Best and Worst Play-By-Play Announcers

BruinsFan1990

Registered User
Mar 29, 2016
2,536
1,457
Winthrop, MA
Never understood the hype around Jeanneret. I find his voice to be incredibly annoying.

Love Doc Emrick. That guy could make water polo exciting to watch.

Edit: Also, there is an announcer in Tampa (either radio or TV) that goes absolutely bananas when someone scores for the Lightning. Can't remember his name.
 

Iceman

Registered User
Jun 9, 2014
10,648
2,042
Never understood the hype around Jeanneret. I find his voice to be incredibly annoying.

Love Doc Emrick. That guy could make water polo exciting to watch.

Edit: Also, there is an announcer in Tampa (either radio or TV) that goes absolutely bananas when someone scores for the Lightning. Can't remember his name.

Dave Mishkin
 

Electricity

Registered User
Aug 22, 2016
829
671
Louisville via St. P
Our radio guy is Dave Mishkin and he's unbearable. Wayyy too homerly. Never gives other teams credit for their good play as it's always something the Bolts did or did not do. Every other team is irrelevant to him. He also screams at the top of his lungs for empty netters in a three-goal win against a bad team. Like, Stanley Cup-winning goal scream.

Our tv guy is Rick Peckham and I really do consider him one of the best play-by-play announcers I've heard for any sport. Very knowledgeable, respectful to opponents, great with his pacing, and he's able to get excited without appearing a total Lightning shill.

Engblom, as Peckham's sidekick has his highs and lows. He can be corny and will try too hard to be pro-Bolts at times but he has good energy and makes quality observations. He also seems like he's legitimately having fun out there and that comes across on screen.
 

MissouriMook

Still just a Mook among men
Sponsor
Jul 4, 2014
7,987
8,471
Top 5
Gord Miller
Jim Jackson
Rick Peckham
John Kelly
Pat Foley

Not a lot of TV guys I dislike, but most of the radio guys are just awful. Chris Kerber (Blues) is great and Dave Mishkin (Bolts) is great until something good happens. The Hawks' radio guy is OK, but he really need to drop the whole "butterfly save" thing. Almost every save these days is a butterfly save. Everyone else is just awful.

The Philly and Detroit radio guys are the worst, especially with their voice-crack goal calls. The SJ guy isn't far behind them because he always sounds like a 1940s newsreel narrator reading the PBP from a script.
 

These Are The Days

Oh no! We suck again!!
May 17, 2014
35,077
21,086
Tampa Bay
Play by play I love Chris Cuthbert, Gary Thorne, and the late Dave Strader. Kenny Albert and Gord Miller are good too. I prefer them to Doc Emrick because he is fully aware of the fact he's a human thesaurus. No mistake, Doc's the best in the business at building tension and anticipation during the game but there's some nights where it seems like challenging himself to use every possible description of how a puck bounces and it just steadily wears me out.

The only play by play I truly disliked was Paul Steigerwald. God forbid ANYONE lays a hand on Crosby for any reason and it's a "cheap shot" and yet a guy like Matt Cooke could kill someone and it would be an "unfortunate play"
 

PuckItUp27

Registered User
Sep 26, 2017
593
750
Worst BY FAR has to be Buffalo (Jeanneret) followed closely by the Rangers (Sam Rosen). It is absolutely painful listening to Sabres and Rangers broadcasts. I have no idea how the fan bases do it.
 

These Are The Days

Oh no! We suck again!!
May 17, 2014
35,077
21,086
Tampa Bay
Our radio guy is Dave Mishkin and he's unbearable. Wayyy too homerly. Never gives other teams credit for their good play as it's always something the Bolts did or did not do. Every other team is irrelevant to him. He also screams at the top of his lungs for empty netters in a three-goal win against a bad team. Like, Stanley Cup-winning goal scream.

Our tv guy is Rick Peckham and I really do consider him one of the best play-by-play announcers I've heard for any sport. Very knowledgeable, respectful to opponents, great with his pacing, and he's able to get excited without appearing a total Lightning shill.

Engblom, as Peckham's sidekick has his highs and lows. He can be corny and will try too hard to be pro-Bolts at times but he has good energy and makes quality observations. He also seems like he's legitimately having fun out there and that comes across on screen.

Eh Mishkin is not that bad. If anything he gets overly critical of the Lightning like a fan does. He's gotten a little better over the years.

Agreed about Peckham though. Easily one of the best in the business and adding Engblom was a great move.
 

These Are The Days

Oh no! We suck again!!
May 17, 2014
35,077
21,086
Tampa Bay
Worst BY FAR has to be Buffalo (Jeanneret) followed closely by the Rangers (Sam Rosen). It is absolutely painful listening to Sabres and Rangers broadcasts. I have no idea how the fan bases do it.

RJ gets a lot of unnecessary flack. Bob Cole makes RJ sound like Gary Thorne.
 

Nalens Oga

Registered User
Jan 5, 2010
16,780
1,054
Canada
The older I've gotten the more I don't like any of them. I wish they'd just do play by play instead of going on random tangents or filling in their opinion. Jim Hughson for example has an excellent voice and good play by play but then he ruins it by constantly interjecting his opinion and going "don't you feel Craig that.....blah blah blah". Shut up, just commentate the friggin game. I enjoy watching British football commentators far more because they don't constantly talk and when they do, it's usually just the play by play.

I occasionally watch old hockey clips and whenever I hear commentating from the 50s or 60s, I wish we had that. I don't expect their voices to sound like Foster Hewitt but how hard is it to just commentate the friggin game with what's happening instead of trying to put your own stupid flavour on it.
 

Sol

Smile
Jun 30, 2017
24,143
20,198
What do people think about Alex Faust? The new Play by Play guy for the Kings.


Jack Edwards is atrocious. His interpretation is so off that you'd think his voice over lapped the wrong feed.

The caps guy has such an annoying voice. God.

Hayward is hilariously bad.

As a Kings fan, I can't stand Jim Fox now. He never seemed to be bad, actually good. But he seems like he's taking shots between commercial breaks and starts to ramble.
 

FlyersFanSinceBirth

Registered User
Jul 1, 2010
489
258
I don't keep up with everyone's names, but....

Worst:
Capitals (hate them)
Penguins (haven't heard the new guys though)
Daneyko (sounds like he has a mouth full of marbles)
Jack Edwards (can't stand his homerism when they play the Flyers)
Jeanneret (can't stand the sound of his voice)
Emrick (absolutely hate the way he calls games and rambles on for 5 minutes about nonsense)
Potvin (acts like he knows absolutely nothing about hockey)
Goring (see above)
Hurricanes (see above)
Flyers (hate the way they praise everything anyone in the Flyers organization does, even when it sucks)

Best:
Blues
Stars
Jack Edwards (I find his homerism hilarious against anyone but the Flyers)
Canucks
Blue Jackets
 

Stelmacki

Registered User
May 2, 2017
1,523
2,012
I'd really recommend the Blues' radio team of Kelly Chase and Chris Kerber. I think they're pretty honest and fun to listen to.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Borderbluesfan

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad