With the World Cup, ESPN and a pair of familiar faces return — briefly — to hockey

A Taylor Swift song blasted through the Air Canada Centre last Saturday as World Cup of Hockey players weaved pre-game figure-eights on the ice, peppering goalies with shots. On one side were skaters in familiar American red-white-and-blue; on the other, the blue-black-and-white of Team Europe, an invented team of lesser puck kingdoms, like Slovenia and Norway.

The ESPN broadcaster Steve Levy watched these warmups for the first game of the two-week tournament from a booth high above the arena.

“I’m so excited I need a seat belt. I could jump right out of this place,” he said to no one in particular, as commentator and former Kings coach Barry Melrose — red of face, yellow of pocket square — gazed out thoughtfully next to him.

Levy and Melrose were once hockey fixtures, back when ESPN controlled TV rights to the NHL in the U.S.

Melrose, impish and fashion-conscious, was its pre-eminent color commentator, emphasis on the color (on a burst of offense: “It’s like the county fair and you’re shooting ducks for the biggest teddy bear”). Levy, steady and boom-voiced, was the play-by-play man, famous for calling some of the longest games in NHL history.

But ESPN let rights go during the lockout of 2004-05, and NBC now owns them, through 2021. The Disney-owned network abandoned live games — and, to some critics, a lot of coverage altogether. Neither Levy nor Melrose has called a hockey game in more than a decade.

“I think the last call I did was the conference final between Toronto and Carolina in 2004,” Levy said, standing with Melrose outside the broadcast booth about a half hour before the game.

“But what was the last one we did together?” Melrose asked.

“Yeah, we were trying to figure that out today. It had to be during that 2003-2004 season. But we can’t remember when it was.”

That day’s game, the first of many they’d call during the eight-team tournament, was a reunion and — in a more remote scenario — a portent of a sports-TV future.

Hockey and television have long had a complicated relationship. Local cable viewership has been solid in many top markets (including Los Angeles) but national games have floated between various rights-holders, some of whom have been less adept than others. (Anyone remember Fox’s glowing puck?)

Rights currently reside with NBC and sports offshoot NBCSN, which have often drawn at least respectable numbers. The two Stanley Cup Final elimination games last June, both on NBC, each averaged at least 5 million viewers — a pittance compared to NFL and NBA showdowns but still higher than scripted shows such as “Grimm.”

ESPN, motivated by the interest of a number of in-house personalities — and, perhaps, an unease with being completely out of a major North American sport — stepped in.

“We have a lot of hockey fans kicking around Bristol, Conn,” Burke Magnus, ESPN’s executive vice president of scheduling and programming, said in an interview. “And we love anything that has the flag wrapped around it,”

He said it was at least conceivable this could be the beginning of a return to a larger hockey partnership. “This is a great platform for us to look at business opportunities of all kinds,” with the NHL, Magnus said, “If the rights became available domestically it will just help to be doing more with them.”

But mostly, he said, it was simply a promising interlude and a way to round out its coverage of other sports. “The idea came up to get back into the NHL business and it just seemed a perfect opportunity,” Magnus said. “And we knew we had Steve and Barry.”

The gold standard for hockey announcers is Mike “Doc” Emrick. He has a nimble mind, encyclopedic vocabulary, deep historic knowledge and quicksilver tongue — like a Vin Scully on speed. To ESPN, he has only flaw: He’s with NBC.

Levy and Melrose try a different approach. It isn’t always simple, or necessary, to keep up with every one-timer, lightning-quick pass and dipsy-doodle. So they opt for a more relaxed feel, the vibe of two friends watching a game that just happens to be on TV.

“We fully recognize the way we call the game is not your standard, stick-to-stick coverage of every play,” Levy said. “We want people to feel the enthusiasm. We want people at home to laugh during the broadcast.”

Melrose, who is often willing to be the good-humored object of his partner’s barbs, added: “What I hope happens is that people see we like each other and have passion for the game, as opposed to us being the X’s and O’s nerdy guys.”

(Magnus called the duo “like those two guys who sit in the balcony during ‘The ‘Muppets.’”)

Levy, 51, is a frequent SportsCenter anchor known also for broadcasting college football and some Major League Baseball. Melrose, 60 and a former pro defenseman, is a coach-turned-broadcaster-turned-coach-turned-broadcaster. Kings fans will remember him for being behind the bench on its unlikely 1993 run to the Stanley Cup Finals — and his firing during the 1994-1995 season.

“L.A. must remember you kindly,” Levy said to Melrose.

“I was a favorite,” Melrose responded.

“Such a favorite they ran you out of town,” Levy replied.

Levy stepped back into the booth to go over some technical details with his producer. Melrose continued to chat about the tournament. The World Cup — the first in 12 years and the first serious go at a standalone competition in two decades — is a revived and uncertain experiment, an attempt by the NHL to conjure up some of the excitement of the Olympics without having to stop mid-season to do so.

‘I just think there’s excitement everywhere,” Melrose said in his faintly sing-song-y Canadian accent. “In Group A, Canada has the most talent. Group B, anyone can beat anybody — Russia, Sweden, Finland, even Team Europe,” he continued, , breaking down the field.

He weighed in on Team North America, another ad hoc club, of Canadians and Americans under 24, whose speed has become an X-factor in the tournament. “They’re exciting. I mean,” he added, “it is hard to know who will root for them, who they represent. They’re fighting for youth, I guess.” He paused. “As we all are.”

Whether the World Cup can prove popular with fans or a valuable investment for ESPN remains to be seen. In Toronto the games are huge; the States are another matter. On Tuesday the U.S. team lost to Canada, ensuring a first-round elimination and a potential ratings challenge for ESPN.

“I guess we can hope people shift to North America,” Magnus said dryly before the U.S.-Canada game. “I mean, the team is 50% American.”

Outside the booth before Saturday’s game, specific results didn’t seem to matter.

“I think Americans will be interested regardless,” Melrose said.

“There are a lot of great story lines,” Levy noted.

“Mary and Herb from Tuscaloosa are flipping channels, and Herb says to Mary ‘check out the goal Patrick Kane just scored,” Melrose said.

Levy cast him a sidelong look. “Mary and Herb from Tuscaloosa, that’s what you came up with?”

“I like saying Tuscaloosa.”

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