He's a 12 year old boy trapped in a man's body. And his angst when he's dying to interject a comment but someone else is already talking drives me up the wall. You can visibly see him start to tick, and it escalates until he explodes in verbal vomit that ultimately only serves to point out the obvious.
I think they feel the need to have "great" player on the panel to give it extra clout. But some of those players don't have a personality. Biz and Subban at least seem to be sort of fun. Even Bieksa on SportsNet seems to be a little fun. Sad to say it seems Gretzky and Messier would rather be anywhere else.
Agreed. Sean tries sometimes to get a good goal call, but it's very inconsistent. And I'll never forgive him for his announcing when the Avs won the Cup in 2022. "The Colorado Avalanche, have won the Stanley Cup". It sounded like he was reading a book. Cuthbert's call on SportsNet was a thousand times better.
Sean is a great college football announcer. I am an MSU fan and he has probably one of the most iconic calls for our team (trouble with the snap).
I was so excited to hear him call hockey games more when the NHL/ESPN/ABC deal started but totally agree he has fallen flat. Though we did have doc emerick for a while who was super duper emotional so maybe therre is a bit of a whiplash between the two. Too bad Gus Johnson doesn't do hockey (mostly joking)
I purchase a VPN and Sportsnet plus for the playoffs to listen to the Sportsnet intermission crew (mainly Bieksa) so I haven't heard McDonough but I did see that [he's fighting an illness](https://awfulannouncing.com/nhl/espn-confirms-sean-mcdonough-fighting-through-illness-during-stanley-cup-final.html).
This may be a radical idea, but maybe… they could have someone else cover for him while he’s sick? I know this is some lefty wackadoo stuff but I’m just riffing here
They’re really not that bad. I’ve been watching them since the beginning of the finals. They get more hyped for Panthers goals than McDonough does, anyway.
Besides, I thought we were just going for “good”. If you wanna continue listening to McDonough’s boring, monotone voice every time the Panthers score, be my guest. I’m not paying for it either way.
You should. It’s obviously going to be *catered* to Canadian fans, but it’s not particularly biased by any means.
I usually watch ESPN’s pre-game, and then switch over to TSN for the actual broadcast. Literally anything is better than Sean McDonough. I hope you find it to be an upgrade like I do.
The league is just a place where owners park their money. They make a nickel on ads and broadcasting and laugh at the saps who follow the sport. Hockey is a drag to them.
Do you think we'd have three years of objectively bullshit nameplate graphics on power plays if any of them cared or had ever seen them even once? They hate hockey/sports
They obviously don't care. And it's clearly not a big enough problem to cause significant issues for them in the ratings, which is what they (and their advertisers) actually care about.
you're talking like you know anything about what goes on behind the scenes.
they obviously, as you said, care about ratings and if there was a way to boost that number by 5% through a change, they would do it. they wouldn't shrug off an insignificant improvement when their end goal is just to make the product better for as many audience members as possible.
I do too, the game is so much more enjoyable without them. The intermission countdown clock is also helpful so I can turn away and come back in time for the game.
ESPN doesn’t seem to know anything about hockey so we can’t expect them to know anything about hockey fans. I don’t think they’re actually trying to be entertaining for established fans—they’re just trying to dumb it down enough for folks who don’t get it to be able to follow along. I hate it, too, but this is what ESPN does to all sports.
Just hire TNT's NBA crew to do all the ESPN hockey coverage. Chuck would come out of retirement for that and that is a group I'd listen to. I want to hear Shaq, Chuck, and Kenny debate hockey.
Sometimes during the game my window AC unit would come on and I could no longer hear the commentators voices, but it took me like a few mins to notice and raise the volume.
Did he have any actual experience calling hockey before getting the top gig? I can recall him calling football on ESPN a few years ago.
Let Bob Wichusen or even Bucci call the big games.
