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

[The Merchant]

Once you realize its literally only HF nerds and eternally grumpy twitter warriors that complain about her, you'll realize shes not bad at all and its all in your head.

She is actually f***ing awful. Her best commentary last night consisted of believing a puck into the bench should warrant a delay of game penalty. She's awful at what she does and gives the insightful, knowledgeable women in the sport a bad look by being nothing but a nepotism hire on the main stage.

 

[Dr Pepper]

Still easier on the ears than Mishkin.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

I didn’t think she was good at PbP at all, but looking at some of these comments, it’s almost like there are people who genuinely seem to dislike her as a person. However that happened.

I think the rinkside role is fine for her skill set.

 

[johan f]

Once you realize its literally only HF nerds and eternally grumpy twitter warriors that complain about her, you'll realize shes not bad at all and its all in your head.

That is not true. Even people not into hockey can hear she does not ”have it” to commentate.

 

[Holymakinaw]

Somehow Leah hextall is on the air again for games as ESPN has her at ice level for the knights kings game tonight.

I cannot believe how awful she still is after a summer to reflect on the damage she did to the eardrums of audiences last playoffs.

Why/how did ESPN make the decision to keep exposing fans to her random "contributions" to these broadcasts??

Good. I hope she gets tons of air-time.

 

[cowboy82nd]

We need to have a game with no commentary. Just the angry rumblings of fans and refs telling the players to f*** off

Switch off the volume.

 

[Bowski]

I like her analyses.

Problem?

 

[PaulD]

Maybe I am suffering from Stockholm syndrome but I am happy that she is not announcing the game. She can't hurt us between the benches.
She's reduced to a Jar Jar Binks level of annoyance.

Between the benches is a good place for her.
Unlike Cassie Campbell ..... yikes. Will she be ruining Flames live coverage again this season?

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Don’t think I’ve ever gave a shit who announced a hockey game. I’m usually paying attention to the game, not commentators.

 

[Evergreen]

Honestly I was never really bothered by her calls and I wouldn't have minded if she had continued to do the PBP. I only watched the first period of the LA/Vegas game last night, but I barely noticed her. I only recall her speaking when Grundstrom's stick ended up in her booth between the benches.

 

[Devils090]

Once you realize its literally only HF nerds and eternally grumpy twitter warriors that complain about her, you'll realize shes not bad at all and its all in your head.

Hope she see this

Hextall is horrible

 

[al secord]

Oh thank god! I was running out of people to whine about.

 

[RickyLafleur]

She must be doing something right, two out of the top 10 threads as of this post are of her.
So I'll post a link for more info so you guys can have hawt dreams.

Leah Hextall Age, Father, Dad, Wikipedia, Married, Husband, Bio Now

Leah Hextall No confirmed information is available on the year she was born. No confirmed information is available. Introduction : Born into a professional hockey-playing family soon lead Leah Hextall to become a sports reporter. An experienced NESN and ESPN reporter, Leah now lives in Toronto...

www.marathi.tv

Just because people are talking about you, doesn't mean it's for a good reason. See: Kanye West, Elon Musk, etc.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

how can she be that bad just for throwing dumb random "contributions"?
some of the teams around the NHL have the most boring monotone voices that put people to sleep for commentators.
shes not great but shit it could be worse

 

[Rcknrollkillnmachine]

The day we can mute commentary on a hockey commentator and only hear the players and the fans will be a glorious one.

 

[DeadGhost]

Watching her learn the puck-over-glass rule in real time was interesting.

 

[haulinbass]

Once you realize its literally only HF nerds and eternally grumpy twitter warriors that complain about her, you'll realize shes not bad at all and its all in your head.

Yeah that must be it... Even my wife had some pretty negative comments when she heard her for the first time. She just started watching hockey last year and could easily identify that this person did not sound like they belonged there.

This broadcaster doesn't diserve the role and she should not retain it simply because she is female. Being female doesn't mean you can suck and be protected in your role. We have let things like this go to far.

If she was good at her job, not to many people would have issues.

We now have to many guys trying to pretend they are real men by overcompensating for females. The reality is that you are just a fool.

 

[BonMorrison]

After seeing her post last season comments about how all the garbage flung her way made her feel meanwhile the thread here was at like 432904 pages was pretty rough. I see it's already at 4 this season lmao.

 

[HBK27]

Better than calling the games. I'll take it.

Except she's still calling games this year as well, starting with tomorrow night's Stars-Preds game.

Don’t think I’ve ever gave a shit who announced a hockey game. I’m usually paying attention to the game, not commentators.

Most people pay attention to both. It's not that difficult.

 

[Mach2]

Typically, the TV person between the benches has some amount of on-ice hockey experience/credentials. If Hextall believes that a puck landing in the team bench area gets a delay of game penalty, then she has no business working at the NHL level.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

The day we can mute commentary on a hockey commentator and only hear the players and the fans will be a glorious one.

Not sure if this also goes for streaming feeds, but if you have stereo speakers hooked up to your TV, you can usually isolate the different audio channels. I learned this by accident years ago when I disconnected a couple of wires and was suddenly only hearing the game sounds and no commentary.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

Typically, the TV person between the benches has some amount of on-ice hockey experience/credentials. If Hextall believes that a puck landing in the team bench area gets a delay of game penalty, then she has no business working at the NHL level.

So this may have been my biggest issue with her doing PbP. She would run into these moments where she clearly didn’t understand why the play stopped and would then make a call (“play blown dead for offside”) which was completely wrong.

Either just say “play has stopped” or even that you’re not sure why the whistle blew. Making up a reason and/or just not knowing the rule book as in the case you just pointed out is amateur.

Anyways, overall I really have zero issue with her between the benches. She certainly is articulate and I do believe she likes the game. But being thrust into these big roles with lack of experience shows and she isn’t the only one who struggles with this on ESPN (see Chelios, Chris).

 

[Ezekial]

She's fine in this role, just just keep her away from play by play.

 

[jfhabs]

Surprising she got a job back after the comments she made... I couldn't care less since ESPN isn't broadcasting my team, but the job is probably not for her if she has so much difficulty dealing with social media shit and criticism

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

All hockey broadcasting is bad. Just get rid of play by play.