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

[Kevin27NYI]

I’ll be watching the third muted, she’s f***ing awful

 

[Devils090]

Nobody and I mean nobody is going to sit through her banshee voice, but ya know grow the game and all that jazz

 

[TheFerenceWheel]

I just heard this for the first time watching Islanders/Kraken. Good god absolutely atrocious.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

You guys are just proving my point that she is judged harshly because she is female. People are exaggerating how bad she is.

Name one good female announcer in your eyes. I'll wait...

You are just projecting when you say ''female''.

When all you read here most of the time is '' she's out of touch with her description '' and lacking critical informations during the game.

 

[Derailed75]

You guys are just proving my point that she is judged harshly because she is female. People are exaggerating how bad she is.

Name one good female announcer in your eyes. I'll wait...

AJ Melzko is not the greatest but 100 times better then Hextall which is why there is no thread complaining about her. Also IDK how she would do on PBP but I like listening to Hillary Knight when she's done studio work.

Hextall sucks at her job that why she gets bashed.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I find the Leah Hextall thing ridiculously easy to summarize.

- She is utterly brutal at her job.
- A lot of the criticism towards her is amplified due to her gender. You'd have to be really obtuse not to see that. Especially in the current climate.
- She should not be held as an example of inclusivity.

 

[Devils090]

I’ll never get over her calling Tatar as “Novak” for an entire game.

 

[Kevinsane]

As a Canadian I had never heard her until tonight, as Sportsnet is carrying an ESPN feed.
She is awful. Awful. She has a voice made for print, and can’t keep up with the play.
Her gender is irrelevant. She’s unqualified to even be live streaming floor hockey intramurals from a middle school, because that voice is torture.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Same as if you took someone who can't skate and put them on an nhl team. They'll get better, but still absolutely no right to be there.

Peter Worrell is reading this and just shed a tear lol

 

[Kevin27NYI]

I don’t get how she was qualified in the first place, but then gets to return?

 

[Seattle King]

I hate ESPN. They put this individual on practically every west coast game. I have resorted to muting the TV while I watch games that this individual is calling.
The voice is not pleasant. It becomes annoying after two or three minutes.
Nepotism is bad for everyone. It leads people to do things that they are not qualified to do and their incompetence becomes everyone's loss.

 

[JayDog16]

First time hearing her tonight also. She's awful. I couldn't believe how bad she was. Complete amateur doing the play-by-play for a major network representing the NHL. I don't care what your gender is. Sometimes you just suck and you're unqualified.

 

[ozzie]

I have to admit, I caught a game the other day and she was doing the play by play. I was a bit stunned, without knowing who she was, at first. Then once I heard the name I was like 'She's the one people keep talking about, surely she can't be that bad'. She was everything people around here have billed her as.

I wasn't impressed, a lot of mistakes and dead air, poor play by play. Having said that, the only way she will get better is to keep trying. But maybe the NHL isn't the right level for her, unless her bosses are happy for her to get experience and get better.

Hockey is full of under qualified people doing jobs they shouldn't be doing like coaches, general managers, play by play announcers and media personalities.

 

[RangerBoy]

As a Canadian I had never heard her until tonight, as Sportsnet is carrying an ESPN feed.
She is awful. Awful. She has a voice made for print, and can’t keep up with the play.
Her gender is irrelevant. She’s unqualified to even be live streaming floor hockey intramurals from a middle school, because that voice is torture.

This is the 2nd year for ESPN. Hextall hasn't improved at all. You want to give her the benefit of the doubt for not doing play by play. She is not suited to call games.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

You guys are just proving my point that she is judged harshly because she is female. People are exaggerating how bad she is.

Name one good female announcer in your eyes. I'll wait...

With TSN Kenzie Lalonde is being brought along as the PBP for most of their female hockey and while she is young, she is already 5x the PBP that Hextall is. But she has also put in the work started at the local TV level and been grinding to earn her time unlike Hextall who got her spot based off nepotism. Leah Hextall is awful and saying she is awful isn't hating women and all women aren't inherently bad at PBP but she is.

 

[The S5]

If we are being honest, this is about quotas. ESPN/NHL wants to attract female viewers and they think putting unqualified women in broadcasting positions will do this. They are wrong.
You can't tell me there are 1000 men hoping to break into broadcasting that would be more qualified and better at their jobs. This is what we now call equity.

 

[JianYang]

You guys are just proving my point that she is judged harshly because she is female. People are exaggerating how bad she is.

Name one good female announcer in your eyes. I'll wait...

HF thinks most of everything is bad in life so that's not much of a metric that you present.

If this was purely a woman thing, then we would see a thread for every woman announcer in the game today about how they are the worst. However, the only thread that seems to have any traction to slam a woman broadcaster is hextall.

In this case, I think the prevailing opinion here is simply that she is bad, man or woman.

 

[hi]

She is a horrible play by play announcer. I also think that Doc Emrick is a horrible play by play announcer. Not surprised to learn that Doc is one of the people that pushed Leah Hextall to become an announcer in the first place.

 

[SI90]

Damn people are ruthless lol

 

[CN8]

Damn people are ruthless lol

I can’t help it
That was hilarious

 

[Duffy13]

I haven't tried to listen to her in a bit now, but I stopped after a couple of games due to the following reasons

She's too jarring, she is only describing exactly what our eyes are seeing with very short bursts of commentary, absolutely no flow at all.
She seems to be so focused on following and describing what the puck is doing that she often doesn't know who is controlling the puck.
A great hockey announcer has a natural feel for when the moment of play is important and when the story is important, and the natural flow between informing us of this player and their accomplishments or upcoming accomplishments and letting us know, and snapping back because the game has ramped up and they are the conduit into pulling us into the screen. She doesn't do this, imagine Hextall doing play by play for Ovechkins record breaking goal. I don't believe that she has the ability, YET, to weave the play and the accomplishment.

She is somehow in the NHL calling games, when she should be at a college level, or minor level getting the feel for how to do what she wants to do. I have no doubt that she will improve and get a lot better. however I feel like up to this point her current commentary, is going to make it harder for fans to accept when she is doing a capable job, just due to the history of her not doing a very good job now.

 

[57special]

Marni Gellner is a local lady who calls WNBA, and some spring training games. She is a complete pro, very prepared, and vg with interviews, and interacting with the color people. She also has a pleasing, strong, relaxed voice that is easy to listen, to, which is kind of an important qualification for a PbP job, when you aren't seen for 99% of the time. Hockey isn't her sport, but i bet she could do with it with the proper prep.

Hextall, has a poor, weak voice, and has trouble keeping up with the play. She sounds amateurish. ESPN's decision to hire her, then bring her back, is also amateurish.

 

[93gilmour93]

 

[cliffclaven]

She is awful. Girlfriend and I were watching a sharks game Leah was calling and my girl said “god she is terrible, who is that?”.

Any game she is calling I will mute or try to find a different feed. ESPN sucks in general and she fits right in.

 

[kylbaz]

First time hearing her tonight also. She's awful. I couldn't believe how bad she was. Complete amateur doing the play-by-play for a major network representing the NHL. I don't care what your gender is. Sometimes you just suck and you're unqualified.

Now try and understand she's being doing this for what, two, three years now? And people are saying she's improving. Imagine what the previous years were like.