5. Celebrity Bloggers
Aside from the glow puck, this could be the worst idea the NHL has ever had. It's not that the celebrities' writing and analysis are bad (which they are), but it's the selection of celebrities. While the NBA—check that—the LA Lakers have Spike Lee and Jack Nicholson, the NHL has David Boreanaz (who?) and Willa Ford. Willa was recently selected to play the role of Anna Nicole Smith for Anna's posthumous biopic.
Read that last part again.
Look. In ten seconds flat, with or without her clothes on, Willa Ford could get me harder than folding a fitted sheet; and I don't know if that's good or bad for Mike Modano, but let's face it: She's no hockey expert, and it seems a tad asinine for the NHL to feature a Playboy bombshell's thoughts on hockey.
4. The Officiating
Particularly bad in the Detroit-Colorado series, there was a missed call on a textbook hit from behind by Val Filppula on Adam Foote. In another game, the refs penalized Detroit's Thomas Holmstrom twice in one game for getting mugged, while missing obvious kneeing and clipping calls. Numerous players have charged and left their feet when decking their opponents, all with impunity.
Boarding, kneeing, charging—these are serious penalties that must be called. Boarding can lead to spinal cord injuries, kneeing can lead to blown out knees, and charging can cause concussions. If the referees are paying attention to every jot and tittle of hooking and interference rules, they ought to do the same for the more serious penalties.
3. Don Cherry's Jingoism
Don, it's getting old. The Cold War ended twenty years ago. And if a player is excited because he scored a goal, why is he a bad guy for celebrating?
2. The Deification of Goaltenders
Goalies may steal a couple games here and there and they are sometimes the best player on the ice, but TV commentators consistently focus on the goalies as if they were and always have been the saviors of hockey teams.
Commentators deified Jose Theodore during the Colorado-Minnesota series, but when Detroit started scoring on him in droves, suddenly he was giving up weak goals. The reality was that he didn't play that different. His defencemen didn't play as well, and Detroit had more firepower than Minnesota did. He played well in both series, but he had far less help against Detroit. Which reveals that goalies failure and success are more often dictated by how well the rest of the team plays. After all, it is a team sport.
1. The TV Networks
With a bullet....
Versus will carry six of the seven scheduled Detroit-Dallas games. That's bad news bears if you don't have cable. For this, I extend my chubby middle finger at NBC. Is golf really that more exciting than hockey?
And my other chubby middle finger is for Versus. I live in Michigan and They blacked out game three of the Detroit-Colorado series for a boxing match. That is, a boxing match that took place in 1989. Don't they have ESPN Classic for that?
Comments (13) Add a comment »
from 9 days ago
Great Article. The Willa Ford thing is right on. Her Blogs are probably the most complete sentences shes ever strung together all at once.
from 9 days ago
you boys are funny about the willa ford's case! lol
since they want to get some hockey story, what about elisha cuthbert who grew up in Montreal, and is a huge fan of the kings, and seems to know a lot about hockey... besides, she is hot
from 9 days ago
Don Cherry is a joke.
from 9 days ago
How Old is Don Cherry? he's so ancient!
from 9 days ago
74 !!!
from 9 days ago
The whole league is a joke. What else can be said as long as Bettman is in charge?
Buck Fettman!
from 9 days ago
David Boreanaz is a tool. They keep pushing his blog on the Flyers website, and I have absolutely no desire to read it. I've been keeping up with Scott Hartnell's blog though, I do actually care what he has to say.
Versus blows, enough said. I can't stand their commentators, their coverage, the stupid goal horn they play when Montreal scores...IN THE WACHOVIA CENTER...everything about them makes me gag.
And the officiating has been atrocious too. Aside from the game in the Washington series officiated by Don Koharski and the game in the Montreal series officiated by Bill McCreary, the officiating was total crap for the other 10 Flyers games (and I noticed it was particularly bad in the Montreal-Boston and Pittsburgh-New York series also).
from 9 days ago
I hate Don. Hes so bad. urghhhh!!!
Any1 whos got shit against Sid is a LA IDIOTA
from 8 days ago
You forgot to mention that NBC has the most annoying commenator in Mike Emerick with his undescriptive and redundant statements.
"Scores! Colby Armstrong after Crosby with a dash by the defense and it's one, nothing!"
What? I'm sorry, all I heard was noise. They need to bring back Gary Thorne. He has more of a hockey voice than Emerick, which is more like a fluctuating shrill.
from 8 days ago
IMO Don Cherry is not a joke - He loves the sport and constantly promotes the game. Love em or hate em, pro sports needs more characters like Charles Barkley, Jeremy Roenick, Brett Hull, and Don Cherry. What's old is the usual canned answers, cliche's and painfully obvious oservations spewed out by most players, coaches and announcers.
Again, just my opinion.
from 8 days ago
i personally love mike emrick his voice makes the game so ridiculously exciting. i didnt even know he existed until the 2006 turin olympics. he really is a good play by play commentator
from 8 days ago
I actually like Don Cherry. That's kind of why I'm griping about him, because he is such a good personality. But there's just no place for some of the comments he makes.
Though I'm sure that can be said of me too.
from 8 days ago
I used to hate Don Cherry, the Leaf lover that he is, but lately he is growing on me.
Not sure what Cold War jingoism you are referring to, he has gotten a lot better in that regard lately.
What I can't stand is refs who let the two teams play for 3 periods and then decide to call a weak tripping penalty with under 2 minutes left. Do these guys have somewhere to be? Can we not comp their parking because it seem like they are worried about having to go feed the meter whenever the specter of OT is around.
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