Everett Fitzhugh, Seattle Kraken Radio Play-By-Play Broadcaster

Ever appreciate the time? How are you?

Hey, I'm doing well. I will be honest with you, the nerves are up there, right? I mean, every sports cliche that you can imagine going into the game seven is real, and it's fun to be in this position though. It's been an incredible season for Seattle. Last year, their first year in the league, they only had 60 points. A year later, they had a 40-point turnaround in the regular season, and they had 100 points this year. If I would have told you, Everett, if we had a conversation before the year that your team that you called the games for would be 60 minutes away from the Western Conference Finals, what the heck would you have said to me?

I mean, in the words of the great Kevin Garnett, anything's possible, right? Listen, last season, we understand, we know that the record, the numbers weren't where people want it to be, but I tell you what, in preseason and even during camp, you could start to see a little bit of specialness with this team. You knew this team had something that was missing last year.

There was a full team buy-in this season. From the beginning, there was that commitment to playing the heavy four-check style that Dave Haxtall likes to play, but you knew within that locker room something was different. You added in Andre Burakovsky. You go out and bring in the Oliver Bjorkstrand. Yanni Gord is another year under his belt within the organization.

That core is together. Brandon Tanev and Jayden Schwartz, who were injured a lot of last season, you get them back on a full-time basis. Then the season goes along in November. December comes along.

You pick up Ellie Tolbinen off of waivers. It just seems like all throughout the year, there was a little bit extra that was added. Even when the Kraken were going through some of their downturns and a few of those little, you know, they would lose three of four. They would lose five of seven, things like that. They were able to turn things around quickly. Again, I just felt it earlier in the year that there was something special about this team.

I wouldn't have said, you know, 60 minutes away from conference finals, but maybe making a playoff run. A lot of people thought that 500 just above, just below battling for a playoff spot in the final month of the season would have been a good bar to set, but I mean, they've blown everyone's expectations out of the water. And Matty Beneers has been sensational for you guys as well. Just what has really jumped out to you in his first full year? You know, every level that Matty Beneers has played at, he has never looked out of place, whether it be junior, whether it be the college level, the international stage. He has always looked like he belongs.

And the same thing with the NHL. You had that 10 game tryout for him last season at the end of the year. He puts up nine points, you know, and you're like, wow, okay, this kid is special. We knew we were getting a special kid, but now we can see him in an NHL life. Full training camp, full summer preparation. Now you get him into the beginning of the season and he takes off like a wildfire. He does have that dip there.

Midway through the season. This is the most games that he's ever played in his hockey career at any level throughout the course of a season, but he never wavered. He always worked. You know, he is a big cliche guy.

First guy on last guy off. He's always taking up extra shots. He's always putting up extra time. He wants to get better. And the one thing that Dave Hackstall says about Matty Beneers is that he's coachable compared him to TJ Oshie when hack stall coast at North Dakota compared him to him in the way that he's willing to learn.

He wants to learn. He wants to get better and he is so mature already at this level. And it's no wonder why he's had the success that he's had. I mean, he has deserved every bit of what he's gotten this year and he's earned and he's worked hard for it.

Talking to the voice of Seattle crack and ever fits you on the Zach guild show as you do have game seven tonight between Seattle and Dallas. I was in Philly when Dave Hackstall was the coach of the flyers and sometimes it's just not a fit between the coach and the city. I know he did make the playoffs twice in his short tenure there. Hack still has done a really incredible job.

I know some people are raising their eyebrow a little bit when he got the job in Seattle. Just what has really jumped out to you about the growth and the way that hack stalls really developed this team? You know, I think develop is such a key word there because how many times do you see a management team, whether it be the GM, the president, whoever, pulling the strings at the top, how many times do you see those folks build a team around a specific coach's style? It might not have been intentionally done, maybe it was, but the way that Dave Hackstall coaches, he is a guy that loves speed. He likes fast pace. He likes to set the tempo, the heavy forecheck, the clogging up of the neutral zone.

Everyone gets a touch. You look at the way that this roster is constructed and this is pretty much set up for Dave as well as the team to succeed. I think he's learned a lot about himself since that last coaching job with the Flyers. Obviously, he was an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Him and I have talked both on and off record just about some of the changes and how he's grown and how he's learned, but I think in this situation, in this arena that he's in now in Seattle, you've got a great group of players around him. You've got the staff that is willing to do whatever it takes to succeed and he always gives the credit to the assistant coaches. With Dave Lowry, Paul McFarland, Jay Leach, the guys he has around him, Steve Brier, our goal sending coach here in Seattle, he gives the credit to those guys because they have all around made him a better coach and obviously it allows him the ability to do what he does best. I think for Dave Hacksdawl, he's gotten the full team buy-in. He's gotten guys to believe into his system and believe in what he wants to do.

I remember a conversation with Carson Susi earlier in the season and he was telling me, he's like, man, the way that Dave likes to play, it's tough, it's hard, it's exhausting, but when we do it effectively, there aren't many teams that can beat us and it's been fun to buy in to his system. So he's got the guys on board and like we said, I mean, he's one game away, 60 minutes away from reaching the first conference final in his career and in Seattle's brief history. It's kind of crazy ever fits you because if the Kraken take care of business tonight, the Western Conference Finals are going to be between the Knights and Seattle. We know what the Knights did in year one where they got to the Stanley Cup Final, they've only been around for six years and this is the Kraken's second season. Just what does that say and why do you think these teams have been able to get into the league and have success just so quickly too?

