Chicago Blackhawks aim for stability with new broadcast teams, but they’re also ready to ‘spice it up’

Before every Chicago Blackhawks home game, they show the team’s starting lineup on the big video board.

Last season, Hawks fans watching from home could’ve used a lineup for the TV booth and studio crew.

Would play-by-play announcer Chris Vosters be joined by Patrick Sharp or Troy Murray?

Would Murray be in the TV booth or on the radio with John Wiedeman?

Would Wiedeman share the radio booth that night with Caley Chelios, or would she be in the NBC Sports Chicago studio with Pat Boyle?

You could find Colby Cohen either in-studio, between the benches or, on occasion, in the booth. Did he get to claim mileage on his legs?

Former Hawks goalie Scott Darling may have occupied the same chair in the studio, but his role on the broadcast was a moving target.

No local TV lineup is the same for all local broadcasts, but even the Hawks and members of the crew admit they struggled for continuity and chemistry, so the changes they made in the offseason amount to more than just a few tweaks.

Sharp took a front office job with the Philadelphia Flyers, so the Hawks hired former Blues analyst Darren Pang to replace him.

Cohen moved back to the Philadelphia area, and Darling’s role on the pre- and postgame show has been dialed back.

Former Hawks enforcer John Scott, a hockey podcaster, leads a group of new guest analysts that includes Hawks greats Chris Chelios and Denis Savard and former NHL player and coach Tony Granato. Other alumni or a celebrity could drop in.

Charlie Roumeliotis, Boyle’s “Blackhawks Talk Podcast” partner, will appear periodically in the studio providing the same game and locker room insights as he did last season.

Caley Chelios, Chris’ daughter and a former Tampa Bay Lightning radio analyst, will fill in for Pang when he does national broadcasts, or radio in spot duty. But otherwise, she’s locked in as the main analyst and partner to studio host Boyle, who’s entering his 12th season; Chelios, her third.

“I think one thing we learned was to create some stability and predictability to our booth,” Hawks Chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz told the Tribune. “So it’s those two (Boyle and Caley Chelios), and some games we can add a third just to spice it up or if it’s a special night we’ll do that. But the core is the core now, which is great.”

“The Hawks are such a huge franchise, and especially this year (with Connor Bedard), there’s going to be a lot of eyes on them,” Scott said.

Boyle echoed Wirtz’s sentiments.

“My guess is everybody wanted to bring some stability and bring some consistency to the product,” he said.

The Hawks and Bulls’ partnership with NBC Sports Chicago runs out after this season, which means the cast does too.

Boyle heard some of the criticism of the studio and in-game broadcast, and he takes it personally, even though a lot of it wasn’t directed at him.

He took an active role in helping the “Blackhawks Pregame/Postgame Live” make up its new cast this summer, and he suggested Scott.

“I was sitting there one night thinking about our future and how we’re going to get better as a studio show — because I’m competitive too,” Boyle said. “We’ve won Emmys on this show, and I want to put out the best product possible.”

Boyle doesn’t want someone on the show trying to be Paul Bissonette — if that’s not their personality — and sounding forced. But there are other ways to punch up the show.

“One thing I take when I watch TNT’s NBA show and their NHL show, it’s personality-driven,” he said. “It’s reacting to social media and showing a tweet: ‘This is what (Wayne) Gretzky said,’ ‘This is what Gretzky tweeted about Connor Bedard’s first goal.’

“That’s the kind of stuff we are looking to do and engage with fans that way, and also teach along the way and tell players’ stories. … We’re following the best reality show, and that’s sports. You never know what’s going to happen on a given night.”

Boyle thinks Scott can bring a lot of those elements — particularly humor.

“I felt like when I heard his podcast, he seemed really conversational, funny, didn’t take himself too seriously,” Boyle said. “You can tell that he has a passion for the game.”

After some screen testing, the Hawks and NBC felt Boyle and Scott had a great rapport on camera.

“We are testing everybody now for studio,” said Hawks president of business operations Jaime Faulkner. “So we’re having you sit and actually do a studio game with Pat Boyle, or with Caley. So we’re testing everybody to say, ‘Hey, do we see chemistry? Does this work? Are they a natural?’

“So we’ve put a lot more work this year into identifying with NBC who should actually be there and in what role.”

Faulkner has said on more than one occasion that Darling wasn’t put in the best position to succeed last season.

“We talked a lot last year about Scott (Darling). Unfortunately, we wanted him to be in one role, but because of everything that was going on he ended up having to do things we didn’t want him to do,” she said. “He’d be an analyst, then he had to be the goalie expert and then had to do certain (other) things. We changed the process this year to make sure that we had the right people in the right role, but worked on that through the summer to identify that.”

Boyle believes Scott can hit the ground running because of the kind of leg work he already was doing for his podcast, which set him apart from other potential candidates during this offseason’s search.

“You can’t just say, ‘I’m a talker, you know, it’s hockey. Let’s do it,’” Boyle said. “You’ve got to put some work into this.

“And he seems to be the type of person that is willing to go the extra mile and put the time and effort into doing the work and watching games and going to a morning skate and having a chat with a coach or a player.”

Scott added, “I keep up on every team, right? And you’re following every player, every team, every prospect pool, and it’s a lot.

“I talked about hockey every day on my show. It’s not something where I’m coming in and I’m scrambling to try to figure out what’s going on in the league. What’s happening with the Hawks? It’s what I do.”

Viewers should expect a few new wrinkles from the game and studio shows.

The pre- and postgame shows will broadcast more frequently from a suite in the United Center.

Viewers got a taste of that when the NBC Sports Chicago panel interviewed Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson.

“I would like to be at the rink,” said Scott, who estimates he’ll make between 30 and 40 appearances. “It’s so much better to watch the game live.”

NBC Sports Chicago will host a pre- and postgame show for the season opener Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, though the game itself airs on ESPN.

NBC Sports Chicago airs its first game Saturday when the Hawks play the Canadiens in Montreal.

In his Blues role, Pang was known for his banter with coaches when he conducted interviews between the benches, and he’ll do the same for the Hawks eventually.

“He’s going to start the season in the booth upstairs with Chris (Vosters), Faulkner said. “And as they start to build chemistry as the season moves on, he’ll probably call the game from between the benches.”

Boyle hopes fans welcome the changes this upcoming season.

“I want to be entertaining, I want to be informative,” he said. “I’ve been a sportscaster in Chicago for 19 years, and I’m really proud of that.

“And like any other team that’s trying to evolve and get better, the Blackhawks studio TV team is trying to get better. That’s kind of where this started, and hopefully we’ll take another step in the right direction.”