Recuperating Los Angeles Kings announcer Bob Miller aiming to return next season
Kings broadcaster Bob Miller celebrates with fans during the team’s Stanley Cup parade in downtown Los Angeles in June.
Bob Miller remembers experiencing chest pain for the first time maybe 30 years ago, while he was jogging with his wife, Judy. He underwent an array of tests and was told not to worry, it probably was related to a chest muscle.
The sensation disappeared for a while but returned occasionally, sometimes when he walked to dinner while on the road with the Kings. When he felt it again while walking in his neighborhood in January, deep into his 43rd season as the team’s broadcast voice, he immediately arranged to see his doctor. Initial tests were normal but another test produced alarming numbers. He underwent an angiogram — an X-ray that uses special dye to gauge blood flow — that showed four of his arteries were 90% blocked. Soon afterward, Miller, 77, was on an operating table.
Tuesday marks the eight-week anniversary of the procedure. He’s progressing slowly but surely but will not be back behind the microphone this season. He was in the hospital a few extra days because he had atrial fibrillation — an irregular heartbeat — and is on a course of three rehabilitation sessions a week for 12 weeks. Initially exhausted by the slightest activity, he reached a milestone last Friday when he got through the day without a nap.
“I’d get up out of bed, get dressed, go down and have breakfast, lay down and go to sleep for an hour,” he said. “Then I’d have lunch and lay down and think I wasn’t going to go to sleep and Judy would wake me up and say, ‘You’ve been out for 45 minutes.’ I really had no stamina or energy.”
Although it might sometimes endanger his recovery, he’s following the Kings, who had the depth to move radio voice Nick Nickson to TV to fill in. Not many teams can replace one Hall of Fame announcer with another.
“I’ve been watching, and it’s too stressful,” Miller said the other day, his voice strong over the phone. “Some nights it’s nice to see and other nights it’s frustrating to watch.
“I’ve decided rather than try and come back too early and have something happen — and we can only do the first round of the playoffs on TV — I think the prudent thing to do is to wait until the start of next season.”
It wasn’t easy for him to concede he won’t return this season.
“There are times I think, ‘I should be there. I could be doing that,’” he said. “And then I’ll get up and do something. I realized I don’t have that stamina yet to come back and be there at 3:30 in the afternoon and do a game and come home at 11 at night.”
He has had little pain from his chest incision but felt discomfort in his right leg, where doctors removed a vein for a bypass graft and left scars. His sense of humor, however, remains intact.
“Someone asked me where I had my surgery and I told them Benihana’s in Sherman Oaks,” Miller said. Told that the doctor who performed the procedure had done more than 7,000 before his, “I said, ‘I hope you’re not too tired to do one more.’” And he was reassured when the technicians who did his pre-op tests described his doctor as the Wayne Gretzky of heart surgeons. “So I was feeling pretty good about that,” he said with a laugh.
Miller hopes to become strong enough to visit Staples Center and express his gratitude for fans’ get-well wishes. “I got almost 400 cards, from mainly California, of course, but from around the U.S. and Canada,” he said, “and I want to come back and thank people for the cards and the emails and everything else they sent. It was nice.”
Panthers defenseman Willie Mitchell skates with the puck during the first period of a game against the Canadiens on Dec. 29, 2015.
Mitchell at crossroads
Florida Panthers defenseman Willie Mitchell, whose career has been imperiled by multiple concussions, is expected to soon decide whether he will continue playing or retire. According to the Miami Herald, Mitchell participated in the Panthers’ practice Monday and addressed his teammates but did not reveal his plans and did not speak to the media.
Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov told the Herald that Mitchell said he’s taking things day by day and advised teammates “to appreciate every second of being a hockey player because you never know when it’s going to end.”
Mitchell suffered a concussion while playing for the Vancouver Canucks in 2009-10 but the Kings took a chance and gave him a two-year contract. A physical presence and outstanding penalty killer, he was a valuable member of their 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup championship teams but salary-cap considerations led them to let him go as a free agent. The Panthers signed him and appointed him captain, but he was sidelined last season because of a concussion and left the lineup again Jan. 18.
General Manager Dale Tallon previously told the Herald that some doctors are concerned for Mitchell’s long-term health if he plays again. Here’s hoping Mitchell does what’s best for his life beyond hockey.
Slap shots
• Condolences to friends and family of college referee Butch Mousseau, who died last Friday as the result of head injuries suffered in a fall during warmups for the Ferris State-Michigan Tech NCAA playoff game at Grand Rapids, Mich. Mousseau, of Erie, Colo., was 48. He wasn’t wearing a helmet when he tumbled backward and couldn’t break his fall because he reportedly had his hands in his pockets.
• The Tampa Bay Lightning will miss defenseman Anton Stralman, who fractured his left leg last Friday and is sidelined indefinitely.
• Tony Granato is expected to be named coach at the University of Wisconsin after finishing the season as an assistant coach of the Detroit Red Wings.
• Happy 88th birthday Thursday to Red Wings and NHL legend Gordie Howe, who survived a major stroke in 2014.
Twitter: @helenenothelen
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