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

[The Flying Octopus]

I was hammmmmered by the start of the game and had to turn it off, she was making me drunker than I thought I was.

 

[tfwnogf]

Think of how stunning and brave it will be when she casts the cup final

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

She's fine. Y'all bitch too much.

She's pure garbage. I find it hilarious personally

 

[Sheppy]

She's fine. Y'all bitch too much.

She’s not fine. She’s awful.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

They’re stuck with her and Kaplan. It’s not worth the backlash to let them go or not renew their contracts. It’s painful to listen to them both. Kaplan in particular seems to be in her element when reporting on stuff off the ice but having to listen to her break down a hockey game or interview players with the most painful questions I’ve ever witnessed is starting to just make me uncomfortable.

On the topic of female’s in hockey, this Pounder girl on TSN appears to be very impressive. She breaks down the game really really well.

 

[TS Quint]

She might be an amazing colleague and her colleagues there see potential. It is not all about what happens online. Some jobs need to be taught in a high-pressure environment.

Some jobs need a lot of practice and logical progression to reach the pinnacle.

 

[TS Quint]

I don’t think she is technically bad, good timing and knowledge . It’s just the high voice. I can usually tune out a bad announcer. But the unfamiliarity of the high voice makes it impossible to ignore.

For me it’s distracting

It’s not like she’s botching calls

It’s more than just her monotone “and then he passes the puck, and then he skates and then he passes the puck, now there’s a turnover…..”. The best play by play announcers are also are like hosts, creating conversations with the color announcer. With Hextall it’s just a pause and an unseen point at Gally (or whoever the color commentator is) so he can talk and not be seen as stepping all over her, then pause and point back to Hextall.

 

[12ozPapa]

Hextall sucks. Period. I don’t care if she is a giraffe, a white man, or a octopus. She sucks.

 

[MuckOG]

The only way to develop is practice. All the greats started somewhere too.

But did they start at the highest level? Or did they cut their teeth in minor hockey first?

 

[Debrincat93]

And when you get them together.... Last night was just painful.... That said I am still waiting on the edge of my seat for the rest of Dom Moores story.

yea its horrendous.

you take on the NHL, you have to start obtaining quality talent to do this shit. TNT IMO is superior. Vibe is better, more fun. Obviously if you hate Biz, you hate Biz. But the vibe is better.

I think everything ESPN has done with the NHL so far looks budgeted. Intermissions could be better, just an awkward vibe. Its the vibe you get when you break up with someone and get back together and then bring them around your family after you talked shit. Its just awkward to me. It feels fake. Lame vibe.

 

[Chips]

They’re stuck with her and Kaplan. It’s not worth the backlash to let them go or not renew their contracts. It’s painful to listen to them both. Kaplan in particular seems to be in her element when reporting on stuff off the ice but having to listen to her break down a hockey game or interview players with the most painful questions I’ve ever witnessed is starting to just make me uncomfortable.

On the topic of female’s in hockey, this Pounder girl on TSN appears to be very impressive. She breaks down the game really really well.

Idk about associating Kaplan with her, she’s not supposed to be a hard hitting journalist lol. She’s gotten better too. I thought a lot more people liked her than Hextall. Her job is basically to be really personable and build a rapport with players so they feel comfortable talking to her in the game. That was a weakness of Pierre, some players clearly didn’t want to talk to him. Doesn’t Kaplan try to learn their languages and say thanks to them in their tongue? Or at least she was doing that at one point.


I didn’t dislike Hextall as the rink side reporter and I think a lot of the harsher critics in here more recently haven’t actually listened to her since last year or the playoffs (understandably).

She’s getting better with the names and pauses. I’m just never going to favor her small and high pitched voice over any louder, fuller or “bigger” voice. She’s not gonna bother me on most regular season games, but I dread the day Kenny Albert (I assume? Edit: I forgot he was TNT) or Sean McDonough get bumped off the SCF


Tho I like those two, particularly Kenny Albert, but I miss Doc. I get how some annoyed by his voice, idk if I specifically liked it (it wasn’t just high pitched, it was pretty distinct no? Idk if that adds something to it for me) or if I just loved his ‘fun grandpa who’s passionate about hockey’ personality w his vocabulary that I was content with it. But his energy, and freaking loud voice added so much intensity to some games (sorry the audio is so compressed or whatever)




I missed Bill Clement as I was young aside from watching some old games and he had both the smooth voice and the personality. Was bummed they didn’t bring him back.


Kenny has more of the booming, great sports voice than anything tho it’s not like he isn’t personably; but fast, large, physical, high intensity anything to me will generally sound better with a more prominent(?) voice.

