A: I took the Dale Carnegie course and I’m an advocate of Norman Vincent Peale and all those positive things. I tend to be optimistic, but I don’t think until the New Year. I don’t think that either side is going to budge. It is too good of a game to see it hung up in this type of thing all year.
Q: So how long will the season be?
A: I’m an optimist and think we are going to see a half-season.
Q: How disappointed are you?
A: I even hear this reflected from the college coaches we have been talking to. It is terribly disappointing for their sport. Like anyone else, they want people to pay attention to their game, and it is not like they think they are the only game that there is. When this hits one element of hockey, it probably hurts all of them. That is the reason it is probably the most annoying.
The concern I have is that a good percentage of people are now no longer angry about it. I’m talking about the fan population. There are passionate fans who are going to be annoyed about it all the way to the New Year, but the ones who have worn off their anger are becoming apathetic. That is real dangerous in a prolonged situation like this.
Q: What sport do you like to call most besides hockey?
A: Besides hockey, it has become water polo. Rich Gentile, when he was with CBS, gave me the opportunity to do the NFL, college basketball and the world luge championships. Those were exciting to do, but they were all really a lot of work. Hockey has always been play. I think I have finally found something that is close to what hockey is in terms of describing it and also almost as much fun. That was doing the Olympic water polo this summer.
