The podcast is available anywhere you can get podcasts, not just in those two places. I get it via my preferred podcasts app, Pocket Casts (available on both Android and iOS).
I listen to it every day, and it's nice, trying to pay balanced attention to all the teams. (Unlike, say, the annoying no. 1 Canadian hockey podcast,
Hockey Central at Noon, which is, in reality, just a glorified Maple Leafs podcast, although it pretends to cover the entire NHL. I'm stunned that Canadians tolerate such blatant Toronto-centrism. There's lots of backlash here in Slovakia against Bratislava-centrism – and that backlash, not attendance concerns, is the main reason why Slovakia has been placed in the Košice group in this year's tournament, and such in-your-face, unabashed Toronto-centrism, as seems to be standard in Canada, would never be tolerated in Slovakia in relation to Bratislava.)
The British podcast host, James Richardson, is a pretty funny guy, and he's made me laugh out loud quite a few times with his remarks, exemplifying typical British humour. He struggles with the correct pronunciation of
Košice every day but, actually, frequently gets it right. I listen to podcasts via earphones while walking down the street, so my bursting out laughing may have raised some eyebrows in passers-by. I don't think all the guests always get Richardson's jokes, even when they're native English speakers. The other day, Richardson asked a Canadian lady journalist, "Do you think they'll be able to deposit their Czechs in the game tomorrow?", and that seems to have passed her by, but I don't blame her – I barely caught the joke myself.
On the other hand, what annoys me is the praise James Richardson keeps lavishing on the IIHF app ("fabulous, superb, excellent"...), highlights from the tournament, etc. I know he's probably contractually obligated to do so (most of us are expected to fawn to our employers), but it's still annoying.
The IIHF goal highlights are outrageously bad. Just 10-second snippets, you can barely enjoy the goal, no replay, etc. Or, vice versa: one of the amazing Kaapo Kakko goals was posted only as slow-motion replay, no live action. That's pitiful. IIHF should look at NHL.com to learn how to produce goal highlights: live action of the goal (including full post-goal celebrations!),
multiple replays, etc. Each NHL goal typically gets a 90-second highlight or so, not just the meagre 10 seconds.
Also, the IIHF tournament website is an abomination, but there, NHL.com is no better. Atrocious web design, difficult to navigate, lacking crucial data, ugly oversized fonts everywhere (as if all hockey fans were shortsighted) – a disaster. If you wish to get any meaningful stats (such as who was in goal in the game!), you need to avoid the tournament website, head over to
2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship instead, and download awkward, difficult-to-parse PDF files there. Overall, a terrible situation.
So, if James Richardson and the podcast crew cannot criticize how awful the IIHF goal highlights and tournament website really are, I'd welcome if they at least stopped heaping such undeserved praise on them.
