Dream job that was almost cut short
Rusanowsky, lone radio play-by-play man in team’s history who was nearly killed in car accident, calls his 2,000th game on Tuesday
GLENDALE, ARIZ. >> Dan Rusanowsky can remember the day that the city of San Jose started to truly feel like home.
Ironically, Rusanowsky, who called his 2,000th NHL game Tuesday when the Sharks defeated the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 in a shootout, experienced the moment in a luxury box at SAP Center, not the broadcast booth that has served as his office since 1993.
After surviving a near-fatal car accident, the only radio play-by-play man in Sharks history made his return to the Tank on Dec. 30, 2001. When Rusanowsky’s name was announced and
his image appeared on the scoreboard, the fans rose and let the Connecticut-native know just how much he meant to the hockey community in San Jose.
“I’ll never forget how the crowd responded. It was pretty emotional for me because I was still struggling,” Rusanowsky said. “It was that moment, even though I’d always wanted to make San Jose my home, that it really clicked — it is my home. These fans are my people, they’re my friends.”
That game against the Vancouver Canucks is one of only 27 Sharks games that Rusanowsky hasn’t called during his 26year run as the team’s radio voice. It took a near tragedy to peel Rusanowsky away from the craft to which he has dedicated his life.
Growing up near New Haven, Connecticut, Rusanowsky, 57, fell in love with hockey by listening to Marv Albert’s radio calls of the New York Rangers. By college, he set his sights on being a broadcaster, calling NCAA games at his alma mater, St. Lawrence University, from 1979-86 before moving on to the AHL, where he became the voice of the New Haven Nighthawks.
But the dream almost came to an end on Nov. 25, 2000 when Rusanowsky got into a horrific car accident a little more than nine years after he called the first-ever Sharks game on Oct. 4, 1991.
Rusanowsky, who was Tboned by a driver who ran a red light, suffered a partially collapsed lung, a ruptured diaphragm, a fractured left femur, a cracked pelvis and cracked ribs.
Somehow, he escaped death and was able to make it back to the broadcast booth to call the Sharks’ 3-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 15, 2001.
Suffice it to say, Rusanowsky reflected on his near-death experience, his good fortune and his connection to San Jose as he prepared to call game No. 2,000.
“That comes to mind every day since it happened. I’m really blessed,” Rusanowsky said. “I’ve found something I really enjoy coupled with the greatest
game in the world, and on top of that, I get to live in the best city on the planet.
“How can it get any better than that?”
When Rusanowsky paints a Van Gogh for his listeners as the action unfolds chaotically on the ice, he often reminds his color analyst, Bret Hedican, of a seasoned veteran who responds to adversity with poise.
Whether it’s telling the right story at the right time, finding the relevant sound bite on the fly or perfectly describing a bangbang play, Rusanowsky continues to amaze Hedican with his mastery of the craft.
“It’s like having 1,000 games in the NHL where you’ve been in every situation,” Hedican said. “After all those years, you just know you can handle anything. When I do a game with Dan, you can tell he’s done it all. He delivers it so efficiently. There’s times where I just sit back and go, wow.
“It’s really insane.” After spending threeplus seasons in the radio booth alongside Rusanowsky, Hedican knows why his partner’s calls sound so seamless.
Rusanowsky is at almost every practice interviewing players for on-air material. He creates pages of notes that probably only he can read. He’s also on his laptop throughout the day, cutting up audio to use during the broadcast.
“If you saw his book that he draws into for each game, you’d go, why do you do this?” Hedican said. “At
almost any point during a game day, he’s at his desk working and capturing how he’s going to paint the story for the night.”
• Joe Pavelski made sure that the Sharks didn’t allow two points to slip through their fingers on Tuesday, scoring the lone goal in the shootout after the Sharks coughed up a two-goal lead to the lowly Coyotes.
The win improved the Sharks’ record to 3-0 since their bye week, catapulting them past the Los Angeles Kings and into the final playoff spot in the Pacific Division with 54 points.
The Sharks opened the scoring on the power play at 5:37 of the first. Joe Thornton recorded his 11th, shooting the puck into an open net from just outside of the crease after Logan Couture fed him with a no-look backhanded pass from the slot.
With the goal, the Sharks power play has now scored in 14 of the team’s last 17 games.
Mikkel Boedker made it 2-0 just 34 seconds into the second by ripping a snap shot into the top-left corner off the rush, giving him four points in a three-games point streak. Brent Burns and Joakim Ryan picked up assists on the play.
But the Coyotes battled back and made it a game. Jordan Martinook got the Coyotes on the board at 16:05 of the middle frame, redirecting a point shot from Jason Demers. Brad Richardson tied it up at 6:10 of the final frame, knocking in the rebound of a Nick Cousins shot after the Coyotes jumped all over the Sharks early in the period.
At the period’s 13-minute mark, the Coyotes were leading the Sharks in shot attempts 23-4 in the frame.
Aaron Dell kept the Sharks in the game as the ice tilted in the third, making 15 saves in the period. He finished the game with 30 saves on 32 shots
• Defenseman Paul Martin, 36, cleared waivers Tuesday, setting the stage for his audition with the AHL Barracuda.
The Sharks placed Martin on waivers Monday, giving him the opportunity to show NHL general managers that he can still play in the wake of his request for a trade.
Martin has only skated in three games with the Sharks this season after undergoing ankle surgery in the offseason.