AJ Mleczko will lend her expertise to Tuesday’s Bruins broadcast
AJ Mleczko is one of the cornerstones on which the United States women’s hockey program was built. The Nantucket native and Harvard grad, who now lives in Concord with her husband and four children, was a stalwart forward on the 1998 gold medal team in the Nagano, Japan, winter games, as well as the ’02 team that took silver in Salt Lake City.
In her post-playing days, she’s proving as adept at analyzing the sport as she was at playing it. And her bosses have noticed.
Mleczko, whose insight was on display as NBC’s women’s hockey analyst at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, will serve as the color analyst Tuesday night on NBC Sports Network’s coverage of the Bruins-Red Wings matchup. She will work with play-by-play voice Chris Cuthbert and rinkside reporter Brian Boucher.
“It’s nice to be able to talk hockey,’’ she said. “Women’s hockey, men’s hockey, it’s all the same.’’
Mleczko, who has periodically contributed to hockey coverage on NESN and the NHL Network, among other outlets in recent years, said she was approached with the opportunity by NBC Sports executive producer and president for production Sam Flood while they were in South Korea.
“He asked me what I was doing on March 6,’’ she said, “and I said, ‘I don’t have plans.’ He asked me if I wanted to do the Bruins game, that it was a home game and I wouldn’t have to travel, and that it was about time for that opportunity. It was a very easy answer for me.’’
It’s hard to imagine any fans could watch the US-Canada gold medal match in particular and not come away impressed with Mleczko’s knowledge and knack for quickly and clearly explaining the subtleties of what was happening on the ice.
“I’ve been a broadcaster now in more Olympics than I’ve played, but I think of myself as an athlete,’’ said Mleczko, who has worked four Winter Olympics for NBC as a women’s hockey analyst as well as the Rio Olympics, where she called field hockey.
“So that’s how I try to help our viewers, by telling them what I see from my perspective of having been out there, and bring home those subtle things to people who maybe would not notice otherwise.’’
Mleczko stopped by Bruins practice Monday to do some legwork.
“I follow the Bruins, but having been gone for a couple of weeks in South Korea and having had immersed myself in women’s Olympic hockey, I’ve had to catch up,’’ she said. “We came back right around the trade deadline, so it’s about figuring out how Rick Nash has fit into the lineup and Brian Gionta coming back from South Korea himself and joining the Bruins, there are a few things to brush up on.
“So much of broadcasting is being prepared. Although my role is to analyze what’s going on on the ice, all of that prep work makes me feel more complete. Oftentimes I have all this prep work and use a small percentage of it. But it makes me feel better. If some fourth-liner has a great game, I’m ready.’’
Mleczko said she has been impressed by the Bruins’ success so far this season, especially since it was somewhat unexpected.
“I was asking some of the players about that today. ‘When did you know you had something special?’’’ she said. “They went through so many injuries at the beginning, but they’d win by a goal here or there, and it turned into a roll. They kept winning, and kept winning some more, into November, December, and January.
“But as a Boston person, we know that once you start doing well, expectations are heavy. It’s Titletown after all, right?’’
