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

[Daximus]

She is definitely different compared to most commentators in the league. She doesn't have a lot of the excitement that many commentators have, very little bias in her calling of games (or at least that's what I've noticed) and she doesn't fill airtime with stats and stories like so many commentators do. She is just all business right now. She gets some inflection when plays get a little bit more exciting but contrast her with a guy like Singh who is usually going at 100, 100% of the time.

While she isn't great right now I think she has some potential. Whether she gets there is the real question.

 

[JasonRoseEh]

Yet the same criticism hardly ever extends to the numerous male colleagues of similar level.

I mean, what? We rip myriad male commentators constantly, there are a ton of awful ones and they don't escape criticism, most much worse than what you're seeing here.

 

[quackquackquack]

semi-related: I've always wondered what people think about the Tampa radio guy and the Washington TV guy. Both SCREAM when their clubs score and it seems to be a bit amateurish/thumbing you nose at people. If you close your eyes, you feel like you are listening to High School hockey.

 

[njdevil26]

I felt bad for Leah watching her do a Devils game a few weeks ago. The production is just so bad. I was convinced the entire night that her and Weeksie weren't even in the building. The way it was mixed sounded like she was doing an NPR podcast from her house and Weekes was in the NHL studio in Secaucus or something. Then I saw a pic they were actually in the arena sitting next to each other. Yikes. That plus the sound and video wasn't synced property.

She called Pavel Zacha - Zooka. After a commercial break there was a fan wearing a Ducks jersey with an orange beard dancing and she said "There's a Devils fan having a good time"

Then every time Gibson made a save she kept calling him Bernier.

That tells me she's inexperienced and was probably nervous as hell. At least they gave her a Devils/Ducks game at 10pm eastern time that no one was going to watch. She will get better.

 

[tarapoto2006]

I’ll give her a season before passing judgement.

Hasn't she been doing play-by-play for a couple years already here and there? It's not like she's new to it.

 

[FiveFourteenSixOne]

Didn't the flow of play by play either but we need to give her time, nobody is perfect by I hope someone is telling her to adjust a bit.

I'll give her a year, in summer she can reflect on her performance and came back better. Can't be worse than TVA in french.

You shouldn't get to cut your f***ing teeth at the top. If she was a man she would be LUCKY to be calling games in junior.

 

[Shakey Rustie]

Hasn't she been doing play-by-play for a couple years already here and there? It's not like she's new to it.

Theres a quote from the Winnipeg Sun in this thread somewhere. Hextall was out of hockey for a bit, working for the Manitoba Government. During that time she worked on her play-by-play skills by calling games for herself and recording them.

 

[Chips]

Theres a quote from the Winnipeg Sun in this thread somewhere. Hextall was out of hockey for a bit, working for the Manitoba Government. During that time she worked on her play-by-play skills by calling games for herself and recording them.

She should have somebody else listen. Obvious the execs didn’t

 

[Shroud of Orrin]

I am sorry - I just can't handle that. Her and Millen are oil and water and that's not Millen's fault (although I always hated his negativism). Where are you Danny Gallivan...

 

[Oddbob]

She's not great, but also not worse than most of her colleagues. Calling one mediocre broadcaster out of many out like this seems unnecessary and motivated by gender.

She is miles worse than the average NHL commentator, and a still worse, than even the worst ones. Gender is not a reason for the hate. Get a new argument, she sucks!

 

[Oddbob]

Yet the same criticism hardly ever extends to the numerous male colleagues of similar level.

Are you kidding? She is way worse than everyone else. You have gone the reverse and are defending her only cause she is a woman. If she was a man with this same commentary you would be agreeing with the masses.

Name me even one NHL commentator that has this much dead air, terrible PBP voice, names the wrong players and teams, doing colour commentary instead of pbp because she isn't good at it? Even the worst NHL guys are still calling the game, even if they have some annoying traits. Leah's problem as far as pbp goes, is she does nothing good.

For example: I hate Jack Edwards (was my least favourite by a lot) and his over the top homerism and fake narratives of what happens during tense Bruins/opponent moments, but his pbp is still calling the game.

 

[Oddbob]

I started to watch the game tonight and had to change the channel to the other game that was on.

If you put Leah Hextall, Kelly Hrudey, Cassie Campbell, Drew Remenda and John Garrett on the Oiler broadcasts, I would watch the entire game muted.

Is this seriously the best SN can do?

Kelly Hrudey is good, when not calling games for a set team.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

I mean, what? We rip myriad male commentators constantly, there are a ton of awful ones and they don't escape criticism, most much worse than what you're seeing here.

They don't?

I must've missed all the threads that populate the main boards here whining about commentators. Sure there's an occasional Jack Edwards thread or people saying they don't like Doc Emerick, but it's mostly a handful of posts in a GDT. Whereas the Cassie Campbell threads had to be locked they got so off the rails. And now another female commentator, another thread that keeps popping to the top of the main page about how bad she is.

The Campbell thread made it to something like 23 pages before it was locked and it's looking like this one will too. The thread on "most biased commentators"? 5 pages.

 

[zar]

Just amazing everyone sucks except for the Oilers guys.

Drew Remenda was an Oilers guy.

 

[zar]

Kelly Hrudey is good, when not calling games for a set team.

I used to like him but he has gotten worse. Just the other day he suggested Dave ‘Stick-flip’ Rittich is the answer to the Oilers goaltending “issues”.

 

[Oddbob]

They don't?

I must've missed all the threads that populate the main boards here whining about commentators. Sure there's an occasional Jack Edwards thread or people saying they don't like Doc Emerick, but it's mostly a handful of posts in a GDT. Whereas the Cassie Campbell threads had to be locked they got so off the rails. And now another female commentator, another thread that keeps popping to the top of the main page about how bad she is.

