Few broadcasters have captured the excitement, unpredictability, and sheer drama of hockey quite like Doc Emrick. With his unmistakable voice, colorful vocabulary, and extraordinary gift for describing the action as it unfolded, Emrick provided the soundtrack to some of the most memorable moments in NHL history.
For Washington Capitals fans, few of those calls are more unforgettable than the one he delivered during Braden Holtby’s legendary stop in Game 2 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, forever known as “The Save.”
The Capitals entered Game 2 trailing the Vegas Golden Knights 1-0 in the series. Protecting a one-goal lead late in the third period, Washington appeared to be in serious trouble when Vegas forward Alex Tuch found himself staring at a seemingly wide-open net. But Holtby lunged across his crease with his stick and somehow kept the puck out, making arguably the greatest save in Stanley Cup Final history.
“Oh, and it didn’t go!” Emrick exclaimed in disbelief. “It was Tuch with the wide-open net!”
It was vintage Emrick: spontaneous, emotional, and perfectly capturing the disbelief of everyone watching.
But as the legendary broadcaster recently revealed, there was a surprising reason he called the play the way he did.
He couldn’t actually see Holtby make the save.
Emrick explained his experience on Monumental Sports Network’s ‘Hockey Lifers’ podcast, sharing previously unknown information about his forever-famous call.
“Well, I have to be honest about it, because that’s the way that I like to cut things,” Emrick told host Jeff Marek. “We were located in the concourse area, not up in the press box. If we’d have been in the press box, where we belonged, I would have been toward the end of the ice, where the net was. We were at the opposite end, near the net that was guarded by Marc-Andre Fleury.
“When that play developed — and, again, we’re in the concourse — the crowd stood. And the play came out to Tuch. I’m being honest, I could not see what happened. I could only play it safe by seeing that it did not go, so that’s what I said. And Pierre was on the opposite side, at center ice, and he could tell. And so he said right away that will go down in history as ‘The Save’. But the truth of the matter is that the crowd blocked me out, and I could not see. I saw Tuch follow through with his stick, but I could not see what happened after that.”
The Capitals held on to their slim lead for the rest of regulation and didn’t lose another game for the rest of the series, capturing the franchise’s first championship with a Game 5 win.
After that series, Emrick called games for NBC for just two more full seasons. In October 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic still running roughshod over all professional sports, Emrick retired from broadcasting after calling NHL playoff games remotely from his home in Michigan.
“I hope I can handle retirement okay, especially since I’ve never done it before,” Emrick said then. “But I’ve just been extremely lucky for 50 years. And NBC has been so good to me, especially since the pandemic, when I was allowed to work from home in a studio NBC created. Now, into my golden years, this just seemed to be the time that was right.”
For his legendary work, Emrick earned several prestigious broadcasting honors, including the Lester Patrick Trophy, the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, nine Emmys, and recognition as the first media member inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.
However, Capitals fans will always remember him most as the sweetest soundtrack behind one of the most important moments in team history, even if he never really saw it happen.
