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TAMPA, Fla. — There's some big changes in store on both TV and radio for the Sabres' four-game Western road trip that begins Tuesday in Edmonton.
The team announced prior to Wednesday's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning that longtime play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret will not be on the trip and will be replaced by a trio of voices for the radio-only broadcasts. (None of the games will be shown on MSG Network.) Jeanneret's contract includes some vacation time during the season and he opted to take this trip off on the heels of the NHL All-Star break.
Analyst Harry Neale will be on the trip in his regular role. WGR radio's Paul Hamilton, who calls Niagara University games, will do the play-by-play for the Jan. 31 game at Phoenix and MSG studio-intermission host Kevin Sylvester gets the call for the Feb. 2 game at Anaheim.
The game Tuesday in Edmonton and the contest the following night in Calgary will be called by Curt Keilback, who spent 27 years as the announcer of the Winnipeg Jets and Phoenix Coyotes and called more than 2,300 games.
The Sabres' contract with MSG calls for 70 games and eight more are committed to the NHL's national deal with Versus, leaving the team to choose four for radio-only status. The West Coast games were chosen because of their later start times. The Calgary game will be carried in Canada by TSN and that broadcast will be picked up locally by NHL Network.
The other three games will be available in Western New York with home-market announcers on the NHL's Center Ice package or NHL.com's GameCenter package.
The team announced prior to Wednesday's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning that longtime play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret will not be on the trip and will be replaced by a trio of voices for the radio-only broadcasts. (None of the games will be shown on MSG Network.) Jeanneret's contract includes some vacation time during the season and he opted to take this trip off on the heels of the NHL All-Star break.
Analyst Harry Neale will be on the trip in his regular role. WGR radio's Paul Hamilton, who calls Niagara University games, will do the play-by-play for the Jan. 31 game at Phoenix and MSG studio-intermission host Kevin Sylvester gets the call for the Feb. 2 game at Anaheim.
The game Tuesday in Edmonton and the contest the following night in Calgary will be called by Curt Keilback, who spent 27 years as the announcer of the Winnipeg Jets and Phoenix Coyotes and called more than 2,300 games.
The Sabres' contract with MSG calls for 70 games and eight more are committed to the NHL's national deal with Versus, leaving the team to choose four for radio-only status. The West Coast games were chosen because of their later start times. The Calgary game will be carried in Canada by TSN and that broadcast will be picked up locally by NHL Network.
The other three games will be available in Western New York with home-market announcers on the NHL's Center Ice package or NHL.com's GameCenter package.
Kevin Sylvester gets the call for the Feb. 2 game at Anaheim, he did the Phoenix game last year. I can't stand him on Sabres Gamenight and the Shootout Post Game show on MSG. I have a feeling that the Sabres are grooming him to be the replacement for Rick once he does decide to hang up the mic for good. God that will be a 
day in Sabres history.
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