Ray Ferraro

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Ray Ferraro (born August 23, 1964 in Trail, British Columbia, Canada) is a retired professional hockey player for the NHL. He played for the Hartford Whalers (1984-1991), New York Islanders (1991-1995), New York Rangers (1995-1996), Los Angeles Kings (1996-1999), Atlanta Thrashers (1999-2002) and St. Louis Blues (2002). His nickname was the "Big Ball of Hate." [1]

Ferraro was a prolific scorer in Junior Hockey, including a 108-goal and 192-point season for the Brandon Wheat Kings in 1983-84.

In his NHL career, he scored 408 goals and 490 assists, for a total of 898 points in 18 seasons. He was named to the NHL all-star game in 1992. He had two 40 goal seasons.

He had a memorable playoff run for the New York Islanders in 1993, scoring two overtime goals against the Washington Capitals as the Islanders upset both the Capitals and the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins. He finished that playoff season with team-leading totals in goals (13) and points (20).

Ferraro retired on August 2, 2002. He has done work for ESPN hockey broadcasts, including work on NHL 2Night with John Buccigross and Barry Melrose. On that show Ferraro was often referred to as "Chicken Parm" by Buccigross after an accident with the food moments before going on the air. Ferraro is a main studio analyst during broadcasts of The NHL on NBC where he's often paired with Bill Clement. The same combo also worked as in-studio commentator's for the 2006 Winter Olympics for NBC, covering men's hockey. Ferraro also works regularly in Canada for the Edmonton Oilers, providing color commentary of Oilers games on Rogers Sportsnet West, and, during the NHL season, has a daily "Hockey Hour" segment on Vancouver, B.C. radio station TEAM 1040, introduced to the strains of "The Brass Bonanza", theme song of the Hartford Whalers (present-day Carolina Hurricanes)

His second wife is former U.S. women's ice hockey team captain Cammi Granato, who also worked as a women's hockey analyst during NBC's 2006 Winter Olympics coverage.

Following the Swedish women's team upset of the U.S. at the Torino games, Ferraro publicly criticized US Women's coach Ben Smith for failing to bring the best US players to the games, which lead to their downfall. His comments were broadcast on MSNBC on February 19, during the intermission of a men's game. This appeared to be directly related to his wife being cut in August 2005, along with other veterans in favor of younger, faster players. Some critics and fans also questioned Granato's cut from the team and cited it as a factor in the US team's disappointing performance.