New Jersey Devils Play-By-Play Announcer Don La Greca Joins The Show…Landing His Dream Job & More

Hey Devil fans, I’m Don Lrea. You’re Locked on Devils with Trey Matthews. You’re Locked on Devils, your daily podcast on the New Jersey Devils, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hi, this is Bryce Salvador and you’re Locked on Devils with Trey Matthews. Elliot scores. Oh, Steven, nailed it. Rodor’s got the puck. What a shot. The Devils win the Stanley Cup. All righty now. What is up New Jersey? Welcome back to the Lockdown Devils podcast here at the Lockdown Network. I’m your host Kaki PL play announcer, Dell’s Ryer Pucks Pitchforks and also part-time credential member Trey Matthews. I have a very special guest joining me on today’s episode. He’s a Ramapo College Roadrunner alum and first got his start at a company called Sports Phone and would later become a sports anchor at 1010 wins. He has been with ESPN New York radio since it originated in fall of 2001. He’s the co-host of the Michael K show similar to me. He also has a hockey podcast and his show is called Game Misconduct. On the side, he was previously the fill-in play-by-play voice for the New York Rangers radio feed, and he also did some work with the New York Jets. 2025 has been awfully kind to him, I would say. He was awarded another show at ESPN called Don Han and Rosenberg. And a few weeks ago, he was officially named the new play-by-play voice for the New Jersey Devils on MSG. Please welcome Hawthorne, New Jersey native Don Lreka. DLG, first and foremost, how you doing? Good. How are you, Trey? I appreciate the time, man. This is cool. Thank you so much for taking the time out your day to appear on my platform. I know you’re a busy guy. You got a show to do a little later, so I won’t hold you too long. But let’s start with humble beginnings. I listened to your discussion with Amanda Stein, and not only were you a Devils fan from the very beginning, but you also grew up a Mets and Giants fan. Where did the love of sports start for you? Uh my dad my dad was a big uh Giant fan. He was a Dodger fan, then became a Met fan when the Dodgers moved out of Brooklyn to Los Angeles. So he got me into it. He got me playing ball. He got me watching those teams. And unfortunately, he wasn’t a big hockey fan. He would get into the Rangers when they were good and I would kind of follow that a little bit. But otherwise, um I had to kind of find hockey on my own. Uh then then when the Devils came in, I was able to do that. Plus, um, you know, my dad didn’t love going into New York, so he wasn’t going to be taking me, uh, to to too many games outside of, um, maybe Yankee Stadium just because it was a little closer to the George Washington Bridge than than Sha Stadium was. But yeah, that’s how I got my love of sports was through him. So, did you Who were some of your uh, idols growing up? Because, you know, you said you like the Giants, the Mets, and the Devils. Which athletes did you uh, look up to? Well, I mean, it was early early in my life, you know, Tom Siver and Nolan Ryan, even though Nolan Ryan left the Mets before I really had any recollection of baseball, but my dad told me that he was a former Met and seeing him pitching no hitters for the Angels and the Astros. and I I I I always loved him, but probably the biggest one was Lawrence Taylor, being a Giant fan, seeing him drafted in 1981 and and jumping on the scene, um being um such a significant player in ‘ 81, winning uh you know, rookie of the year, defensive player of the year, and and the Giants making the playoffs for the first time since 1963. So, obviously, the first time in my lifetime. So, Lawrence Taylor was it for me when I was a kid. I got to ask you this. Uh, did you happen to be a former athlete with aspirations of someday playing pro, but realized early on probably not in your wheelhouse, so you decided to pursue sports media? Yeah. Well, I always baseball was my sport and I and I thought I was pretty good at it. I made the varsity as a freshman at Don Bosco Tech. So, I knew it was always a pipe dream, but growing up as a kid, I thought I’d be a pitcher in the major leagues and I never wanted to give up that dream of doing it. And I was good in co in high school. I got recruited by Ramapo. I there were no scholarships for division three. Uh and I got cut uh in trying to make the Ramo road runners in um my freshman year of 1986. So after getting cut, I had a chance to make the team, but then there was like three pitchers from Army that transferred from Army to Ramipo and I got knocked out of the box, didn’t make the team, and I just marched right into the radio station and I figured, all right, well that’s it. You know, I was hanging on to the dream going into college. Who knows what might happen? But then I realized that if I was going to be doing anything around sports, it was going to probably have to be through radio. So, I marched right into WRPR, which was the Rampo College radio station, um 90.3 FM, and never looked back. I I asked that because I think a lot of us have had that sort of experience. I’m I’m no exception. Similar to you, I grew up playing baseball and I thought maybe, you know, if I was good enough, I could maybe reach like independent ball or overseas. I held on to that small sliver of hope of someday playing professionally, but as you said, playing at the at the collegiate level, it it does humble you. And then you you got to take a different course of action. Of course, though, it’s it’s all about just trying to persevere, right? keep doing it until you’re told you’re not allowed to do it anymore. So, you know, probably deep down inside 18-year-old Don LGRA knew he wasn’t going to make the majors, but he was going to continue to try until somebody told him, you know, there’s no more room at the end for you. And that’s what happened at Ramipo. And the same thing with my career. Just don’t give up until all avenues are are expended. And even then, you just kind of hope and and and um find a way to still be able to persevere and get through it. So, uh, just keep fighting, keep doing what you’re doing. And, uh, and that’s that’s how I kind of lived. I was going to just keep trying until somebody told me it was impossible. And even then, just keep keep going, keep going at it. Real quick, uh, are you still a Giants fan? Do you still keep in tune with them? