NHL analyst likes being middleman

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2009 | by Michael Hiestand

Viewers who don't watch much TV hockey, but will drop by for the NHL Stanley Cup Finals' Game 7 on NBC tonight, might wonder exactly where NBC analyst Pierre McGuire is coming from. No wonder: He's about as close to the action as TV gets, at least outside NASCAR.

McGuire is stationed -- with no glass protecting him -- in the few feet between team benches. In his fourth season since NBC created that role, his mic is left open, his headset covers only one ear so he can eavesdrop on the benches, and several teams use the spot in their local broadcasts. And he's still physically intact, although he says he needed "surgical glue" on his head after being gouged by a stick two years ago and was almost "smoked" by a flying puck in Game 3 of this year's Finals.

He can...