The New York Rangers don’t look like they’re going to make the playoffs in Sam Rosen’s final season calling games on MSG Network…but the Blueshirts are giving die-hards one last treat before Sam says goodbye as soon as next week.
Turner Sports has announced that they will reunite the iconic Rangers broadcast pairing of Rosen and John Davidson in the booth Wednesday night, when the Blueshirts take on the Flyers at MSG. Kathryn Tappen will be their rinkside reporter for the game, which begins at 7:30 p.m. on TNT, truTV, and MAX.
"Sam has had such a great career and a great season," Davidson told NHL.com. "We're very good friends because our working relationship grew into a friendship, family wise and everything. This is going to be like going to see a hockey game at the NHL level with one of your best friends. It doesn't get any better than that."
"This is another great example of our terrific partnership with our national rightsholders, as we are constantly brainstorming unique and creative approaches to our broadcasts," NHL president of content, events and productions Steve Mayer said. "We wanted to celebrate Sam Rosen's incredible career and thought that there could be no more fitting way than by reuniting him with his longtime partner and fellow Hall of Famer, John Davidson. This will be a celebration for the entire NHL and particularly special for New York hockey fans. And we are delighted that TNT embraced the opportunity to give this duo the microphones for the night."
Rosen is retiring following the season, after over 40 years on the call of Rangers games; he started with Phil Esposito as his partner, but was paired with Davidson for the 1986-87 season, and the duo worked together for 20 years through the 2005-06 campaign before Davidson left to become president of the St. Louis Blues in June 2006.
Since then, it’s been Rosen and Joe Micheletti on Rangers telecasts starting in the ’06-‘07 season, but on Wednesday night, it’s one last ride for Sam and John, the latter of whom has been re-honing his talents as a fill-in analyst for Blue Jackets games this year, while serving as a senior front office advisor for Columbus – and hopefully, we’ll get one last ‘It’s a Power Play Goal!’ followed by an ‘Oh, Baby!’ in their first game together since Game 4 of the 2006 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
"When I got the call from the producer, Kevin Brown, then I knew it was real," Rosen told NHL.com. "First, I was waiting and wondering, were they just throwing feelers out and might they not do the game because the Flyers aren't in the playoff picture and the Rangers have been up and down, but at that point when the call came, I knew, 'OK, we're doing the game, let's go.' This is a real special moment.”
The Rangers enter play Wednesday tied with Detroit, Columbus, and the Islanders at 79 points, eight behind Montreal for the second East Wild Card, with five games left to play. They are also 10 points behind the Devils for the third spot in the Metropolitan Division, meaning that the next Devils point or Rangers regulation loss eliminates them from that possibility, and the latter tonight would leave them needing to win out with a lot of help to make the playoffs in Rosen’s final season.