Mishkin's Musings: On the call for non-Lightning duties

After dealing with COVID-related postponements of games against Dallas and Carolina early in the season, the Lightning have had a consistent schedule of three to four games per week. I've called all of those games - the home contests from the Amalie Arena press box and the road contests from our make-shift studio in one of the Arena's offices.
But I've also gotten the opportunity to broadcast two other hockey games that are unrelated to the Lightning's schedule. On February 6, Phil Esposito and I called a contest involving two teams from the United States Premier Hockey League. And tomorrow, Dave Andreychuk and I will broadcast the Lightning High School Hockey League's championship game as Seminole and Durant compete for the Lightning Cup.

The US Premier Hockey League is a development league comprised of more than 550 teams, competing at various tiers. As players age, they advance through the league's different levels. Ultimately, the league's goal is to help players develop their skills so that they may advance to play college and/or professional hockey.
Since early January, a number of USPHL Junior clubs have been utilizing Tampa as a Hub City. Many of the games have taken place at the Advent Health Center Ice complex in Wesley Chapel. All of the games are streamed through the league's website. "Hub City Tampa," as it is called, will conclude this week.
Back in January, Phil and I were asked to call a game scheduled for February 6. It was to involve two teams from the USPHL's National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC): the Rockets Hockey Club (from New Jersey) and the Jr. Bruins (from Boston).
In preparing for the game, I needed to get my hands on each team's roster. The league's website was an excellent resource. I was pleasantly surprised to find in-depth information on every team and player. Not only were the box scores available from past games, those in progress were tracked in real-time.
I also received a lot of assistance from Tyler Davey, who was coordinating all of the streaming broadcasts. He attended college here and previously had called games for Tampa Bay's Junior team in the USPHL. He's now working up north, but when he heard about the Hub City concept, he returned to Tampa for the six-week session. He's been calling multiple games every day, but he took time out of his busy schedule to help me with pronunciations on the Rockets and Jr. Bruins.
In order to call a hockey game, the play-by-play announcer must know the names and numbers of the participants so well that it's automatic. How do you prepare when you've never seen any of the players beforehand? A written roster helps, but there is a difference between memorizing a name and number on a sheet of paper and actually watching that player skate on the ice.
Fortunately, in the days leading up to February 6, I was able to access previous steaming broadcasts from Rockets and Jr. Bruins games that had been played earlier in the week. Watching those earlier games was crucial for my prep. Still, after going through parts of five different games involving these two teams, my head was spinning.
I had never been to the Advent Health Ice Complex before. It's a beautiful facility and easy to understand why the U.S. Women's National Team trained there in advance of the 2018 Winter Olympics. The game was played on "Rink D", which has a small broadcasting cubby on the opposite side from the spectator stands. Although I saw the location as soon as I entered the rink, it took me a while to discover the path to the cubby. After asking a couple of people for directions, I weaved through a darkened hallway that brought me to the other side of the ice surface. Tyler was there and he brought me to meet the two coaches, with whom I confirmed a couple of those pronunciations. Also, both coaches let me know their game lineups - 21 players dress for each team, one more on each side than in an NHL game.
Back in the cubby with Phil (who found his way there without difficulty), we settled in. The advance prep I did meant that I wasn't seeing the players for the first time when they came out for the 10-minute warmup, but I still used that time to ensure that I knew all the skaters by heart.
Many of the Rockets and Jr. Bruins are already committed to play college hockey. In this one single game, there were players heading to Quinnipiac, Boston College, Union, West Point, UMass-Lowell, Yale, Dartmouth, Northeastern, and others. Not surprisingly, the caliber of play was high. During warmups, Phil noted that the Rockets looked like a bigger team. They showed that they were a deep team, too. After allowing the first goal, they scored the next six and won in a blowout.
Next up for me is the Lightning Cup game. Several years ago, I called some LHSHL games that were broadcast on a local cable channel. Including several Lightning Cup contests. The final games always have taken place at Amalie Arena. Dave A. and I were asked to call this year's Final.
Not having seen any LHSHL games recently, I needed a refresher. The playoff schedule was spread out over a few weeks and the two semi-final games were played last Wednesday. So I've known that Seminole and Durant would be the teams for a number of days.
During that time, I went to work. As with the USPHL site, the LHSHL website was a good place to start. I saw the Seminole won the Lightning Cup last year. And that Durant, a top seed, came within a whisker of losing its quarterfinal game to Newsome.
I also was able to touch base with both head coaches over Zoom. I asked the required pronunciation questions (always!) and learned more about both of their teams.
Unlike the Junior game, in which most everybody who dressed played, high school hockey teams tend to rely on their top players more. I remember from those earlier high school broadcasts how some teams might only play two forward lines and four defensemen for the whole game. But some clubs use more than that. And the full rosters are often extensive, including JV or "Two-Way" players that may or may not be in the lineup.
Steve Nickel of Seminole and Todd Comunale of Durant were gracious enough to let me know which players on the team would be expected to suit up. When I asked about accessing game video, Coach Comunale directed me to the Durant Hockey Team YouTube channel, where I could watch the entire playoff game against Newsome. So I did. Durant surrendered a 3-1 third period lead, had to kill a penalty in overtime, and were a shot away from losing in the shootout. But the Cougars got a season-saving shootout goal in the fifth round and the winning tally in the sixth. Beyond experiencing the drama of a close playoff contest, I learned to recognize the players. And observe what the line combinations and defense pairings looked like.
For Seminole, I found a game from their 2020 Lightning Cup playoff run. While some of the top players have since graduated, others are still on the club. I also got a hold of clips from Seminole's semi-final victory last week.
I'm looking forward to seeing which team lifts the Lightning Cup tomorrow night! Dave and I will have the call on
theidentitytb.com
.