Scott Van Pelt Suddenly Loses His Voice Mid-Broadcast, Gamely Croaks His Way Through SportsCenter Highlight Package

ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt lost his voice on SportsCenter Wednesday night, and was forced to push his way through to finish out a segment.

Van Pelt, who hosts the midnight edition of the popular highlight show, returned from commercial to break down the NHL game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Arizona Coyotes. But immediately, it was clear his voice sounded a bit off. He sounded very scratchy, but he fought through and attempted to get through the highlight package.

“You’re wondering, can he make it? Will he be able to make it to the end? I don’t know!” Van Pelt said. “Connor McDavid, leading the NHL in goals. This is terrible. I’m trying. What a disaster.”

Thankfully for the host, he had his colleague “Stanford” Steve Coughlin to help him limp to the finish line.

“He’s got 58 on the year,” Coughlin said as he tried to finish Van Pelt’s sentence.

The highlight package showed McDavid net his 59th goal on the season, and Stanford Steve almost took over the reins for the highlights.

“Another view, you see it right off the back of his head,” Coughlin said.

But like the pro he is, the SportsCenter host continued to try to fight through his challenge.

“This is a catastrophe,” Van Pelt said. “I never thought this would happen.”

They rolled a flashback from February of McDavid scoring a goal in a similar fashion to his goal on Wednesday night off the side of the goalie’s head. But while they showed the clip, Van Pelt stayed mum, and Coughlin gave the analysis of the play.

“There ya go, Stanford Steve, you’re my guy,” Van Pelt said.

They showed the clip of McDavid scoring his 60th goal in overtime for the win, but once again, the SportsCenter host said as few words as he could to get the point across that the leading NHL goal scorer netted another. He then played ESPN NBA play-by-play announcer Mike Breen‘s famous call for when a player hits a big shot, “BANG!”

“I’ll just do this all night,” Van Pelt said. “Let other people talk.”

He tried to explain that McDavid became the fourth player in the last 25 years to score 60 goals in a season, but he conceded and just let the viewers look at the board on their television screens as he finished up and said, “I got nothing.”

After the show ended, Van Pelt took to Twitter to explain what happened and apologized to his late-night viewers. The ESPN host wrote:

What a bizarre deal. Voice just kinda stopped working….while attempting to host a show. Not ideal, to say the least. Apologies for that mess.

Watch above via ESPN.

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