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. and Giants and Mets. I’m able to keep it uh keep it going for sure because uh even though I went I did the Jets for 16 years and did the pre and post for the Jets. Um it was it was hard because they were playing at the same time a lot of times. But no, I my my love for the Giants never really went away. Same with the Mets. Okay, good. So, uh you you you still keep in tune with the Giants. Um how excited are you? Oh, yeah. How excited are you for their uh one of their newest draft picks, Cam Scataboo, running back out of Arizona State? Yeah, well, you’re hearing good things about him. Jackson Dart, the way the way things went, you know, trading back into the first round for him. I’m just excited because it’s been so bad for so long, even though they made the playoffs and won a playoff game in 22. I kind of felt like they did that with Mirrors. So, it’s been a while since you can really be happy in the direction that they’re going. and it looks like they’ve had a couple of good drafts and as you said that there’s some players to get excited about. So yeah, I’m kind of fired up to see where all this is going to go. Uh I don’t know if you can grade it on wins and losses, although that’s how coaches get hired and fired. So we’ll see if Dable and Shane are going to be able to survive what could still be a rocky season. I just want to see them moving in the right direction. Last couple of years they’ve been in an absolute embarrassment. So I don’t know what the win total needs to be, but I just need to see a team that functions and they just have not functioned in the last couple of years. I went to Arizona State University, so I saw Cam Scataboo play up close and personal, and now that he’s on the East Coast, I I just had to ask you because at ASU, we don’t get too many NFL alums, right? No, of course. And I’m Listen, I’m I’m excited because I was told to be excited about him and we’ll ultimately see. I’m always skeptical, Trey, because, you know, covering the Jets for 16 years, there would always be some story of someone that you got to keep an eye out for and it never materializes. But you do get those you Victor Cruises that all of a sudden jump on the scene and become a superstar. So, it’s hard, but uh obviously he’s going to be given an opportunity here and we’ll see if it works. Before we continue with today’s episode alongside Dawn, let me tell you guys about game time. Look, we’ve all been there before. Logging on early and waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale only to lose your spot for a show that you’ve been dying to see. Live music should be about making memories, not dealing with the stress of ticket shopping. That’s where Game Time comes in. Game time makes getting concert tickets faster and easier than ever. Prices actually drop as it gets closer to Showtime, and you can save up to 60% off with their killer lastminute deals. Tired of endlessly scrolling trying to find the best deal? Game time zone deals pick the best seats in your section for you. Ever wonder what your view will actually look like before you buy? 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What can you say about your experience there and what was the process like of getting your name out there in the first place? It was pretty uh amazing the school because it was a small school. It was aut It’s not quite a commuter school anymore, but it was back when I went in the 80s. So, it was a 20-minute ride from my house. But it gave me the opportunity to work at the radio station and I almost flunked out my first year because you know when you’re told I went to a Catholic high school so nobody was reminding me the report was due and nobody was taking attendance and unfortunately I took advantage of that early on in my freshman year and I was like on academic probation right away and then when I discovered the radio station I was spend I was cutting classes doing shows on the radio station like so um eventually I got my act together and was able to graduate But it gave me the opportunity, the hands-on experience of doing shows. And I was a sports director, news director, did playbyplay. I did a heavy metal radio show every Friday night. And that taught me how to interview, how to organize, how to schedule, how to promote. Um, and Rampo allowed me to do all that. Andre Perry was our academic adviser at the time. He passed away a few years ago. And he was a really big mentor for me because he drove he wanted to he wanted to make the radio station be professional as much as it could. You know, go out try to get advertising even though you couldn’t have advertising. It was underwriting, but like going to local shops and putting flyers of the show up in exchange for a mention on the show. Like he really saw some potential in me and really drove me to really use the radio station as a great way to gain experience and Ramipo allowed that to happen for me. So, I try to give back to the school as often as I can. Um, and and I’m I I always have to hear about forom from Michael K or or Syracuse