Over the weekend, there was an unusual interaction on air during one of the National Hockey League broadcasts, which did not go unnoticed by attentive fans who caught every word of it.
On Saturday, veteran NHL broadcaster Eddie Olczyk appeared to criticize fellow NHL broadcaster Leah Hextall by making some vague allusions to famous calls being copied by other broadcasters. Olczyk’s tone during his comments appeared to indicate that he was clearly irritated by something, but he never specifically called anyone out or even mentioned a name.
“It is the sincerest form of flattery right, is imitation?” asked a frustrated sounding Olczyk. “But if you are going to imitate somebody, like on a goal call, just make sure you give that person credit please. Ok? Right is that fair? JT that’s fair right?”
Leah Hextall used John Forslund’s famous “hey hey what do you say” without attribution on Thursday and and Edzo called her out for it on the next broadcast.
ESPN NHL’s coverage leaves some…room for improvement pic.twitter.com/B1VuT9Pttr
— x – Davy Jones’ Locker Room (@DavyJonesLR) April 10, 2023
ADAM LARSSON IN OVERTIME! KRAKEN WIN!!!!!
HEY
HEY
WHAT
DO
YOUSAY pic.twitter.com/7k0UARLw5W
— x – Davy Jones’ Locker Room (@DavyJonesLR) March 22, 20
Given the other people in the booth with Olczyk at the time of his comments, including fellow NHL broadcaster John Forslund, who is the ‘JT’ mentioned above, fans were quick to put two and two together.
Prior to Olczyk’s comments, Leah Hextall used Forslund’s famous “hey hey what do you say” during a game between the Seattle Kraken and the Arizona Coyotes this past Thursday after the Kraken scored their fourth goal. In the short video below, you can hear both the suspected clip that led to Olczyk’s comments as well as the comments themselves.
Here’s an example of Forslund making the call himself, as he has done numerous times before: