NHL analyst Mike Milbury is at NBC after 14 years with the network. The news came on Monday when NBC unveiled its game and studio commentary lineup for the 2021 NHL season, and Milbury was conspicuously absent.
“We are grateful to Mike for all of his contributions to our coverage over 14 years,” NBC Sports said in a statement. “But he will not be returning to our NHL announcement team. We wish him the best.”
Milbury, the former coach and GM of Boston Bruins and New York Islanders, was pulled from NBC’s Stanley Cup playoffs in August following his on-air comments about players not being so distracted in the league’s bubble because there were no women in the bubble of the competition.
Milbury and analyst Brian Boucher discussed the benefits of the NHL’s playoff bubble during the airing of the Islanders’ victory over the Washington Capitals.
“When you think about it, it’s a great environment in regards to – if you like to play and spend a long time with your teammates, it’s a perfect place,” said Boucher.
“Not even a single woman here can disturb your concentration,” Milbury replied.
The NHL condemned the comments as “insensitive and insulting.” The league said it expressed concerns to NBC, its US TV partner.
In a statement released via NBC Sports shortly after, Milbury apologized for the incident.
“I didn’t mean to disdain anyone,” Milbury said in the statement. “I tried to be disrespectful and took it a step too far. It was a regrettable mistake that I take seriously.”
Milbury was flagged several times during his tenure with NBC for insensitive comments, including in other cases last season. In a qualifier between Pittsburgh and Montreal, Milbury said playing in an empty arena was like being at a college women’s hockey game.
NBC’s broadcast line-up will include other tweaks in 2021. Mike “Doc” Emrick, the leading voice for NHL games on NBC and NBC Sports for 15 years, announced his retirement in October. Kenny Albert, Brendan Burke, and John Forslund were all named on top bills for play-by-play roles in Emrick’s absence.
The network also announced that it was bringing in unemployed coach Mike Babcock and retired NHL veterans Ryan Callahan and Dominic Moore to contribute to the studio’s coverage. The Maple Leafs fired Babcock as head coach in November 2019 after a 9-10-4 start to the 2019-20 season.