TSN: John Bartlett returns to Sportsnet to call Leafs games. Brian Mudryk named replacement

[Runner77]

Roberson is vastly superior to Bartlett. Bartlett sounds like the saleman for Leon Furniture on the radio and always sounds like his has a ball of phlegm in his throat. He also doesn't handle action very well. On the Habs 20,000th goal....I swear his call was:
"Gionta with the puck...a scramble...beckapackawacka...becak...becka...pecka....SCORES!
Garbage call on a historic goal...and no, I can't find a clip of it.

Robertson has a soothing delivery, I never get tired of his calls. I'm surprised he hasn't been snatched by a bigger outfit yet.

 

[Kimota]

I think it speaks volumes about the talent drain that has occurred in Quebec over the last 4 decades when the Habs have an opening for a play-by-play man and they have to get a guy from Saskatchewan (or in Robertson's case, the Maritimes) to do it because there's no one good enough in Montreal (and yes, I realize that Danny Gallivan was originally from Nova Scotia and that Irvin was technically born in Saskatchewan)

But think about it. The English radio talent in Montreal (in all formats, not just sports) is lower than it's ever been since radio was invented. Think about guys like Gallivan, or Dave Van Horne or Dick Irvin or even Glenn Cole who used to do Habs games on the radio, or Elliot Price or even the disgraced Dino Sisto. For that matter think about George Balkan or Ted Tevan or Terry DiMonte. And now think of who's there now, like Rick Moffatt or Mitch Gallo or Sean Campbell or friggin' Marinaro. What a pathetic bunch of lightweights we're stuck with now. On the Montreal airways today (in English at least) you've got Melnick and.....nothing.

There are good guys all over including in Montreal, you just have to look. Sportsnet are one of the laziest companies around. For instance, they got their huge costly TV deal and did not even bother to do a thorough talent seach to get the best. They tried to get a few known guys and when they could not attract them, they went with the leftovers. Another thing that piss me more for example is to have retired players that never played for a team act as color for that team. Exception being guys like Denis Potvin covering the Panthers because there's that Bill Torey connection. But Goddamn Dave Poulin or Gary Galley, you mean to tell me they could not find one ex-Hab that could have done the job? They already have Johnson, stick with him and add another.

There's this guy that used to do the sport news on CTV in Montreal that has a great voice and I think he is doing some stuff for TSN now, he does some Football games for thema few times. He would be perfect for the Habs PBP.

 

[Tighthead]

Robertson has a soothing delivery, I never get tired of his calls. I'm surprised he hasn't been snatched by a bigger outfit yet.

Robertson sat in with Melnick for a week or two this summer and he was great talking hockey, General sports, music etc. Really smooth.

 

[JianYang]

I've never heard of the guy before. Where did he do games in the past?

I've never heard him calling any games. I just know him as one of the sportscentre anchors.

 

[Gainesvillain]

Shouldn't someone update the thread title?

 

[hotcarle]

Both Bartlett and Robertson were both good on radio/tv.....especially after the Moffat.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

Mudryk was great
I like his voice

 

[thewall]

I really like Mudryk. He's way more entertaining then Bartlett.

 

[TT1]

Yea he's more like-able than Bartlett. Mudryk shows genuine emotion which is fun, Bartlett is way more robotic.

 

[OldCraig71]

I really like Mudryk. He's way more entertaining then Bartlett.

JB made me cringe, it was the over pronunciations that drove me crazy. Mudryk has some emotion and he is getting better by the game.

 

[DangerDave]

Mudryk and Mike Johnsson is a really good combo. Johnsson really knows the game while Mudryk is dead on with his calls and adds the right amount of excitement.

 

[Habs]

Mudryk and Mike Johnsson is a really good combo. Johnsson really knows the game while Mudryk is dead on with his calls and adds the right amount of excitement.

Johnsson is irritating for me, but I can see why people like him.

 

[DangerDave]

Johnsson is irritating for me, but I can see why people like him.

