Sam Rosen and The Voices That Will Last a Lifetime
- terencemalangone
- Mar 18, 2025
- 9 min read
Updated: Mar 20, 2025
Madison Square Garden was filled with a deafening, nervous roar.
10 seconds left. Tick.
The puck careened from behind the net around the boards near the blue line.
8 seconds. Tick.
The screams were reaching a crescendo. Fans in attendance and around the world could sense it.
6 seconds now. Tick.
New York Rangers forward Steve Larmer got hold of the puck and sent it slowly down the ice, and with it, 54 years of curses.
It was June 14, 1994, and Larmer had sent the New York Rangers faithful into hysterics. The nerves were replaced by screams of elation; tears of joy rained, as did streamers from the famous Garden ceiling.
This was it. The Rangers had defeated the Vancouver Canucks and won the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1940. Right?
Well, nobody bothered to tell linesman Kevin Collins, who called a dubious icing with just over one second remaining on the clock. Delirious Rangers fans had waited 54 years. What was another second?
A Vancouver timeout and subsequent faceoff – in addition to the 54-year title drought - provided an overflow of anticipation.
And with the realization of it all permeating the bedlam at MSG, New York Rangers play-by-play legend Sam Rosen was given the chance to voice maybe the greatest moment in the history of the franchise.
Rangers forward Craig McTavish (sans a helmet, to let you know how long ago this was) tied up the faceoff.
One second. Tick.
And as the clock officially hit zero, Rosen delivered a call for the ages:
“The waiting is over!” he exclaimed. “The New York Rangers are the Stanley Cup Champions!"
"And this one will last a lifetime!”
Rangers fans will never forget where they were that June evening. And you can bet they will never forget Rosen’s call, wherever they watched.
There is an unquantifiable value in a truly great broadcaster. At their best, they take fleeting outcomes and make them forever memories, to be revisited in text chats and bars and late-night YouTube deep dives. They can ramp up the excitement of a big goal, build the anticipation of a coming play, or help release a game’s worth of emotions in cathartic fashion.
The vernacular of entire fanbases can be attributed to them, unifying complete strangers in language that only has meaning to the chosen few. Ask any Los Angeles Dodgers fan what “the impossible has happened!” means to them. Ask a Pittsburgh Penguins fan why they love to say, “he beat him like a rented mule.” Ask a New York Knicks fan about phrases like “Spinning and Winning” or “Duping and Hooping.”
To be a fan of sports is to be a fan of collective moments. No matter the contest, or the outcome, your elated joy or despondent misery is shared with your fellow fanatics - from your friends and family to complete strangers you see wearing a jersey on the street.
Broadcasters are the elevators of those moments; the emotional engineers of lifetime memories. They instill passion, hone the vernacular and serve as constant in a world that is increasingly turbulent by the day.
There are many good broadcasters, professional in both tone and nature. But if you’re lucky, your team has a great one. And as a Rangers fan from the time I could walk, I count myself among the luckiest of fans – because I had Sam Rosen.
Passion
The best broadcasters instill a sense of passion in fans that can be replicated for days on end. You’d be hard pressed to find a voice more passionate for New York Rangers hockey than Sam Rosen.
Sam Rosen was born in 1947 in Ulm, Germany before moving with his family to Brooklyn when he was 2 years old. An avid sports player and fan – notably of the New York Yankees – he grew up recoding himself doing play-by-play. He eventually joined MSG Networks as a studio host for two years before taking over the play-by-play in 1984 – a role he has had since.
I was born in 1987, the fifth of six kids in a very crowded house where chaos was the norm. With so many interests and only one TV, sports was a real unifier in the house, something everyone could agree on to watch. The New York Rangers usually went over without much objection. And for as long as I can remember, I watched with a fervor that could only be described as “dude, you’re like 6 years old, get a grip.”
I took to hockey – and specifically, the Rangers – right away. I adored the sport: it moved so fast, it was so exciting to watch on TV, and it offered a glimpse into what the chaos around me could look like if it were only slightly more organized and/or put on ice. I also had a mom who could tell me a lot about Mr. Ranger, Rod Gilbert, or how the GAG line was a sight to behold.
I would routinely try and stay up late to watch the end of games. I’d let the outcomes dictate my happiness for days at a time - the less said about my mood after the 1997 Eastern Final loss to the Flyers (and the broken siding on the porch), the better. I’d trade cards at school and beg to go to games even though I knew we couldn’t afford them.
But I didn’t need to go to games, because Sam Rosen was my front row ticket.
His passion for the game and the team – even in the dark years of overspending and relative mismanagement that made the team a cellar dweller from 1998 through 2004 – kept me coming back every night.
Watching someone authentically enjoying something – really enjoying it – may be the best way to spread the gospel of that thing. And for me, Sam Rosen was an evangelist. If he was having so much fun, how could I not do the same? Passion, in short, is the way to the heart and mind.
Every night, you can hear Sam's passion through the screen. Maybe it's the specific knowledge of a player - usually a lesser known guy - that provides a three-dimensional portrait for the fans, letting them know these are people behind the jerseys we cheer and boo in equal measure.
Maybe it's getting excited about a goal, or save, or great defensive play that keep the Rangers on the right track. Even - and maybe especially - when the team is struggling.