from people that went there. Um, maybe Ramo doesn’t get the love it should for being a really good communication school. And just as I was leaving was when they were building up their TV side, but from a radio side. And even if you walked in there, Trey, you wouldn’t be overly impressed with uh with the equipment or even the space, but it was more the opportunity and what you made of that opportunity um that they um they allowed that to happen. And I’ll never forget that. or uh ASU kron kite school which which which I went to but I always say like it it’s about what opportunities can you make out of uh such little like uh before I went to ASU I went to a small liberal arts college in the middle of nowhere called Adrian College and I worked for their television station and I made the most of it which later led me to ASU. So, sort of like similar to you, just making the most of the small opportunities I’m given and try to run with it. And you know what? I think that there’s something really rewarding about, you know, uh, being given such little opportunity from a small school and making the most of it and making a niche for yourself, wouldn’t you say? Yeah, absolutely. Because, you know, you go to some schools. I mean, when my dad was taking me around checking out colleges, there were some colleges that had better programs, but you had to wait till you were a sophomore, junior in order to get your own show or in order to work the equipment. Um, I just love just the opportunity of of, you know, your younger audience isn’t going to get like editing sound, taking out the real tore and the uh um the razor blade and cutting it and splicing and taping it together, like all those things that you needed to do. Um, so it wasn’t really about like how big the school was or how many people could even hear the station. It was a 100 watt radio station. It was just getting that opportunity to make it your own. So, um, it really didn’t matter about the size of the school, number of students, it was just just getting that chance to do it. Absolutely. So, you’ve been at ESPN New York radio since the beginning. When did that opportunity present itself? And I know this is a loaded question, but how has it been working there the past two and a half decades? Well, um, I worked at Sports Phone for a long time after I got out of while I was in college, right through even working at WFAN and got connected and talk to a lot of people. And that gate that opened the door for me to eventually work at Shadow Sports and work at WFAN. And the guy that got me through the door um, at Shadow, which eventually got me doing overnight updates on WFAM, was a guy by the name of Steve Maulsberg. I mean, you never know who you’re going to cross paths with, and you never know who you work with that could end up being so instrumental to your career. But while I was working at The Fan, we kept hearing stories about, you know, ESPN’s going to be coming to New York, and ESPN’s going to do an all sports radio station in New York. So, a lot of us part- timerrs of the fans were kind of hoping that this was going to work and it would be a place to go. So when they started when they opened the doors in the summer of 2001, one of the guys that was um given the opportunity to hire people was Steve Molsburg. Um we were we were at the ABC studios. He had worked at WABC, had sports experience. So they gave him the job of of recruiting talent and he remembered me and he hired me and I ended up becoming the first voice of ESPN radio in New York back on September 3rd uh 2001. So we’re coming up on the 24th anniversary of that and I’ve worked uh there ever since. And it’s been an unbelievable experience. It’s opened so many doors for me from being able to do the Jets pre and post for 16 years um in ‘ 05 getting a chance to do the pre and post for the Rangers and then in ’08 the chance to back up Kenny Albert on playbyplay and then did 473 games backing up Kenny on radio doing Ranger games. So uh and then working afternoon drive with Michael Kay uh working his show for 22 years and now I’ve been in afternoon drive for 20. So so many doors swung open for me uh at ESPN. So it’s been it’s been really an unreal experience and it led to this opportunity here. So I owe a lot to ESPN radio and a lot to Steve Maulsberg for hiring me in the first place. We’ll talk about your playbyplay ventures momentarily. But let’s talk about Michael K. I know Michael K from his signature sea call for for the Yankees. Like I don’t watch the Yankees religiously, but even I know like who he is and what he’s done. And a lot of people don’t know this, but he grew up a Yankees fan and now he’s been the voice of the Yankees for many years. What lessons have you been able to learn from him to apply it to your respective journey? Uh there’s uh there’s so much I owe I owe Michael so much. Uh first of all, it wasn’t like they put us together to do a show together. I was his update guy. He did the show by himself. but he respected my knowledge. He brought me in and I grew over time to become a co-host of his show. So that doesn’t happen all the time and a lot of times talk show hosts will have an ego to not allow that to happen. So I give Michael a lot of credit for kicking that door open for me. So, and from a and just from a play-by-play standpoint of just understanding that you got to root for you and and he he would say that and it comes across as so like like a selfish phrase, but it’s true in the sense that hey, I wasn’t a Ranger fan. You know, that grew up a Devil fan, but the Ranger opportunity presented itself. I was a Giant fan, but the Jet opportunity presented itself, you know. So now you have to decide, do I want to be a fan and miss the chance to work