BEST ON THE MENU

Rosen, Emrick use different ingredients for success

THOUGH we’re often told, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” I’m not interested in knowing any of them.

What catches my attention, especially at Stanley Cup playoffs time, is how there is more than one way to watch a hockey game, especially as provided for decades by Sam Rosen and Mike “Doc” Emrick, both — yikes! — 70.

Both are acquired tastes easily acquired, yet, like Cathy and Patty from “The Patty Duke Show,” they are “different as night and day.” Both are cherished for always doing what they do best and for the familiar good feelings they engender simply by turning to a game to find one of them there.

Stuck to do better, I only can draw upon food analogies to stress their differences, their popularity and inclusion in the NHL Hall of Fame. There is more than one way to skin, bake, then serve a potato.

Rosen is Gus’s Diner, down in Manalapan, N.J., on Route 33. You can’t go wrong choosing Gus’s. Welcoming, friendly, steady staff. Nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, no frills, just a good, full plate of whatever you ordered and at a good price. Breakfast at Gus’s, burgers and fries for lunch or dinner — more fries than needed and always served as ordered — is local ritual.

Gus’s doesn’t try to do too much. It just does what it does best, which is also the conspicuous secret to Rosen’s success. On MSG Network, Rosen doesn’t intrude on the game, he just gives you what you need when you need it — like the waiters and waitresses at Gus’s, who know exactly when you’re ready for a free refill.

There is little memorable about Rosen’s calls except that he brings a comfort level to Rangers MSG telecasts that would make his absence considerably uncomfortable, even strange and unnatural.

Rosen’s specialty is nothing special, just steady, reliable, welcoming, friendly, sincere. You never get a bad meal at Gus’s or Sam’s.

And, like Emrick, Rosen’s the same nice man — an incurable gentleman — on and off the air.

With NBC now in full control of the playoffs, Rosen’s done calling Rangers games on TV this season, but, with Kenny “I Cause Overtimes” Albert working NBC, Rosen will call Saturday’s Rangers-Senators Game 2 on ESPN-NY radio. Good.

Emrick, now calling CapitalsPenguins for NBC, is, to continue the dining out motif, more like the restaurant you would visit on a first date to impress her.

He is so effortlessly word-perfect, you scarcely can appreciate one description or parenthetical comment before he hits us with two more.

He is good at saying nothing, too. Saturday, with five seconds left in the Canadiens-Rangers series, the Rangers up two goals at the Garden, Emrick said, “It’s all over but the shouting. Let’s hear some.”

As NBC’s cameras swept the ice, benches and allowed the sound of the joyous crowd, not another word was spoken from the booth for a full minute. Fine dining.

News, info, history and neat stories easily and concisely flow from Emrick as if he were a sommelier making suggestions from a lavish wine list.

Reader Joe Dobbies after Saturday’s telecast: “I watched Habs-Rangers with a lady friend who knows or cares not a whit about hockey. After the first ‘quarter’ (oy!), she said, ‘I don’t know what’s so great about the game, but the announcer is amazing.’ ”

If there is more than one way to serve skinned cat, we can stay local and eat at Sam’s or head into the city and dine at Doc’s. Either way, you can’t go wrong. You will be well served.