The Campbell thread made it to something like 23 pages and it's looking like this one will too.

If you can't see the difference here not sure what to say. Don't mean to be rude to you or her, but she is brutal, and if she was a guy would still get called out. She is legendary/elite level bad if that is possible.

 

[Oddbob]

I used to like him but he has gotten worse. Just the other day he suggested Dave ‘Stick-flip’ Rittich is the answer to the Oilers goaltending “issues”.

Yeah, he like all goalies are super soft on critiquing and gauging goalies worth. Ozzie is the same way when he does colour for Wings games.

 

[zar]

Yeah, he like all goalies are super soft on critiquing and gauging goalies worth. Ozzie is the same way when he does colour for Wings games.

True. Goalies are usually blindly loyal to each other.

 

[castle]

I just watched that Winnipeg game. No problem with it. I actually prefer some dead air to the constant yelling, telling me what I what I can see with my own eyes. More dead air would be better. No need for colour guys at all. The networks should get on board with saving some money here. It's like the hockey world never got the memo that tv is not radio.
The greatest thing to happen to televised hockey was that year the on air talent went on strike during the playoffs (early 2000s some time) and they aired the games with no commentary at all. It was like being at the game. Beautiful.

 

[Pandemonia]

I just watched that Winnipeg game. No problem with it. I actually prefer some dead air to the constant yelling, telling me what I what I can see with my own eyes. More dead air would be better. No need for colour guys at all. The networks should get on board with saving some money here. It's like the hockey world never got the memo that tv is not radio.
The greatest thing to happen to televised hockey was that year the on air talent went on strike during the playoffs (early 2000s some time) and they aired the games with no commentary at all. It was like being at the game. Beautiful.

I watched the Jets game and thought that Hextall did an okay job. She's not the best pbp announcer I've heard but she was more than adequate and her tone was a pleasant change from the usual pack of testosterone jockeys. Given a few years, I expect she'll blossom into a top-tier announcer.

Meanwhile, to all the knuckle-draggers who keep yelling versions of "she sucks" and then insisting no one has refuted their argument ..... sigh .....

 

[Keystone]

I was dreading listening to her last night considering she had a dedicated thread. I didn’t find her too bad. A little unexciting but so were the jets.

 

[Knightslayer]

Drew Remenda was an Oilers guy.

Yeah and was probably great at the time.

 

[Reaser]

They don't?

I must've missed all the threads that populate the main boards here whining about commentators. Sure there's an occasional Jack Edwards thread or people saying they don't like Doc Emerick, but it's mostly a handful of posts in a GDT. Whereas the Cassie Campbell threads had to be locked they got so off the rails. And now another female commentator, another thread that keeps popping to the top of the main page about how bad she is.

The Campbell thread made it to something like 23 pages before it was locked and it's looking like this one will too. The thread on "most biased commentators"? 5 pages.

A thread on a male commentator doesn't have the handful of people that defend them solely because they're male, which in turn leads to responses (such as this response pointing it out) and makes the threads longer than they should be.

If she was a man the thread would be normal length with near 100% agreement that she's the worst commentator and it's not really even close and to the people who actually watch games (instead of 5 second clips or even 9 minute clips, but watch the full games) there's zero argument of who is the worst pbp announcer doing NHL games this season. She's the worst. Period.

Most people, without an agenda, see that and say that and the thread would be normal length. People with some weird agenda and/or feel the need to protect because she's female and to them it means she can't be treated equally -the true sexists are the ones who defend her just because she's a she as if she is lesser and has to be judged differently from a man- are the ones making the thread longer than it needs to be.

Plus, of course it gets back to the top when people hear her for the first time when she's calling a game their team is playing in. So that's part of it, also.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

I find this thread frustrating because it forces me to agree with a lot of people with whom I probably agree on very little politically.

People who say that this is just an example of 'wokeness being more important than ability' really fail to recognize the obstacles to comfortable existence that women and people of colour experience just about everyday. From being hit on inappropriately, to having racists mean mug you while you're trying to buy milk. Trying to level the playing field a little bit isn't 'wokeness', it's human empathy.

With that said, I can't get over how bad Leah Hextall is. She is terrible at every part of announcing.

Look, I have been a hockey nerd with encylopedic hockey knowledge since I was 10 years old. Not once did I think I could be a play-by-play announcer. I don't have the voice for it. It requires, ideally, a unique voice, a capacity to speak without 'ums' and 'ah's for 3 hours, really astute observational skills, deep hockey knowledge, an innate sense of the energy of the game (when to be excited, etc) and I could go on and on.

Leah has none of those things. The games are full of dead air, big things will happen and she won't say anything, she doesn't seem to know a lot of the player's names, she has no sense of occasion, and her voice oscillates between dull and shrill.

When people say 'give her a chance to learn', it's like maybe she shouldn't be 'learning' at the highest level.

Honestly, rooting for her is like rooting for some unskilled wealthy kid who gets their own show because their parents own the tv studio.

It's cool that there is a movement towards getting more women in hockey media, but that wasn't being cultivated before. So let's be intentional about cultivating it instead of pretending that making the decision is the same as having had the infrastructure for the last decade.

Let her, and others, cut their teeth in junior, college, and the minors. You know, like a real hockey announcer.

 

[Zen Arcade]

I didn't think she was super terrible or anything, I've certainly heard worse.

The thing that sticks out to me is her cadence, she calls the game like an auctioneer. If she changed that up some I think it would make a big difference.