Down on the Farm: O'Donnell gets another shot at calling NHL games

Iowa Wild coach Tim Army speaks often about how that organization's main goal is to help people advance to the National Hockey League.
But it's a credo that doesn't begin and end with the talent on the ice.
In recent years, a number of people in the Iowa marketing and business departments have moved on to jobs, both with the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul, and in other professional sports organizations.

Two social media coordinators have landed similar gigs with NHL teams.
Former Iowa assistant coach Brett McLean is in his first season as an assistant with the club in Minnesota.
And then
there is Joe O'Donnell
, the long-time Iowa radio voice who spent most of the past week filling the large shoes of Minnesota radio play-by-play man, Bob Kurtz.

"I think it speaks volumes about the organization as a whole, NHL and AHL, the leadership that we have, and not wanting to hold people back," O'Donnell said. "It's about growth in their careers and opportunities. I know any chance they give me an opportunity to fill in for Bob, and do what I do, I do not take it for granted. I'm hoping there are more chances down the line."
It's the second time in as many seasons that O'Donnell has gotten a taste of NHL hockey, as he also filled in for Kurtz on a trip to California last season.
Of course, it was much different this time around. Last year, O'Donnell got to enjoy the considerable trappings of the NHL's road life, especially considering he'd spent years riding busses in the American Hockey League.
A chartered plane and his own hotel room on the road were some really nice benefits, but the opportunity to live out his dream of working an NHL broadcast was the real highlight.
This time around, O'Donnell was again living out that dream, but with the team in California and local broadcasters not traveling, O'Donnell has been holed up with Wild radio analyst Tom Reid in the radio booth at Xcel Energy Center, calling games off the television.
O'Donnell has done many things during a broadcasting career that has spanned from his hometown of Philadelphia to Boise, Idaho to Houston, Texas to Des Moines.
But until Minnesota's game in Los Angeles last week, he had never called a live game off a television monitor.

"First time for me," O'Donnell said. "I was actually a little surprised, because it went pretty smoothly. I thought there'd be a little bit more of a transition or a couple more bumps in the road, or a rough patch here and there. But I actually felt really comfortable, because Tom Reid made it real easy and the KFAN crew made it real easy."
Still, there are things you simply can't see off the TV that add important color to any broadcast.
"Stuff behind the play, when the puck's dumped in, taking a look at the line changes, see who's coming over the boards," O'Donnell said. "Or a scrum behind the play that [now] you can't see because the camera is following the puck. I think those are the biggest things.
"The atmosphere, the crowd, the goal horn, anticipating things because you see it unfold. The 2-on-1s, the 3-on-2s, you see all that stuff when you're live in the building, but seeing that stuff on the TV monitor is sometimes a little more difficult."
O'Donnell's final game of the road trip was the Wild's victory in San Jose on Monday night, a game that ended around midnight locally in the Twin Cities.
It was a back-to-reality moment for O'Donnell, who left Xcel Energy Center and drove straight through to the Des Moines airport, where he met the Iowa Wild for a flight to Austin, Texas and a week-long series against the Texas Stars. That flight left a little after 6 a.m.

O'Donnell credits his wife, Cara, for maintaining what seems like a single-parent household for large chunks of the winter months. His college sweetheart, whom he married three days before he interviewed for the Houston Aeros job that first got him into the Wild organization, takes care of everything at home with the couple's three sons while O'Donnell follows Iowa around the AHL.
And now, for a week or two at a time, the Minnesota Wild as well.
"She's the best. We're on the road half the year, and we don't have family in Des Moines," O'Donnell said in 2019. "Half the year, from October to April, she's solo. They're playing hockey, they have baseball camp or swimming lessons, school, friends, parties ... you name it, she does it all. And she never bats an eye."
After another week in the show, O'Donnell's dream of becoming the next Iowa staffer to ascend to the National Hockey League seems closer than ever.
It was a little different this time around, but for O'Donnell, it's still an opportunity to call games in the NHL.
And that ain't nothing.
"It's been awesome. It's been different, certainly, but you get a chance to watch the best players in the world in what they do," O'Donnell said. "That part of it is really cool, guys that I watched on TV for so many years, aspiring just to get to this level. That's what it's all about."
Photo courtesy of Kevin Falness