Nick Nickson's retirement will mark the end of an era for kings

Don't think about that like Nick NicksonThe last season of the end of the microphone for the Kiss. Consider it as a reminder.

Nickson planned to play golf now. He planned to follow his grandchildren, Casey and Avery, their games and attending the birthday parties and the birthdays he had to miss in more than five decades as a hockey broadcaster.

The Kings had other plans, summoning Nickson to a meeting in the summer of 2023 when he feared that he was dismissed before he could tell them that he was ready to retire. Instead, the Kings have told Nickson, their long -standing radio voice, they wanted him to simulate radio and television calls. And they wanted a two -year commitment.

“Without the change, last year could have been the last,” he said.

The fact that this does not make this season positively, absolutely the last. (We think.) At 71, Nickson says he has too much that he wants to do and not enough time between the matches to do it, so his career will end when the Kings season will do.

“I do this according to my own conditions, which I am grateful,” he said at an hour-long lunch that was heavy on memories and empty of regrets. “Some people in the league said,” Nick why? You always look so well. “And yes, I appreciate that.

“But I want to be able to do what I want while I am still healthy. The timing is right. “

The Kings will honor Nickson when they welcome the Winnipeg jets on Tuesday, a tribute which, according to him, will be sincere even if it is April Fool.

“I thought about it when they mentioned on April 1,” said Nickson. “But because so many people are preparing, I don't think it will be a joke. I think it will happen.”

The stage director Donna Moskal points to the camera while the Kings Jim Fox radediffusers, on the left, and Nick Nickson, on the right, repeat for a playing.

During his 44 seasons with the Kings, Nickson says he called more than 3,800 games while telling the climb of hockey in a desert. He I watched the triple crown line by Charlie Simmer, Marcel Dionne and Dave Taylor; welcomed Wayne Gretzky at the. and saw Jim Fox,, Daryl Evans And Jarred Stoll Move from ice in the broadcast cabin.

Two other players, Luc Robitaille And Rob Blakewent from Nickson's programs to the Kings Front Office as President and Managing Director, respectively.

“For the culture of a franchise to have people that have been around for a long time, it means a lot,” said Robitaille, now Nickson's boss. “You have your main fans who follow the team and when they have listened to Nick Nickson for all these years, they are part of the family. It is difficult to describe.

“Everyone grew up listening to them and then the next thing you know, they get married and they have children, and they always listen. I hear these stories again and again.”

This is because Nickson described more than hockey. He made the game of history, calling the The two Kings Stanley Cup championships. His radio call for the last six seconds of 2012 Stanley Cup final is undoubtedly the most memorable moment of the franchise.

“The long wait is over!” After 45 years, the Kings can wear their crown! ”

Nick Nickson is preparing a script before a match between the Kings and the Rangers on March 25.

The career of the Nickson's fame – he became the third broadcaster of the Kings, after Bob Miller And Jiggs McDonaldbe consecrated when he was voted by his peers in 2015 – started with the Americans of the Minor Rochester League a year after graduating from Ithaca College, where he was sports director of the school's radio station. Two years later, he started calling games for New Haven's Nighthawks, the AHL affiliate of the New York Rangers.

It was there that he got the break that changed his life. The Rangers, who had a players' development agreement with the Nighthawks, briefly ended the relationship in 1981 and the Kings, who were looking for an AHL partner, moved. The Kings, however, had more than a simple affiliate of the minor league.

Pete Weber had left his seat next to Miller, creating an opening in the broadcast stand. Kings Parker Macdonald coach knew Nickson of his time in New Haven, and although Macdonald does not last the season behind the bench, he was there long enough to push Nickson for work.

“So we hired it,” said Miller.

With the move to the west, Nickson may have joined the most corrected and emblematic sports broadcaster group ever assembled in a city. In addition to Miller, Scully wine And Jaime Jarrín Called Dodgers games, Chick Hearn made the Lakers, Tom Kelly was on USC football and Ralph Lawler Soon, moving north of San Diego with the Clippers.

All six are the temple of fame. However, Nickson, the youngest in the group at 27, settled immediately.

“It was just great to be there,” said Miller. “Nick has always been so well prepared. Excellent identification of players. I followed the play, all the fundamental principles. ”

But the key to its success and that of the other temple of fame was stability, said Nickson. Scully and Jarrín both spent more than six decades with the Riders. Hearn and Lawler made 41 seasons with Lakers And Mowerrespectively. Nickson, for his part, retires after 44 seasons with the Kings, like Miller, who retired in 2017.

Nick Nickson called a match at Crypto.com Arena between the Kings and the Rangers on March 25. The Kings will honor Nickson before Monday's match against the jets.

“It is unusual that a broadcaster remains with a team for several years. The era of the broadcasters who sticks to a team for 40, 50 years has probably disappeared,” said Nickson, whose time with the Kings has been measured in a series of short -term contracts that have always been renewed. “You have this connection. It's just a level of comfort.”

“What we had to offer and how we presented the game, I think it educated (people) to be a more grateful hockey fan,” he added. “It is only natural if you are in this space for so long.”

As a result, abandoning work – and the game – after five decades will not be easy. You just have to ask Miller, who was in a game of the Kings last last weekend shortly after surgery for an aneurysm.

“You know, I still fail to play by play,” he said. “There are certain matches that I will watch on television and my wife will say:” Do you miss this? ” I do not lack preparation these days, with players who change teams and so many teams.

As for Nickson, “well, he's a golfer,” said Miller. “He has grandchildren. So I don't think he will have a problem getting used to it.”

Nickson has a confession he would like to do before signing the last time. This memorable call at the end of the STANLEY 2012 Cup qualifiers? He worked in advance.

The Kings were so dominant that spring, Nickson was convinced that they would win before the start of the final series with the Devils of New Jersey.

“It was then that I found what I finally said,” he recalls.

Nick Nickson takes a brief break in the broadcast stand before a match between the Kings and the Rangers on March 25.

But the genius was not in the words, it was in the timing, with Nickson pronouncing the word “crown” while the final horn sounds.

He had nearly two seasons now to think about how he will end the final broadcast of his 44 -year -old career, the one who gets closer to each passing match.

“Maybe”, he finally proposed, “I should say” after 44 years, the long wait is over “.”

Give this man his crown.