Color Him Excited About NHL Debut

EDMONTON – Growing up in Long Island, Evan Pivnick attended his first New York Islanders game as a four-year-old and saw dozens more games in person following the orange-and-blue-clad NHL team. It stoked his lifelong love of hockey, which evolved into a career in the sport, currently as a play-by-play man for the affiliate Coachella Valley Firebirds.

Saturday night, Pivnick was watching another orange-and-blue squad, this time the Edmonton Oilers, making his NHL broadcast debut serving as color analyst alongside Everett Fitzhugh on the KJR 93.3 FM Kraken radio call. Analyst Al Kinisky was absent for family reasons and relayed via Fitzhugh that Pivnick “not treat it like you are holding down the chart but instead make it your show.”

That is apt encouragement for Pivnick. He often calls Firebirds home games (simulcast TV and radio) with Hall of Famer and four-time Stanley Cup-winning Oilers goaltender Grant Fuhr. But on the road, Pivnick is both play-by-play man and color analyst – a one-man show highly popular with the Coachella Valley community.

“I’m more excited than nervous,” said Pivnick, who aspires to a NHL broadcast booth when the opportunity arises. “I don’t do much color and it will be fun to do it with Fitz. He came down to Coachella Valley to be our color analyst [filling for Fuhr] during the playoffs last spring. So I guess it’s my turn to do the color.”

Pivnick’s aspirations to become an NHL broadcaster are bonafide. After three seasons as lead broadcaster of NCAA Division I Bowling Green as a student, Pivnick landed the play-by-play for the ECHL Adirondack Thunder (Glen Falls, NY), excelling for five seasons before the Firebirds hired him for the step-up AHL job. None other than Fuhr is confident Pivnick will realize his dream to call NHL games.

“It’s awesome that Evan has a chance to be part of the Kraken radio broadcast,” said Fuhr Saturday evening. “Evan is the best. I think he will be a regular in the NHL very soon.”

“Evan is a true professional,” said Firebirds head coach Derek Laxdal from Calgary, where Pivnick will return to call the Coachella Valley game against the AHL Calgary Wranglers Sunday at 12 noon Mountain time. “We are all very happy for his first opportunity.”

Friend-to-Friend Call Leads to Debut

Fitzhugh called Pivnick Thursday on a personal note, but team videographer Marcus Allen suggested maybe Pivnick could fill in for Kinisky. After all, Pivnick was just three hours away by car, already in Calgary to call Friday and Sunday games. Pivnick rode with Coachella Valley director of hockey operations Troy Bodie, arriving early and getting a chance to meet with Kraken coach Dan Bylsma, who of course led the Firebirds to two straight Western Conference titles in the franchise’s first two seasons with Pivnick expertly describing the excitement and achievement.

“There’s not just hockey players in our game,” said Bylsma. “It’s a lot of different people. It’s Evan’s turn to get called up from Coachella Valley. He is a great play-by-play guy. He has the drive to further his career and he’s getting a call-up to the big leagues. I’m excited about it.”

When Pivnick realized “this is real, it’s going to happen” who did he phone first?

“Everybody,” said Pivnick, smiling and exhaling. “I called my girlfriend back in Coachella Valley and the his father. They quickly spread the news [and the Seattle Kraken app allows family and friends to hear the radio cast from anywhere in the world].”

Fitzhugh previously held the same student play-by-play role as Pivnick for Bowling Green (which happens to be Bylsma’s alma mater too, making for a fun pre-game photo). Fitzhugh made a point to meet Pivnick when he started at Bowling Green and kept in touch, including a day of shadowing Fitzhugh at a New York Rangers road game during the Kraken’s inaugural season.

“I followed his career at Bowling Green,” said Fitzhugh. “We (Bowling Green hockey play-by-play announcers] are such a tight, small fraternity. We all keep in touch. When Evan got the ECHL Adirondack job we texted all the time. I was even happier when I found out he would be part of organization, just down the road. He’s one of the hardest working people I know and a Grade-A human being.”

For his part, Bodie noted that Pivnick’s work doesn’t stop at calling games. He is also the Firebirds director for both communications and broadcast.

“He’s a big part of what we do in Coachella Valley,” said Bodie. “He’s got his hands in everything and is always very prepared in all matters. He was pretty excited on the trip here. He contained it, but you could tell he was excited. It’s a player getting his first call-up to the NHL [something Bodie knows first hand]. You get the call, you change your plans and you go.”