Showing posts with label ESPN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ESPN. Show all posts

Monday, July 09, 2012

Zach Parise on ESPN 1500

Zach Parise, the United States during the 2010...
Check out this segment on ESPN's A.M 1500 with Jim Souhan and Tom Pelissero the two hosts talked about the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter signing in Minnesota and then they talked with the Minnesota Wild's newest star forward Zach Parise yesterday morning.

The Second hour is where Parise talks to the hosts. [click to listen]

Zach Parise on defining success in Minnesota – “In New Jersey we hadn’t won a round… I think it was since 2006, we hadn’t won a playoff round for a long time, we missed the playoffs the year before going to the finals; the league is so even right now,” Parise said.

“If you look at the Stanley Cup Finals this year you have a sixth seed with us [Devils] and the eight seed with L.A. – it’s so even that you just want to get in. The team that seems to get hot for two months always does well.”

“I think when you through in a defenseman of the caliber of Ryan Suter and mix him in with the defensemen they already got and put him on any team, that immediately makes the team much better and the appeal of having him there with me… I was… I thought it was a great fit. Like you said, I know they haven’t won a playoff series in a while and that is a challenge that everyone is going to face and hopefully we can get into the post season this year and progress and develop and get to the ultimate thing.”
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Sunday, May 06, 2012

ESPN and the lack of hockey coverage

I read a couple of articles and blog posts in the past week about ESPN not having NHL coverage on any of their channels anymore. Frankly, the first thought that came to my mind was - that ship has sailed – it may never come back again. I don't think we really need to worry about that because the void has been filled by a much better product.

To be honest with you, after watching ESPN’s brutal coverage of the NCAA Hockey tourney, who really cares anymore?

Enter NBC Sports Network formerly known as Versus and originally was the Outdoor Life Network has evolved and filled the void that ESPN left after the NHL lockout and has gotten better which each year that has passed since the NHL lockout.

NBC Sports Network has started coving college hockey as well, and for the most part NBC Sports Net has done a pretty good job in the broadcasts that they did last winter. I look forward to watching more of their broadcast next winter. Maybe we can get ESPN to drop their Division I NCAA College Hockey coverage all together as well and let NBC and or CBS take over college hockey for them.

ESPN will will then be free to show NFL and College football, NBA and College Basketball and Billiards on their sports network. While we are at it, ESPN can keep Barry Melrose, there is no use for him in college hockey and he isn't very good at breaking down the NHL either.

Just to be clear, I not trying to snub CBS Sports Network, they do a very good job with their hockey coverage as well and will be the future home of NCHC beginning in 2013-14.

So why is there a disconnect or a lack of hockey coverage? Recently, Ed Sherman asked Vince Doria, ESPN’s senior vice-president and director of news Vince Doria, why ESPN hates hockey. This is what he had to say.
We don’t hate hockey. When I worked in Boston (as sports editor of the Boston Globe), I probably went to more Bruins games than Celtics. There’s probably not a better in-the-house sport than hockey. Watching it live. My own personal feeling is that it never transferred well to television. I’m not exactly sure why that is. [Sherman Report]

I don’t agree with that argument and I think it’s a load of horse manure, if that was true why do people purchase the NHL package from their cable provider or satellite dish providers? Hockey fanatics want to see NHL Hockey and they want to be able to watch games from all over the NHL Hockey spectrum every night of the week during the hockey season.

I wouldn’t walk across the street to watch a NBA basketball game, I don't care who is playing, nor would I turn to ESPN to watch college or NBA basketball, but I would pay $160.00 to watch anyone in the NHL play hockey on my television set, any night of the week.

I remember the good ole days of hockey coverage on ESPN and ESPN2, this was pre-NHL lockout when NHL hockey was on two or three nights a week and then on every night during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, of course ESPN picked the teams that you were going to watch and we got a heavy dose of the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins, but for the most part it gave us "decent" hockey.

That was then and this is now – NBC Sports Network has made us forget that ESPN has ever shown a hockey game on their network - NBCSN has shown all of the games exclusively during this season's Stanley Cup Playoffs, so we're good. When there have been two games on at the same time NBC has had the other game on the news channel CNBC. In closing, we can say to ESPN that we don't need you for hockey coverage anymore and you don't have to pretend to like hockey on any level, because we know the truth.
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Monday, June 06, 2011

Bruins stand behind Tim Thomas...


Hockey is a team game and there is a lot of blame to go around for the game two loss, so for the Boston Bruins fans that are blaming the goalie Tim Thomas for the loss, seriously, you can't blame just one person for the game two debacle. Back to the first point; hockey is  a team game and when the systems break down the "team" loses, I think that its short sighted to put the blame solely on the shoulders of Vezina Trophy candidate Tim Thomas.  Go back and watch the video of the goal and you will see what I mean. [Click to view video]

There are a few good points in this ESPN video post above, that are worth looking at, it was a comedy of errors that led to the game winning goal by the Vancouver Canucks, it was a horrible defensive effort all of the way around. (1) The ill advised turn over at the blue line by Andrew Ference, that was brutal, Ference violated a cardinal sin by not getting puck deep, and the Vancouver Canucks who were pressuring hard blew by the Bruins defenders like they were pylons... (2) the bad effort behind the net by Zedano Chara, you have a guy that is 6'9" pull him down if you have to, there is a good chance that the Bruins penalty kill would have killed the penalty. (3) Tim Thomas over played the puck and lost, stay in the net and give your self a chance to make the save.
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