News today than NBC dropped out of the Ottawa-Buffalo game as it went to overtime in order to get to the pre-pre Preakness coverage. What in the name of WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS (and Jim McKay) surprises us about this?
Not one damn thing. Hey Gary, you're a New York lawyer and a good one. Give us our game back you idiot. Put teams in Winnipeg, Quebec and Hamilton, and northern U.S. climates.
Oh and one more thing: when you're dating a girl (NBC, in this case) and she treats you like shit, she doesn't love you and never will.
I'm surprised I had to tell you this at your age, Gary.
thank gawd we have CBC up here, at least. i was watching the NBC feed for the first three periods (better commentary), but changed when they broke for.. horse racing? Bill CLement looked like he was ready to vomit when he had to do an 'sports update', and i'd pay top dollar to hear what Brett Hull would think of the no-show OT.
ReplyDeleteif i was an NHL fan in the states, i'd be putting my head/fist through the wall right now.
Gary B: You were watching the NBC coverage because of better commentary...
ReplyDeleteThat says it all doesn't it? I would suggest it's because you, like many other true 'hockey' fans, can't handle the second rate CBC coverage. If TO isn't playing, the CBC isn't particularily interested... Being an Oiler fan, I've endured countless half-assed efforts by the second or often third string commentators.
Yes, Bettman is once again screwing the playoff schedule for the 'chance' a few Americans may find a new favourite sport. But the CBC sucks - they rollover when it comes to the playoff schedule, then, when they do a game, are guilty of no longer doing an adequate job of televising games to Canadians!
Sorry TO - but Bob Cole and Harry Neale (esp. Harry Neale) suck. They are dinosaurs! If a game goes to overtime, Neale can't stop complaining about having staying up late! Retire you ass! They are so many dedicated, informed hockey people that could do so much better.
Yes, in the end, we are all left out in the cold...
Better commentary...seriously?? I'll take my CBC everytime! I must be the only one who likes Bob and Harry.
ReplyDeleteBettman, the girl isn't putting out. Time to walk away!!
When the game went into overtime
ReplyDeleteI wondered what NBC'd do
Once they did it
I wondered why I wondered
Great Race tho'
Yeah, I'd say the NHL is seriously lacking credibility at this point. Too many team bankruptcies, too many rule changes, too much labour strife, too many US TV contract failures, and now too much schedule shifting.
ReplyDeleteNext up, radical jersey changes.
The NHL needs to solidfy their fanbase before they can ever get anywhere. I'm not talking about the hardcore types that end up eating shit everyday, I'm talking about hockey's casual acquaintances. I think that group is made up of sports fans and they care about credibility and tradition and the game itself.
bendelson:
ReplyDeleteyou're bang on. CBC's coverage this year (and last) has been pretty lousy - except for the segments in earlier rounds with Kelly Hrudey and Craig Simpson. i thought those were fantastic - informative analysis by former NHLers who know their stuff and did their homework. not sure why they stopped it, really.
i think it speaks to a problem with sports broadcasting in general - the MO these days seems to be cram as many so-called 'experts' onto a set and let them yell at each other for a while (TSN, CTVSN, in particular). spewing the same rhetoric, the same stories, the same superficial analysis... it's like watching a session of Parliament.
CBC certainly has it's moments like that, too - and i haven't forgotten the awkward and repetitive effort of Mark Lee during last year's Oil run. and don't get me started on Don Whitman!
i guess i'm actually talking about two different things in a typical NHL broadcast - the quality of the analysis/overall entertainment, and the quality of the play-by-play.
NBC wins on both counts, at least for the last round or two. IN SPITE of today's non-OT fiasco. Excellent play-by-play (especially Mike Emrick) and colour, and top-notch analysis - i'm a big Ray Ferraro fan, i think he's maybe the best in the business (critical when he needs to be, informed, and still current, both in terms of his knowledge of trends and systems, and the fact that he's not that far removed from his playing days). glaad we get to hear him so often during Oiler games.
TSN's broadcast's are hit-and-miss. Cuthbert is good, Pierre McGuire is a freak, but his 'man behind the glass' stuff is good. the TSN in-studio stuff leaves something to be desired, tho.
the CBC continues to be wildly inconsistent. again, the Hrudey/Simpson stuff earlier this spring was great, in-depth, engaging stuff. miles better than anything that TSN/CTVSN has managed, analysis-wise. but the play-by-play... ugh.
i gotta admit, i've been a Bob Cole fan for a long time. he's nearly the last in a long line of great play-callers... the likes of Dan Kelly, Danny Gallivan, Dick Irvin etc (i'm old enough to remember hearing those guys). guys who were real good at tapping into the emotion/drama of a game, and elevating it further into some kind of colossal clash of the titans/end of the world struggle. the voice helps, too.
but Bob's lost a step or two, and perhaps the way that COVERAGE of hockey/sports no longer suits his style as much. with the constant analysis, day-in and day-out, especially during the playoffs, a broadcaster has to be prepared. and as much as i still love Bob's voice, and the occasional great line from Harry Neale, past that, their commentary comes across a little... lacking.
i'm curious to see who the next 'wave' of announcers are, especially at the CBC. with Cuthbert gone, and the likes of Cole/Whitman/Armitage getting near retirement time, who's left? Hughson? that guy who does Ottawa regional stuff (i forget his name)?
who's next?
