I defintely agree. They are without a doubt the worst broadcasting team in the NHL and probably all of hockey.

Posted by Kevin on 12/08/07 at 07:08 PM ET

Seriously??

Intent to injure??

If Gaborik would have been paralyzed it would have been a tragic accident, on a good play by the goalie.

Would it have been more acceptable if Hasek would have dropped the Scott Stevens Hammer on Gabby’s ass since he had his head down (and it really begs the question why since he was alone)?

Russo’s has no credibility about homer-isim either. What does he expect to hear from Regional TEAM broadcasters? Believe me, Ken and Micky are some of the best Mr. Russo as I have center Ice as well.

Posted by Moocat on 12/08/07 at 07:10 PM ET

Wonder if the Wings play-by-play guy would be whining about A TWO-MINUTE MINOR for tripping in a 5-zip game if Gaborik was paralyzed?

Of course they would, because the other team is just a bunch of automatons with no souls and deserve to be mocked at the least and afflicted with career-ending injuries whenever possible.

Hyperventilating hysterical jackass.

Of COURSE they wouldn’t be complaining about the minor penalty if he was hurt.  When I saw the replays, the first thing I looked for was if Gaborik was okay, and it was immediately obvious that he had tucked his head and somersaulted to land on his shoulders.  Once he popped up none the worse for wear but surely confused at what had hit him, it was alright to laugh.  Just like watching anything crash - once it’s clear that there were no injuries, you can marvel at the spectacle with a clear conscience.

And Hasek has been doing that his entire career.  You’d think some of the young pups would talk to their elders enough to know to expect it by now.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 12/08/07 at 07:10 PM ET

I defintely agree. They are without a doubt the worst broadcasting team in the NHL and probably all of hockey.

The Minnesota fans would disagree.  In the comments on his blog, they called their own team announcers Dumb and Dumber.  A shame that in a state with such a tremendous hockey presence they can’t get decent broadcasters.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 12/08/07 at 07:13 PM ET

“The more I listen to regional telecasts on Center Ice, it just amazes me how some of these local announcers lack any objectivity whatsoever.”

This from Michael Russo, paragon of journalistic neutrality. Whatever.

And Kevin? Seriously? I can barely stand to watch a game on Versus because the announcers are complete idiots compared to Ken and Mickey, who are incredibly knowledgeable and actually call the game rather than chat.

Posted by Matt Saler from Grand Rapids, MI on 12/08/07 at 07:48 PM ET

Ken and Mickey are on the lower end of the spectrum as far as american broadcast teams go.

Their incredulousness on this call is just an extreme example of their homerism.

Are they bad announcers? yea, but certainly not the worst.

Posted by Bryce on 12/08/07 at 08:08 PM ET

Crisp and that Walrus with the lisp…  Worst.  Announcers. Ever.

Ken and Mick are tops.

Posted by mudshark from Denver, CO on 12/08/07 at 08:22 PM ET

I’m surprised out of all of this that nobody’s called out Dom for putting himself at risk for a purely selfish reason. Team game, right? Shutout doesn’t affect the win, only his stats. What if Gaborik had lifted his head and done something to try to get around Dom but ended up hitting and hurting him? Reckless and selfish play, I’d say. Earlier in the game if it was still 5-0 maybe not, but at that point, it was all about Dom and not at all about the win.

Posted by mnfan from mn on 12/08/07 at 08:39 PM ET

Crisp and that Walrus with the lisp… Worst.  Announcers. Ever.

I’m hoping the folksy cornball shtick is just something they do because of the market they’re in.

I think the worst duo in a real hockey market is Kelly/Federko in St Louis. I’d take Dumb and Dumber from Minnesota over those guys any day of the week.

Posted by shep from california on 12/08/07 at 08:42 PM ET

I defintely agree. They are without a doubt the worst broadcasting team in the NHL and probably all of hockey.
Posted by Kevin

There are 30 NHL teams. I bet you can’t name 5 local broadcasting teams.

A TWO-MINUTE MINOR for tripping in a 5-zip game…

Regardless of time of game or score, ask yourself how many tripping penalites have you seen called when the player being called for the trip is not behind the impeded player?
NHL RULE 91: “The intention of this Rule is to restore a reasonable scoring opportunity which has been lost by reason of a foul from behind” Hasek was in front

“Accidental trips which occur simultaneously with a completed play will not be penalized.” Hasek was going for puck, incedental contact with player

““Control of the puck” means the act of propelling the puck with the stick, hand or feet.”
Gaborik was trying to settle puck and not clearly in full control

=)

Posted by Puck from San Francisco, CA on 12/08/07 at 08:54 PM ET

I have a feeling if the score had been 5-0 in the Wild’s favor the feelings would be quite different.

