- Doc Emrick says he couldn’t see Braden Holtby’s save on Alex Tuch in the 2018 Cup Final
- A standing crowd blocked his view from the concourse broadcast position
- Read below for Emrick’s full explanation and how the call came together
Doc Emrick couldn’t see Braden Holtby make “The Save.”
The Hall of Fame broadcaster revealed on Jeff Marek’s Hockey Lifers podcast that the crowd blocked his view when Holtby stopped Alex Tuch’s wide-open net in Game 2 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final. His famous “Oh, and it didn’t go!” call was a safe read on what he could actually see.
The Capitals were down 1-0 in the series to the Golden Knights and clinging to a one-goal lead late in the third period. Tuch got the puck in front with the net gaping, and Holtby lunged across with his stick to keep it out.
Emrick explained where NBC had its broadcast position that night and why it mattered. Marek posted the clip from the episode:
Emrick said the setup put him at the wrong end of the rink.
“We were located in the concourse area, not up in the press box. If we’d have been in the press box, where we belonged, I would have been toward the end of the ice, where the net was. We were at the opposite end, near the net that was guarded by Marc-Andre Fleury.”
He said the crowd rose as the play developed, and that left him guessing on the finish.
“I could not see what happened. I could only play it safe by seeing that it did not go, so that’s what I said. And Pierre was on the opposite side, at center ice, and he could tell. And so he said right away that will go down in history as ‘The Save’.”
That would be Pierre McGuire, who had the better angle at center ice and gave the moment its name. Emrick added that he saw Tuch follow through with his stick but nothing after that.
Watch the save and the call as the NHL packaged them:
Washington held on to win the game and didn’t lose again in the series, clinching the franchise’s first Cup in five games. Emrick called two more full seasons for NBC after that and retired in October 2020 after working playoff games remotely from his home in Michigan.
The save belongs on the short list of the best in Cup Final history, right alongside Adin Hill’s stick save for Vegas in 2023. The difference is that one of them now comes with a confession from the guy who called it.
