In any profession, 40 years is a long time on the job.
When the New York Rangers skate their final regular season home game on April 17 in Madison Square Garden, that Thursday night visit with the Tampa Bay Lightning is scheduled to be the last TV broadcast for Sam Rosen.
The work address that Rosen has known since the 1984 National Hockey League season, between Manhattan’s Seventh and Eighth Avenues, 4 Pennsylvania Plaza, will be a thing of the past. Once the ice melts at the Garden, Rosen will begin a slower schedule at his home in New City, New York.
Followers of the Rangers, one of the NHL’s “Original Six” franchises in 1942, may have a period of withdrawal, as Rosen himself may experience, come fall. Generations of fans have grown up watching and listening to their trusted partner calling games. No call by Rosen has lasted longer with “Blueshirts” fans than what he said on June 14, 1994.
“This one will last a lifetime.”
On that spring Tuesday, for the first time in 54 years, the Rangers clinched the Stanley Cup championship. 30-plus seasons later, New York hasn’t captured the NHL’s top prize since. But, for that one magical season in the “Big Apple” in 1994, the Rangers were on top of their game, and it was Rosen who brought all the highlights, and struggles during the March to hockey immortality into the homes of millions.
“I adored working with Sam. It’s funny—I was always working for the teams playing against the Rangers, so my only regret is that I didn’t get to work with him more,” longtime NHL on-air reporter Deb Placey told The Epoch Times in an email.
“One thing I always think of with Sam is that you could hear a call he made 30 years ago in 1994, or a call he made last week, and it’s the same fabulous voice. The excitement is still as fresh as ever.”
Placey, who co-hosts NHL Live on the NHL Network, for a decade was a member of the New York Islanders broadcast team, and later became a mainstay as a reporter during New Jersey Devils telecasts, is one of many today wearing a headset, and talking into a microphone at rinks around the league influenced by Rosen’s work.
In 2016, Rosen’s expert play-by-play work was officially acknowledged by the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada. Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Rosen aspired to go into broadcasting citing former New York Yankees’ radio talker Mel Allen as his idol. Being chosen for the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, selected by members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association, truly is befitting Rosen. The award is voted on for recognition to a member of the radio and television industry for outstanding contributions to their profession and the game of hockey.
“It has been an honor to call Sam a colleague and friend for the last three decades. Not only have we called over 1,500 Rangers games from adjacent broadcast booths, but we have also spent countless hours schmoozing while sitting next to each other on team flights,” recalls Rangers radio play-by-play voice Kenny Albert recalls to The Epoch Times, who is in his 29th season with the team. “Sam is one of the greatest hockey broadcasters of all-time. The memories of his calls will last a lifetime.”
Rosen has had a great view from the press level at the Garden, as well as on the road with the team, when the Rangers battled their regional rivals—New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders. Geographically close, the intensity displayed out on the ice between the teams has been brilliantly transferred to Rangers viewers. With Mike Richter, Mark Messier, and Glenn Anderson leading the team through the 1994 playoff run for the Rangers, their victory in the conference finals over the Devils is still one spoken of often by NHL fans in New York and surrounding areas.
Stéphane Matteau’s goal in Game 7, scored in double overtime, brought the Rangers and Rosen to the Stanley Cup Finals. After defeating New Jersey 2–1 in Game 7, the Rangers downed the Vancouver Canucks in seven games.
Before the Rangers collected the Cup in 1994, it was the New York Islanders that ruled the New York City hockey landscape. With five consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Finals (1980–1984), the Islanders won four straight NHL championships (1980–1983). Jiggs McDonald, who has called NHL games on radio and TV across seven decades, was Rosen’s equivalent with the Islanders, beginning with the 1980–1981 season. For 15 seasons McDonald brought Islanders’ hockey into the homes throughout New York’s Long Island and “Big Apple.”
“I’ve had the utmost respect for Sam from the moment he took over the New York Rangers TV booth. He is always the consummate professional in that Sam is always totally prepared. His easy going approach to talking to the players on either team gave Sam insights that made his listening audience feel they were right there at the game,” McDonald, who called 3,000-plus NHL regular season games in his broadcast career, told The Epoch Times.
“We enjoyed our time together sharing the broadcast platform and exchanging personal greetings. I just hope Sam recognizes that his great career has been the influencing factor in bringing so many new young voices to the play-by-play profession.”
Whether the Rangers earn a wild card berth in the NHL playoffs, where then Rosen’s career continues on, or if they are shut out of skating into May, the hall of fame contributions to hockey are lasting from the New Yorker. With video and audio archives of his work for the asking, NHL fans have the luxury of revisiting one of the very best talkers the game has ever known—Sam Rosen.