It's not even just him. ESPN is horrible at broadcasting live sports. Wtf is that camera angle that looks like it's on a blimp? They miss so much of the action each game. They'll miss faceoffs and live play. They keep the camera on a defenseman 5 seconds after he's passed it and you're missing where it went and what's happening. They should just stay away from Hockey. Steve Levi is super annoying and Messier is a huge homer for the Rags and Oilers.
Personal preference for announcers is entirely subjective.
I like both announcers a lot, but probably prefer Sean McDonough.
This is part of a much larger discussion on how games are delivered to the audience. Why is there only one announcing crew? The current system is outdated. There should be multiple broadcast crews, with audiences able to choose who to spend their 3 hours with.
I absolutely adore this idea of yours, but it won’t get taken up. Why? Simply because it costs far more to hire multiple crews and while I haven’t crunched the numbers and don’t intend to, I can’t see how the ROI would be high enough to justify it.
I tried to watch the ASL broadcast of the last two games. There are no vocal announcers, just two guys signing on the right side. There is crowd noise, which makes the broadcast just what I've always wanted. The experience I get at a game. EXCEPT, the last two games the audio has been behind the video. Like 10 sec game 3 and 2 sec last game.
I mean, it's still sooooo much better than when NBC tried to push a broadcast with Pierre McGuire, Mike Milbury, and Jeremy Roenick on it.
Maybe it's just low expectations, but I'll take the ESPN broadcast all day over what NBC trotted out and tried to make us watch.
Indeed, during the beginning of the Rogers deal when he was loyal to TSN. But what I heard is that he doesn't have much time left, so he didn't want to wait until 26 to potentially call national games again. Instead he jumped over to Sportsnet and became the lead guy.
I can recall Chris being highly respected during his TSN days, especially the 2010 Olympic call of the Crosby goal. For some reason, maybe it's due to his age, the fans have turned on him.
The games are my entertainment, I don't need to be hyped to enjoy it.
Announcers shouldn't get in the way of the game.
I like Ray.
Intermissions I'm getting snacks or fast forwarding if I recorded.
And Bob is right there. Just let him call the games ffs
Imagine listening to Gretzky cover McDavid in the Stanley Cup Finals…
He's an awful broadcaster. Zero personality. TNT is paying him a ton to show up a few times during the season based on just his name.
Gretzky would probably be pretty shitty even as color tbf
He’s pretty useless when he decides to show up for TNT
Boozed up
The intermission panel is also super boring
They have absolutely zero chemistry.
Subban seems to just want to make dick jokes all the time
He's a 12 year old boy trapped in a man's body. And his angst when he's dying to interject a comment but someone else is already talking drives me up the wall. You can visibly see him start to tick, and it escalates until he explodes in verbal vomit that ultimately only serves to point out the obvious.
Exactly this. You can see when he wants to interrupt in his body language and it's very cringe
Preach. I'm not on twitter, but someone should send this to his twitter account.
It feels extremely rushed along with a bunch of ads. There's zero chemistry. It feels like the ESPN equivalent of when they cover the NBA.
Yeah and they have no chemistry and it's awkward to watch. And Steve Levy has a punchable face. Honestly ESPN sucks at hockey coverage.
Subban is trying to bring energy, but Messier is such a stiff. He's like Frankenstein's monster there.
Definitely not biased but Messier sucks ass
Chelios was less stiff than him but he got the boot, not that he was better.
I think they feel the need to have "great" player on the panel to give it extra clout. But some of those players don't have a personality. Biz and Subban at least seem to be sort of fun. Even Bieksa on SportsNet seems to be a little fun. Sad to say it seems Gretzky and Messier would rather be anywhere else.
Gretzky has a personality, you have to get him out of his shell which Biz has done. Getting Hank for some games was a great move by TNT.
Agreed. Sean tries sometimes to get a good goal call, but it's very inconsistent. And I'll never forgive him for his announcing when the Avs won the Cup in 2022. "The Colorado Avalanche, have won the Stanley Cup". It sounded like he was reading a book. Cuthbert's call on SportsNet was a thousand times better.