Maybe all laughing at Dom’s desperation play. 

The Ref. telling Hasek to chill out the score is 5-0, is not an adequate explanation of the call.

Posted by HockeyTownTodd on 12/08/07 at 09:17 PM ET

Hasek Should have just put the elbows up and gave him a “Gordie Howe Hello”. The guy had his head down, he would have saw Dom coming otherwise. I don’t think it was an act of tripping, but I don’t know what else to call it. It should definitely be a penalty though.
Stay in the F&^%$#@ net Dom!

Posted by Aaron from Phoenix on 12/08/07 at 10:03 PM ET

Gaborik is an moron for having his head down while going in.

are players taught today to have their heads down in all situations

Posted by FlyersFan on 12/08/07 at 10:30 PM ET

I have been reading all day about how everyone feels about the play.  Well the one constant is that everyone is talking about it.  Not the fact that the Winds got spanked, not the fact that up to that very second the Wild managed nothing.  Not much or very little mention about Zetterberg’s hat trick.  The play is over, no one was hurt.  The one last thing is mainly Wild fans are the ones complaining.

How about that fight…  That was pretty good, well it was a fight even though it amounted to a short stoppage in play.  This is not the first time Dom has wondered and taken a player out, it’s the first time I have seen it called for a penalty.  One last thing.  If there was that much of a great scoring chance, why no penalty shot. Exactly…  I say we move on and wait for the next major issue to top the NHL news, it will not take long.

Posted by Tony from Mid-Michigan on 12/08/07 at 11:20 PM ET

Paul, just stop linking to anything this moron has to say.  Obviously it’s not insight he offers.  When a writer has to resort to knocking another city, team or *cough* the broadcast team…. he has very little to offer when it comes to hockey. 

Mickey and Ken are the best.  They know the game, the history, the rules and they don’t insult their audience by explaining what an offside is either.  I’m quite disappointed when we have to put up with the random swill from Versus broadcasts, and NBC isn’t much better.  Homer announcers my ass!

Posted by snafu from Michigan on 12/08/07 at 11:24 PM ET

It is funny snafu, Russo has always been regarded as one of the better NHL writers around.
But lately, not sure what the problem is.  He took his shots at Vancouver too with the Ohlund slash.

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 12/08/07 at 11:27 PM ET

Sorry for sounding annoyed, but when folks “not from here” attack Mickey and Ken, I get mad!  They’re part of the entertainment package and do their jobs quite well.  I’m always impressed that they know all the latest news;  Mickey does not miss a thing on the ice either.  He sees the penalties coming before the ref raises his arm!  I’m also partial to him because I offer color commentary from my couch when we watch the games at home, and usually Mickey and I are in synch.  It’s pretty funny actually.

I think what amazes me is the cheap shots other fans - and now writers - feel they have to take at the Red Wings.  It’s not like we have dirty players, or guys in the news breaking the law.  The owner isn’t a corrupt criminal.  They continue to be the class of the NHL - cap or no cap - but someone has to go and stir the pot.  The Hockeytown moniker is being recycled repeatedly, as IF there were some clear heir apparent.  When these other teams/fans have to put up with being used by the NHL to bolster half of the league because they’re one of the best road draws in the league; have amongst highest TV shares nationally and locally; contribute to the revenue sharing pot at the highest levels; put up with losing their traditional rivals; AND STAY UP UNTIL BLOODY 1AM because we’re an EST team in the West…..... THEN WE TALK.  Otherwise you know where they all can put it! 

Posted by snafu from Michigan on 12/08/07 at 11:45 PM ET

Yarn worth a yawn, Russo.  Heard it all before yada yada yada…ad nauseum to the infinite power.

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 12/08/07 at 11:47 PM ET

How could I have forgotten John “Do you want some candy?” Kelly…

He’s definitely a charter member of the Craptastical Hockey Broadcaster HOF…

Posted by mudshark from Denver, CO on 12/09/07 at 12:00 AM ET

Technically speaking, what Hasek does is more closely related to something soccer players do than what goalies do—it’s a slide tackle, and the proper way to slide tackle is not something Hasek chose to employ here, because you’re supposed to lead with your cleats (which would mean that Hasek should have charged skate-blades-first into Gaborik).  Guy gets his head down, Hasek does what he does when he’s in the game and the score’s lopsided, and he somersaults.  If he hadn’t gone head-over-heels, people would be shaking their heads at another Dominik Hasek sliding poke check. 

