Hockey still thrills Emrick

Do you miss Pat Foley calling Blackhawks games on television during the Stanley Cup Finals?

You're not alone.

The man who is doing the play-by-play for all the Finals games on NBC and Versus, Mike Emrick, feels your pain.

"Pat is one of my favorites," said Emrick, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008 and like Foley, is one of the best in the business. "I have tremendous respect for Pat."

It's a friendship that goes back to when both were cutting their teeth in the International Hockey League, Emrick with Port Huron and Foley at Grand Rapids. And it remains just as strong now.

"At the All-Star Game in Montreal they played a clip of the 10 best plays of the first half of the season and one of Pat's calls was on there. At the end of it I said, 'Great to hear Pat Foley back in the NHL.'

"So I got a text message from him that said, 'Thanks for the mention. I'm glad all those Port Huron-Grand Rapids hostilities have been left behind.'"

But not the memories.

"I don't know what he got back then, but I got $160 a week and was so happy to get it," Emrick said.

That was 37 years ago, and Emrick, the voice of the New Jersey Devils, is still thrilled to work in a sport he loves.

"Three things about it," he said. "You get in free, you get the best seat in the house and you get to watch the best athletes in the world. And the fourth one is twice a month you get something in the mail."

And here's a fifth: with the Hawks playing so well and their future seemingly so bright, Emrick, who works alongside Eddie Olczyk on the broadcasts, might become a fixture in the city during the postseason for years to come.

"I would like that," he said, "because I like Chicago."