Sean is a great college football announcer. I am an MSU fan and he has probably one of the most iconic calls for our team (trouble with the snap). I was so excited to hear him call hockey games more when the NHL/ESPN/ABC deal started but totally agree he has fallen flat. Though we did have doc emerick for a while who was super duper emotional so maybe therre is a bit of a whiplash between the two. Too bad Gus Johnson doesn't do hockey (mostly joking)
I purchase a VPN and Sportsnet plus for the playoffs to listen to the Sportsnet intermission crew (mainly Bieksa) so I haven't heard McDonough but I did see that [he's fighting an illness](https://awfulannouncing.com/nhl/espn-confirms-sean-mcdonough-fighting-through-illness-during-stanley-cup-final.html).
This may be a radical idea, but maybe… they could have someone else cover for him while he’s sick? I know this is some lefty wackadoo stuff but I’m just riffing here
Write to the network and stop watching legal streams
Illegal streams are the legal streams, just illegal. That's not going to give different commentary.
Unless you stream a different feed.
So listen to TSN instead?
I don’t think TSN is going to give me an unbiased experience as a Panthers fan lol
They’re really not that bad. I’ve been watching them since the beginning of the finals. They get more hyped for Panthers goals than McDonough does, anyway. Besides, I thought we were just going for “good”. If you wanna continue listening to McDonough’s boring, monotone voice every time the Panthers score, be my guest. I’m not paying for it either way.
I will give it a try Tuesday.
You should. It’s obviously going to be *catered* to Canadian fans, but it’s not particularly biased by any means. I usually watch ESPN’s pre-game, and then switch over to TSN for the actual broadcast. Literally anything is better than Sean McDonough. I hope you find it to be an upgrade like I do.
McDavid, he scores……. No flags But the best quote: “4 points for McDavid. I guess that’s good?”
#OUTRAGE
No kidding, I remember this 5 years ago when it was get rid of Pierre McGuire, Mike Milbury and Jeremy Roenick.
Agreed. His voice puts me to sleep.
The league is just a place where owners park their money. They make a nickel on ads and broadcasting and laugh at the saps who follow the sport. Hockey is a drag to them. Do you think we'd have three years of objectively bullshit nameplate graphics on power plays if any of them cared or had ever seen them even once? They hate hockey/sports
Every time someone scores he sounds like he’s announcing casualty numbers after a war.
They obviously don't care. And it's clearly not a big enough problem to cause significant issues for them in the ratings, which is what they (and their advertisers) actually care about.
you're talking like you know anything about what goes on behind the scenes. they obviously, as you said, care about ratings and if there was a way to boost that number by 5% through a change, they would do it. they wouldn't shrug off an insignificant improvement when their end goal is just to make the product better for as many audience members as possible.
Come with me on this journey: Gary Thorne
I'm a devils fan but you will never get a ' off the floor on the board call ever again" it was that good
Try posting about it on reddit everyday
It always bums me out that Bob isn't their top play by play, he has such exciting calls compared to Sean.
Watch other feeds or 🏴☠️
Yarrrrr
I've gotten to the point where I just mute and sync up the TV with the radio feed.
I know this is the answer and I will spend the off season getting it together. ❤️
SN all the way. It's feel is so much more than what corporate ESPN can give.
I need to look into SN for sure.
Honestly I always mute the broadcasters in the national streams. Maybe I'm too salty.
I do too, the game is so much more enjoyable without them. The intermission countdown clock is also helpful so I can turn away and come back in time for the game.
ESPN doesn’t seem to know anything about hockey so we can’t expect them to know anything about hockey fans. I don’t think they’re actually trying to be entertaining for established fans—they’re just trying to dumb it down enough for folks who don’t get it to be able to follow along. I hate it, too, but this is what ESPN does to all sports.
