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

[ItWasJustified]

Tell me you hate women without telling me you hate women.

Not a single valid argument disproving in your post disproving any of mine.

Not an argument.

 

[Michael HOMERUNing]

Last night was the first time I needed subtitles to watch a sport

 

[bsu]

She's the absolute worse I've ever heard and that includes junior hockey.

 

[UK Yote]

The Hextall/Weekes pairing needs to end. Rather listen to nails on a chalkboard . Brutal

And don't forget the other useless part of this trio, Linda Cohn between the benches!! Such useful insights as "The Ducks players were tired after that shift"
Hextall and Weekes both claimed it was Boyd having handbags with a Ducks player when it was quite clearly Larsson....ESPN absolutely sucks with its choice of commentary!!

 

[Leonardo87]

And don't forget the other useless part of this trio, Linda Cohn between the benches!! Such useful insights as "The Ducks players were tired after that shift"
Hextall and Weekes both claimed it was Boyd having handbags with a Ducks player when it was quite clearly Larsson....ESPN absolutely sucks with its choice of commentary!!

I think it was Linda Cohn. Asked Getzlaf about the fear of getting stuck in Canada for Christmas with Covid. How can you ask that? Lol. Getz is too much of a gentleman but you can tell he was like WTF? Lol

 

[McShogun99]

I’m so sick of wokeism. Every job should be the best of the best regardless of sex or race. If you’re not good enough to do that job work harder until you are or find something more your level.

 

[JianYang]

I know I have a certain bias against women calling games.

It going to take me a while to actually be able to objectively provide an opinion about which ones are good and bad because I am simply not conditioned to hear higher pitched voices call a game yet.

I'm sure my bias will go away over time but it's definitely an adjustment.

 

[MapleLeafs94]

I know I have a certain bias against women calling games.

It going to take me a while to actually be able to objectively provide an opinion about which ones are good and bad because I am simply not conditioned to hear higher pitched voices call a game yet.

I'm sure my bias will go away over time but it's definitely an adjustment.

Yeah, I feel the same way man. I just heard Hextall for the first time during the Ducks/Coyotes and it was pretty awful.

I feel like she's trying to make it exciting and get fans into the game with her calls on goals and big moments in general. To me she was giving her best and I respect the hell out of that.

That being said, maybe I'm just being biased or like you said I'm not use to high pitched voices calling games, all I know is I didn't like it and it just didn't feel right as terrible as that is to say. Maybe it will grow on me but man it made it almost unwatchable.

 

[Patrik Barkov]

Tell me you hate women without telling me you hate women.

Not a single valid argument disproving in your post disproving any of mine.

Hope she sees this bro

 

[Puckstop40]

She is not good, and to be frank it it painful to listen to. Very few are good at calling games so this has nothing to do with her being a female. It takes a certain voice as a commentator and most people honestly just don't have it. She seems very knowledgable of the game so maybe an analyst or color commentator position would be more suited for her?

 

[WingsMJN2965]

And don't forget the other useless part of this trio, Linda Cohn between the benches!! Such useful insights as "The Ducks players were tired after that shift"
Hextall and Weekes both claimed it was Boyd having handbags with a Ducks player when it was quite clearly Larsson....ESPN absolutely sucks with its choice of commentary!!

End of the day, this is the problem we all predicted with ESPN. They went out and hired some people, but they're just plugging the rest of their holes with people who they're already paying that don't belong because they like hockey. (Bucci, Cohn, Kaplan)

TNT's coverage is far and away better.

 

[Sniperberg]

Not a single valid argument in your post.

I think you are confusing an opinion with an argument here.

 

[The Andrew Peeke Fan]

She is bad at the job she is paid a lot of money to do, and it sucks that more qualified, skilled people were overlooked for that job.

 

[Jormungandr]

The Coyotes have had a few games with Leah as the play by play. The first time I listened to her, it was awful and I ripped into her for how bad she was. But, honestly, she has already improved quite a bit from then. Still sub-par, but it’s at least watchable now.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

The Coyotes have had a few games with Leah as the play by play. The first time I listened to her, it was awful and I ripped into her for how bad she was. But, honestly, she has already improved quite a bit from then. Still sub-par, but it’s at least watchable now.

