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I have been a hockey fan since the age of 6. That’s 40 years. Whilst growing up in Newfoundland I was a habs fan and didn’t really pay much attention to your team.
Then while in university and in my vegetarian punk rock days I swore off hockey because all the punk chicks were all like “sports is a violent demeaning tool of the patriarchy” so I thought if I didn’t watch hockey it would impress them and I would get laid more. It didn’t work.
Then I moved to Toronto and it was a novelty to watch a team that was so bad that a regular season win seemed like a playoff victory. So out of a sort of morbid curiosity I began to root for your lovable losers and have been doing so for the past 21 years.
I have a high tolerance for bad hockey and one sided games.
In 1972 in the opening game of the Canada-Russia summit I watched to the bitter end fighting back tears as the evil commie horde shelled my favorite player at the time (Ken Dryden).
In 1990 (or 91) I watched the Black Hawks (then in their prime) slaughter the Doug Carpenter coached leafs 12-3 (or something ridiculous like that). I can even remember and obviously deranged Carpenter saying in the post game presser that the Leafs would meet and beat the Black Hawks in the playoffs that year.
I watched every minute of those 8-0 beatings Ottawa laid on us during the Paul Maurice years.
But tonight I did something that I have never done in my entire 40 years as a hockey fan - turned off a game in disgust.
This is the absolute most brutal hockey I have seen in some time. And you know what? I ain’t watching it any more.
When this bullshit collection of overpaid babies starts playing at an NHL level call me. I will happily tune back in.
I don’t mind losing. It’s how you lose. Christ, even last year the team fought for every minute of every game and frequently came back from 2 or 3 goal deficits. And most of the time outshot the other team too.
WTF? Seriously WTF?
Well at least we will get a high draft pick right? Oh wait never mind.
PS: To the CBC, Jim Hughson is the worst hockey announcer in the history of the game. Are you people stupid, brain dead or both? How much of my tax payer extorted money is going to pay some guy to say “here’s (insert First and Last Name of player) over and over again for 60 minutes? You’re supposed to be the best hockey broadcast on the planet. You sound like a regional Fox Sports network in a southern market.
Update (5 weeks later) : Et Tu Godd Till? Obviously his tolerance is a little higher than mine. Note that we each had a final paragraph directed at something other than the on-ice product in his case a brilliant take down of the awful new leafs song.
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October 13th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
PS: To the CBC, Jim Hughson is the worst hockey announcer in the history of the game.
You only think that because you got used to that Laffs homer Bob Cole. I mean Bob would blow a load in his pants every time the Laffs touched the puck.
Your problem is you’re not used to unbiased announcing. It’s “Hockey Night In Canada” not “Hockey Night In Toronto.”
October 14th, 2009 at 12:17 am
Well, you could cheer for the Oilers, at least they get into the playoffs sometimes and have even won the Stanley Cup recently! HA!
I would say I feel for you, but you lay down with a dog, you get fleas!
October 14th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Reid: I don’t give a shit about whether an announcer is a homer or not. I want them to actually CALL THE GAME ie call the play on the ice not spend the time trying to tell stories about players.
Hughson is an excellent baseball announcer because he can weave stories and anecdotes in with the pace of the game. THIS DOESN’T WORK WITH HOCKEY.
Hockey announcers should try to bring the fans at home into the game by creating excitement not by boring them to death.
I have the same complaint about the current NASCAR announcers who spend the whole race talking about this or that and not any of the drama except to note occasionally that someone is passing someone else.
That’s why when I used to watch Formula One it would drive me nuts when the races were in MTL or the US and we would have to listen to the TSN or Speed announcers try to call a race. They were brutal.
I want my announcers to sound like they are having a heart attack not like they are reading a financial statement.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:44 am
Hunter I have no interest in cheering for an out of town team. Although the presence of Pat Quinn does ameliorate some of that team’s more odious qualities.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Meat,
Hughson is MILES better than Paul Hendrick. Having Hendrick between the benches ‘analyzing’ the game is the worst decision anyone in anyone made in any organization in the history of the earth.
Hendrick actually makes me want to watch the game with the sound off just so I don’t have to hear him. He’s a hockey moron.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:35 am
At least you only have to hear Hendrick occasionally during the broadcast.
October 14th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Hunter - so by that standard, the Blue Jays are recent World Series champions. Woo hoo! Go Jays!
October 14th, 2009 at 9:35 am
On an arithmetical note, if you’re 0-and-6, you need to go 30 games at .600 to get back to .500 overall. The Leafs season could be effectively over in about two weeks.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Jim Hughson is among the best broadcasters in the game. He provides details, humour, and analysis while repeating the names of the player over and over. Would you rather Joe Bowen, who I once heard pronounce Gilbert Brule’s name “Gil-bert Brool”… or perhaps Bob Cole, who is as braindead as they come, surviving only on his world-class voice.
Mike Emrick is the best in the biz, followed by Hughson. That’s why he’s the main man on CBC. They know what they’re doing, and recognizing that Hughson was ready for prime time duty was the absolute right call.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Casey I agree with you on Emrick but if you think hughson is anywhere close to Emrick you might want to get a cat-scan because you are obviously suffering from delusions. Or possibly you are related to Jim hughson? After all why would you praise Emrick whose style is similar to Bowen and Cole (in his prime) and then say Hughson is as good?
One of my favorite times of year is the Finals when I can flip over to NBC and listen to Emrick over Hughson. It is such a breath of fresh air.
Do your self a favour this year record both broadcasts on your pvr and then playback some of the calls side by side you will see how many times Hughson is actually lost and doesn’t know what is happening where is Emrick is right on top of the play. BIG DIFFERENCE.
Oh and I would take Joe Bowen in a minute over all the current play-by-play men out there.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Ha, you think you got lousy announcers, try listening to Peter Loubardias and Kevin Quinn…”try” being the operative word.
November 18th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
“Then while in university and in my vegetarian punk rock days I swore off hockey because all the punk chicks were all like “sports is a violent demeaning tool of the patriarchy” so I thought if I didn’t watch hockey it would impress them and I would get laid more. It didn’t work.”
You know why I love the Leafs, and always, always will?
Because of comments like that one. I can’t help but smile at how that event might have shaped so much of your future, meat, and I’m saying that without a shred of being snarky or a liberal. LeafsRAUP forever, baby!
November 19th, 2009 at 7:53 am
RAUP Radiofrequency-Assisted Uvula Palatoplasty right? Because the Leafs are such a snorefest!
Seriously, thanks Kid maybe I’m like Janeane Garofolo who was a good conservative girl until (she says) someone insulted her in college.
November 20th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Yes, but are you as hot as Janeane is?
November 21st, 2009 at 8:09 am
Not as hot as she was in Clay Pigeons or Mystery Men but certainly as hot as she is nowadays. Plus she probably believes that sports is a violent tool of the patriarchy.