in the business or do I want to grab the bull by the horns here and take the career dive almost like a player deciding, hey, if I’m going to play a sport, I’m going to have to be drafted by whoever drafted me. Everybody wants, yeah, I wanted to be a baseball player. I wanted to play for the Mets. Would I have turned down a chance to play in the major leagues if I were drafted by the Houston Astros or the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox? Of course not. So, he taught me that that’s where you kind of have to put it aside. What do you want to do? You want to be a super fan or do you want to work in this business and do playbyplay and cover teams? And I made the decision I wanted to do that. And and and and I I learned from him how to do that. You know, finally at the age of 57, I’m going to get a chance to cover the team I rooted for. But and and Michael did it with the Yankees and Mike Breen’s been able to do it with the Knicks and um Sam Rosen was able to do it for the Rangers. Uh, but those opportunities don’t always present themselves. So, he kind of taught me you gota you got to grab it when you can and and I and I did and it it led me eventually to where I wanted to be. Thank you for bringing that up because I got tired of people saying like, “Oh, he was a Rangers guy before he became a Devil’s Guy.” And I’m like, people don’t understand this industry, how they think like play-by-play opportunities or uh sports media in general, they think that they’re vast, but that’s not the truth. Like they’re very limited and it could be very cutthroat at times. So for me, I took an internship with the Florida Everblades. They are the St. Louis Blues affiliate. Does that mean I can’t cover the Devils anymore because I’m technically in the Blues organization or in their pipeline? No, absolutely not. You got to do what you got to do to try to crawl your way up in this industry. Yeah, that that’s it. Well, you have to make a decision, right? You have to decide, all right, what do I want to do? And and there are many people I work with Dave Rothenberg who does a great job as a talk show host on our station in the morning with Rick Dietro. He’s a diehard Giant fan. He would never do that. he would have never taken the jet opportunity because he he’s he’s happy being a talk shows to do what he’s doing, you know, but I I I wanted I I used to do playbyplay in my room watching games hoping that maybe one day I would get the chance to do it. So, there was no way that I was going to let um a little old thing like, you know, doing playbyplay for a team that I grew up to despise standing the way of of getting that chance. Now, let’s transition to playbyplay. Where did the love of playbyplay originate for you? Probably Bob Murphy. He did playbyplay for the Mets when I was growing up. I listened a lot to the radio. Um, it wasn’t, you know, the younger generation doesn’t know what it’s like to not have a game on television. You know, when I was a kid, I’d run to the the TV to put on channel 9. Met games were at 8:00. Turn on turn on the the the Channel 9 and if the Mets were on, I watched them. If uh if the Million-Dollar movie was on, that meant I had to go run to the radio and listen to it on the radio. And I always love listening to games on the radio. And I was always fascinated. I’d always think about what it’s like to be at the ballpark. And Bob Murphy would describe the cumulus clouds and the blue sky and the green grass and the color of the uniforms. And as great as TV was and as easier and probably a lot more fun to watch the game on television to understand it, listening to him describe what was going on, I was just fascinated whether it was in the car going someplace or or just being home because the game wasn’t on television and then being fascinated with, wow, it’s it’s it’s it’s 8:00 here, but it’s a it’s 11 o’clock here, but it’s it’s 8:00 in Los Angeles or San Francisco, and he’s calling the game 3,000 miles. I was just always fascinated with all that and always wanted to do it and got the opportunity in college, but didn’t go anywhere until the Rangers gave it. But I just was always so fascinated with the with with the playbyplay and the people that did it. And the story that you probably heard was being at the Devils fan club dinner in 1989 and Jim Korn, my favorite devil, didn’t show up for the the dinner with the Devil and I got to sit with Gary Thorne and Chris Moore and Peter McNab and that was better than talking to any player. You know, asking them how they do the games and how they got started and you know it that’s I’ve always been a bigger fan I think of the broadcasters and sometimes the players even being a Giant fan. um listen I would go watch the Giant games and then I would listen to the postgame and record the playbyplay from the radio during the game. I wasn’t going to listen to the game over watching it on television, but I would I I wanted to go back and and and listen to the playbyplay and and hear how they did the postgame and how they analyzed the game. I was always just so fascinated by that. So yeah, it started at a very young age and it never really went away. There there are times that I’ll I’ll just listen to a game on serious satellite radio uh you know an oiler flame game at the middle of the night just to just to hear it described by all the these great announcers and try to learn something from them and get tips from them from afar. It’s always just been in my DNA to do that. And that drive led you to an opportunity to be the fill-in voice for Kenny Albert on the Rangers broadcast. But how did that come about? How was that presented to you? Well, um I was just always around doing the pre and post and I would travel to the