Best and Worst Play-By-Play Announcers

[guzzy]

For the flames

TV - Rick Ball is awesome
Radio - Derek Wills is terrible (Peter Maher was the best ever,cheap assed sportsnet forced him to retire)

I agree on Wills but Loubardias still makes it worth listening. Feel bad for Wills because nobody was good enough to replace Maher.

Ball is also awesome. Being my mid 40’s I love the dad jokes between him and Hrudey.

 

[Vinegar Strokes]

I thought I was watching some promotional Nickelodeon feed last night with Leah Hextall. That was the worst PxP I’ve ever heard in my life.

 

[Cucumber]

Ahlers is AHL quality

Thought it would be interesting to see your thoughts on this. I'll start it off:

Best: Kevin Quinn (Oilers - I might be a little biased)
John Kelly (St.Louis Blues)

Worst: John Ahlers (Anaheim Ducks - Just so dull and boring)

 

[ToDavid]

I always forget but it's either the Islanders or Caps announcer. He's actually a great broadcaster but his voice is so nasally and I can't stand it.

Love Ferraro.

 

[snipes]

Singh is absolutely horrendous.

His limited vocabulary and voice inflections are grating. He lacks some fundamental understandings about the sport as well. He is passionate and clearly loves hockey which I respect but man he’s terrible.

 

[Mobiandi]

Boston is the best or near the top. Colorado's crew is easily the worst

 

[hoglund]

Rick Jeanette and Joe Bowen are the best.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

The Vegas pbp sucks so much

 

[PlayersLtd]

Tonight was Leah Hextal calling the Ducks Wild game.
By far the single worst PbP job I have ever heard. It was muted within seconds but I had to unmute every once in awhile because I thought just maybe they had a promo or some thug gong on where they had a contest where they let a random person from the crowd call the game for a couple minutes or something like that, and that the normal announcer would be back ….. nope.
She was actually hired and the official PbP person.
The worst goal calls I have ever heard in my life.

Saw the thread and instantly knew it was bumped because of Hextall. I never knew how much energy bad PBP could sap from the game until last night.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

The sidekick of the Devils announcer. Sounds cartoonish, like someone from the Simpsons or Family Guy.

That’s Ken Daneyko. He’s such a buffoon and terrible at color but I like him anyway, something endearing about him. Their pbp guy Steve Cangialosi his horrible to listen to though. He’s better at soccer.

 

[Dr Black]

Tonight was Leah Hextal calling the Ducks Wild game.
By far the single worst PbP job I have ever heard. It was muted within seconds but I had to unmute every once in awhile because I thought just maybe they had a promo or some thug gong on where they had a contest where they let a random person from the crowd call the game for a couple minutes or something like that, and that the normal announcer would be back ….. nope.
She was actually hired and the official PbP person.
The worst goal calls I have ever heard in my life.

This is a perfect example of why you ALWAYS hire based on talent and NEVER hire based on race or in THIS CASE, gender.

 

[Beerfish]

A few decent guys but no one touches some of the old time guys like Danny Gallivan, foster hewwit and being an oiler fan Rod phillips was a treasure.

 

[snowave]

Leah seemed to improve with the actual calling of the game as it went on, but her voice... ruined it. You just can't have that kinda voice announcing a hockey game... golf, maybe.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Best? Isles and Caps

Worst? Devils and Bruins

Butch Goring? Nope.

 

[dukeofjive]

Anybody on the TVA feed for the habs, there easily the worst, they make up news words every game. Lucky most of you dont have to watch games with those clowns.

 

[MS]

Boston is the best or near the top. Colorado's crew is easily the worst

Boston is horrific.

Edwards is such a waste because he has the voice and technical play-calling skills to be excellent but he’s basically a WWE announcer just inventing what’s happening on the ice rather than describing what’s actually occurring. The game he’s describing is a Bruin fantasy that isn’t actually happening.

 

[bandwagonesque]

Jack Edwards is the worst I've heard, although I haven't listened to every play-by-play voice in the league. As has been mentioned, you watch the game he's calling, listen to what he says about it and think: this person is insane. He's like the guy you sit beside on a cross-country Greyhound who seems reasonable at first but gets scary once he thinks he has a rapport with you. There was one play where a Bruins play fairly recklessly injured an opposing player, and Edwards in all seriousness said something to the effect that the play and its result was evidence the injured player and his teammates were part of some sort of anti-Bruins conspiracy.

 

[Guardian452]

Singh is absolutely horrendous.

His limited vocubulary and voice inflections are grating. He lacks some fundamental understandings about the sport as well. He is passionate and clearly loves hockey which I respect but man he’s terrible.

Unfortunately, it looks like we might be stuck with him for the second games of Wednesday Night Hockey and HNIC double headers.

 

[ManWithNoName]

That is Devils legend Ken Daneyko. A monster of a man who is an absolute sweetheart of a man. Always makes time for the fans, very grateful for his role with the Devils.

Thanks! I knew him as a player, just didn’t know he was still affiliated with the Devils. And probably never heard him do an interview so didn’t recognize the voice either.

Nice to hear that he’s still close to the Devils. IIRC he was quite a bad ass so I understand he’s appreciated by the fans.

 

[LemmyUlanov55]

Was watching last nights game highlights this morning and almost had a stroke when I heard the ANA - MIN announcer. There's a difference between personal preferences and having a voice not suited for TV work, this case seems like the latter..

 

[ManWithNoName]

That’s Ken Daneyko. He’s such a buffoon and terrible at color but I like him anyway, something endearing about him. Their pbp guy Steve Cangialosi his horrible to listen to though. He’s better at soccer.

At first I thought his voice wasn’t ideal for tv, but knowing now that it’s Daneyko completely changes that. Great for the Devils fans.

 

[I Hate Philadelphia]

The female announcer for Ducks/Wild last night was by far the absolute worst I had ever heard in my life. She sounded like she was about to fall asleep, had no idea what was going on and referred to Minnesota as the "Wilds" at least 20 times.

 

[Castle8130]

I threw the Ducks game on to watch with my girlfriend last night and 1 minute into the game she say's "This announcer is terrible" (referring to Hextall). She continued to make remarks throughout the night about how bad she was. I'm not one to notice if a commentator is bad and have never heard her complain about a commentator like this before (we watch a lot of NFL and NHL together) so I looked up comment sections related to this game, and they are filled with people bashing this announcer.

I had no opinion of her as a commentator at all, but it's funny to see that my girlfriends remarks are supported by a lot of people on these message boards

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Boston is horrific.

Edwards is such a waste because he has the voice and technical play-calling skills to be excellent but he’s basically a WWE announcer just inventing what’s happening on the ice rather than describing what’s actually occurring. The game he’s describing is a Bruin fantasy that isn’t actually happening.

Jack Edwards is the worst I've heard, although I haven't listened to every play-by-play voice in the league. As has been mentioned, you watch the game he's calling, listen to what he says about it and think: this person is insane. He's like the guy you sit beside on a cross-country Greyhound who seems reasonable at first but gets scary once he thinks he has a rapport with you. There was one play where a Bruins play fairly recklessly injured an opposing player, and Edwards in all seriousness said something to the effect that the play and its result was evidence the injured player and his teammates were part of some sort of anti-Bruins conspiracy.

These are code for "I've seen clips of him commentating fights and extrapolate that to his entire commentating repertoire"
And that's coming from a Habs fan

 

[RustyCat]

Jets 1.0 had Curt Keilback on the radio and that guy made every game outright exciting to listen to.

Mike Johnson & Ray Ferraro are great to listen to as well.