When Team USA takes the ice for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, it will be the first time NHL players have participated in the quadrennial games since 2014.
If last year’s Four Nations Face-Off was any indication, excitement is at an all-time high.
As such, NBC is going big with its coverage plans around the men’s and women’s ice hockey tournaments. The network announced on Thursday that Kenny Albert will return to serve as the lead play-by-play voice for both the men’s and women’s competitions in Italy. It will be Albert’s seventh Winter Olympics of his career.
The veteran play-by-play man will call all of Team USA’s men’s and women’s games, as well as the medal round games. He’ll be joined by longtime hockey analyst Eddie Olczyk for the men’s tournament, and AJ Mleczko for the women’s tournament. Brian Boucher will be the “inside the glass” analyst on the men’s side, with Jen Botterill filling that role on the women’s side. NBC Sports’ Kathryn Tappen will serve as a reporter throughout the competitions.
Brendan Burke and Chris Vosters will handle play-by-play duties for non-Team USA games in both the men’s and women’s tournaments, marking their third and fourth Winter Games respectively. They’ll be joined by an analyst team consisting of Anson Carter, Angela Ruggiero, and T.J. Oshie, who recently joined ESPN’s NHL coverage.
Earlier this year, the NHL’s Four Nations Face-Off helped build excitement towards 2026. The championship game between the United States and Canada drew an eye-popping 9.3 million viewers on ESPN, the most-watched hockey game by an American audience on record when excluding Olympic competition.
The appetite for international, best-on-best hockey is clearly there, and NBC will hope to capitalize come February.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.