Is it a dangerous play?  I suppose, but it’s no more dangerous than an open-ice hip check. 

My problem was Hasek’s problem—whatever you wanted to call that move, the rule has always been that if you sweep for someone’s stick and skates and get their stick first, regardless of what happens afterwards, regardless of whether a guy goes flying or gets injured, it’s not supposed to be a penalty because you’re going for the puck.  I’ve seen guys dumped feet-first into the end boards only to hobble off with sprained knees or ankles on sweep checks that get the puck first, and they don’t generally call anything on the play. 

Whatever Russo’s problem with Detroit is—his first blog entry made it sound like he was in the most depressing place on earth, and he’s the one running with the, “Oh, yes, now that Mr. Farber of Sports Illustrated says so, clearly, the Wild are Hockeytown, and we should sue for our trademark!” bologna—Daniels and Redmond’s commentary is no more or no less biased than any other announcing team which happens to be employed directly by the NHL team they cover instead of an intermediate broadcast affiliate.  We’ve all seen games on Center Ice where guys get drilled into next week with vicious hits and blame is assessed to the person wobbling off the ice.

Here’s the bottom line: Hasek was penalized for his actions.  The Wild didn’t convert on the power play.  It was a slide tackle where the goalie led with his pads instead of his skates, and it sent a guy flying, but it was a violent collision judged by the standards that most collisions are judged by, regardless of whether the hit is “clean” or “questionable”—the result and the injury or lack thereof. 

As to the rest of this business about the biases of broadcasters or the seemingly strange cult of hatred for all things Detroit, Red Wings, and/or Hasek-related, that’s all a matter of opinion.

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 12/09/07 at 02:10 AM ET

OMG! Seriously? Wild fans are upset about this one play instead of getting outplayed in every respect in a 5-0 game? What is the world coming to? What people should be upset is the explaination from the ref. Thats an unacceptable explaination. How that play gets called as a tripping penalty is beyond me. Hasek touched the puck first, end of story. That play happens in the open ice with a position player on a breakaway and that penalty doesn’t get called. Gaborik put himself in that position in the first place with his head down. If there was a d-man there, Gaborik would have gotten the snot knocked out of him ala the scott stevens hit on Lindros. Was it a dangerious play, sure. Hopefully Gaborik will learn to keep his freaking head up next time.

Posted by UMFan on 12/09/07 at 03:21 AM ET

Are they the Minnesota “Wild”, or the Minnesota “Whine” ?

I guess if you get totally humiliated every time you play Detroit, you must find something to criticize:  The city, or the arena, or the announcers, or the goalie, ......

Posted by w2j2 on 12/09/07 at 06:12 AM ET

Russo is DEAD ON in this case about Hasek and the commentators.

Posted by Freddy Krueger's Glove from Milwaukee on 12/09/07 at 08:19 AM ET

Local broadcasters are employees of the teams they call. They will ALL be biased, and in my opinion, they all SHOULD be biased. It’s a stupid argument. We’re not talking about an NBC or Versus broadcast that has to be directed to an entire continent and 30 different fan-bases. So, let’s just get this out of the way. I’m tired of people complaining about it. I have no problem with the Sharks’ broadcasters, no problem with the Wild’s, and no problem with the Wings’. When you call 70+ games per year, I’d expect you’d start to live and die with the team a bit. It’s only human, and I think it makes things more natural and honest. Remember, these guys we’re talking about aren’t AP journalists or something… they’re commentators (root word… “comment”?).

Russo needs to get off the soap box because he looks silly. He can’t bash someone for being biased toward one team on one hand, and then turn around and publish biased blog entries on the other. I have no problem with Russo being a Wild supporter, or slanting his blog entries (not articles) to support the Wild. That’s 100% fine in my book. He just can’t do that all the while bashing a local broadcast team for being biased. The contradiction is clear—I don’t think I need to spell it out.

As for the actual play—sure, I thought it was a penalty. I disagreed with Ken and Mick on that one. If you read the NHL rulebook, there were two ways to interpret that play.

One legitimate interpretation was no penalty, since Hasek got the puck prior to getting Gaborik (note to Wild fans—the rule book indicates that it doesn’t matter if a person “has possession” or not—if the puck is played prior to the contact, then there is no penalty under this interpretation).

