NHL Network Scores in Grabbing Thorne For World Juniors

Regardless of your opinion on Gary Thorne (and ours isn’t positive) the fact is, if you’re flipping channels, you’ll notice his voice.  Other than Mike Emrick, there is no voice as synonymous with hockey in this country as Thorne is.  That’s why we have to unabashedly praise the NHL Network for getting him to be the voice of Team USA at the World Junior Championships in Saskatoon and Regina, beginning the day after Christmas.  Here’s the schedule of games Thorne will call with Dave Starman and Fred Pletsch:

Dec. 26 – USA vs. Slovakia, 8PM
Dec. 27 – USA vs. Switzerland, 4PM
Dec. 29 – Latvia vs. USA, 4PM
Dec. 31 – USA vs. Canada, 8PM

As well as, it is assumed, all Team USA games as they advance to the knockout phase of the tournament.  We’d like to see NHL Network US produce a few more original telecasts, or at least do their own version of the final game so we don’t have to hear Canadian-centric coverage of them in the finals.  Considering how few original game productions NHL Network has done this year, it could be better.

However, Thorne is a huge get for the network here in the states.  He brings instant credibility to any hockey telecast he does (not so much baseball, thanks to a certain incident) and instant name and vocal recognition from puckheads who know him from ESPN and more recently, the endlessly inane chatter of the EA NHL video game series.  It is only a shame they couldn’t team him with Hands of Cement at the tourney, as it would up the hockey nostalgia even further.