Breaking: Legendary NHL announcer taken from the arena on a stretcher.

I have the unfortunate job of bringing you a very sad announcement. 

According to a breaking news report from Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News, legendary National Hockey League broadcaster and long time voice of the Buffalo Sabres Rick Jeanneret has suffered some type of episode. We have no word on his condition at this time but we do know that he was taken out of the broadcast booth at the KeyBank Center where he was calling the game on a stretcher. 

From the Buffalo News:

Jeanneret, 76, was reportedly feeling light-headed on the air and stopped talking during the broadcast of the game against the Anaheim Ducks.

The broadcast continued with Rob Ray briefly calling play-by-play from between the benches before intermission host Brian Duff moved to the press box to continue to call the action.

Jeanneret has been working a reduced schedule with the Sabres ever since he returned from his battle with throat cancer four years ago and hopefully this is not a sign that he needs to take on even less work in his later years. Jeanneret has been one of the most iconic voices in the game, at least during my lifetime, and is responsible for some of the most memorable calls over the past several years. Losing his voice in the broadcast booth would be terrible for both me personally and no doubt for thousands of other fans around the league and I hope he will make a full and speedy recovery from whatever it is that ails him. That being said Rick is a 76 year old man now and if calling games is going to put his health in serious jeopardy then I really hope that he will take a step back if that is what is necessary.

Stay tuned for more updates as we will be bringing you them as quickly as they are made available. That being said given that Jeanneret is not an NHL player it make take some time before we get any official word on his condition or how quickly he might be expected to recover. Again hopefully this is not serious.

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