Another legitimate interpretation is to assess a match penalty, given that the play was dangerous, and that the trip was made by Hasek’s body, not his stick.

I don’t understand why anyone actually thinks Dom wanted to hurt Gaborik. If anyone has paid attention to Dom’s career, they’d know that he’s an absent-minded MFer—he didn’t intend to hurt Gabork, he just wasn’t thinking about anything but his shutout.

I think the ref made a good call. The situation was not clearly one with intent to injure, so a match penalty would’ve been too much. The play Dom made was unnecessary, given the score line and how much time was left in the game, so you can’t let him go unpunished as the other interpretation suggests. I think the ref did a very nice job thinking on his feet by assessing a penalty that compromises betweeen the two interpretations.

And let’s be honest. Suspend him. Who cares. Osgood isn’t losing right now. They’re rotating anyways. He’d only get a fine and a game or two anyways. It would have zero impact on the team or the standings.

Posted by Nathan on 12/09/07 at 10:08 AM ET

My opinion on the play: excellent read by a goaltender to come out, unfortunate circumstance for the forward who was looking down while trying to gain control of the puck, great fortune for all of us that neither was hurt…  and not a penalty.

My question: does anyone recall a similar play, in which the forward trips over a goaltender who came out to block the puck and actually gets the puck, where a penalty was called?  I’ve seen a trip called when the goaltender misses the puck and gets the forward, but I can’t recall a single other one like this that resulted in a penalty.  I know my memory ain’t what it used to be, but…

My opinion on some play-by-play announcers:  Worst in my book are Crisp and Weber from Nashville.  I, too, have often wondered if the buffoonery is all contrived, part of their schtick, or if it’s simply because they really are buffoons.  I think Ken and Mickey are above the average at worst and among the best at best…  homers, yes, but not to such a degree that they seem to be watching a different game than I am.

Posted by BobTheZee on 12/09/07 at 02:34 PM ET

Ken and Mickey (more specifically Mickey) share a lot of thoughts and ideas with people that aren’t necessarily held by the majority.  Mick in particular will rail a whole game long against an injustice being done to whoever the Wings are playing if it’s something that bugs him.  It’s not being biased, it’s just having a belief and sticking to it.

As to the title of worst announcers, obviously not many people have listened to the Chicago Comcast SportsNet announcers.  My god.  They have cutesy names for most of the Hawks (“Patty” Kane, “Johnny” Toews, “Jimmy” Vandermeer, God… I want to wretch everytime I have to watch a Hawks broadcast on Center Ice), and they get so caught up in their own little stories and anecdotes they miss half of the game going on.

The Nashville announcers are baaadd too, but not as bad as Chicago’s.  Boston’s NESN team is atrocious and you can’t even call them homers, because their Bruin-centricity is to such a level that they sometimes won’t even mention other team’s players when they have the puck (as though it’s not the Bruins, so not important who has it).  That and Jack Edwards is an idiot.  MSG’s teams can be terrible as well—Sam Rosen is the worst announcer in history, I’m fairly sure.  The idiot in Buffalo calling Sabres games has needed to be fired for years…  you want to talk about absolute homers.  And what did the Sabres do to improve that tandem thi spast year?  Add Harry Neale, who doesn’t even know what year it is half the time, let alone who’s playing or what’s going on.

As to the best in the NHL… they’re toiling away in desert obscurity.  Dave Strader and Darren Pang are by far the best local announcer team in the NHL.  I know some maybe don’t like Pang’s excitability, but they have a polish and professionalism that lacks even on CBC or Versus most of the time.  And when they say or discuss something, it’s game-related and pertinent.  It’s a shame they have to be in Phoenix, where nobody watches or listens anyways.

The Sens home broadcast is fine too, from my experience.  I don’t mind Vancouver’s with Jim Hughson.  And for years the Capitals had just ATROCIOUS announcing (their early-90’s announcers took the term “homer” to a whole new level never-before explored), and it seems they finally got a solid team calling games there (solid, but not great).

Posted by Primis on 12/09/07 at 03:31 PM ET

I’ve never had a problem with Sam Rosen on MSG.  Joe Micheletti, on the other hand…he makes me want to throw stuff at the TV.

Posted by K24 from NYC on 12/09/07 at 04:09 PM ET

I agree about Dave Strader and Darren Pang. I think they are great. I miss Mickey Redmond though. It’s very rare that I can catch a Wings home feed.

Posted by Aaron from Phoenix on 12/10/07 at 12:04 AM ET