Abel to Yzerman
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A2Y To Emrick: We Apologize
by IwoCPO on 04/09/08 at 03:27 AM ET
Comments (9)
Yesterday I blasted a pretty good guy based on some pretty bad information. How silly, how stupid, of me to consider that Ansar Khan(!), Deep Digger Captain, would have his facts straight. When I read this from Khan(!) Tuesday morning, I should have considered the source before pointing you guys to it. I should have considered the very real possibility that the leader of our diggers had his head up his ass.
Khan(!)/8 April
Emrik said Europeans have “smashed a lot of the stereotypes (about being soft), but it still raises its ugly head when you talk about Detroit.
“Do they have enough character? Are they going to be stamped as the Euro skill players, and can Nashville intimidate them? And that’s the story for this series,” Emrik said. “In the regular season (these teams), played eight games with no fights. They’ll probably have a couple in the first game.”
Thanks Khan(!). Good stuff. Inflammatory. We dig that. Only, umm, you tool...Emrick didn’t say it. Mike Milbury did.
I read Khan(!)’s piece, pointed you to it and we lit the torches. We put Emrick in the same category as the Douche Canoe and Don Cherry, two idiots who can’t let the Euro bashing go despite the fact that Tomas Holmstrom and Johan Franzen are as tough as any two players in the entire NHL. We grouped Emrick in with guys like Ron McLean who wants a separate trophy for defensive forwards because he knows the Selke’s going to Datsyuk or Zetterberg and he just can’t fathom the idea that someone who didn’t skate the river in Western Canada could possibly play responsible defensive hockey.
So we blasted Emrick and then others linked to that, and also linked to Khan(!).
The last person I’d expect to accuse the Detroit Red Wings of being a collection of Euro wussies — the kind whose photos Don Cherry uses as urinal cakes — would be affable announcer Mike “Doc” Emrick, the man who made “BIG DRIVE!” as much a established attribute of the NHL on American television as miniscule viewership. And yet here’s what Emrick said in a preview of the Detroit/Nashville series:
Emrick said Europeans have “smashed a lot of the stereotypes (about being soft), but it still raises its ugly head when you talk about Detroit.
“Do they have enough character? Are they going to be stamped as the Euro skill players, and can Nashville intimidate them? And that’s the story for this series,” Emrik (sic) said. “In the regular season (these teams), played eight games with no fights. They’ll probably have a couple in the first game.”
The Chief at Abel To Yzerman would love to hear who, exactly, these Euro softies on the Red Wings are.
Last night I got an email from a reader telling me that, hey, it may not have been Emrick who said those things afterall. In fact it wasn’t. It was Mike Milbury.
No, I said. That can’t be. There’s no way the Deep Digger Captain would make that kind of mistake. But I checked. I went back and read Bob Duff’s story from the Windsor Star.
You’d think the most recognizable analysts in the game could see past the stereotype.
“Detroit is a team the won the Jennings Trophy, won the Presidents’ Trophy, has a strong candidate for the Norris and the Hart Trophies (Nicklas Lidstrom), a coach who’s been mentioned as coach of the year in (Mike) Babcock and two of the top six scorers in the league (Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg) and yet there seems to be questions about them,” Milbury said.
“I think the reasons are two. The first is their goaltending. Is (Dominik) Hasek going to be able to perform at the level he has done in the past and drive them deep into the playoffs? If he can’t, will (Chris) Osgood? They’ve been just OK.
“The second one is character. Nashville has it by the bucket load. The Europeans have smashed a lot of stereotypes, but it still raises its ugly head when you talk about Detroit. Do they have enough character, or are they going to be stamped as the Euro skill players and can Nashville intimidate them?”
And then I looked at John Niyo’s blog entry from the Detroit News.
“The Europeans have smashed a lot of the stereotypes, but it still raises its ugly head in Detroit,” Milbury said. “Do they have enough character, or are they going to be stamped as the ‘Euro’ skill players? And can Nashville intimidate them? That, to me, is going to be the storyline for this series.”
So, we owe Doc Emrick an apology from A2Y. Done. I should have realized the source. The fact that lazy-ass Ansar couldn’t even spell Emrick’s name correctly should have set alarms off.
And Khan(!) owes him a correction and a similar apology. It won’t happen, of course. He’s not the Deep Digger Captain by chance. He earned that title.
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Comments
How sad a commentary on the hockey media is it that no one really thought it that unlikely that Emrick would say something like that, though? It’s like the official party line of North American hockey broadcasters.
