Florida Panthers take part in morning skate at Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 29. Fans of the Florida Panthers are some of the luckiest in the NHL. Recently, you could say that's due to the success of the team, as the Panthers have transitioned from a franchise mired in mediocrity to one of the league's elite, from top to bottom. Another reason that goes beyond wins and losses comes from the broadcast booth. That's where the Panthers have one of the very best in the business calling games as the voice of the team. Steve 'Goldie' Goldstein called his first Panthers game all the way back in 2005, when he made his debut as the play-by-play man on the Cats' radio broadcasts. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAwNjE3OTM2NjIzMjQ4NDky/img_6014.jpg] After two strong seasons, Goldstein was asked to take over as the television voice of the Panthers. At a time where the questionable decisions by the franchise were coming fast and furious, the idea to make Goldstein the team's main broadcaster has proved to be one of the best moves the Panthers have ever made. Since moving into the TV booth in 2007, Goldie has remained the constant, energetic and incredibly talented man behind the mic for Florida, game in and game out, for nearly two decades. In addition to his work with the Panthers, Goldstein has also called games of national and international interest, including the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Winter Olympics. Recently THN Florida had the chance to sit down for a chat with Goldie and ask him about his life, his career and some of his unique and popular calls. The Hockey News - Florida: We're starting with a big one. Where did 'Let's go home, baby!' come from? Steve Goldstein: It came up by accident 10 years ago. The Nick Bjugstad 20-round shootout goal. I guess when he scored, I said, 'Wrap it up and let's go home!' About a week later, the Panthers played the Penguins, (Roberto) Luongo and (Marc-André) Fleury were the goalies. It was a seven-round shootout. Sasha Barkov scored to win it, and I guess I said 'Let's go home, baby!' Two weeks later I see Dave Hyde from the Sun Sentinel and he says to me, 'How'd you come up with that call?' And I go, 'What call? What are you talking about?' He goes well, at the end of the two games, the two shootout wins, you said, 'Let's go home.' I said, 'I did?' I went back, I watched it and I realized I said it, and I said you know what? For shootout wins, let's say, 'Let's go home.' That'd be kind of cool. And then I expanded into overtime wins, and a lot of people didn't really take notice of it until the Presidents' Trophy team three years ago won the 13 games in a row at the end of the season, and five of them were in overtime. That's when it really took hold. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkv9mpsqoV8[/embed] THN: How much do you love that? SG: I like it because people like it. I'll be out now – now that the team has been good for a number of years – I'll be out at a restaurant or wherever and people yell at me 'Let's go home, baby!' I'll turn around like, where did that come from? So the fact that people like it and it's given the fans, the viewers, something to kind of catch on to with the franchise and the success the team is having, I think that's great. THN: What about calls like 'Tkachuk Cha-ching' or 'Huby Doobie Doo,' do you think about that kind of stuff ahead of time or does it come naturally as you're calling a game? SG: Huby Doobie Doo I kinda thought of. I like Jonathan Huberdeau personally, I got to know him when he was 18 years old. He's a fun player with a fun kind of name and I said why not try to come up with something. When he was scoring his 15-20 goals a year, and I didn't do it after every one of his goals, it wasn't a huge thing until he got really hot and the team got hot and then everybody started jumping on it. The fact is that people liked it and he liked it, so I kept doing it. In fact, some people would get upset if I didn't do it, because you don't do it every time, sometimes it’s a deflected goal and you're not sure who scored it, so it's got to fit. Tkachuk Cha-ching, yes, there was pressure on me. The day the Panthers made the great trade, Tkachuk told me, 'You're under pressure. My dad wants the goal call now that you don't have Huby Doobie Doo.' So I did a little homework, I did a little survey, and I will give credit on Tkachuk Cha-ching, because we were thinking of a few things, the person that put it over the top was Jim Berry at CBS Channel 4. I was talking to him about it one night that summer when I was working at the station and Tkachuk Cha-ching was the winner. And it's another one where people like it, and Tkachuk likes it. So that's the key. THN: Do you have any favorite calls from over the years? SG: For me, because it’s a team thing, the playoff ones are the big ones. I think in 2012, which was…I started doing Panthers radio in 2005 and it took until 2012 to do the playoffs. And you know, back then we didn’t do every game, so in 2012 the Panthers clinched the division and the game wasn’t on local TV. The local broadcast didn’t happen, it was the visitors broadcast. So Game 7 against New Jersey when Marcel Goc scored to tie it at two late in the third period, that was amazing. The 2016 ones were memorable, but the Islanders won whose double overtimes games, so they weren’t overly memorable. The Presidents’ Trophy-winning season three years ago, Game 5 against Washington, the (Carter) Verhaeghe game was incredible. The Panthers actually trailed in that game 3-0. And Game 4, by the way, was amazing…people forget, Washington hit the post with an empty net, which would’ve put them up three games to one. But the memorable one is the Verhaeghe 4-3 goal in Game 5 and then obviously Game 6, Verhaeghe winning it in overtime from Claude Giroux, incredible. But the highlight is probably for me…second place would be Game 7 in Boston, the (Brandon) Montour tying goal and then obviously the series winner. But let me tell you that Game 6 last year at the arena, staying alive, was the best game ever played in that building. It was the loudest I've ever heard that building. Zac Dalpe’s goal and Eetu Luostarinen’s game-winner to make it 6-5, incredible, and when that puck went into the empty net, all that came into my mind was, ‘We're shipping up to Boston! We'll see you in Game 7!’ I think that's what I said. That was incredible. You know those home games, with the energy in the building, because I know how long and how down it was for many years for the fans, those home game moments in the playoffs are amazing for me because just looking out after you make the call, and 20,000 people are going crazy. Unreal. THN: Who was your favorite broadcaster growing up? SG: I was a huge baseball fan, huge Mets fan growing up. When the guy on the radio says, ‘For those of you scoring at home’ and people are like, ‘Who the hell is scoring at home?’ That was me. When you hear, ‘For those of you scoring at home, score that six-to-four-to-three double play,’ that was me, writing it down, listening to the radio, not watching the game, because every game wasn't televised. Bob Murphy was the New York Mets radio announcer and the descriptions, like how the clouds were hanging over centerfield, just incredible stuff. So Bob Murphy was a big hero of mine, and Marv Albert was the king. Marv, and I think so many guys in my generation, and you can go back to you know, obviously Kenny (Albert), Marv’s son, you go to guys like Steve Levy on ESPN, Ian Eagle, who does NFL and the (Brooklyn) Nets and college basketball, everybody that’s in that kind of age group, all of us that grew up like in the 80s, Marv was the guy. Marv was doing the six and 11 o'clock sports on NBC New York. He was then going to The Garden to make it for the Rangers and Knicks games. He did the NFL on television, some of the big Dan Marino moments, back when he played on TV, it was Marv Albert on NBC making those calls in those legendary Dolphins-Jets games. There's a lot of guys, but I would say those two men…obviously once I got into NHL in the late 90s, I was just a radio pre and postgame show host starting out as a 25 year old with the Panthers, Doc Emrick treated me like I was the President of the United States. So there's a lot of guys, but when you say growing up, those are the two. There's another kind of unknown a little bit…Jim Gordon was the (New York) Giants radio announcer when I was growing up, so he was certainly a big one. And you who was really amazing, like just to talk to and listen to: Sonny Hirsch, here in South Florida. I think Sonny is too forgotten, kind of as an underrated broadcaster, and so he's another guy that I would throw in there. Sonny was an amazing person and great broadcaster and always had good thoughts and another terrific guy. A lot of it goes back to how, you know when you meet somebody, do they live up to like the expectations you always had when you didn't know them? And, you know, often I guess in life, people say you never want to meet your heroes, but Sonny contradicts that. THN: What is the most nervous you’ve been before a broadcast? SG: That's a great question. I was pretty nervous in 2010, doing national radio for the gold medal game in Vancouver, the Sidney Crosby goal against the United States. I broadcast that game. That was kind of nerve-wracking. You know the whole world is paying attention, it's on national radio and it's blasting out. By the time you get to the gold medal, every single radio station in the country is picking it up. Other than that, there's really no time to be nervous. You just channel it into…you do the job and it becomes more of a focus. THN: This may be the same answer, but do you have a favorite non-Panthers broadcast memory? SG: That would be it, the Crosby goal, but I'll tell you what, the Zach Parise goal to tie that game was incredible for me, too, because obviously we're in Vancouver, everybody is Canadian, and I'm doing the game properly, its U.S.-Canada, but deep down, I wanted the U.S. to win. I also knew this is going to be legendary. When Parise scored, because Team USA goalie Ryan Miller was on the bench, they pulled the goalie, and Parise scores on Roberto Luongo and the game goes 2-2…you know that this is just epic. And if Canada doesn't win the game, I mean, oh my gosh, right? If they lose on their own soil to the United States… So that one, but the other one that I did in 2014, I did the shootout, United States against Russia, the T.J. Oshie game. I broadcast that one as well. It was pretty amazing. It's not like NHL rules, after the first number of shooters, you can use the same people, the same guy, so here comes Oshie against Bobrovsky, and you had Ilya Kovalchuk shooting for Russia, just the number of stars in that game. And again, you know, I did those few Olympics, but when it's on the home country soil, and it's against the United States, like it was in Canada in 2010 against the U.S., or Russia against the U.S. in Sochi in 2014. Those games, as an American, just become much more epic. So those two things were incredible. And I was trying to think of what I'm going to say if the US wins that shootout in Sochi and I couldn't come up with anything. Then finally, like in that 10th round when Oshie scored, I said 'Oshie can you see' like instead of the national anthem. That's what blurted out of my mouth (laughs). THN: OK, last question. What do you love most about being a broadcaster? SG: You know, it's what I always wanted to do, for whatever reason, since I was a little kid, turning down the TV when I was eight years old and announcing into a tape recorder. I love all of it, I love the energy at the game, I love all the detail and meticulous homework that goes into it, the preparation. I still get a kick out of finding that one note, you know, that one nugget that nobody knows and that I can put out there. I love the interaction, even more now, with the people in the game. Before, when you're young, maybe you're a little nervous, you just want to do the job. Now, it's almost like more of a lifestyle where you're in there and you're talking to players. And really for the first time over the last few years, the Panthers are good, and there is stability, so you really get to know these guys. The Panthers specifically…I don't want to single anybody out, but Ryan Lomberg is the most wonderful guy you ever want to talk to, and you can get to know him. So it's nice on a daily basis when you walk in there and you see guys like Brandon Montour and Matthew Tkachuk. They appreciate what you do, they're terrific guys, the team is winning, so people stick around. So it's really all of it. If I had to pick one thing, the energy at a sporting event, where you do not know what's going to happen, because every game is different, is still the best part of it. An extremely large thank you to Steve Goldstein for being so generous with his time and sharing the stories of his life and career. 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