Stanley Cup Final Proves ESPN Doesn't Deserve The NHL
Hockey coverage on 'The World Wide Leader In Sports' has become a joke...
Nobody likes a smart ass. You know, that guy who loves to scream from the top of a stupidly high skyscraper that ‘I told you so.’
But, and I’m sorry to do this, but I told you so.
When the National Hockey League announced back in March 2021 that it was returning to ESPN as part of a blockbuster seven-year rights deal, I had my concerns. Very real concerns.
I wasn’t convinced in the slightest that ESPN was the right partner for the NHL, and I wasn’t sure what either party was going to stand to gain from the deal other than a boatload of cash for the NHL, and guaranteed and consistent programming for ESPN.
After all, the ‘World Wide Leader In Sports’ had never taken hockey seriously, and that was arguably one of the factors behind why they lost the rights in 2004 in the first place. The NHL wasn’t even one of the bridesmaids in the eyes of ESPN, it was the third cousin twice removed that you feel you have no choice but to invite to the wedding.
ESPN’s coverage of hockey and the NHL fell off a cliff in the intervening years, with big time network personalties on flagship shows only showing a slight interest after a fight had happened. The Stanley Cup Playoffs, despite being an incredible, unpredictable and exhilarating spectacle year in and year out, was hardly mentioned at times by ESPN.
Therefore, when it was announced that the network had paid a truckload of cash to the NHL to seize back the rights, I was both surprised and skeptical in equal measure. I was, however, willing to give ESPN a chance to show me that it had changed and was ready to embrace all that is breathtakingly great about hockey. Plus, I’d be the first to admit I was a HUGE fan of the NHL on NBC and was therefore probably a little salty that they had given up the rights in the first place.
However, ESPN lost me pretty early on during their first season of having the NHL rights again and what has transpired this year, especially recently, has ensured that my mind won’t be changed when it comes to the fact that ESPN doesn’t really give a crap about hockey. Or indeed about any other sport that doesn’t involve a pigskin being hurled around.
I, like so many others, was absolutely all in on the Western Conference Second Round matchup between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Edmonton Oilers. I mean, who wouldn’t be? It was an absolute heavyweight clash featuring two of the best players on the planet in the Oilers’ Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who were going up against a loaded Vegas team with an insane amount of firepower and starpower.
It was a series that you dream of in the postseason and it was one that didn’t disappoint. After five games that featured both teams going at it like Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield in their primes, we were given a mouthwatering gift from the Hockey Gods in the form of a do-or-die Game 6.
Nobody told ESPN that, however.
Despite the fact that there was no other NHL Playoff game on that day, coupled with the fact that the lone NBA postseason contest featured an early tip-off, the geniuses within the braintrust at ESPN decided it would be a good idea to keep Game 6 at 10 p.m. ET.
Now, it is important to note that the schedules for each series are done in advance. But, according to Dan Kingerski of the National Hockey Now Network, the NHL had actually asked ESPN permission to move the game to 8 P.M. ET.
ESPN refused.
NHL and hockey fans on the East Coast miss out on the daily brilliance of McDavid enough already given that the vast majority of Edmonton’s regular season games start late, so to rob them of the opportunity to see one the greatest player in his sport right now play on the biggest stage with everything on the line was just tonka trucks from ESPN.
And then, to add insult to injury, not only did the network put the game on ESPN2 in order for ESPN to broadcast the final innings of a May regular season game between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals, there was then some weird split screen action that just sparked a whole lot of awkwardness and cringworthiness.
Oh, and the NHL also reportedly asked ESPN to move the baseball to ESPN2. But, guess what? They turned that request down too.
It was like ESPN executives were actively trolling hockey fans and telling them to go take a walk. Two goals were scored within the very first minute of the game and it continued to be an all-out slug fest with the Golden Knights eventually prevailing, but yet so few fans of the sport actually got to witness what was a stupefying classic in a postseason full of them.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, however. This wasn’t the first time ESPN had actively screwed NHL fans, and it continued a disturbing and somewhat alarming trend of utter disdain towards a league that the network had claimed to love and fell over itself to try and get back the rights.
And, watching other networks treat the NHL with love, respect and class during the ongoing Stanley Cup Final has really hammered home the point that ESPN doesn’t give a shit about the NHL.
It never has and it never will.
