WHY ARE AMERICANS PRODUCING BETTER HOCKEY TELECASTS THAN US?
Plus, Aaron Judge is attempting to rewrite history as he chases down the ghosts of Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, and Tony Gwynn.
The TNT hockey panel from May 12, 2025. Pat Maroon’s hair is worthy of induction to the Mullet Hall of Fame. Courtesy TNT Sports.
On Monday night, I sat down with a critical eye to compare the way the Stanley Cup playoffs were being covered on television. At 7 p.m., I tuned into Rogers Sportsnet to watch Game four of the Carolina-Washington series. But I didn’t hear any familiar voices. There was no panel to discuss this big game in the east, and there was nobody from Sportsnet covering the game in Raleigh. They just plugged into the TNT feed, and offered no Canadian perspective. This included the intermissions. Sportsnet, perhaps inadvertently, allowed it’s viewers to witness how good a show the Americans can put on.
Now, before you scold me for siding with our southern neighbours when it comes to hockey, hear me out. Sportsnet is getting tired. They’re getting bags under their lenses. They’ve done a lot of games involving Canadian teams and their coverage is losing it’s freshness and vitality. I mean, how many times can you run a music video at the top of each broadcast featuring a band that hasn’t been relevant in decades? And I love The Who and Baba O’Reilly. And I’m friendly with the guys from Triumph and have all their 8-track tapes. But if I hear Echo Beach one more time when they go to commercial, I’m going to smash my vinyl copy of “Metro Music” to smithereens. Enough already. The Americans have TNT and ESPN covering the playoffs, which ensures greater competition among the broadcasters and fresher material. It also allows us to see different personalities working the games.
Last night, TNT had Kenny Albert on the call from Carolina with Brian Boucher alongside and Jody Shelley between the benches. Shelley provided some fascinating insight during the game from his vantage point, and interviewed Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour during a TV timeout. He later revealed that he had to do a “bag skate” once with Brind’Amour when practice was over, and marveled at his work ethic and conditioning. Interesting stuff. Sportsnet does not use reporters between the benches, which means the viewers are not privy to important information that should be made available. During the intermissions, the TNT studio team featured host Liam McHugh sitting in the middle of a five-person panel. Special guest Pat Maroon, Paul (Biz Nasty) Bissonnette, Anson (Ace) Carter, and Henrik (Hank) Lundqvist were the four panelists last night. In one segment, the five of them stood on the studio floor while Maroon cranked up the siren they use at the Hurricanes games. It was terrific intermission TV, with everybody having a good laugh and not taking things too seriously. We even saw four of the five panelists wearing white sneakers to go with their tailored suits. A nice touch. TNT wants their studio show to be as entertaining as “Inside the NBA”. That’s why they used guys like Wayne Gretzky and Rick Tocchet on that show, and why they continue to have great guests.
But let’s get back to the non-Sportsnet broadcast of a playoff game that included more Canadian players than any other nationality. I’m sure the families and friends of those players would have loved a Canadian view of the game and it’s participants. But it wasn’t to be. Once the game had ended in Carolina, Sportsnet switched to the feed of the Edmonton-Vegas game as the second half of their doubleheader, but with their own crew: Jack Michaels and Louie DeBrusk on the call with Gene Principe hosting in Edmonton. Back in the Toronto studio, the Sportsnet panel has Ron MacLean sitting on the far left, Kelly Hrudey, Kevin Bieksa, a special guest and Elliotte Friedman anchored to the desk. A few weeks ago, the guest was former Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde. Last night it was the recently retired Blake Wheeler providing commentary from the desk. Usually these guys offer great insight, and occasionally they’ll make some lighthearted comments, or jab at each other, but generally they’re talking about serious stuff on those panel discussions. They also seem to be more rigidly timed than their U.S. counterparts. Get your comments in quickly and move along to the next panelist. The other thing about the panel is that they’re almost always sitting down, so we don’t even get to see what kind of footwear they have on.
The Sportsnet hockey panel from May 12, 2025. I wonder of anybody is wearing Birkenstocks. Courtesy Rogers Sportsnet.
As for having someone between the benches, I still can’t believe Sportsnet hasn’t made that a priority. ESPN and TNT utilize those types of reporters to great advantage, and it helps in the long run because the players are used to seeing these reporters standing right next to them on the bench. It goes to credibility. TSN did it all season long on their regional broadcasts, and it improved the quality of the games greatly. ESPN uses Ray Ferraro, Darren Pang, Emily Kaplan and others as rinkside reporters.
A few minutes after the Oilers beat Vegas 3-0 and the crowd sang “La Bamba” for the umpteenth time this season, Sportsnet threw to the podium to hear what the players had to say. Several minutes earlier, the TNT studio team had interviewed Evander Kane on the bench wearing a headset. Guest commentator Pat Maroon asked Kane about driving his Rolls Royce to games 2 and 4, both victories. Kane responded that he drove his Ferrari to game 3, which the Oilers lost, so he had better go back to the Rolls for rest of the series. He also said his dream car is a “LaFerrari”, but he didn’t specify if it was the Aperta model, the convertible, or just the regular old LaFerrari. Instead of hearing the same old questions and the same worn-out cliched answers, this was a great three-minute interview and something Sportsnet should strive to do on their telecasts.
