Pierre McGuire has the best seat in the house, even though he stands throughout the game.
The NBC Sports hockey analyst is between the two team benches — or “Inside The Glass” — providing commentary from an ideal location, while Mike “Doc” Emrick and Eddie Olczyk do so from a traditional booth. McGuire has been there for five of the six Rangers-Capitals game this series, and he will be there again tomorrow night at the Garden when the teams play Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal.
“You can feel the energy of the game, what the players are saying to one another, what the coaches are saying to the players on either bench, you can hear the interplay between the officials and the coaches and players for the most part,” McGuire said. “More than anything you can feel the energy in the building, you really do. Your locked in down there and you can really feel it. … It’s phenomenal, an amazing privilege to be down there.”
The idea to put an analyst between the benches, providing a close view of the action and an opportunity to interview coaches during the game, was first hatched eight years ago by NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood. Flood approached McGuire, then with Canada’s TSN, before Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup before the Lightning and Flames.
“I didn’t think it would be allowed, and he said, ‘just leave it to me,’” McGuire said. “Well, we left it to him and here we are eight years later and it’s become pretty much commonplace for everyone in the league to be doing it, and other sports are basically trying the same formula.”
But some would prefer McGuire was not a part of this formula started in 2006 after the previous season was canceled due to the lockout. There are numerous online forums devoted to his demise. Though the former Whalers head coach ignores the criticism, he said he believes it stems from the deep loyalty fans feel toward their team.
“I respect people’s opinions, just like I’m entitled to my opinion,” McGuire said “We’re not homers. We don’t work for one team or the other. We try to play it straight down the middle, so I don’t pay attention to it all. I have a job to do. I do it to the best of my ability. I prepare for every game like it’s a Game 7, and I won’t change. But I respect the passion of hockey fans, their love of the game, but people are expecting me to be a homer and that’s not how it works when you do a national show.”
Along with the 2010 Olympic Gold Medal Game won by Canada over the U.S., McGuire lists the Rangers triple-OT win in Washington in Game 3 of this series as one of his favorites.
He also is not surprised the seventh-seeded Capitals have pushed the top-seeded Rangers to the brink.
“I couldn’t believe how physical Washington was in knocking out the defending champs [Bruins in first round],” McGuire said. “I had never seen that from them before, at least in the last five years I haven’t. There’s a certain level of resiliency in their game. And they are going against a Rangers team that personifies character. It’s amazing to see and that’s why we’ve had such a close, intense series.”