Living in the US at the moment, and having a dish, I am watching the playoffs on ESPN rather than CBC (no choice). Big deal, I thought, hockey is hockey.

Boy was I wrong.

First off, bring on the retarded camera angles. Borne from heads of people that have never had to watch a whole game in their lives, there are 3 retarded camera angles that make it tough to watch a game without a bottle of Advil. One is from a swivel camera under the clock, one appears to be attached to the boards at center ice, and the other right behind the goalie. The cameras are too close to the ice, and give a terribly distorted view of the game. Also, because they are so close they can't simply pan out when they lose the puck (which happens ALL the time), they hunt around with their zoomed in view and inevevitably switch the standard shot used by the CBC.

Next, bring on announcers that think they are doing a baseball game. I don't need to hear about Gelinas' minor league roommates' girlfriend when Iggy is on a breakaway, but THANKS! Breakaways, if noticed by the commentators at all, are described as "and here's a shot from Iginla. That's his seventh shot this game, which is two more than he had last game, and only one more than the number of...".

Whoever is in control of what camera shot is broadcast (producer?) needs some trainin'. Starting with the retarded "behind the net" cam to see a pass from behind the net up to the slot, one-timer, and as the stick hits the ice to impact the puck - switch cameras to the one in the rafters and the players look like so many ants on a white plate. How about the empty net goal last night - the puck is on track for the empty net, it crosses center ice - and the clowns switch to some camera shot showing some Flames player's reaction. 30 seconds or so later, they mention that the GD puck went in the net.

I really miss the CBC version, cool commercials and all, the whooooole package.

m

   

I have to agree with you mukluk. I watched a few of the games that were on TSN and they had picked up the feed from ESPN. What a joke that was. With such crappy coverage, it's no wonder most yanks don't like hockey. The announcers are pretty funny. Most 8 year old Canadian kids know more about hockey than those morons.

   

What I find the funniest thing about ESPN is that they have the rank or seed of the teams next to their name

This isn't college basketball, I don't need to know what place each team finished in.....in the playoffs for hockey it don't matter!

This is the only thing I've noticed while watched ESPN because i dont stay on the channel long enough, as soon as I see the score I change