Legendary NHL Broadcaster Starts His New Life in Los Angeles | Black & White | LA Kings

Legendary NHL Broadcaster Starts His New Life in Los Angeles | Black & White | LA Kings

I think it’s the best game in the world. You do your prep and you go to the locker room and talk to the players and you get ready for the game. But truly the best moment of the day is at 7:08 when the puck drops and you just never know. You could see history one night and you could see something that you’ve never seen before. Shin is in the clear and a breakaway. He scores shoots and he scores. I’m John Kelly. Alongside is Bruce Affleck. And again, overtime heaven. Great for Perry. Shoots. He scores. Cory Perry. One. It’s one. He scores. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I played hockey as a kid. I loved the game. And I soon realized that I was too small and too slow to continue at a high level. So the next best thing was to become a broadcaster and that’s what I set my mind to and luckily for me it worked out. So I’ I’ve been doing it now for 37 years in the AHL and very blessed to have the job. My dad Dan Kelly is a Hall of Fame announcer, won the Lester Patrick Award for service to the United States. As a kid I would stay up at night and I had a little black transistor radio and I’d listen to his games on radio. Back then, there weren’t many games on TV. And if I had a dollar for every time a fan has come up to me in my life and said, “I became a fan of the Blues and the NHL because of your dad listening at night with a transistor radio. I could probably retire right now.” I mean, that’s how people back then consumed Blues hockey in St. Louis. Into center ice to Pedo. Pedco stole it from Reinhardt. Breaking in to Hunter. Hunter shooting. Rebound. scores. Wenheiser, the winner for St. Louis. My dad’s call of Mario Lemieux’s goal in game three of the 87 Canada Cup, I think, was his maybe his greatest call ever. It was a defensive zone faceoff in Canada’s end, and Mario Lemieux poked the puck by the defenseman. It was a twoon-one, really three-on-one with Larry Murphy and and Gretzky found Mario and he scored. And my dad’s buildup to that goal was just vintage Dan Kelly puts it in. Here’s Lemieux poking at the center. Leo ahead to Gretzky as Pery with him on a twoon one by Le and I’m going through. He scores Lemieux with 126 remaining. I was very familiar with Dan Kelly, John’s father. First of all, he was doing national games in the United States and Canada way back when I was growing up. When I started coming to when I started playing in the NHL, he was around and well aware of all of his calls, all of his games and then his stature and then of course induction to the Hall of Fame. the way I call a game, my timing and my cadence and things like that. I think it’s a lot similar to my dad’s because that’s what I heard for 21 years. Um, it’s sort of like I think learning a language, you know, every night I listen to him. Vernon cuts it off behind the net for Macau. They score it. Scores ties this game with 108 to play. He was a great mentor, great teacher, and for me to be able to sit next to him in broadcast booths and drive the games with him and pick his brain, it’s invaluable, and not many broadcasters obviously get that advantage. Before I went to St. Louis, I broadcast for Colorado for 9 years and had a great time there and the team had a lot of success. And one of the phrases I used in Colorado was, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” when the Avalanche scored a goal. Kucks. What a move there in front. He scores. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Peter Forest. I think it’s special when you’re fortunate enough to have called big moments and big games and most of those are going to come in the Stanley Cup playoffs and and I’ve been lucky enough covering teams um in Colorado. They won two cups when I was there. The Blues, of course, won the cup in in 2019. So, if you can make a big goal better by your call, if it can be more memorable for the fans because you made the call a little more special, then I think that you’ve done your job. A shot number 86. Bozac in front. They score. Schwarz tipped it in. I do not believe it. This is crazy. The club with eight power play goes. Oh my god. The balls are Thomas shoots and he scores. Thomas wins it 11 straight. You think of some of the great calls over the years in any sport, the great broadcasters, whether it’s Al Michaels or Vince Scully or Bob Miller or my dad, they’ve made the great moments just a little better because they hit the right tone and made the right call at the right time. I was well aware of what John was doing in his own career before he got here. Colorado, St. Louis mostly. I know he was in the minor leagues. He did a whole bunch of stuff, but I think there is a comfort level for John because it’s not his first rodeo. Well, when I first heard that John was available, which unfortunately was a difficult situation, I think everyone realizes our industry right now is very fragile. I’ll be honest with you, as soon as I heard that he was available, I was lobbying as much as possible. If you have a list in your mind, he’s right at the top of the list. I am mindful of the fact that the bar has been set very high in Los Angeles and obviously it was set very high in St. Louis. So, if I come to a game and I’m not well rested, I’m not prepared, then it’s an injustice to the people that have been there before me. So I I think that’s the mindset I have is that every night our broadcast crew tries to do the best possible job we have because the bar has been set so high here in Los Angeles. I had announced in St. Louis for 21 years. So it was exciting to go back. You know, the biggest thing is that you go back there and you have so many great memories and great times that you had with different people and, you know, interacting with the fans and things like that. Um, but probably the best part of it is to see familiar faces, people you’ve worked with, um, people you know from the franchise and the team. Hey, Colt, thanks for reaching out to me. It was so nice of you. How you doing? I’m doing great. Hey, Steener. How you doing, man? Thanks for reaching out, man. You’re so good. Hi Davey. How you doing buddy? So good to see you. You and my daughter