She’s got the personality, and I really hope that if she’s not calling whatever the last ESPN playoff series is they’ll at least briefly try and expand the main studio crew to include her because honestly I think she’d be great as a primary host, and might have some of the effect on the stale Messier-Chelios combo that Biz had on Gretzky. They desperately need a different voice in basically every sense, especially media savvy

 

[MVP Zacha]

She is nearly as bad as Jack Edwards. It's close but nobody is worse than him.

 

[Mitts]

I assume she was the one that did the call on the Phil Kessel goal? I heard that and thought wow, I'm not going to complain about Cassie Campbell anymore.

 

[PlayersLtd]

Her goal call was delayed cause she was waiting for the goal light. Every announcer does it. Ya'll just hating for no reason at this point. If she screamed GOAL and it was a crossbar, you'd be posting that highlight too.
Her calls on the full game highlight are just fine. the color commentator sounds like he's never talked before in his life, though.

I find it funny that some people still don't understand the goal light. It means nothing. It has no bearing on the game, the goal, the refs, anything....

The goal light is controlled by an 80 year volunteer and is activated for the in stadium fans only, and tradition. This isn't 1955 where that old man is actually entrusted to make a determination on whether the puck crossed the line. It means nothing.

 

[Bmessy]

I find it funny that some people still don't understand the goal light. It means nothing. It has no bearing on the game, the goal, the refs, anything....

The goal light is controlled by an 80 year volunteer and is activated for the in stadium fans only, and tradition. This isn't 1955 where that old man is actually entrusted to make a determination on whether the puck crossed the line. It means nothing.

When someone 7 floors up doesn't see the puck go in, it's a good indicator. Its not a coincidence she yells goal as the light comes on

 

[Andrei79]

They’re stuck with her and Kaplan. It’s not worth the backlash to let them go or not renew their contracts. It’s painful to listen to them both. Kaplan in particular seems to be in her element when reporting on stuff off the ice but having to listen to her break down a hockey game or interview players with the most painful questions I’ve ever witnessed is starting to just make me uncomfortable.

On the topic of female’s in hockey, this Pounder girl on TSN appears to be very impressive. She breaks down the game really really well.

Pounder is an actual elite hockey player though who won two gold medals.

 

[hockeyfan666]

Pounder is an actual elite hockey player though who won two gold medals.

Is she a former NHL player?

No, then why do they hire her to talk about NHL hockey?

Female commentators and digital ads on the screen. They really do all they can to drive people away from this league.

 

[Hotep Numminen]

Is she a former NHL player?

No, then why do they hire her to talk about NHL hockey?

Female commentators and digital ads on the screen. They really do all they can to drive people away from this league.

some of the most successful coaches working right now never played in the nhl. so why can't someone be paid to talk on the tv? seems like coaching would be harder

 

[MXD]

some of the most successful coaches working right now never played in the nhl. so why can't someone be paid to talk on the tv? seems like coaching would be harder

And there have been very good "color" broadcasters too who never played NHL hockey either. I don't know why it starts being a problem here with Cheryl Pounder, especially as she'd doing a pretty good job (actually I do).

 

[hockeyfan666]

some of the most successful coaches working right now never played in the nhl. so why can't someone be paid to talk on the tv? seems like coaching would be harder

Because you can't hear the coaches talking to you for 2 hours nonstop with an annoying high pitched voice.

Do you understand that

 

[Stony Curtis]

What market are the even trying to pull in with Hextall? Insomniacs?

The hearing-impaired?

 

[hockeyfan666]

north american sports have turned into garbage these last 5 to 10 years.

it's all about advertising and commentators that talk nonstop over the game you are trying to enjoy, making themselves the focal point of the broadcasts
-
rink only audio option would fix one part of the problem.

they once had that on mlb.tv...... but for some reason that is not available anymore

 

[Mav3rick07]

I'm all about equality but when a broadcasters voice sounds like nails on a chalk board, I don't think it's a good fit.

 

[Stony Curtis]

I get that it's subjective, but listening to some of these arguments is like listening to someone repeatedly trying to convince me that the tofu salmon tastes just like the real thing.

 

[bleedblue94]

Un-listen-able

It isn't even the pitch/tone of her voice. It is her knowledge and ability to convey that knowledge. There is no flow to her call. For decades pbp anchors have talked about knowing the flow and such to provide a good presentation to the fans watching or listening. National broadcasts are not the place to learn that skill and her lack of knowledge of the rules has been exposed multiple times now.

I never thought I would see someone trying to be pierre mcguire and possibly be worse than pierre. At least pierre knew the rules of the sport, he know how the puck out of play rule works. Here calls are like listening to a podcast in bluetooth that is just out of range and the audio suddenly kicks in every so often with some sporadic sounds. It is the audio equivalent of epilepsy.

It has NOTHING to do with the fact she is a woman, NOTHING. There are so many other women out there doing work in broadcasting or calling games that could step into this and do a better job.