You know, I think it's a couple reasons. I think number one, when we talk about growing the game, we talk about these quote-unquote non-traditional hockey markets. By the way, hate that phrase, everyone loves to use that phrase, but when we talk about that, we're growing fan bases, we're building new fans, we're earning new fans.

You want to have success for your city, for your community early on. Again, Vegas, I will always contend that the Golden Knights, they set back expansion teams for the rest of time. I don't care what sport it is, everyone's going to be looking back at Vegas' first year and say, well, hey, they did it, why can't we do it? That's what I thought with Seattle. It was like right away you expected them to be great last year just because of what Vegas did. You did, and that was one of our big marketing pieces actually.

You were like, hey, it's not going to happen. Lightning doesn't strike twice. You look at the expansion rules and things like that, but as far as Seattle goes, it's all about growing the game and for them to have the success that they've had. I mean, it takes a little bit of luck obviously, but there are seven players on this team who have won Stanley Cups. Extraordinarily, went to back-to-back conference finals out east. You've got three guys on this team who are multiple-time Cup winners, including Andre Burakovsky, who won last season. Johnny Gord has been to three consecutive Stanley Cup finals. So this team, although they're going through it for the first time together, they're a young team in that regard. Seven players with Cups, another two, three, four players who've been to finals and have lost.

You know, Jamie Alexiak, Adam Larson have all gone, and they've not been victorious. But for Seattle, it's the experience that they've had other places. It's the desire to want to help grow the game in a community that's never had pro hockey or NHL hockey, I should say, pro hockey and junior hockey have been here in Seattle for quite some time. But I think that's a big piece of it. I think you want your markets to do well.

You want to continue to grow the game. And hey, it doesn't hurt that you play in the nicest building in the NHL and you're able to lure free agents that way with the facilities and all of that. So all of that, I think, goes into the success that the Kraken have been having here in year two. For tonight, when you look at Dallas, we know how great they can be. DeBoer as a coach is 6-0 in game sevens. Palwelski has just been so hot even at the age of 38 with eight goals in this series. Just what jumps out to you ever fits you about Dallas tonight and what Seattle must do up against them?

You know, listen, this is going to be a battle. And Dallas, it seems like every game in this series, one team has had the clear upper hand, right? Outside of game one, even though game one was decided in overtime, Palwelski with the four goals in the game, without Joel Palwelski, I mean, that game could have gotten out of hand pretty quick. Seattle had that game pretty locked up with Palwelski, you know, doing the four goal thing, doing what he's been doing back to his entire career, tipping putts. But this just has the feeling of a tight game.

No one's going to be able to breathe and relax at all. I was at both morning skates today. The moods were pretty similar. Dallas, I think, was, you know, they were very worth it. Like, you know, Seattle's been loose, but they've also been focused. They've been competent, yet they understand what this means and what this could mean if they get the win here tonight.

But, I mean, you're in a very difficult place to play. Dallas has won two of the three games here at home in this series so far. I mean, so for Seattle, they cannot afford a slow start like we saw in game five here in this building. I mean, it was cracking down two nothing, five and a half minutes in. They give up the third goal early in the second.

They looked okay midway through the second period, but in a game seven, you cannot get behind the eight ball like Seattle did back in game five. But it's going to be tight. It's going to be tough. I'm already nervous.

My stomach's in knots just thinking about this game here, but it's going to be fun. This is what you play for. This is what you dream about in your backyard as a kid shooting pucks on the garage, right, on the ponds, wherever you grew up. These are the moments that you want to play in and these are the moments that potentially could define your career.

Ever fits you. I know that you're a Detroit native and you're a big hockey fan growing up. And when you got this gig with the Kraken, you became the first black full-time play-by-play announcer. What does that mean for you to become the first black man to be a play-by-play announcer in the NHL?

You know, it was very surreal and I still sometimes have a hard time fully putting it into words. I mean, when I first got the job, I thought about it from a professional standpoint. I've been working in minor league hockey for 10 years. I got my start in college at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. I knew that I wanted to be a broadcaster.

And for me, when I got that phone call a couple years ago and I dropped to my knees and I'm like, man, all the hard work paid off. But then you start thinking about me growing up in Detroit. There weren't a lot of black folks playing hockey. You know, I was a big Red Wings fan, but not a lot of people looked like me playing for the Red Wings. And then I actually saw an Oilers game and they had three black players on their team.

And that was the first time that I really got to feel that representation. So to be able for me to be in this chair, it's like when I'm growing up as a kid, I didn't have those black influences to look up to in hockey because there weren't that many. So it's one of those things where I owe it to our sport. I owe it to our culture. And I think I owe it to myself to be able to say like, you belong in this sport. We need diversity. We need different voices. We need different faces and beliefs in our sport. But it still sometimes doesn't even hit me that, you know, they're the first black person, the first black man to be a play-by-play announcer in the NHL.

I don't think anyone ever sets out to be the first, but like I said, there's a certain level of responsibility that comes along with it when you do happen to find yourself in this position. Well, you're doing a great job. We've really enjoyed your calls and appreciate you jumping on board with us a little bit before game seven. Enjoy tonight and thanks so much for doing this. Hey, always a pleasure, man. Thanks so much for the opportunity and let's go cracking.