Maybe it's just cause Gary Galley is so bad

 

[Habs]

Maybe it's just cause Gary Galley is so bad

Thank you for saying that, I detest every word out of his irritating mouth. Ruins the entire experience for me. How does that putz still have a job?

 

[knuck]

I've been watching hockey for over 20 years and Mike Johnson is by far the best color guy i've ever heard. I really really like him.
We finally have a great duo with Mudryk and Johnson which makes me wish all the games were on TSN. How sweet would that be

 

[thewall]

Mudryk likes to say " of the bar " in reference to a shot of the post or even of the side of the net.

 

[donghabs98]

Thank you for saying that, I detest every word out of his irritating mouth. Ruins the entire experience for me. How does that putz still have a job?

Sports broadcasting is very much an old boys club i find. Just look at how long Glenn Healy or Cox lasted. Considering the number of hockey players who have retired over the last few years along with good local talent you would think TSN and SN would tap into that. I guarantee you that Mike Weaver has a more relevant point of view than Gary Galley when it comes to how defenseman should play in today's game.

 

[DangerDave]

Sports broadcasting is very much an old boys club i find. Just look at how long Glenn Healy or Cox lasted. Considering the number of hockey players who have retired over the last few years along with good local talent you would think TSN and SN would tap into that. I guarantee you that Mike Weaver has a more relevant point of view than Gary Galley when it comes to how defenseman should play in today's game.

Omg Glen Healy haha. He was the absolute worst. My buddies dad would refuse to watch the game if he was on.

Gotta say we are quite spoiled right now with our current lineup of broadcasters. I like the idea of having Weaver though. Really likeable guy.

 

[Habs]

Sports broadcasting is very much an old boys club i find. Just look at how long Glenn Healy or Cox lasted. Considering the number of hockey players who have retired over the last few years along with good local talent you would think TSN and SN would tap into that. I guarantee you that Mike Weaver has a more relevant point of view than Gary Galley when it comes to how defenseman should play in today's game.

I waited 3 decades for Harry Neale to retire from the CBC.

 

[danderson400]

Even back in the 70's I knew I was being spoiled listening to Danny Gallivan. He was always in a class by himself. He was better than Foster Hewitt, a man with the type of irritating voice that, ironically, could never get hired to broadcast anything today if he were around. He coined a lot of the phrases used by all hockey announcers, but aside from the lexicon, his claim to fame is that he was the first. Other than that, he wasn't much fun to listen to. My only true exposure to him was when he did the 72 Summit Series and I found the way he pronounced Yvan Cournoyer's name to be really annoying (Cor-NWHY-yay) His son Bill, who did the Leafs games in the 70's, was equally bad. With him, Rejean Houle's name was one word "Rayjenoole". Both father and son had that nasal, whiny vocal style that, I guess, was popular on radio in the 1930's but which I found hard to listen to.

Aside from them, there was Ted Darling, ex of HNIC, who did the Sabres games on Channel 2 out of Buffalo. He rambled like an auctioneer while doing play-by-play. Then there was Dan Kelly, who had a booming voice. He was right up there with Gallivan but he didn't have Danny's vocabulary (no one did) Jim Robson is a secular god here in BC but back in the 70's you would have had to live on the west coast to hear him much. But he was pretty good and he got to do the 1980 Cup finals between the Isles and Flyers. He called Nystrom's Cup-winning goal in overtime. Back then, Bob Cole mostly did radio (CBC used to air games on radio into the 70's) and got the occasional gig on TV, mostly during the playoffs or when one of the regular guys was off. Kelly's "day job" was calling Blues games on KMOX in St. Louis plus other TV work in the States so he wasn't always available for HNIC.

It's fair to say that lightweights like Gord Miller, Jay Randorf and Jim Hughson would have been hard-pressed to find work in broadcasting back then.

Who was Robson's sidekick on TV then? Bill Good Jr? Ted Reynolds?