PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Saturday is going to be a celebration of Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike Lange as the Penguins are asking fans to be in their seats at 3p.
It was a thrill for several players and the head coach to have Lange in their lives.
“I can only speak from my own personal experience with Mike, but some of the greatest memories that I have, and some of my greatest hockey memories, Mike's voice is attached to those,” said Pens head coach Mike Sullivan.
“Everyone in Pittsburgh knew his voice,” said Pens forward Evgeni Malkin. “Probably the most popular voice in Pittsburgh. He was a great guy. Tough loss for whole organization. Hard to say anything right now.”
Malkin did give a hint of a forced smile in acknowledging Lange’s phase about him in ‘Make me a milkshake Malkin’.
“That voice will always kind of resonate with the Pittsburgh Penguins and all the players, like Mario, Jagr, Sid, Geno... I was lucky myself to have my name called by him,” said defenseman Kris Letang. “He made it unique and fun and enjoyable to listen.”
Letang said he built a bond with Lange over all of the road trips. They talked about family and personal histories. Letang said he felt like the broadcaster was a part of the team.
Especially at the beginning, when he would travel with us, you kind of create a little bit of a bond. He tries to get to know you, and try to create some dialogue – get to know you, your family, where you're from. You get to a point where you feel familiar with him, like he's part of the team.
“Everybody who was involved, top to bottom, he talked to everybody,” said forward Bryan Rust. “It didn’t matter if you were the new guy. If you were the janitor in the room. If you were a media person. If you were the head coach or if you were Sid. It didn’t matter.”
“He genuinely had conversations with you. When he talked to you he listened and he cared. You saw his enthusiasm every time he talked about hockey and he talked about the city.”
What impressed Sullivan is even though Lange was well into his career when he started working with him, he continued to work. Sullivan remembered seeing him at every morning skate and knowing he had personal conversations with players and coaches.
“He had a pretty good pulse on what was going on around the team at any particular time,” Sullivan said. “You know, some of the ebbs and flows, the adversities that teams go through. He had a pretty good handle on it. But that doesn't happen by accident. You got to work at it. You got to put your time in. And I think Mike was a guy that was willing to do that.”
“He'd roll up his sleeves, and he put the time in to be around the team and do all the background work, so that when the cameras went on, or they turned that microphone on, he was prepared.”
Which gave him credibility not only with him, but the entire team and organization.
So, when he dropped ‘slap be silly Sidney’, ‘scratch my back with a hacksaw’, ‘call Arnold Slick from Turtle Crick’ they knew he wasn’t just turning a phrase. It was part of an overall body of work that went from preparation to entertainment.
“I just can't help but think of, you know, some of his catchphrases, and the energy that he brings to it, and the passion that he brought to the job every day,” Sullivan said. “He loved the Penguins, and the Penguins loved him. So, that's a big loss. It's a big loss for Pittsburgh. It's a big loss for our organization.”
“The enthusiasm he had and his hilarious sayings I think will be remembered forever,” Rust said.