At least his (undeserved) shots distracted some attention from Mike Milbury. Maybe it gave Milbury some time to stitch up the gashes from the oh-so-well-deserved shots that he takes all the time, and will be taking once again as soon as he opens his mouth.
I’d like to see him call Zdeno Chara a “soft characterless European” to his face. When he’s holding a microphone. 
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 04/09/08 at 06:51 AM ET
Let’s rip on him anyway.
Not that I’ve ever needed a reason to cheap-shot someone, but referring to a goalie’s blocker as a ‘waffleboard’ is a damn fine place to start.
Posted by O-Joe on 04/09/08 at 07:39 AM ET
O-Joe,
The “waffleboard” reference comes from a time when most—if not all—blockers were brown and had little circles on their outer surface, making them look somewhat like a waffle (it seems I can remember them in the 1970s, but they may have been around before and after that too). If I remember correctly, the circular shapes were indented. I’m not certain what purpose, if any, they were supposed to fulfill.
Back to the main subject, when you re-read some of the quotes attributed to Mike Emrick, it does seem hard to believe they came out of his mouth. The phrasing is just un-Emrick-like.
Added NBC play-by-play man Mike Emrik: “I look forward to the battles between (Tomas) Holmstrom and Shea Weber, old school guy. I love watching Weber play. We like collisions and we like guys that can generate them, and it’ll be interesting to see because (the Predators) do have that bucket load of adrenaline and character. We’ll see how Detroit will stand up to that when they’re tested for the first time, which will probably be 20 seconds in.”
Milbury, on the other hand, I can definitely hear those words coming out of his pie hole.
Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 04/09/08 at 09:45 AM ET
Emrick has too much class and smarts to make such idiotic statements. Of course, I also defend Emrick because he got his Doctorate here at Bowling Green State University, but he’s also one of my favorite announcers.
FWIW, he talked with Ken Kal before the Hawks game on the radio and predicts a Wings/Habs SCF.
Posted by Jeremy on 04/09/08 at 09:53 AM ET
Yeah, I know from whence the term originates.
It’s Dick Button describing a Brian Boitano triple Salchow in slow motion ghey is what it is.
Posted by O-Joe on 04/09/08 at 10:37 AM ET
I’ll always defend Emrick because he’s a native Hoosier & one of the dozens of Hoosiers that actually understand hockey.
Seriously, I wondered about those comments from the get-go since I never thought he was anti-euro in the past. I feel much better knowing it came from that butthead Milbury.
Kahn = tool.
Posted by Jam-O from Indianapolis on 04/09/08 at 10:55 AM ET
If I remember correctly, the circular shapes were indented. I’m not certain what purpose, if any, they were supposed to fulfill.
Usually stuff like that is done to provide increased strength without adding excessive thickness and, therefore, weight.
Posted by BobTheZee on 04/09/08 at 01:05 PM ET
The “waffle” effect was a typical professional modification of equipment--when you cut holes in a blocker made of heavy leather, you shed pounds. Eventually, it became such a fashion statement that most companies made blockers that way to help reduce weight, but whether the difference was notable or not is probably in the blocker hand of the beholding goalie.
I mean, did you think that that stuff about the Reebok Edge jerseys being lighter and less wind-resistant was for those of us who think that “Play-dri” fabric = less beer stains?
Many hockey players and especially professionals get so convinced that lighter is better that they weigh everything and cut here, cut there, take out protection and will even allow the basic structure of their gear to be compromised to achieve a lighter weight. Sergei Fedorov’s Nike sticks kept breaking early on not only because Nike’s gear wasn’t good, but also because he basically told them to remove the fibreglass shielding and just give him a piece of graphite, and he demanded that his gloves be made without binding, which is pretty much impossible to do as binding’s all that holds some parts of equipment together.
Yeah, so the holes were more about weight savings than anything else...and now back to your regularly scheduled non-nerd-dom…
Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 04/10/08 at 04:30 AM ET
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Khan(!) Ass.
I think Emrick is THE best NHL play by play announcer (sorry Kenny) and I’m glad he didn’t say that crap. Milbury is a tool and it’s no surprise they were his remarks. I’m sure Boston fans aren’t happy with this dick either. He’s put the Bruins down repeatedly over the past two days. This from a guy who’s one of the “it takes a Bruin to know the Bruins” analysts on NESN. Hey Mike… you’re FIRED! Ass.
Posted by Cwix from Roanoke, VA on 04/09/08 at 05:50 AM ET