Before he got into broadcasting and blogging, Daryl Reaugh was known as one of two goaltenders (along with Craig Billington) to be selected ahead of Patrick Roy, Luc Robitaille, and Brett Hull in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft. He also has a championship ring with the 1988 Edmonton Oilers, but his name isn't etched on Stanley Cup.
For the past thirteen seasons, Reaugh has been the part of the "Ralph and Razor" duo along with Dallas Stars play-by-play man Ralph Strangis. The duo is so popular that the Stars simulcast their television audio for their local radio broadcasts.
While stars like Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Eric Staal, and Henrik Zetterberg are doing their normal postseason thing, the breakout star of these playoffs has certainly been Reaugh as a color analyst with Joe Beninati on Versus. Not only does he break down the game in a way that any viewing can understand, Reaugh doesn't get bogged down into the hockey minutiae that other analysts might be prone to do. Like Wyshynski said of Reaugh in his post about grading the playoff coverage on Versus, "the dude understands the narrative of a hockey game" and he's not eager to get his voice heard or to cut off his play-by-play man; he knows when to pick his spots and when he does, it's a home run.
Most importantly, Reaugh has also replaced Pierre McGuire's infamous "monster" with the extinct "mastodon", which he used to describe Pittsburgh's Jordan Staal the other night. That's got to be worth some brownie points, right? Why else would majority of fans wish McGuire found a general managers job somewhere and disappear from their television screens?
I think it's time that Reaugh's insight and humor are brought to the forefront. It's time to give him a crack as the lead analyst for NBC alongside Mike "Doc" Emrick, which we got a taste of during five games of the Penguins-Capitals series on Versus. Ed Olczyk is a decent analyst, but there's only so many times I can be reminded that he coached Marc-Andre Fleury and the Pittsburgh Penguins or take losing horse tips from.
"Razor" will leave our presence after the Pittsburgh-Carolina series ends, but if NBC knows what's good them, they'll find a way to incorporate Reaugh into their future coverage.
