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

[Rob Brown]

She seems to get incredibly flustered in tense plays in quick succession and tends to just mumble a bunch of words together. That will come with practice I think, but her voice is just not good for hockey. I can't even imagine trying to watch a playoff game in OT or something with her calling it - it would suck the emotion out of watching the game.

Oh and calling the Wild the 'Wilds' last week was sad.

 

[MK9]

She did the Wild opening night. Same story. Abysmal. I would rather have heard (local Vikings pbp, KFAN radio host and general oxygen thief) Paul Allen call the game through a kazoo than hear her do another. And I loathe Paul Allen.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I’m all for criticizing a broadcaster and have no issue going after Hextall for her (legitimate) weaknesses in PBP.

But it’s a little odd to repeatedly bring up her gender, merit relative to male broadcasters, “diversity signaling” etc if this is not about her being a woman.

 

[Look Up]

Definitely not a professional broadcaster.

Disney/ESPN fail.

 

[Beezeral]

She knows hockey. But knowledge of hockey isn’t enough to be good at PBP. PBP is a practiced skill that takes a few years of reps to start to get good at.

she’s simply not good at calling games. Doesn’t know the right times to get excited, doesn’t have the confidence in her voice yet to let it rip when she knows it’s the right time.

Not to use a cliche, but she needs another year or two calling AHL games every night to get her skills up.

 

[MuckOG]

She's terrible

 

[traffic cone]

She did the Wild opening night. Same story. Abysmal. I would rather have heard (local Vikings pbp, KFAN radio host and general oxygen thief) Paul Allen call the game through a kazoo than hear her do another. And I loathe Paul Allen.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Is she worse than the Calgary Flames commentator a few seasons ago? My experience was via NHL.tv and a bit limited... but she was not good.

 

[Dr Pepper]

Is she worse than the Calgary Flames commentator a few seasons ago? My experience was via NHL.tv and a bit limited... but she was not good.

Cassie Campbell?

Yeah, I'd say she's worse than Cassie Campbell.

Again, though, I'd still take her over Dave "Nails on a Chalkboard" Mishkin any day.

 

[jaamz]

I’m all for criticizing a broadcaster and have no issue going after Hextall for her (legitimate) weaknesses in PBP.

But it’s a little odd to repeatedly bring up her gender, merit relative to male broadcasters, “diversity signaling” etc if this is not about her being a woman.

And here we have a guy trying to make something out of nothing..typical

 

[The S5]

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.

But why?
Why must we force women into non-traditional roles?
I've yet to hear a female sports broadcaster that I want to hear again. Actually, the women who does NBA is very good, can't remember her name.
There is a female that does college football that puts on a Harry Caray style voice is absolutely cringe worthy.

 

[tarheelhockey]

And here we have a guy trying to make something out of nothing..typical

I’m not trying to make anything. It is what it is. People are saying “it’s not about her being a woman” while digging in to how she’s a woman. It’s almost funny in a way. Look at the post immediately above mine.

Literally the very first sentence of this thread begins “I’m all for women’s empowerment but…”.

If it’s not about that, then why bring it up? Just criticize her straight-up the way we do Emrick or Button or whoever.

 

[Channelcat]

She's remarkably bad. Her radio spots were equally bad with horrible takes. Not sure how she gets jobs.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Yeah that is truly terrible lol

 

[Shakey Rustie]

Can she work in the minors first to hone her craft (like what most pbp announcers do) instead of being thrown right into the NHL?

 

[Mach2]

Or it could simply be that among all the female PBP hockey announcers in the business, Leah Hextall is the very best...and she's absolutely terrible at it.

 

[jaamz]

What do you guys think of Jaime Hirsch? Just curious..

 

[Filthy Dangles]

You can hear her in the Condensed Game highlights here.

You can tell she's intelligent in understanding the game and she pronounces every name correctly but agreed that her voice, the cadence and how she ties it all together just isn't good at all.

 

[avsfan9]

95% of hockey broadcasters are white men, but that doesn’t match your “poor white men” world view.


She’s not good. She’s low energy, she’s misidentifies players and even teams. Maybe she’ll get better, I don’t know. Right now, she doesn’t belong.

My take has more to do with a lot of good analysts, commentators and play by play people being let go for the new wave then poor white males

 

[MuckOG]

What do you guys think of Jaime Hirsch? Just curious..

I think she does a decent job on NHL Network. I dont think she would be very good doing PBP though.

 

[Pens x]

All of those criticizing her will get canceled.

It must have something to do with her last name - there is a rule you have to suck at your job if your last name is Hextall.

 

[Legionnaire11]

What I posted in the ESPN+ thread

That was my first experience with Hextall and I really wanted all of the detractors to be wrong... but that was a very weird PBP performance. It sounded like she was intentionally stifling her call, going very minimalist, perhaps in response to the backlash from her first game? I think there's potential there, but I agree with those who say she should have started with a minor league team to build up her reps. There were even a few times where she simply said something like "The Kings take possession, he sends the puck down into the corner" without ever noting who "He" was. Then it was made noticeably worse by the color commentary which sounded pretty normal and was actually filling his space nicely. I don't need every second of play to be filled with speaking, in fact I would enjoy a more minimal approach on TV, but she needs more time to gain confidence or something and needs a partner who fits her style.​

Beyond that, this thread has some bad takes about women not having strong enough voices for PBP. Because there are plenty of women PBP throughout the sports world who are great at what they do who have long ago proven that narrative wrong.​

 

[Satan]

The ESPN+ broadcast was a nightmare. The audio is off and it sounds like their broadcast crew is calling the game remotely from a dungeon. I'll chalk it up to her not being in the building but she did not know the players and struggled to follow play.

 

[Chrisinroch]

Can she work in the minors first to hone her craft (like what most pbp announcers do) instead of being thrown right into the NHL?

She *was* doing college hockey. She was the same there

 

[KillerMillerTime]

You can hear her in the Condensed Game highlights here.

You can tell she's intelligent in understanding the game and she pronounces every name correctly but agreed that her voice, the cadence and how she ties it all together just isn't good at all.

Highlights I saw she literally reduced Suter to "#20 in green". Unless there was some in game joke, how the hell does that happen? That's HS hockey local cable access crap worthy.