island and I would travel to the Medallands. So I do do some of the road games just because I wanted to be there. I drive to Philly for the games. I was always around Dave Maloney who was doing the game with Kenny Albert. Kenny misses a lot of games as you know from football and filling in for Knicks and doing baseball and all that. and now he’s got TNT that they the back they always had a myriad of backup people and one of the backup guys was Bob who does an amazing job. Um but he was getting more college um basketball and football from ESPN so he couldn’t do it anymore. So they asked me would I audition so I went into the MSG studios went to a conference room they grabbed an old Devil Ranger game from the previous year and I did it with Pete Stimcowski. They recorded it and I really didn’t think anything was going to come of it. But I figured I was probably one of a hundred people there were auditioning. They were probably just doing me a favor cuz I was always on the broad already on the broadcast anyway. Then I get a phone call and say, “All right, you’re you’re doing game two in Philly.” And that was in October of 2008. And I did 15 games that year. And um wasn’t sure if they’d ask me to do it again. And then um they just they just I just kept doing it and doing it. And Kenny got kept getting more work. So the first year I did 15 games, most most of them in the beginning of the year when Kenny had football. But as Kenny’s career expanded, I was doing 30 35 games. There were a couple of years where I did as many as 50 games. There were two seasons I did more games than Kenny did. And like I said, from 2008 until last year, 473 games later, um, now a chance to do it on television. That’s in That’s incredible. Now, I know you mentioned how you had to shield your Devils fandom while with the Rangers. Um, what was that like? Especially if the Devils played the Rangers. Was there ever a difficulty not being able to root for your favorite team and sort of have that filter on air? No, it really wasn’t. I mean, people ask that a lot like how difficult it was. It wasn’t it wasn’t hard at all because you you’re doing the work. I mean, like I said, you’re making the commitment that I want to do this and I’ve got an audience of people and the majority of that audience are Ranger fans and I want to do my job and my job is to be neutral and if anything skew towards the Ranger fan and also, you know, give them what they need. And so it was easy to turn off because I wanted to do a good job. And you cannot do a good job if you’re rooting for the other team. You know, you just can’t do it. And then once I started doing playbyplay, it was easy because I want to do the playbyplay for the team that’s going to win the game. You know, I want an exciting game. I want and I want the team I’m calling to win the game. And there were a lot of Ranger Devil games early in my playbyplay, you know. So, it was easy to shut off because it’s it’s the job. It’s what you want to do. And I worked too hard to have it not not happen because I let my fandom get in the way. And then over time, you start watching more Rangers. It’s crazy. I wish I could talk to the NHL. It seems like Rangers, Devils, and Islanders always play at the same time. So, it was you, it just became, you know, my life to cover the team, get to know players, get to know people within the organization. You know, growing up as a Devil fan, hating Mark Messier and Mike Richtor and Adam Graves, and then meeting these guys and having them be tremendous people and and learning so much from them. And like Adam Graves, who I hated for scoring that goal in overtime in 97 that knocked the Devils out of the playoffs in the second round in game five, is sitting next to me in the bridge at Madison Square Garden asking how my twins are and you know um just genuinely caring about me as a human being. Like that just it just becomes something different, Trey. It just it just it just does. And you know, I’ve heard people say because I guess when I first got the gig, um, a couple of weeks ago, they were playing some audio of Ranger goals that I called during Ranger games or devil goals I scored during Ranger games. He doesn’t sound like a Devil fan. Um, he doesn’t sound like he’s got a lot of energy for that. Like, I could never do that. I could never hold in my enthusiasm for a double goal. Well, I I was able to do that because it was my job, you know, and and believe me, now now it’s come together where it’s the team that I rooted for, but it’s still the same thing. I still have to do my job. It just now I’m going to do it for an audience that cares about a different team and it just happens to be a team that I cared about for a long time. But whether I got the the um Mammoth job or the Kings job or or any other job in the NHL, it would be the same thing of of working for that team and giving the fans the best effort possible because that’s who you’re playing to. You’re playing to the room and the room this time is going to be full of Devil fans, but for almost 20 years who are Ranger fans. So I that that was the job that I was tasked to do and I tried to do it to the best of my ability. Okay, I’m going to put you on the spot. What was your favorite game to call so far? My favorite game to call easily was game one of the Stanley Cup final in 2014. It was a dream, you know. I remember I remember listening to the the the North Stars Penguins Stanley Cup final in 1991 on the radio because I couldn’t get it on TV because I didn’t have sports. something happened with Sports Channel and I’m like thinking like how cool would it be to call a Stanley Cup final and game one against the Kings in LA. Um I got the call because Mike Emer Doc father-in-law passed away