ESPN has consistently screwed the pooch when it comes to their coverage of the NHL, and it can be traced right back to the start of the 2021-22 season when the new rights package first kicked in. Broadcasting the 2022 NHL Expansion Draft in Seattle in what was their first flagship event, the whole night was just a dumpster fire for ESPN. It was awkward, it was clumsy and it was damn right hard to watch at times. Not to mention the fact that they called the Carolina Hurricanes the ‘Carolina Panthers’. Those are basic mistakes that shouldn’t be happening on a big-time network like ESPN.
Now, you could call the whole thing one big brain fart and put it down to teething problems. But, in hindsight, the NHL Expansion Draft proved to be the first major red flag that we really should have all paid more attention to.
Right out of the chute ESPN painted themselves in a corner that has become impossible to escape from thanks to a murderer’s row of comically bad decisions. Some of their choices to fill the broadcasting team made no sense at all, and they seemed to go for inexperienced names rather than opt for seasoned veterans who know their stuff, are a master of their craft and will deliver the type of in-depth but cookie cutter hockey knowledge we all want and appreciate. We don’t want someone trying to paint a Picasso during the broadcast, but we do want someone who knows what they are talking about.
The vast majority of ESPN’s broadcast teams have about as much chemistry as an awkward couple on a first date that’s doomed to fail before they even order appetizers. There’s no connection, no rhythm, no flow and I have made a habit of watching local broadcasts as much as I can. It has gotten that bad. Then there’s the insistence on sticking with guys like John Buccigross, who is about as well-suited for play-by-play duties as I am for being a top-line center. It just doesn’t work and Buccigross has become increasingly harder to listen to. There’s too much ego at play there. It becomes even more infurating when more suitable candidates like Don LaGreca, who has been the play-by-play guy for the New York Rangers for years and is already part of the ESPN family due to his co-hosting role on The Michael Kay Show, consistently gets overlooked.
Speaking of ego, ESPN really did strikeout looking when they decided to make P.K. Subban such a focal point of their NHL coverage. Now, Subban is an individual who certainly splits opinion, and that dates back to his playing days where he became the infamous master of the ‘slew foot.’ His personality isn’t to everybody’s liking, but he has done a hell of a lot of incredible work for charity - raising over a staggering $6 million for the Montreal Children’s Hospital - and he does make a concentrated effort to help raise the profile of the NHL.
However, on the flip side of that, Subban has become more of a distraction on the ESPN broadcast than anything else. People who watch the pre and postgame and the intermission breaks want X’s and O’s hockey breakdowns, but Subban has consistently strayed away from that tried and tested formula. Instead, he has been known to randomly scream out nonsense, divert the conversation away from the game that is being broadcast, annoy his fellow analysts and, oh, he also fat-shamed the rapper and actress Lizzo with a cruel and unacceptable joke on-air.
There was also the incident where Subban was caught spinning around on his chair live on-air, leaving Mark Messier and Chris Chelios - two legends of the game and both ESPN Analysts too - visibly confused and rattled.
As a hockey fan and as a bit of a hockey geek if I’m being honest, I want to listen to what NHL greats like Messier and Chelios have to say. I don’t want to be distracted by whatever act Subban is spinning in order to be the center of the attention yet again.
On a side note, according to Front Office Sports, ESPN won’t be renewing Chelios’ contract for next season as part of a cost-saving exercise. That’s a big loss in my opinion.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Subban is an electric personality and having him appear on First Take and run his own show - P.K.’s Places - is only good when it comes to helping raise the profile of the NHL. But, as far as being an analyst goes, Subban is out of his depth and it makes the entire broadcast unwatchable. Throughout these Stanley Cup Playoffs, I consistently turned the sound right down whenever the broadcast cut to the ESPN panel. It was simply unwatchable.
That’s why I am currently thanking the Hockey Gods every single day that TNT has the Stanley Cup Final this year.
Now that’s a broadcast team.
Liam McHugh, who was the face of NBC’s hockey coverage, has morphed into the best point man in the business, and he understands his job is just to pass the ball around to his stable of hockey experts and get out of the way. And the NHL On TNT Desk features some high-end, elite analysts who know what the hell they are talking about. I’ve always really enjoyed Anson Carter because of his ability to break down the game’s intricate points in a way that is really easy to understand. Former New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist has proven he’s great at everything he does with a really nice start to his broadcasting career. He’s also able to bring his unique perspective to the table of being a netminder who was one of the best to do it. Wayne Gretzky is always going to bring so, so much to the table based on his standing as the best player to have ever played the game and, love him or hate him, Paul Bissonnette adds some light relief to the broadcast. He’s also not afraid to say it as it is and he defends his points with so much conviction it is hard not to really believe in what he’s saying. Plus, behind the comedic exterior that has helped to transform him into one of the most well-known and in-demand hockey personalities out there, Bissonnette owns a really, really smart hockey mind. He’s a loveable knucklehead who just fits perfectly with the rest of the line-up.
