Growing up a Red Wings fan in the years that preceded the lockout, Thorne is iconic in my view. After all the playoffs games, Finals, Cup wins and Avs and Wings rivalry games, it took a long time for watching hockey to feel the same for me.
As far as favorite calls, I can't ever forget:
-Yzerman's '96 Game 7 OT goal against the Blues
-McCarty's Cup clincher in '97
-Draper's OT winner to cap the comeback in game 2 against the Caps in '98
Among others of course.
Another fun one:
Late in the 02-03 season, he called a Wings and Blues games with Clement and John Davidson that got a bit out of hand with the Blues sending a message after the score got lopsided. During a line brawl in the last minute of the game that started with multiple Blues assaulting Tomas Holmstrom, then assistant coach Joe Kocur tossed a folding chair onto the ice before getting into a shouting match with Joel Quenneville. While discussing the likelihood of Kocur getting punished by the league, Thorne quips,
"Who does he think he is, Bobby Knight?" Which causes Clement and JD to crack up and laugh out loud.
I thought it was because he worked for ESPN, and the league went to a different channel after the lockout. I haven't heard anything stating he didn't want to call hockey games anymore.
IIRC, his contract with ABC/ESPN was pretty lucrative with him taking on baseball and football as well. I kind of remember an interview with him maybe a couple years after the lockout where he said he would've loved to stick with the NHL but couldn't because of some competition thing in his ESPN contract... which kind of tells me OLN wasn't going to pay the bills like ESPN did.
It almost seems like perhaps ESPN/ABC tried to lock down their most recognizable NHL faces/voices (Thorne, Clement and LOL Melrose) in hopes the NHL would value fans returning due to familiarity vs. taking the bigger offer from Comcast/OLN that ESPN/ABC didn't want to match. Or they banked on the NHL running back to them after a year or two because they figured hockey on a channel for fishing and the Iditarod would bomb with the fans or do little to attract new ones.
I also remember an interview that came sometime a little bit after he settled into his regular gig with the Orioles (and pretty much only regular baseball work) where he was asked about calling hockey and said something like he missed the games, players, colleagues, playoff excitement, etc., but didn't miss the travel. Considering he still has to travel for his O's job, I'm guessing he meant the more sporadic schedule from being a "national" broadcaster not tied to one team, and/or, considering he lives in CA in the offseason, traveling during the winter months.
I haven't closely followed his career or anything since then, but it appears as though he's been divorced from ESPN/ABC since 2009, so I'm surprised he hasn't done more with the NHL than just the one Kings game since then.
My dream would be to have another Red Wings vs. Avalanche outdoor game with Thorne and Clement calling both the NHL and the Alumni game.