so he couldn’t do the game on NBC. Kenny was Doc’s backup so Kenny did the game and because I was Kenny’s backup I got a chance to do the game. And I remember if you remember at all about 2014, um the Rangers wrapped up with Montreal in the conference final early. So they were waiting to see who they were going to play and the Blackhawks and the Kings were going to game seven. And I was think and I was going to call game one and we knew it was going to be in the road on the road. It was either going to be in LA or it was going to be in Chicago. Rooting so hard for the Blackhawks to win. A because I didn’t want to fly across the country. Chicago was closer and also I had never been at that time yet to a game in Chicago and the Mets were going to be at Wrigley during the beginning of the Stanley Cup final. So game one was a Wednesday, game two was a Saturday and right in the middle there the Mets were going to be in Chicago. I’m like this would be great couple of off days because I was going to stay out there and do the pre and post for game two and I’ll get to go to Wrigley Field for the first time and see the Mets but the Kings end up winning game seven in overtime. I end up going to LA and I remember just being so nervous and excited. It’s a Stanley Cup final in Los Angeles and the game went to overtime and Justin Williams ended up scoring the game-winning goal, but it was it was just so chaotic. The NHL came in with a a go cam. They put it in the press. They put it in our booth so that for the DVD they would have our calls on on video. And I remember me and Dave going, “What are you doing?” And like, “Oh, we’re putting a” and it was just so much attention and it was just it was so surreal to be involved in that. So, yeah, that that was that was my favorite game to call a um overtime loss in game one in Los Angeles between the Rangers and the Kings in the Stanley Cup final. 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Code lockdown for half off your first year. Okay, let’s close out today’s episode alongside Dawn. Take it away once again. All right, to wrap up uh this episode, let’s focus on the Devils. Um, you tried to get your father to take you to a Rangers game, but he informed you that that New Jersey was getting a team in the not so future. What were some of your earliest memories as a fan? My earliest memories as a fan, John Stark, who was my best who’s my best friend, one of my best friends, was a Devil fan and he got me to we would go to the games together and the first game that I went to was, you know, February 22nd, 1987, a six nothing loss to the Islanders at the Medallands where a goal was scored off of Claude Lazelle’s head. But the memory I have is just bouncing around. Like my friend John had this thing where we’d sit for a little while, we’d scout the arena for an empty seat to get closer. So we’d buy tickets up in the nosebleleeds, but then work our way down to hopefully by the third period we’d be up. We had the glass. And I hated that because I didn’t want to keep moving around or security throwing us out. But eventually we got, you know, to where we were going to sit and just going to those games and just the excitement of being at the I love the Metallands. I do. And as much as I love the rock, the Melands for me, it just brings back childhood memories. I love just driving, parking in the parking lot. I saw great concerts there. I would used to go to Net games, but the Devil games were just so much fun going out trying to scalp tickets to try to get as close to the ice as possible. I remember a game against the Red Wings in the late 80s, bringing my camera, taking pictures because I was never that close to the ice before. And then 88, 89, I got the chance to do Scoro and it was against the Blues and I remember we’d have to go um before the period ended and I’d have to go on the ice. You know Skoro, right? You got to shoot the puck into the little hole in the and I got and I never realized there was so much snow on the ice. So, I don’t even think my pucks even made it to the net, but um just Pat Verbeique and Kirk Mueller and John Mlan and you know, even going back to guys like Joe Serella and Shawn Burke and Elaine Chevier, like so many great memories of them not winning, but just you just love the team. And then to see it all come together when Lou got there and and getting Stevens and drafting Nita Meyer and Broaddor and just seeing it all to come together made it so much more special knowing where where they were and where they came from and it was just really special to see them finally win the cup. What are some of the favorite things that you witnessed as a Devils fan? Sort of as a followup, whether it be their three cups or a player achieving a milestone or a notable trade in sign or signings. What What were some things that that you were able to witness? There were so many things, Trey. Uh, you know, obviously the cup and I’ve I’ve told this story a million times. My buddy and I after they lost in the conference final to the Rangers in ’94, we said, I think they got a chance to win the cup. Let’s get strips of tickets for the third and fourth round. So, we bought them before the season even ended. And we had to buy four for the third round, four for the second round, for the for the for the Stanley Cup final. And so, we were going to be in the building for all those big games against Philadelphia and Detroit. And it was amazing. Like we ended up getting money back because they only played the three games in the conference final. Only played two games in the Stanley Cup final. It was 200 bucks for eight tickets. It was amazing. We were up in the in the corner. I think it was like section four 242. But to be in there when they they