Hockey announcer Doc Emrick can't be replaced

When the NHL begins its next season, absent for the first time in four decades will be the man perhaps more associated with the league than any player, coach or official: broadcaster Mike Emrick — known universally by his nickname, Doc.

Emrick, 74, who this year called the Stanley Cup Final for the 22nd time, announced his retirement Monday.

"In your mid-70s, you realize that you have had a very healthy and long run, except for the cancer scare, and you are looking outside and seeing this to be the autumn of your years," he said Monday. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1991.

Emrick ascended to the top of his profession, jockeying with Canadian-born greats Bob Cole and Dan Kelly in the pantheon of hockey's play-by-play announcers. He worked in print media covering the Penguins, earned his doctorate in broadcast communications from Bowling Green (hence the "Doc" sobriquet), and transitioned to television from radio in a way that was at once seamless and iconic.

"He was able to get away with a descriptive, radiolike, wood-to-wood calls, on network television," said David J. Halberstam, founder of the Sports Broadcast Journal and a former play-by-play announcer for the Miami Heat. "The textbook says, 'Caption, don't describe.' Vin Scully said: 'On radio you're a puncher, and on television you're a counterpuncher.'

"Emrick broke the cardinal rule on each of his broadcasts, yet he was beloved. When I asked him about it, he didn't hesitate: 'It's the way I've always done it.' ''

Emrick was particularly known for his barrage of verbs. In a game between the U.S. and Canadian national teams at the 2014 Olympics, one count had him at 153 distinct verbs to describe the movement of the puck. Among his favorites were descriptive but uncommon words like "jostle" during physical battles and inventive yet understandable actions like "soccering" when players used their feet.

"When the Doc Emrick evil chuckle comes in when two gentlemen square off on the ice, you know it's a special day," said Sam Flood, the longtime producer of NBC's hockey coverage.

Al Michaels, the longtime NFL broadcaster who also called the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Olympics, compared Emrick's influence on the sport to John Madden's on football.

"I think of you much as I think of John Madden, as a man who has been as important to the National Hockey League as anybody," Michaels said to Emrick on Monday. Michaels recalled being asked at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics if he should be calling Olympic hockey instead of Emrick.

"No. 1, I can't do hockey one-tenth as well as Mike Emrick," he said. "No. 2, I want to listen to Mike Emrick do hockey."

Emrick's career in numbers is astounding. He has broadcast 47 seasons of professional hockey, including 40 in the NHL. He called 45 Game 7s in the playoffs. He won eight sports Emmy Awards and is a member of seven halls of fame, including the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and the Fort Wayne Komets Hall of Fame.

NBC has not announced a successor for Emrick, who was its lead hockey play-by-play voice since 2005.

Whoever it chooses will have gigantic shoes to fill.