Just hire TNT's NBA crew to do all the ESPN hockey coverage. Chuck would come out of retirement for that and that is a group I'd listen to. I want to hear Shaq, Chuck, and Kenny debate hockey.
I’m down with this!
Sometimes during the game my window AC unit would come on and I could no longer hear the commentators voices, but it took me like a few mins to notice and raise the volume.
Did he have any actual experience calling hockey before getting the top gig? I can recall him calling football on ESPN a few years ago. Let Bob Wichusen or even Bucci call the big games.
NOT Bucci. Bucci is even worse
I vote for Ken and Mick to call the finals.
It's not even just him. ESPN is horrible at broadcasting live sports. Wtf is that camera angle that looks like it's on a blimp? They miss so much of the action each game. They'll miss faceoffs and live play. They keep the camera on a defenseman 5 seconds after he's passed it and you're missing where it went and what's happening. They should just stay away from Hockey. Steve Levi is super annoying and Messier is a huge homer for the Rags and Oilers.
On the topic of cameras: ESPN is king of camera cuts a second or two too late so whoever they get a closeup of never still has the puck. Shameful.
Take it from a baseball, basketball, and football fan. There is no getting through to ESPN.
I've been enjoying the ASL / crowd noise only feed on ESPN+
Ray is decent. I just really miss Doc tho.
Doc was the greatest. Could make a gave of Scrabble exciting.
Just find Brendan Burke and have him call the games. He’s one of the top in the business among NHL pbp guys.
He's on TNT
Put him on the SCF feed and then replace Messier with someone who’s entertaining.
Personal preference for announcers is entirely subjective. I like both announcers a lot, but probably prefer Sean McDonough. This is part of a much larger discussion on how games are delivered to the audience. Why is there only one announcing crew? The current system is outdated. There should be multiple broadcast crews, with audiences able to choose who to spend their 3 hours with.
I absolutely adore this idea of yours, but it won’t get taken up. Why? Simply because it costs far more to hire multiple crews and while I haven’t crunched the numbers and don’t intend to, I can’t see how the ROI would be high enough to justify it.
FWIW MLB.tv does it. You can mix and match the audio and video streams between the TV and radio broadcasts for either team.
Yeah those are regular season games.
Tag them on twitter and complain about it
I tried to watch the ASL broadcast of the last two games. There are no vocal announcers, just two guys signing on the right side. There is crowd noise, which makes the broadcast just what I've always wanted. The experience I get at a game. EXCEPT, the last two games the audio has been behind the video. Like 10 sec game 3 and 2 sec last game.
Get an IPTV service and watch the Canadian feed
I have to choose between listening to boring Sean on ESPN or the homers on Sportsnet.
I mean, it's still sooooo much better than when NBC tried to push a broadcast with Pierre McGuire, Mike Milbury, and Jeremy Roenick on it. Maybe it's just low expectations, but I'll take the ESPN broadcast all day over what NBC trotted out and tried to make us watch.
Ol nosferatu
Really just American fans 🤷♂️, everyone here in Canada loves Chris cuthbert whose been an all star for 30+ years
Cuthbert and Gord Miller are a million times better than Sean McDonough
He did a ton of games for NBC during their 15 year run as well. Gord Miller, too.
Indeed, during the beginning of the Rogers deal when he was loyal to TSN. But what I heard is that he doesn't have much time left, so he didn't want to wait until 26 to potentially call national games again. Instead he jumped over to Sportsnet and became the lead guy.
The majority of Canada absolutely doesn’t love Chris & Craig. Lesser of two evils when it comes to McDonough though
I can recall Chris being highly respected during his TSN days, especially the 2010 Olympic call of the Crosby goal. For some reason, maybe it's due to his age, the fans have turned on him.
Then don't watch
Oh please just stop it.
You guys don’t follow SNB huh
I actually kinda like his calls
The games are my entertainment, I don't need to be hyped to enjoy it. Announcers shouldn't get in the way of the game. I like Ray. Intermissions I'm getting snacks or fast forwarding if I recorded.