I'm a sound guy, from my schooling to the way I hear the world, so my bag is the way a PBP guy eases up or coasts or pushes certain words or events - Bob Miller had a lovely way of saying "scores" and Danny Gallivan's tonal fragility was a perfect compliment to the effortlessly superior play of prime Habs; Doc Emrick is practically foaming at the mouth at the end of sentences and Gary Thorne's astonishingly dense shout-speaking voice has me reaching for the Dolby button, etc etc etc - and Bob Cole's great gift (and no one I've heard can match him) is he could be speaking another language while still delivering The Moment Or Something Close To It, and you'd be limp waiting on the denouement. Never mind his goal calls - I think Cole has been at his best when the puck's rattling around and still in play.
I think the following is the best Cole passage available, and if you want to save yourself a few minutes (and why would you; it's a history forum), scrub to 6:40 and watch for 60 seconds, from the "Bossy...Bossy!...BOSSY!!" bit to the aftermath of Ken Morrow's goal. He's barely speaking sentences. He has none of Gallivan's word command or, in another sport - which immediately makes this unfair to both of them, but what the heck - Vin Scully's congenial grace, but it's hockey and hell's breaking loose and only 15,850 fans are there and you're not one of them, but by golly, you feel as though you were. No one else has ever done this with such intensely ramshackle spirit.
That he's paired in this broadcast with Dick Irvin, as the Islanders try to keep their Drive For Five alive, playing the Rangers for the fourth time in as many years, is gravy.