Evan Roberts

And Marv did just 20, 25 games during the regular season, but he was going to be available to do games five and seven of the final against Vancouver.

But he insisted, and I'll always be grateful to him for that.

It's just an incredibly kind gesture, because he didn't have to do it.

But he insisted that I do play-by-play in the second period of games five, and as it evolved, game seven.

Game six in Vancouver, that was all mine.

And that was my shot to make that call that I had dreamt of since I was 12 years old.

And I was an absolute nut that whole day in the hotel in Vancouver.

I mean, I was bouncing off the walls.

I'd go work out in the gym on the treadmill, and I think I almost ran through the treadmill.

And so I can't even imagine what nervous energy I would have

If that opportunity would evolve this year, in however many games it took, wherever and against whomever.

I thought I knew how it would end.

I thought I knew how it would end.

Because after Zellipuken scored that goal, I'll tell you a quick story real quickly.

I used to tell, I told Neil Smith, because I'd been friends with him for 15 years before he got the Ranger job.

And he'd joke about it then.

But, you know, I told him and I used to tell Sal Messina that for whatever reason, I don't know why, whether it was burning the mortgage in the Stanley Cup or driving the New York Americans out of Madison Square Garden.

This team is cursed.

They're jinxed.

I don't know why.