won the Stanley Cup, Trey, the Devils won the Stanley Cup. I just could not believe it. I got a picture that I took from our seats. to see them actually win it and the confetti coming down and and partying afterwards was amazing. Being in the building in 2003 and I’m in the business at the time I did a show for ESPN after they had won game seven and hearing Bob Arcena announce that Kendano was in the lineup. He wasn’t a scratch and I remember talking to Kenny after that saying he thought it was a mistake because he had been scratched the previous games but he got a chance to to play in game seven and they beat the Ducks to be in the building for that. I became friendly with Jim Dow and Jim Dow was nice enough to invite me to the owner’s box when Broaddor broke uh Patrick W’s record for wins in a career. So to be in the building for that um was pretty amazing too. So those are the ones that jump out. Obviously they won the cup against Dallas on the road um and Colorado. They ended up losing um in Colorado as well, but to be in the building when the cup was awarded a couple of times as a double fan was nothing beat that. You know, it’s funny. I spoke to your predecessor, Bill Spalding, and he he said like if he could go back in time and call a particular game in any sort of history or fashion, he said it would be game seven of the 2003 Stanley Cup final because he and Dano had a good relationship. And sort of going off of that, in 2003, Mr. Devil himself, uh, Ken Dano let you drink out of Lord Stanley during the Cup celebration. Can you elaborate on that story a little bit more? Is that true? No. Yeah, we had we became friendly during that run and I was interviewing him a lot and and after they won the Stanley Cup, he invited me to a barbecue at his house and I remember saying to my girlfriend, now wife, like, what do we what do we bring? like we I think we brought some intimate cookies. Like I didn’t know what we were walking into and what we walked into was like a carnival. He might have had a ferris wheel. I don’t remember. And we went in there and he was nice enough to bring me into his house and um drink from the Stanley Cup. It was uh it was pretty amazing. The the Devil players are great and having relationships with those guys. Um I told the story that I got to know Scott Gomez and when my father-in-law passed away, Scott Gomez sent me deer meat. I don’t know if that’s an Alaskan tradition or something, but he he he he shipped deer meat to my house, I guess, because, you know, the family maybe needed something to eat after we lost somebody like Scott was a tremendous person. Danico, a great person as well. And before you ask, since you were on the topic, the game I’d want to go back in history and call would be game six in 2000. uh the Jason Arnot goal, Elash’s pass in the corner to win a Stanley Cup, you know, in overtime. To be able to call something like that would have been pretty amazing. The only regret is I was watching it like everybody else on television, but um to be in the building for that must have been amazing. All right, last couple of questions. We talked about some of your achievements, but I want to talk about sometimes facing disappointment because you were in the running to get the Devils Playbyplay gig a few years ago and you didn’t get it, but now fast forward a few years later, they offered you it again. Can you talk about like sometimes facing that sort of disappointment and I know that feeling too being oh so close but just didn’t cross the finish line first and still being resilient enough to keep moving forward and you never know what opportunity might present itself in the notsodistant future. Can can you speak on that? Yeah, I kind of come full circle to the beginning of the interview about just trying to persevere in 2016. I was also off the Islander job that they eventually gave to Brendan Burke and he’s been amazing. Um, so that opportunity was missed and the devil opportunity came along and I auditioned for that and and was beat out by Bill and I thought all right I’m 54. I I’ve I’ve struck out twice now auditioning and it doesn’t look like Kenny’s going anywhere and at the time like Sam, you know, will anything open up there? But you start thinking, all right, maybe it’s just not it’s not meant to be. I I’ll just be a backup playby-play guy. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I get a ton of games. I get to cover an original 16. Um and then when Sam announced his retirement last summer, um it was clear that Kenny was going to get that job. And then it looked like, all right, well then this is it. That that there isn’t going to be an opportunity to do television and I’m not leaving the market because I’ve got the radio show and I’ve got seven-year-old twins. I’m established here in New Jersey. And then you begin to say, “All right, this is going to be it. And is that okay?” And I’m like, “Yeah, it’s okay. I mean, I got a great career. I shouldn’t be upset about it. Um, but just keep doing what I’m doing.” And you just never know what opportunity might present itself around the corner. And just kept doing what I was doing and and then this opportunity came up again. So, yeah, just it’s crazy how I just I thought the opportunity was lost and and it it it came back around again. So, I guess the message is just you never know. Just keep yourself in the game. There’s gonna be a lot of times, Trey, in your career and other people that are listening that you’re going to say, “I got to tap out, man. It’s just not working out.” That’s when you got to double down and and say, “No, I love doing what I’m doing.” There were many times during my career where I’m like, “This isn’t working out. My dad’s offering me a job at PSEG