Every time, you know, you go to the garden and there's Sam, you know, down hosting another ceremony.

Well, it was nice to remain part of the family this year.

I thank the Rangers for keeping me involved with the centennial season.

It was great to renew old friendships and to see players change.

that played for the Rangers, whether it was one year, two years, or ten years.

It was like a nonstop reunion.

So that was great for me to see a lot of the names that came through that I had the pleasure of watching and calling their games.

So that's a big wind-up to saying, what do you think about the acquisition of Sean Jersey, of course, in the Trochek trade, and Marcus Pedersen as well?

What was the most memorable interview from all of them?

Oh, wow.

Most memorable interview.

I think...

That's hard to point out.

When I first started at Madison Square Garden, I was doing basketball and got to meet the Knicks of the 80s, Patrick Ewing.

I interviewed Michael Jordan when he was a rookie.

Was there a moment in your career when you were doing an interview and it was hard to keep your emotions in check because you were so excited, nervous, or overwhelmed?

So from your vantage point, you know, what did you see out there from kind of a zoom out perspective of how, like, what you saw that you liked from this team and especially early on in the beginning of, "Oh, oh, oh." This is more of what you saw in your last season broadcasting.

Well, uh, I think we all know they had started off the season having trouble at home, uh, having trouble scoring goals, having trouble winning.

But as the season unfolded and, and it jumps out at me because I was down here in Florida.

The team played in the Winter Classic.

Maybe played its best se- game of the, of the season beating the Panthers 5-1.

It was a great event.

Uh, came off terrifically as the league always does with the Winter Classic.

So from, you know, from the letter to what happened the past couple of seasons, where are you in terms of where the Rangers are headed?

Did you ever think, oh my God, I've been here five years now, six years now, 10 years, 15, 20, like, you know, am I going to be able to keep going? Are they going to let me do next season again? Are they going to, was it ever a thing like that, Sam, or did you just assume that it was

okay? I'll relate a couple of stories, Neil, but I never thought of it that way.

I, I, loved what I was doing so much that I always believed that wherever I was, and I started out, when ESPN first went on the air in September of 1979, I did one of their first college football games and did the early different sports that they were programming.

And I did the first hockey they signed, two contracts, 10-game contracts, one with the Hartford Whalers and the other with the Washington Capitals.

And I had the joy of doing them.

They were at the bottom of the league, but I got to do those games.

And I think we rode some of those train rides down to D.C. to see the Caps play and you were scouting.

Without

Like I, you know, am I going to be able to keep going? Are they going to let me do next season again? Was it ever a thing like that, Sam, or did you just assume that it was okay?

I'll relate a couple of stories, Neil, but I never thought of it that way.

I loved what I was doing so much that I always believed that wherever I was.

And I started out when ESPN first went on the air in September of 1979.

I did one of their first college football games and did the early different sports that they were programming.

And I did the first hockey.

They signed two contracts, 10 game contracts, one with the Hartford Whalers, and the other with the Washington Capitals.

and um it all culminated of course and we had some great years in the 90s and of course 1994 comes along and and we say no more but from your vantage point obviously i mean i i won't answer this question for you but i think i know the answer out of the 40 years of rangers hockey your most memorable must be 94 i would i would think

Was there a broadcaster that maybe you tried to emulate or was maybe your favorite that you started to realize that some of what they were doing was actually coming out in what you were doing as your career went along?

Well, I think I would always, even as a kid, I did a lot of listening.

As I mentioned, we were out in the street.

We were out in the schoolyards.

But I would take my transistor radio with me if there was a game on.

I'm a passionate Yankee fan.

In the fall, I was listening to the Knicks and the Rangers.

From your perch, what has it been like covering this team this year?