{"id":592069,"date":"2026-06-05T19:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/592069\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T19:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:48:17","slug":"sean-mcdonough-on-feeling-inadequate-calling-nhl-for-espn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/592069\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean McDonough on feeling ‘inadequate’ calling NHL for ESPN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean McDonough has delivered some of the best calls of this Stanley Cup Final, was named the 2025 National Sportscaster of the Year, and had Joe Buck calling him one of the two best play-by-play voices in any sport<\/a> just a year ago. He\u2019ll be the first to tell you it wasn\u2019t always this comfortable.<\/p>\n

Appearing on the Sports Media Watch Podcast, McDonough opened up about just how difficult the adjustment was<\/a> when ESPN reacquired the NHL rights in 2021<\/a> after a 16-year absence from the sport, and about experiencing something rare for a broadcaster of his caliber.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m completely comfortable now. It was an adjustment when we first got it five years ago,\u201d he said. \u201cI obviously followed it very closely as a fan in the 16-17 years that ESPN didn\u2019t have the NHL, but I hadn\u2019t broadcast a game. I had done some Frozen Fours in between, but I had no full realization of just how much the game had changed, especially in terms of the speed. Twenty years ago, you could look down at your notes, make sure you had the right name and number, find a little nugget in your notes, look up, and the puck was still making its way up the ice. Now, if you look down for a split second and you look up, it\u2019s hard to find the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonough has spent decades as one of the most versatile play-by-play voices in the business before ESPN tapped him as its lead NHL voice when the network reacquired the rights in 2021. His NHL r\u00e9sum\u00e9 was thin by comparison. The last time he\u2019d called a full NHL season was during ESPN\u2019s previous run with the sport from 2000-203, and some questioned the hire<\/a> given that Kenny Albert, who took the top job at TNT Sports that same year<\/a>, had years of NHL experience on him. McDonough has long since answered those questions. But he\u2019s the first to tell you the early skepticism wasn\u2019t entirely off base.<\/p>\n

What made the adjustment to being the network\u2019s lead NHL voice particularly hard, McDonough explained, was that the quality ESPN specifically hired him for \u2014 his storytelling \u2014 suddenly worked against him in hockey\u2019s environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons they hired me is they think I\u2019m a good storyteller and they want to humanize the players more, so what I realized very quickly is it\u2019s very hard to tell stories within action in hockey because the puck moves too fast,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026You have to be very judicious in when you tell stories and how you tell them. And, basically, I try to tell them now as just one-line nuggets\u2026 I kind of learned that the hard way. You have to really memorize the names and numbers, and you can\u2019t look down when the puck\u2019s in action.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first time in a career spent calling some of the biggest events in sports, McDonough felt out of his depth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not good, to be quite candid about it, when we first started back five years ago,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd it was the first time that I really felt \u2014 I never really felt inadequate \u2014 and I kind of did when we first got the hockey, to the point where I thought, \u2018I used to think this was my best sport and so did a lot of other people who know me, now I\u2019m not sure about this.’\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the adjustment came once he figured out how to work within the sport\u2019s constraints rather than fight them. The bigger ongoing challenge is simply not calling enough games, being that he also serves as the network\u2019s No. 2 college football voice. ESPN\u2019s regular-season NHL package is limited, which means McDonough goes stretches without being in a booth, and hockey play-by-play is uniquely dependent on rhythm and repetition in a way that other sports aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still a little difficult, to be honest, because we don\u2019t do that many regular-season games,\u201d McDonough admitted, \u201cso I find it\u2019s really just now in the playoffs where we have a game every other night for the most part that you really do get in a rhythm, because hockey play-by-play is largely about rhythm and flow.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was quick to add that he may have been harder on himself than warranted. But the standard McDonough holds himself to has never been a question. He pushed through illness<\/a> during the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, consulting team doctors in Edmonton rather than stepping away, and his call on Seth Jarvis\u2019s overtime winner earlier this week<\/a> was as good as anything he\u2019s produced in any sport. The broadcaster who thought he might not be cut out for hockey has become the standard by which ESPN\u2019s hockey coverage is judged.<\/p>\n

Sean McDonough: \u201cThese gentlemen would quiet all the critics wondering where they\u2019ve been if they score the game-winner in overtime\u2026 THEY SCOOOOORE! SETH JARVIS QUIETS THE CRITICS AND IGNITES THE CROWD!\u201d \ud83c\udfd2\ud83d\udea8\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f #StanleyCupFinal<\/a> #NHL<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Yi8lzmq6iW<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time, I feel very comfortable in the booth calling a game, and kind of feel like that\u2019s where I\u2019m supposed to be. But there were a few hockey games in the early days where I thought, \u2018Oh boy, I better get better at this in a hurry.’\u201d<\/p>\n

He did.<\/p>\n

\t