Busy postseason nothing new for Forslund, but Canes games are again
If it’s Tuesday, John Forslund must be headed to Tampa. By Thursday, he’ll be in Washington with the Carolina Hurricanes. Back to Florida on Friday. Back to Washington on Saturday.
The busy broadcaster has worked the playoffs for the NBC networks’ national broadcasts for years, but the Hurricanes’ return to the postseason has complicated his already complicated schedule. When he’s not calling the Hurricanes for Fox Sports Carolinas – simulcast on the radio, too – he’ll be working the Columbus Blue Jackets-Tampa Bay Lightning series, starting on USA Network.
Saturday, when NBC has an exclusive national broadcast of the Hurricanes and Washington Capitals, Forslund and Tripp Tracy will be radio-only in Raleigh, something they tested out in the preseason just in case this eventuality arose.
Other than the Hurricanes being involved, this kind of workload is nothing new for Forslund, who worked 14 national playoff games last year and has already hit triple-digits this season with his FS Carolinas and NBC schedule.
“I do a lot of this during the season, and in the playoffs it’s a little bit easier since it’s the same teams,” Forslund said Tuesday before catching a flight to Tampa. “It’s a continuum. But you do the same amount of prep, and I start from scratch the way I do it. I need some time for that, but I’m used to seven (games) in nine (days) and six in six from the regular season, traveling on game days and getting ready for that night.”
Oddly enough, while the Hurricanes have spent a decade in the postseason wilderness, Forslund and Tracy have worked a playoff series together recently: In 2015, they did a chunk of the Colorado Avalanche-Minnesota Wild first-round series together for NBC.
Forslund has been double-dipping like this for years; the new wrinkles are the Hurricanes being back in the playoffs combined with the radio simulcast of the television broadcast, something the Hurricanes did for the first time this season with the summer departure of longtime radio voice Chuck Kaiton.
How that will all work out if the Hurricanes advance is uncharted territory; Forslund is used to having carte blanche with NBC this time of year, but the network worked with him to get him an East Coast series with non-conflicting dates to allow him to work a full NBC schedule without missing any Hurricanes commitments.
If the Hurricanes get to a point where NBC gains exclusivity, Forslund and Tracy could potentially go full radio. In years past, when the Hurricanes advanced that far, Forslund would join Kaiton as an analyst. This time, if that happens, he could do the play-by-play alongside Tracy, as they will for Game 2.
“We did all the preseason games that way, and I love it,” Forslund said. “I enjoy doing radio. I adapted my call for the Hurricanes this year for the simulcast with a little bit more description than usual, but we can go full-blown radio with the game on Saturday.”
Equally uncertain: Forslund and Tracy’s future with the team. Both contracts expire this summer, and the team has several other expiring staff and management contracts to sort through before it gets to the broadcasters. It’s hard to imagine the Hurricanes losing either or both of those two a summer after reaching a contract impasse with the Hall-of-Famer Kaiton, but new owner Tom Dundon has also made it clear he’s not bound by sentimentality.
That’s not a concern at the moment, as Forslund is planning out his flights and preparation and rest. Just because he’s used to doing things this way doesn’t make it easy.
“It’s a challenge, but it’s a good challenge to have,” Forslund said. “I’m excited. I’m glad NBC kept me going.”
