A new contender for worst broadcaster of all time (Leah Hextall)

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

I'm all for women empowerment but it has to be off merit and not because she is a woman, which is clearly not what ESPN did with Leah Haxtall because she is a disaster. I can't believe there's no thread on just her yet, that Kings-Stars OT was legit great and she ruined it. Would rather listen to Jack Edwards mispronounce Kulikov's name on a loop clockwork orange style than listen to that. How can you introduce a casual when that's the broadcast they'll be listening to? Also the audio was comically off (this is not her fault). Total peewee production.

Between this and the girl in NHL 22 in the drop in menu who you just cannot shut off, they're losing consumers here lol...

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[KirkAlbuquerque]

i was watching the spanish broadcast of the Kings v Stars on ESPN+ that was pretty sweet, although you could still hear Leah and crew underneath a little bit lol

 

[The Tourist]

She's horrible.

 

[serp]

I only woke up for for the third and OT but she was not good. Also the Audio beeing completely off made things worse.

 

[Kcb12345]

She knows her stuff but her voice just doesn't sound like it's meant for play by play, doesn't carry well over the mic. She's pretty quiet too

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Do you even speak Spanish?

not really but Spanish is pretty easy to understand

 

[PocketNines]

No comment on the announcing, but the Hulu closed captioning was beyond belief. The person had never seen a hockey game, mishearing most hockey phrases, and didn't know any hockey names. They were totally overwhelmed and just lunging at words, writing soup at the screen. I saw them write about players like "Angela," "Janine," and at one point the person repeatedly wrote "Rihanna" was doing this and that out there. Hakanpaa was Hawkey Pot.

 

[Patrik Barkov]

Sounds like she's narrating a cookbook. No emotion whatsoever.

 

[Vinegar Strokes]

She’s the best Legends of the Hidden Temple PxP I’ve ever heard

 

[Oddbob]

Yeah, she is brutal.

 

[M88K]

No comment on the announcing, but the Hulu closed captioning was beyond belief. The person had never seen a hockey game, mishearing most hockey phrases, and didn't know any hockey names. They were totally overwhelmed and just lunging at words, writing soup at the screen. I saw them write about players like "Angela," "Janine," and at one point the person repeatedly wrote "Rihanna" was doing this and that out there. Hakanpaa was Hawkey Pot.

They don't use a person to transcribe cc on live sports, it's done via voice to text

 

[Oilslick941611]

She knows her stuff but her voice just doesn't sound like it's meant for play by play, doesn't carry well over the mic. She's pretty quiet too

yup, she has broadcasting experience but in clip show and updates via sportnet. She needs some time in the minors working on her PbP skills for sure, not easy for prime time yet.

 

[Osprey]

No comment on the announcing, but the Hulu closed captioning was beyond belief. The person had never seen a hockey game, mishearing most hockey phrases, and didn't know any hockey names. They were totally overwhelmed and just lunging at words, writing soup at the screen. I saw them write about players like "Angela," "Janine," and at one point the person repeatedly wrote "Rihanna" was doing this and that out there. Hakanpaa was Hawkey Pot.

It was no doubt computer generated. Say "Hey Siri" or "Hey Google" (or, better yet, start something like Google Recorder) on your phone and hold it up to a game and you'll probably get similar results.

 

[Zamknij kurwa ryj]

Merit is racist and sexist in the year 2021.

Look at the NHL front office and coaching ranks, it's definitely not a meritocracy. Nepotism? Certainly.

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

So that's where she went eh. I can't believe she was given a pbp job. Wow, bummer.

 

[majormajor]

She knows her stuff but her voice just doesn't sound like it's meant for play by play

I heard Hextall on a game last week and I wouldn't say there was any voice issue. Honestly I would take Hextall's voice over Steve Cangialosi or any of the other ear-bleeders we have around the league.

The problem I had was that Hextall

1) Had little energy for the game. It's a rare gift to be able to keep that consistently high energy and Hextall was drifting off.
2) Didn't know the players. I just want to hear the player names and she seemed to not know most of them.

Hopefully this is just a nervous start. Otherwise it's a terrible hire.

 

[HTFN]

This is just the ugly part of progress, honestly just give it time.

Think of it this way: right now there's a group of young girls and women listening to the women who are objectively bad and saying "well f***, I can do that. She's making us look bad, you know what? I'm gonna do that and blow it out of the f***ing water" and that's what we're waiting for.

 

[the_fan]

I think they got it all wrong. They want to make things equal for everyone so there is no sexism, stereotyping, discrimination or whatnot, but if someone is bad at what they're doing, they're gonna get criticized, and that chick is horrible at doing hockey play by play. Just stick to what you can do. Not doing pbp in NHL as a woman doesn't mean you're being discriminated

 

[WaitingForThatCab]

It might be television, but you need a radio voice to do sports play by play.

She doesn't have one.

 

[Quack Shot]

I’ll give her a season before passing judgement.

 

[TheNumber4]

No way she’s worse than Cassie Campbell. And I say this not as a sexist but someone who likes good play by play and color commentary, that’s it!

 

[JPeeper]

I watched a women's hockey game when she was doing commentary and she was pretty bland and just sounded like an amateur attempting to call a game.

Between her and Randorf (one of the worst all time) I have no idea how these people are getting such sought after jobs when they are terrible at them. Like, give Leah some CHL games to call to get better.

 

[serp]

I watched a women's hockey game when she was doing commentary and she was pretty bland and just sounded like an amateur attempting to call a game.

Between her and Randorf (one of the worst all time) I have no idea how these people are getting such sought after jobs when they are terrible at them. Like, give Leah some CHL games to call to get better.

Most likely because they want a woman and well also because of nepotism since she's Ron Hextalls cousin. I would assume there are good female play-by-play voices out there somewhere but those don't have a famous name.

 

[tny760]

I have no idea how these people are getting such sought after jobs when they are terrible at them. Like, give Leah some CHL games to call to get better.

female with the correct last name..

100% agree about the CHL, she's just not up for the big time yet or any time soon

 

[AveryStar4Eva]

Yeah it was really bad tbh. I think more women should be involved in the sport and I’ve listened to some great women play by play. There are better options