for 60 grand a year, which was double what I was making at Sports Phone, and I said, “No, I I put too much into this. I want to keep it going. And you just hope it works out, but you want to be there if it ever does. So, you don’t want to ever quit and just keep believing in yourself and just hope that it’s going to happen for you. Takes a little luck, perseverance, and talent, mostly luck, and just being at the right place at the right time. Well said. And going off of what you said about luck, sometimes you got to create your own luck in order for that to to to work out. Final question. What are your early season thoughts and expectations for the Devils? What did you notice about them from across the Hudson River? Uh, an immensely talented team. Last year was so interesting because they went out and seemed to check all the boxes that they needed to check. Need a goalender? Marstrom, they got him. Uh, need help on the blue line, bang, they do that. They get Brett Peshy, who I always loved in Carolina. And now it’s just a matter of staying healthy. Honestly, I mean, this is as dynamic an offensive team as they’ve ever had in the history of this franchise. And I know we talk about the trap, but you go back to those 2000 teams with Elage and Arnot, Sakura, they scored, but with a healthy Nico, with a healthy Hughes, there’s there’s the sky’s is the limit offensively with this team, just got to stay healthy. It’s a tough division. Carolina seems to have our number. Uh Columbus seems like they might be on the come a little bit here. You know, the Rangers are still the Rangers with Igor Shurken. Um there there are good teams in this division, but I I think if things check off here that there’s no reason why this team can’t compete with this division and make the run. Um you got to learn from losing, you know, and and obviously they got they got a chance to beat the Rangers a couple of years ago. So there’s a lot of guys there that tasted some success in the postseason, but um trying to build off of that, build off of what they were able to accomplish last year, hopefully avoid the hurricanes and and see if they can’t make a run. But I’m all fired up to be able to spend uh every day around some of the really talented players. The Hughes brothers are great kids. I remember uh the Devils brought Jack Hughes into the studio when I was doing the Michael K show when he got drafted. I’m like, he looks like he’s 15 years old. And and now to be able to cover him. Um, and I and I don’t think there’s any question he may go down as their first 50 goal scorer, their first 100 point scorer, and maybe the greatest offensive player they ever had. So, to be able to catch this right now, I I the timing couldn’t be better. I think this team’s going to be a lot of fun. I do agree with you. And I also say this, don’t underestimate Jper Brad because he could become the first Devil player to reach 100 points. He’s been oh so close. Yeah, he’s No, he’s been terrific. There a lot of good players uh on this team that I’m I’m looking forward to getting getting to know personally and and to cover all the time. I think it’s uh there’s a there’s a lot of there’s a lot of talented players and I I I I don’t know Sheldon Keefe well. I I knew his time with Toronto so I’m looking forward to getting to know him and um uh Tom Fitzgerald was nice enough to reach out to me when I got the job and everybody has had nothing but nice things to say about him and as a person and as an executive. So, uh, again, I’m going to get a chance over these next, um, couple of months before the season starts to to get to know everybody on a personal level. The way I kind of, you know, doing the Rangers, I got to know a lot of a lot of those people well. I mean, I got Chris Jury was a tremendous guy. When I was sick with COVID in the hospital, he text he text me and asked me how I was doing. When I saw him after, I’m like, “That was nice of you.” He’s like, “Well, you’re one of us. You’re part of the team.” That’s what’s so cool about being a play-by-play guy, especially full-time. You are you’re you’re part of the team and I’m looking forward to being a part of this team. And we can’t wait to hear you on air alongside Ken Dano, Bryce Salvador, and Rachel Herszog. Don, we talked about everything from your career to now landing your dream job with the Devils. Where can my audience find you at? Well, at Don LGrea is the best way to reach me social media wise. Nothing fancy, just d a l agrea. Of course, I’m on 880 ESPN 7 to3 to 7, excuse me. We’re going to try to make that work, juggle it a little bit during the season. I’ll probably have to do a lot of the shows from from the rock and from the road. That’s the way they can certainly hear me. But, uh, you know, social media is the best way to get in touch with me. I’d love to be able to have dialogue with the fans and and that’s probably the best way to do it. Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to appear on my show. And to my audience, like I do to close out every episode, continue to stay safe. Have a wonderful day, New Jersey. Go Devils. I’ll catch you guys in the next episode. Special thanks to my guest star, Don. Have a good day everybody.

New Jersey Devils television play-by-play announcer Don La Greca joined me on today’s episode. He was recently named the new voice for the Devils, succeeding Bill Spaulding. As a lifelong Devils fan, he calls this opportunity his “dream job.” He has many years of experience in the industry, including roles with the New York Rangers, ESPN, YES, and more.

Follow Don on the “X” app: @DonLaGreca

0:00 Humble beginnings

9:46 Working his way up the industry

31:49 Devils fandom

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