Honestly the problem for me is just her voice.

She sounds like she's trying to lull you to sleep with a romantic novel...

 

[Sticktape]

And don't forget the other useless part of this trio, Linda Cohn between the benches!! Such useful insights as "The Ducks players were tired after that shift"
Hextall and Weekes both claimed it was Boyd having handbags with a Ducks player when it was quite clearly Larsson....ESPN absolutely sucks with its choice of commentary!!

Did anyone else catch the segment on NHL Network Radio where there was a guest talking about the power play and referred to it as the PP, and Linda interrupted the guy talking to say "lolz we can't say pee pee we're on the radio guyz!!!" Man it was so cringe. It was on the program she hosts with Nick Alberga.

 

[The Blunder Years]

I’m all for women being involved more with broadcasts but I irrationally don’t like hearing a woman’s voice doing PBP/color. It just doesn’t sound right

 

[Ottobot]

The call on the Keller breakaway on Gibson was the first time listening. If that’s her, she’s very bad.

 

[Boud]

I think it's funny that people are bringing this conversation towards a women vs men discussion when the thread has nothing to do with the sex of the person in question. People are saying that her commentary is not good as compared to the standards set by the market and around the league, and they couldn't be more right. Her commentary is bottom of the league compared to other broadcasts and that's fine, we don't need to sugarcoat it, that's also equality. There's also some terrible male broadcasters as well and no one is making it a gender thing when they are criticized. If she was doing great and would get criticized regardless, then absolutely but she's not a good broadcaster period.

The question in professional positions should always be: who's the most qualified person to do this job? Unfortunately in this case I'm pretty sure there are many broadcasters who could do better (women and men). It really has nothing to do with sex. The market sets the standard, not the gender.

If I'm getting surgery I don't want to have the doctor that was chosen because he has a different gender or ethnicity, I want the doctor who will perform the surgery best. Same can be said for pretty much any job.

 

[Pizza!Pizza!]

Bucci is worse, but the ESPN broadcasts are so bad top to bottom I either watch them on mute (with Pandora playing music) or I'll just turn them off. None of these people know or watch hockey and they robotically read off teleprompters and routinely stumble and mispronounce names and words. It's so cringe and unprofessional I can't stand it. f*** ESPN and f*** the NHL for being dumb enough to sign with them.

 

[Stony Curtis]

Earlier this season, I was getting a little frustrated hearing all the mispronunciations and straight-up misidentification of players. Lucas Raymond is 5'11". Michael Rasmussen is 6'6". Hard to confuse them once, let alone all game.

I thought, "I'll turn the sound down and put on the DRW radio broadcast. That'll be great! Shit...there's a delay. Even shittier...the delay is like 15 seconds."

I left it that way in the end because it was easier to listen to, and weirdly made more sense than the ESPN broadcast.

 

[JenniferH]

I was torn when I first heard her, but as the game wore on, I grew to like her. I like her calm style and then when the goals come, her excitement is hype. :shrugs:

 

[93gilmour93]

I was torn when I first heard her, but as the game wore on, I grew to like her. I like her calm style and then when the goals come, her excitement is hype. :shrugs:

 

[moosemeister]

We’ve had to endure a few games with her calling it. The first time I heard her, it was awful, but I wanted to give it another chance because it was new to me and I wasn’t used to it.

after the last game with ESPN she still sucks. She just isn’t very good. She’s getting better. But it still isn’t very good. Hopefully other women can do this in the future. Just not Hextall. Haha

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

I’m so sick of wokeism. Every job should be the best of the best regardless of sex or race. If you’re not good enough to do that job work harder until you are or find something more your level.

I agree but all you have to do is look around the hirings in the NHL to see this is hardly limited to whatever you're defining as "wokeism."

People are regularly hired for criteria other than being the best of the best. Just as people are also overlooked for hirings based on criteria other than their ability to do the job.