On the night The Voice, Rod Phillips, called his 3,542nd and final Edmonton Oilers game, a silver microphone, vintage Edward R. Murrow, seemingly, rotated on the Rexall Place scoreboard video screen, as a montage of Phillips' scenes played out alongside it.

Simply beautiful.

Phillips was the narrator of the glory years of the Boys on the Bus, the play-by-play voice of the game of Edmontonians lives for almost four decades. He told the story of a young team on the make, a truly great team that won five Stanley Cups in seven years, and all the memorable moments, famous or infamous in the history of the Oilers.

Close your eyes and the signature calls still echo clearly in memory: "A great moment for the sport, and a great moment for the City of Edmonton," Phillips intoned, back in May 1984 as the seconds checked off the clock on the Oilers' first Stanley Cup victory. " ... The Oilers will walk the walk of champions.

"They have defeated the New York Islanders in five games ... Five seconds remaining, four, three, two, one. It is all over! The Edmonton Oilers have won the Stanley Cup. The Edmonton Oilers have done it in five short years ... They are a historymaking hockey team."

Phillips' voice and passion is as much a part of that history as Wayne Gretzky's moves, Paul Coffey's ethereal speed, Mark Messier's physical presence, Grant Fuhr's wizardry, on and on.

Phillips is also a member of an extremely select club. Los Angeles broadcaster Vin Scully is synonymous with baseball's Dodgers; Danny Gallivan was the voice of the Montreal Canadiens; Ernie Harwell called the Detroit Tigers games; Montreal Expos fans retain powerful memories of Dave Van Horne and the late Duke Snider.

The print equivalents are equally rare, just as special.

Montreal's Red Fisher has covered 17 of the Montreal Canadiens' 24 Stanley Cup victories in his 56 years on the beat.

Fitting that The Journal's own Hall of Famer, Jim Matheson, was in the booth with his great friend and longtime broadcast partner to work Phillips' final game with him.

To a reporter who has covered NHL teams in three Canadian cities, it remains staggering to think that a broadcaster's voice has been playing on the soundtrack of the life of a community, year after year, for the entire life of a franchise. But that's the reality with Phillips. Or was until Tuesday night.

Unlike the urbane Scully, Phillips was not known for quoting Dylan Thomas or any other poet. He wasn't the wordsmith Danny Gallivan was. Rick Jeanneret's best turns of phrase -"May Day! May Day! May Day! or La-la-la-la-la-la LaFontaine" -resonate with all hockey fans, not just those of the Buffalo Sabres.

That wasn't Rod Phillips. What resonated with Phillips was less the words than the passion, his unabashed love for his team. And his ability to share that love, game after game, season after season.

"I wore my heart on my sleeve, and I'm proud of that," Phillips said in a short video that preceded the Oilers game against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night.

Sure. Like the night Fernando Pisani scored that overtime goal in Game 5 against the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2006 Stanley Cup final.

"Pisani is in alone. Shoots, scores! Fernando Pisani, short-handed. The Oilers win it 4-3 in sudden-death overtime. We'll see you in Edmonton on Saturday night."

The Oilers won Game 6 that Saturday night, also, blew out the Hurricanes 4-0 and took that series to seven games.

Sometimes, Phillips voice wavered, like the night of Oct. 1, 1999, when he emceed the jersey retirement ceremony for Gretzky.

Phillips' voice broke as he introduced The Great One. In truth, he was probably verklempt at the jersey retirements for all the greats, Messier, Coffey, Fuhr, Kurry and Anderson, all of which he presided over.

On Tuesday night, the Oilers bestowed a Stanley Cup ring for the franchise's first championship in 1983-84. He already had the other four, so team president Kevin Lowe completed the set with that gift.

And it was Oilers CEO Patrick LaForge whose voice broke as he announced the unveiling of a new banner at Rexall Place, the one bearing Phillips name and the number, 3,542, for the number of games he so memorably called.

"Oh, man, it just blew me way," Phillips told his sidekick, Matheson, who asked him how he felt when the banner went up.

Phillips didn't address the sellout crowd of 16,839 at Rexall, though. He had to hustle up to the catwalk. For one last time, to mark the end of an era, Phillips had a game to call.