Maybe its the encyclopedic knowledge of Rangers trivia that pops up during broadcasts add a legitimately fun element to games. We all guess ourselves, but we know deep down we can count on Sam, and his knowledge, to always know the answer.
Whatever the case, one thing is for sure: His passion is infectious.
As a second grader at a school variety show, I decided to be Sam. And I made a friend do an impression of John Davidson – Sam’s longtime partner – as together we announced a "shift" and then I read the ads as if I were Sam sending the game to commercial break.
No, seriously. At age 7, I was letting a school assembly know that New York Rangers hockey on MSG was brought to you by Snapple (Made From the Best Stuff on Earth!), Sabrett Hot Dogs (The Ultimate!), Bud Ice (Doobie-Doobie Dooo!) and MCS Canon (Keeping People In Business…In Business!).
That poor audience.
Look, I never said I was normal, OK? But in hindsight, I realize what made me want to do that in front of a crowd was that I was picking up on Sam's passion for the team; for the game; for his craft. Be it calling a game winner or reveling in the sport or reading the ads. He taught me to care about stuff. Genuinely, to care.
And for that passion, I can’t thank Sam enough.
Language
The best broadcasters become the Rosetta Stone of their fandom, setting the vernacular that crosses generational lines. And Sam Rosen is a quote machine. Add that to his tremendous timing, grace and voice modulations and you have a Hall-of-Fame broadcaster, one that elevates moments and makes him one of the best to ever do it.
“It’s a Power Play Goal!,” his most famous moniker, greets every goal scored by the Rangers on the Power Play.
“Those are not boos, those are Zoo-Zucarellos!” he’ll quip, ensuring the viewing public is aware the esoteric nature of hockey fandom shortening their favorite players’ names could occasionally sound like a home-team bad mouthing its own player (miss you, Zuc).
His habit of live correcting himself in later years (“Excuse me, that’s Panarin!”) is maybe the most endearing thing he does now, checking any semblance of ego at the door.
The list goes on. But the important point to me: Hearing these phrases almost nightly for almost 40 years now not only feel like a warm blanket on a winter's night, but they bring people together. In an increasingly divided world, that’s something I treasure a great deal.
I would often walk around the house quoting Rosen as a kid – I’d essentially have a dog-like zoomie where I’d be so excited I’d start spitting out Rosen quotes like “it’s a power play goal!” whenever something remotely interesting happened, like mom coming home from the store with a “fun” cereal that would last one morning before 6 kids destroyed it, only to fight over the action figure or pog slammer at the bottom.
When I played hockey in the street or the backyard with my two brothers, I played goalie, and would be tasked with “announcing,” where I’d narrate the action happening in front of me, including my own saves or failures. I’d mimic Rosen’s calls; down to him letting us know who was on the ice, how much time was left and how into it the non-existent crowd was (read: the zero people in this fictional land very often went up with a “Let’s Go Rangers” chant).
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I have flattered Sam Rosen a lot. His quirks, sayings and more became the soundtrack of my life.
That’s what a good broadcaster can do: they can have you speaking a language whose meaning is only known to the chosen few who count themselves as fans.
And for that vernacular, I can’t thank Sam enough.
Constant
In perhaps the best episode of the series Lost, the character Desmond Hume is caught in a loop of time-jumps, which threaten to kill him if he can’t get them to stop. He survives by contacting his “constant” across those jumps – his long-lost love, Penny.
It would be dramatic to call Sam Rosen a constant in that context. But there is something about longevity in a world of 5 second Tik-Tok reels and job hopping every other year that is very special.
No matter what, I could always tune into a Rangers game and hear Sam welcome me into the booth. A constant, in other words, in a world where the opposite is the norm.
And because of Sam’s consistency and reliability, he has narrated some of my favorite moments across the years. Memorable Rangers outcomes have spanned my life, and Sam elevated so many them. (And for the record, it would be many more if not for the NHL rule of local broadcasters ceding to national broadcasts after Round 1 of the playoffs – but that’s a post for another time).
From the Stanley Cup win to Mika Zibanejad scoring 5 goals to Artemi Panarin scoring a Game 7 Overtime winner (“Rangers! Rangers! Rangers Win!"), he has been there through it all.
In deciding to write this, I really didn’t know how to articulate what the man and his work have meant to me, which is ironic insofar as his entire job for 40 years has been to put words to experiences. But I thought I owed it to him to try.
I still cannot watch clips of his 1994 call without getting emotional. It elicits a flood of memories: of that Rangers team; of my 7-yeard old self imitating Mike Richter at the expense of the floors in the house; of a cascade of joy and happiness and relief that only sports can deliver.
Across my 37 years, I could always count on Sam Rosen. Through family deaths, job changes or breakups, he was always there. The players changed, the stakes changed – but Sam remained.
And for being that constant in my life, I can’t thank Sam enough.
Sam Rosen will call his last Rangers game sometime next month – be it the regular season finale, or if the team can sneak its way into the playoffs to give Sam at least four more chances.
He has filled fans with passion. He has given them a language to call their own. And he has been a constant all the way through.
“This one will last a lifetime!,” he famously exclaimed on that June evening in 1994.
I’d contend that Sam’s legacy won’t just last a lifetime, though: It will last forever.
And for that, I can't thank Sam enough.
Never listened to a rangers game - but I can say that now it feels like I have. And I’ve been missing out 👏❤️