TNT’s coverage is better than ESPNs, although the worldwide leader has a decent studio show. PK Subban, Mark Messier, and this week Chris Pronger, have all got carte blanche when it comes to commenting/criticizing/editorializing about the games, the officials and the league. Steve Levy is a good studio host, but only so-so on play by play. ESPNs Bob Wischusen is as good a play-by-play commentator as anybody, and I like the fact that he doesn’t go overboard on his calls, like some of today’s broadcasters.
There is no way that these American networks should be outperforming Sportsnet, but they are because of the workload Sportsnet has had to endure. Producing a game nearly every night, what with three Canadian teams still in contention, must be exhausting. Just like the players, they need a breather, but they won’t get one. There is no elimination for the TV production. They’ll go until the Stanley Cup has been won. That’s got to be tough, but that’s what you get when you own the rights and have to deliver a quality product every night.
I thought Sportsnet made a big mistake by not allowing Harnarayan Singh and John Garrett to continue broadcasting the Winnipeg Jets playoff series, replacing them instead with John Bartlett and Gary Galley. Surely, Sportsnet could’ve sent those guys, who are excellent, to do the Carolina-Washington series. I mean, it’s a short plane trip from Montreal and they know the Eastern conference a lot better, because they do several dozen Montreal Canadiens games on Sportsnet. Meanwhile, Singher and Cheech are both from Western Canada, and continuing to follow the Winnipeg Jets would be the prudent thing to do. Alas, it looks like Chris Cuthbert and Craig Simpson, as the number one team, will do the Maple Leafs for as long as they’re alive, and then switch to any other Canadian team that advances to the Conference final. I’ll bet I’ve watched 65 games this year with CC and Simmer on the call. That’s a lot. I’d like to see Sportsnet inject some new ideas into their broadcasts. That way they can keep up to the Americans when it comes to televising our national game.
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This is such a great week for sports on TV that I have to plan my viewing time carefully. Not only is there a plethora of Stanley Cup and NBA playoff action (can you believe those Knicks?), there’s also the PGA Championship, the second major of the season, plus the Preakness Stakes (Journalism is the 8-5 favourite), and the Italian Open tennis tourney. And, of course, there’s major league baseball every day, and that means keeping an eye on Yankees slugger Aaron Judge. The big man is in the midst of an historic season, and even though it’s only mid-May, he’s got his sights set on something that hasn’t been done in 84 years.
Ted Williams was the last player to hit .400 in one season, batting .406 for the 1941 Boston Red Sox, and losing out in the MVP voting to Joe DiMaggio, who happened to hit safely in 56 consecutive games. Both records are thought to be unbreakable, and nobody has really come close in the past eight decades. Pete Rose hit safely in 44 straight games, back in 1978, but that was still 12 away from Joe D’s record. A few players have flirted with a .400 season, but not since Tony Gwynn in 1994 has a player been at .400 or better in mid-May. 1994 was the strike-shortened season in which Gwynn hit .394 before the games were cancelled in early August. On May 13th of that year, Gwynn was hitting .419, an astonishing number.
This season, Judge is hitting .414 and leading the league in homers and RBI, too. Oh sure, there’s talk of a Triple Crown, but the .400 batting average is going to be the toughest to maintain. Already, Judge has fashioned a 14-game hitting streak, having gone 42 for 94 during that stretch (.447). He’s currently on a 9 for 17 heater (.530).
Aaron Judge is scary good. I would walk him every time. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Judge’s prowess at the plate is something Major League Baseball will embrace every chance it gets. Not only does he play in New York, Judge is one of the nicer, more respectful athletes of his generation. A marketers dream. The Big Influencer. Even if you hate the Yankees, it’s tough to root against him. Ted Williams was a dislikeable ballplayer; surly, spiteful, stubborn and only concerned about being the best hitter ever. He was obsessive. DiMaggio was so standoffish and aloof, even his own teammates were afraid to talk to him. He had few friends. Judge is so unlike those whose records he is chasing. He is the consummate professional, playing in the toughest media market in the world. If he’s still hovering near the .400 mark a month from now, the media coverage will be more intense than it’s ever been before.
In 1941, folks would pick up the newspaper to find out if DiMaggio had gotten a hit the day before. This went on for nearly the whole summer. Today, as soon as Aaron Judge gets a hit, his batting average will be calculated to the fifth decimal point and the oft-used phrase “is on pace” will flood social media. And, if he keeps this up, Judge will hit 56 homeruns, drive in 159 runs, and hit .414. He also has an outside chance to have the most hits in one season. With 65 hits in his first 41 games, Judge is-wait for it-on pace to record 258 hits, which would be the second-most all time after Ichiro Suzuki’s 262 hits in 2004. Ichiro, however, only batted .372 that season. So, it’s going to take some doing for Judge to flirt with .400 this year. I, for one, will be following his every at-bat during this chase. 2025 could be the most exciting baseball season of them all. Especially if the Blue Jays can get their sh*t together.