Why does nobody ever mention Gord Miller? Did he kill someone and I missed it in the papers? He knows the names. Sets an appropriate emtional tone without any hint of favoritism. And he has to put up with that spastic jacka** Pierre McGuire.
ReplyDeleteYeah gary b, we are definately on the same page re: the cbc playoff coverage. Hrudey has come a long, long way and Simpson is top notch. I agree with your props to Chicken Parm as well.
ReplyDeleteHarry Neale kills me though... I can actually hear his boredom and indifference during games - (esp. when the Leafs are losing). I can fully appreciate Bob Cole as a classic - he still has that genuine thrill of a good game in his voice. (exactly what I believe Harry to be lacking).
As for the other networks with their small armies of former players/coaches providing their often grade school level of 'analysis'and 'insight' - I can do without it all... Tie Domi is the current worst of the worst in my opinion.
...and I do like the McGuire and Miller tandem! The between the benches analysis is a nice step forward. McGuire needs to settle down a little, but he knows his stuff.
Cuthbert has always been a favorite of mine because of the way he made network level (there was some kind of problem for a Washington game or some such and he called it beautifully. That's a terrible explanation of it but there was a real 'local boy makes good' angle iirc).
ReplyDeleteGord Miller is an example of why having a pleasant voice doesn't matter in hockey as much as baseball (as an example). Vin Scully's wonderful voice makes a Saturday afternoon that much better as he waxes poetic (his puns are dynamite) but there is a pace to a baseball game that allows for it.
In hockey, you need an intelligent, accurate account of what is happening and when dealing with a sophisticated audience (Canadians know their hockey) being right is more important than vocal tones.
Mcguire is a bright guy, but is also too hammer on a drum and painfully obvious. When a goal is scored he takes some random moment from action just previous and blows it out of proportion. Cleary will block out a checker while Zetterberg does all the work on a goal and Pierre will go apedoodle on Cleary's play.
Well correct all around Pierre, but the guy with all-world skill was the difference. I don't think he's especially brilliant, but he is especially loud.
Hrudey is amazing, although the bizarre attachment my wife has to his t.v. segments is getting a little irritating. I thought it would end after the Oilers cup run but the woman keeps showing up right on time for Hrudey's on screen stuff.
It's uncanny.
In previous post, it should read 'painfully predictable.' Pierre takes a play and finds something loosely related to it in an attempt to show how much smarter he is than the viewer.
ReplyDeleteHe ends up missing the important portions of the play most of the time.
Harry Neale still gets my nod for best in-game remark ever.
ReplyDeleteif memory serves, it was a game a number of years ago nvolving Theo Fleury. TF was up to his usual antics as a s**t disturber, skating around, stirring things up, when he got involved with a MUCH larger and angry member of the opposing team. to which Neale uttered something along the lines of "Fleury better watch out, or [other player] is gonna tear his head off and show him the wet end".
priceless.
On the Bright Side
ReplyDeleteIn my home delivered Journal today
I received an opportunity to purchase an Oilers Choo-choo from the Bradford Exchange.
Elvis platters and Oiler's train sets
I call that the Big Time!
Cuthbert is first, then there is everyone else.
ReplyDeleteYou got to love his dramatic pauses, and pronouncing the full name
Naslund SCORES!......Markus Naslund has put the Vancouver Canucks up 2-1
At the Heritage Class
''Up over the glass and into the haystack''
He also loves mentioning the players Junior team:
"Jarome Iginla, the former Kamloops Blazer...''
''Ryan Smyth, the former Moose Jaw Warrior...''
He's good at the CFL games too
You should just learn to let stuff go, Lain;)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, sometimes this stuff gets on my nerves and then there are other times when I just throw up my hands. The days of the SI cover proclaiming the NHL as the "it" sport seems like it was much further away than 13 years, doesn't it? As much as I'd love for the league to scale back to about 20 markets that actually give a damn/and or can support markets, you also can't stop progress or in this case you can't stop people from thinking they're making or will make progress. The PTB keep changing the rules and whoring the sked and doing everything to try and make themselves more attractive but at this point it is what it is.
Dennis: :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, Lain, I'm gonna be bringing that one up for years to come;)
ReplyDelete