Megan. Yeah. Yeah. Monty, great to see you man. How you doing? I’m I’m sorry I missed your uh your That’s all right. Media veil and thank you for reaching out. No one cares about the Midwest. That’s not true. You know my daughter Megan Mr. Montgomery. It felt very comfortable to go back there, but also, you know, a little different now that I was going in there as a Kings broadcaster. Josh is part of our broadcast team. He’s going to do some TV and a lot of radio and a lot of other stuff. He’s younger than you actually. Am I getting old now? No. Right. You’re 27. Yeah. So, I have a kid that’s old. I have a kid older than you. Nice. Actually, I have two older than you. I’ve always felt as a broadcaster when you do a team night in night out for, you know, 82 games and year after year, you have a really good book on the players. You can’t get a good book 10 games in. Um, but now that I’ve watched the players play preseason and, you know, the first eight or nine games, you’re starting to get an understanding of of what a guy does well every night, what he doesn’t do as well, but it’s going to take some time. The comforting part of the transition was that I knew the broadcasters very well. Um, cuz Jim and I really began as broadcasters in the NHL about the same time in 1990. So I I knew Jim really well. Daryl Evans has been a broadcaster obviously for so long. So that made a transition a lot easier. Met John, you know, in the games in St. Louis, you know, over the years. He’s a really nice guy and I think he fits our team nicely. Sometimes it can be intimidating for anybody new, even somebody with his history that comes in. You know, his father was a broadcaster as well and all that, but I I think he he carries himself very professionally on the air. Oh, you think you can just come back here and take over, huh? Take all my notes? No. No. Steal. You’re stealing my stuff. I’m sorting them out. Steal. Here. Get your stuff. And some of it’s mine. Okay. Don’t be so possessive. Most of it is yours. I love his sense of humor. He’s very dry. He understands just about every one of my puns and he gets them immediately. So that for me is so comforting. He’s built up a reputation throughout his career of just being that easy to like guy. And I think that shows through. But we all knew John. So, I think it’s going to be seamless. Tony Vento Jim, our a statsman. He does a great job. Okay. He does excellent work. Okay. If you need anything, let me know. The only thing I need is the final score. Right before the game, Doug Armstrong, their president, general manager, you know, came in our booth and shook my hand and said hello and said, “Good to see you. Back.” Thanks, buddy. Thank you for all you’ve done. Yeah, it it felt good to uh be remembered. It wasn’t that long ago when I was a Blues announcer. Um so, it was obviously really good to reconnect with a lot of people as the Kings take on the Blues from Enterprise Center. 14 years in Anaheim, of course, a cup winner with the Ducks and now a member of the LA Kings. Welcome Cory Perry to the LA Kings, of course. Welcome back, John Kelly to St. Louis. Should be fun. Meet me in St. Louis, Jim. I already have many, many times before tonight. Right. You are. And our goalenders tonight. Jim is so well prepared and he’s done it so long and he’s worked with different partners. He he’s had three different uh play-by-play partners. It helps that we’re in the same booth. Um because some broadcast duos, the color man is down between the benches. You don’t have that eye to eye contact. So sometimes when I’m calling the game, Jim knows that I maybe need to take a breath and he also knows that, hey, I can pop in here with a quick nugget or a quick statement. So we just sort of have the non-verbal communication that you need to have and it’s been pretty good that way. Well, for many years, the fans in St. Louis have had a chance to enjoy what you did. John Kelly, please enjoy how they feel about you. We are live at the arena. I don’t like the spotlight on me. I’m not that kind of person. Um, and I knew they were going to do a a welcome back video and they did at the first TV timeout and it was very nice. But now I can just concentrate on being a broadcaster. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Fans, welcome back to St. Louis, John Kelly. [Applause] With John’s experience and having the history that he has and being that he’s been in the league with us, he knows our team. He knows our organization. We had playoff series against the St. Louis Blues. So, he’s very familiar with, you know, our star players, our veteran players, guys like Copitar and Dowy that he’s called games for, you know, as long as Jim and I have from our side. And the more games he calls, he’ll feel more and more part of our team. And you’ll start to see a little bit maybe more of his emotion come out of him. Shots 105 Los Angeles and they win the faceoff. Perry to the middle and now Dowy puts it right in front off a blue stick and into the I’ve always enjoyed the game and I I love playing. I played hockey as a kid. So I just feel like hockey is the best game there is, the best sport. You just never know what you’re going to see that night. You might see the greatest goal ever or the best check ever or you might see history. You just never know. And that’s what makes it exciting. My job as a play-by-play announcer is obviously to call the game. My approach with my partner Jim Fox is to go into a game and try to make it as entertaining as possible and as informative as possible. But I think at the end of the day, if they enjoyed that two and a half hour experience and maybe learned a little bit about their team or the other team or the players or the game, then I think that we’ve done our job. And the Blues take over. Kee blocking at center. The Kings a breakaway. Lefer in the clear and he scores. What a shot by Lefer. Seen pass. Keep shoots and he scores. Keep wins it. Kings in overtime. Goodbye. Good night. Game over.

Revered as the best of the best in St Louis, longtime NHL Broadcaster John Kelly makes the move to the West Coast to take on TV Play by Play duties for the LA Kings. Take a deeper dive into John’s story and how he’s captured the hearts and minds of hockey fans for generations!

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