It works damn well. Just like a mouthwatering peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
By the way, I’d take Bissonnette over Subban as an analyst every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
For me, NHL On TNT is on the cusp of becoming the Gold Standard of hockey broadcasts. They cater to the needs of hard-core hockey fans like myself perfectly. I still miss NBC a hell of a lot, but TNT has seemingly cracked the code when it comes to their coverage of the NHL. As already stated, they’ve got the right team inside the studio in place - their physical breakdowns of plays that happened during games do a stellar job of helping the audience to understand exactly what went down - and they’ve hit it out of the park with the announcers too. Sticking with the blueprint they created when assembling the broadcast team, TNT went all out and recruited some of NBC’s biggest hitters for its announcing line-up. I could listen to Eddie Olczyk call games all day long - there’s few better - and he combines perfectly with Kenny Albert. Those two work so well together and they play off of each other’s strengths. Keith Jones takes you into the fabric of the game from between the benches, and then there is Jackie Redmond who has been a fixture of the NHL Network for years. Her likeable personality and aura allows her to ask the smart questions and she knows how to play the game when it comes to interviewing players and coaches during and after games.
TNT decided to play the safe but smart card by going after established broadcasters and analysts who made their name with NBC, and who are already familiar with the wider hockey community. That has made for a seamless transition and hockey fans know what they are getting when they tune in to the NHL On TNT broadcast.
Shoutout to Sportsnet also, who also hit it out of the park with their hockey coverage. Sportsnet’s overall postseason broadcast is as close to perfection as you can get.
Getting back to ESPN, on the other hand, they decided to be too cute by bringing in a guy like Subban and telling him to be himself, even to the detriment of the wider broadcast, in order to bring in a younger audience. Instead, it has backfired and bit them in the ass in the biggest way possible.
ESPN’s hockey coverage has just regressed in a dramatic fashion. As unwatchable as some games were last year, the 2022-23 season seemed to take a dramatic spiral off the top of a very tall cliff, before imploding into a bloody mess on a bed of rocks below. It has been that bad.
Linking back to a lot of the points we’ve already covered, the overall broadcast is just one big cringefest, you feel dumber for watching it rather than smarter, they make the most basic of mistakes and, most glaringly, they just don’t give a shit.
I’m sorry, but the so-called ‘World Wide Leader In Sports’ only gives a crap about the NFL. That’s it. They half-ass it when it comes to anything else. That quite clearly includes the NHL. I mean, the most shockingly blatant example of that came on First Take came in early March. With the NHL in the midst of a blockbuster Trade Deadline - that just saw Chicago Blackhawks legend and one of the greatest American-born players ever in Patrick Kane dealt to the New York Rangers - First Take had Yankees Play-By-Play Announcer Michael Kay on the show. In his role as host of ‘The Michael Kay Show’ on ESPN, Kay was asked by First Take host Molly Qerim which current New York team was most likely to win a championship first. Kay responded with the Rangers which prompted both Smith and Qerim to rush to proclaim that “they don’t count” and totally take hockey out by the knees before trying to move the conversation on to baseball, basketball and, of course, football.
It was absolute network-on-sport crime by ESPN who, don’t forget, have just paid a boatload of money to get the NHL rights back. To have your biggest rights-holder have their biggest personality go on the TV and openly mock hockey and claim it doesn’t count six weeks before the start of the Playoffs was beyond a bad look.
It was an almighty slap to the face.
The viral moment rightly pissed off hockey fans and Smith’s ignorance perhaps best sums up the current relationship between ESPN and the sport of hockey.
Non-existent.
We are only a couple of years into this deal and yet it is clear to see already the NHL have made a mistake to end all mistakes by getting back into bed with ESPN. It is a relationship where the love and the admiration is all one-way. It isn’t a two-way street between the two parties and sadly, NHL viewership will only likely continue to go down because ESPN has made the sport so unwatchable thanks to its lazy, crappy half-pregnant approach that has resulted in a dumpster fire of a product being put out.
ESPN doesn’t deserve the NHL and, at this point, I really want TNT to jump off the tightrope and kick the ‘World Wide Leader In Sports’ into touch for good because hockey fans deserve better.
And ESPN isn’t it. They’ve had their chance - again - and they have screwed the pooch in such an epic way that they should never be allowed near the sport again.
Rant over.
