Former Hurricanes broadcaster enjoys bittersweet, full-circle Stanley Cup moment
In one radio booth, Mike Maniscalco and Tripp Tracy were calling the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final, their excitement apparent.
The two have turned their “Booth Cam” into some must-see viewing, especially the immediate aftermath when the Canes make a huge play — something like the Seth Jarvis overtime goal in Game 2 against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Maniscalco, a big man, and Tracy, more of a welterweight, bumped bodies after Jarvis scored, giving the Canes their first Cup Final win since 2006. Tracy, smiling, was knocked back across the booth but recovered quickly as the short clip got hundreds of thousands of views on social media.
A few booths down on the fifth level at Lenovo Center, John Forslund was making the same call on the Jarvis goal for SportsUSA radio, with more than enough emotion to match the moment.
“He scores! Seth Jarvis! With a bomb!”
In 2006, when the Hurricanes won the Cup, Forslund was the team’s TV play-by-play voice. In the Cup Final, he joined Chuck Kaiton, the Canes longtime radio play-by-play announcer, in the booth for the pulsating Game 7 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
In an interesting dynamic, Forslund and Maniscalco now are calling the Hurricanes in a Cup Final 20 years apart. In a playoff run that has had several historic moments, that, too, could be a first, although the NHL has a long history.
Had Forslund not had contentious contract negotiations with Canes owner Tom Dundon in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, he might still be calling the Carolina games. A native New Englander, he was working Hartford Whalers games and made the move to North Carolina in 1997 when then-owner Pete Karmanos relocated the franchise and renamed the team.
Forslund wanted to agree on a new contract and stay in Raleigh. His family still has a home in Raleigh, even as he moved on to be the first play-by-play man for the expansion Seattle Kraken while also calling national games on TNT.
His departure from the Hurricanes still stings, Forslund said in an N&O interview, making any return to the Lenovo Center bittersweet. Not the Canes being in a Cup Final. He’s happy for the Canes. Still has many old friends working for them — Brind’Amour, assistant coaches Jeff Daniels and Tim Gleason and equipment managers Bob Gorman and Jorge Alves among them.
“They deserve this opportunity to see the team win and be successful and have a thriving place in the market,” he said. “Because a lot of people have worked really hard for that.”
But being back in the building? It is difficult, given his departure.
“Yeah, 100 percent,” he said. “I said at the time I’m not going to get over it. I think in some ways I have, but there are portions of it that will never change.
“When you work somewhere for almost 25 years, and do what we did, in the booth and away from the booth and in the community, you’re a part of it, right? And then to just have it taken away from you like that without much negotiation or anything …
“It can be a case where it’s a business decision, but business always gets to personal. If you’re on the personal side of a business decision, it is personal.”
Forslund had become a large part of the promotional branding for the Hurricanes, making appearances, pumping up enthusiasm, doing all he could to make hockey important in the Triangle amid all the interest in college sports. Hockey carved out its spot.
“Twenty years is a lot, and there are generations who have moved on from here and new people who have come here,” he said. “I’m sure there’s people who are fans of the team now that don’t know I even existed in this market. Enough time has passed and there’s enough transience coming in and the market is growing so much.”
Thinking back to the 2006 Cup run, when Rod Brind’Amour was the Canes captain, Forslund said the 2005-06 season produced some exciting hockey, coming after the lockout season in 2004-05 that was caused by deadlocked CBA negotiations.
“It was a rebirth of hockey,” he said. “It was recapturing the fans back, a totally different time. And the team, I think, that group of players was unique in terms of their tightness.”
Peter Laviolette, the Canes coach in 2006, should be credited with that, Forslund said. When the Canes won the Cup on that June night in 2006, the team’s family members covered the ice.
“I believe the Hurricanes were the first team to allow families on the ice for the celebration,” Forslund said. “I think the league was trying to figure out how to make that work without it being total chaos. They’ve come up with a really good way to do it, very uniform and organized.
“There was just a oneness about that team. I’m sure it’s close now.”
Whether the Canes win or lose the Stanley Cup this season, Forslund will be able to say he was there for another Final, 20 years removed from when he first called it, and became a part of it.
“I’m happy I got to stamp the last series in terms of what I do,” Forslund said. “But it’s always mixed emotions because it’s different. I have a different role than I had 20 years ago and a role I didn’t think was going to happen. But it did.”
