Amid cancer treatment, Eddie O back in booth
Five weeks after starting a 24-week chemotherapy regimen for colon cancer, NBC analyst Eddie Olczyk says he’s returning to the booth.
He will work with broadcaster Mike “Doc” Emrick on the Wednesday Night Rivalry game between the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues in St. Louis. He also plans to do the Blackhawks’ local broadcast the following night in Chicago where he partners with Pat Foley.
“Three treatments in. Nine to go,” Olczyk told USA TODAY Sports. “We are a quarter of the way into the race, and we are grinding it out.”
Olczyk is not returning to a full-time schedule, doing games when he feels well enough to work. His chemo treatment lasts 48 hours, and he will not work those weeks.
“We have some dates that we have highlighted, and hopefully I will be strong enough to do the job,” Olczyk said. “If I am not feeling good, I just have to be honest with everyone and tell them I can’t do it.”
Olczyk, a former NHL player and coach, said he believes working will help him get through the treatment.
“Doing what I love to do will help me pass the time,” Olczyk said. “Looking at the calendar hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month gets a little long.” NBC executive producer and president Sam Flood said Olczyk sent him a text while undergoing chemotherapy to say he believed he would feel well enough to work. “I said, ‘The seat is yours,’ ” Flood said, noting Olczyk confirmed Sunday that he was ready to go.
“Doing what your great at is a key to normalcy,” Flood said, “because there is nothing normal about fighting cancer. What’s normal for him is the Wednesday Night Rivalry game, being at the rink, and being around people, the Blackhawks and Doc Emrick and Pierre McGuire. I think this is a special outlet for him.”
The return seems ahead of schedule, but Olczyk said he and NBC were purposely vague about when he was expected to return because it was unknown how long it would take him to recover from each dose of chemotherapy. He starts with two hours of treatment at Northwestern Hospital and then goes home where he is on a slow-drip chemo pack for 48 hours. Fatigue, nausea and other side effects are part of his program.