Maniscalco, filling big shoes, gets dream call on Hurricanes TV playoff broadcasts
This isn’t how Mike Maniscalco imagined getting the job, but it’s still the job he always dreamed about getting. The longtime sideline reporter for Carolina Hurricanes broadcasts on Fox Sports Carolinas will take over the play-by-play chair for next month’s playoffs, one recently vacated by his friend and mentor John Forslund.
“It’s bittersweet,” Maniscalco said Thursday. “That’s the only word I can use.”
The team announced Thursday that Maniscalco and analyst Tripp Tracy will call the Hurricanes’ qualifying-round games against the New York Rangers starting August 1, as well as the July 29 exhibition game against the Washington Capitals, all played in the NHL’s Eastern Conference coronavirus bubble in Toronto.
Maniscalco and Tracy will be here, calling the games off a monitor, as if taking over for Forslund — who will be freelancing for NBC during the playoffs after turning down the Hurricanes’ offer of a pay cut — wasn’t going to be tough enough.
“On the one side, I wish the circumstances were completely different,” Maniscalco said. “But on the other side, it’s an opportunity, and we’ll see what happens and I’ll do my best and make the most of it and we’ll see how things play out.”
Even under the best of circumstances, these would be difficult shoes to fill. There were others with more hockey play-by-play experience available, including former Charlotte Checkers broadcaster Jason Shaya, a frequent Forslund fill-in when he was on NBC duty. Maniscalco is fully aware of the intense scrutiny he would face even in a normal transition.
But Forslund’s forced departure only makes it tougher, especially since the Hurricanes have publicly, if only technically, left the door open for his return. (The two sides haven’t negotiated since Forslund’s contract expired at the end of June.)
“I have all the respect in the world for John,” Maniscalco said. “I wish this was a different circumstance of how this opportunity came about, but he’s the best. He knows it. That’s my feeling on him. That’s where my line is drawn: If anyone asks me about it, he’s the best voice in the NHL.”
Nevertheless, it’s the culmination of a lifelong dream for Maniscalco, one that started as a student at Buffalo State and followed a long odyssey through sports radio hosting and TV reporting to get to this point only days before he turns 45.
He got a taste of it during the 2019 playoffs, when he did the Hurricanes radio broadcast with Tracy for five games that were national TV exclusives, with Forslund working for NBC. (The normal Hurricanes radio broadcast on WCMC-FM has been a simulcast of the TV broadcast for the past two seasons.)
“Just to have this opportunity, and have it in the playoffs, where the games mean so much and people do hang on the calls of the games, I know there’s going to be pressure,” Maniscalco said. “And I know who I’m not.”
Maniscalco has served as the sideline reporter for FS Carolinas for four seasons and was the host of the pregame and postgame radio shows for nine years before that, so he’s a familiar face to players, coaches and fans alike — and many of the latter reached out last fall when Maniscalco was sidelined with a benign tumor in his abdomen. (He passed his six-month checkup a few weeks ago.)
Former Hurricanes forward Shane Willis will return on the pregame and postgame shows, with arena host Abby Labar taking over for Maniscalco in the other chair.
“Johnny’s been great. We love him,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Thursday. “A huge part of the history of this group. Tripp and him are special, a part of what this team has been about for a long time, and represent us really well. So that’s tough to hear. ...
“Mike’s awesome. He’s a Hurricane. I want to see him do so well because he’s such a deserving guy and a guy everybody loves around here.”
Maniscalco, whose furlough ends Monday, has been told he’s only in the chair for the duration of the playoffs. The Hurricanes haven’t decided what they’ll do if and when the 2020-21 season is played, although certainly Maniscalco would be expected to remain in the role if this goes well.
“Our decision has been just for these playoffs at this point,” Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said. “I like the team we’ve put together.”
So Maniscalco is approaching this as an audition, a chance to show what he can do in the job he’s always wanted, one previously held by a future Hall of Famer in Forslund and a current Hall of Famer in former radio voice Chuck Kaiton.
“This organization has such a tremendous history of play-by-play voices,” Mansicalco said. “I just want to honor that.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 2:44 PM.
