NBC Sports today officially announced a major change to its National Hockey League telecasts. As speculated in this space, the pregame and intermission segments of NHL broadcasts on NBC will be hosted by “Inside the Glass” reporter Pierre McGuire starting next season. McGuire will be joined by newcomer Mike Milbury.
Milbury, who once worked as a studio analyst for ESPN in the mid-90s, is “sometimes controversial, usually quotable and always interesting” according to NBC Sports coordinating producer Sam Flood. No matter how controversial Milbury may sometimes be, do not expect his hiring to generate the amount of media buzz that the hiring of Brett Hull did last year.
The studio portions of the show will no longer originate from Rockefeller Plaza in New York, and will instead move to the site of the game each week. While NBC is spinning the eviction of the NHL studio show from Rockefeller Plaza as providing “immediacy and big event feel,” this feels more like a cost-cutting move than anything else.
The fates of Bill Clement and Ray Ferraro are unclear; while it is likely that neither will remain with NBC next year, the network could consider moving one or both into the booth with Mike Emrick.
