Doc Emrick on the pressure of calling overtime in NHL Playoffs: ‘Don’t overdo it. This is about the players’

Doc Emrick, one of the greatest play-by-play announcers in NHL history, knows a thing or two about the pressures of meeting the moment in the playoffs.

Emrick, who retired from announcing in 2020, joined The Dan Patrick Show Tuesday morning to discuss the NHL Playoffs. And during the interview, Patrick asked Emrick about the challenge of calling a game in sudden death overtime, knowing it can end at any second.

“You have to be right on it, Emrick said. “And the referees tell me the same thing. You have to be on it, but boy you’ve got to be right. And you also have to be in control of your emotions so that you don’t overdo it. This is about the players. It is not about yourself, it is not about signature calls or anything else.”

Last week, TNT’s Kenny Albert and ESPN’s Sean McDonough met the moment while calling Game 7s in the NHL Playoffs. Albert’s broadcast went into overtime after the Winnipeg Jets amazingly scored a goal with less than two seconds left in the third period. Winnipeg went on to beat the St. Louis Blues in double overtime.

“You get nervous before an overtime in a Stanley Cup Game 7,” Emrick admitted. “I’ve had some of those. But you need to be on top of it, you need to be right. And as I heard Larry Collmus, the caller of the Kentucky Derby interviewed, you can’t have an eraser on your tongue. You can’t take it back. And all of those things go into making this kind of work exciting, and I always encourage young people who are interested in it to get into it and stay into it, because it certainly is rewarding.”

Emrick was famously on the call during a four-overtime Game 7 between the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals in 1987. He also notably called Adam Henrique’s overtime goal against the New York Rangers to send the New Jersey Devils to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012, and Derek Stepan’s Game 7 overtime winner for the Rangers in 2015.

One of Emrick’s most incredible qualities as a play-by-play announcer was his ability to “stay on top of it and be right.” He never lagged behind the action, making it seem like he was reading a script that went along with the play on the ice. And as Emrick told Patrick, those calls didn’t come without nerves, although you certainly couldn’t tell as a viewer.