Rick Jenneret on the call. Ted Nolan looking for the "want" in players

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


Legendary Buffalo Sabres play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret will be calling the first period of tonight's game against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs. Jeanneret has been battling throat cancer all summer and has said that he is now "cancer free."

Back in July when he announced he had stage III cancer--where the cancer is within the general region where it first began--Jeanrette said he'd be back. 'I would like to stress I have every intention of coming back,' he told Alan Pergament of the Buffalo news back in July. 'I have probably three months ahead of me that aren’t going to be fun. I know they aren’t going to be.'

After three months of radiation and chemo therapy, doctors declared him cancer free and Jeanneret is now easing his way back into the broadcast booth. "The time seems right to slowly begin transitioning back to work,” Jeanneret said in a statement released yesterday. “My doctors have told me I’m cancer free and I’m feeling well enough to get back in the booth, even if it’s only on a limited basis for the time being."