Confirmed with Link: Mears and Errey fired

[Allie Kitsune]

If anything, Potash was the guy I hated most on Pens broadcasts.

That kind of goofy, corny persona always comes off as really artificial and fake to me.

 

[Factorial]

If anything, Potash was the guy I hated most on Pens broadcasts.

That kind of goofy, corny persona always comes off as really artificial and fake to me.

The kids on reddit seem to love him so he does have his fans.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I don't mind potash.

 

[Kristopher Letang]

I don't know if anyone posted this already, but The Athletic did a survey back in May of over 8,000 fans ranking each broadcast team. We finished 27th out of 32.

"For our methodology, we asked fans to rate their favorite team’s broadcast on a scale from one to five. Fans were also invited to rate as many other broadcasts as they wished on the same simple scale.

We then averaged out those results for local and national scores, and teams were assigned a national and local rank, which was averaged out for our composite score. This was far from scientific, and some teams had higher representation than others, but in the end, the results provide a snapshot of how fans across the league view and rate those calling the games."

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You know it’s bad when people think that Colby Armstrong is good. Pens fans are really used to shitty broadcasts.

I hope FSG get it right.

 

[Ogrezilla]

The kids on reddit seem to love him so he does have his fans.

I'm 37 and also love Potash

 

[Factorial]

I'm 37 and also love Potash

I don't mind him.

 

[Al Smith]

I don't mind him.

I'm pretty indifferent about him, but I'd be happier if they switched formats to showing highlights of past Pen victories or the latest WWE sagas between periods.

 

[LOGiK]

If anything, Potash was the guy I hated most on Pens broadcasts.

That kind of goofy, corny persona always comes off as really artificial and fake to me.

Of course it's fake! He's playing a role he's hired to play.
He may be charismatic as most people on television are, but once the camera's are off, they are just another person.

 

[metalan2]

Of course it's fake! He's playing a role he's hired to play.
He may be charismatic as most people on television are, but once the camera's are off, they are just another person.

You think Potash is charismatic? He is whatever the opposite is. That's why I like him, he tries hard.

 

[FlightlessBird]

I don’t think I’ve heard Hextall enough to know why she’s hated. Is she worse than Pierre?

Hot take: Edwards is good. He knows the game, the opposing players, has a good voice. Now when there’s a fight somehow the Bruin is always winning and the Bruins don’t take penalties and the refs miss a lot of penalties on the opponents. But otherwise he’s good. Brickley is boring.

Don’t know the Caps announcer’ names but they rub me the wrong way.

Edwards is very good when he’s just calling the game. But he sometimes goes off the rails a little too far and ends up getting in trouble. But I think he suffered a stroke before last season or something. He has slow speech, way behind the play, barely calls the game (just says player names basically as the puck gets passed around). It’s really strange, and the only thing that makes sense is a stroke. He seemed to get a tiny bit better/quicker as the season went on, but something is off.

The Caps color guy has the worst voice in the league. So whiny and nasal.

Edit: Just did some googling to see if anything new came out about Edwards and apparently he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Not sure if that would cause his speech issues but…

 

[Factorial]

Edwards is very good when he’s just calling the game. But he sometimes goes off the rails a little too far and ends up getting in trouble. But I think he suffered a stroke before last season or something. He has slow speech, way behind the play, barely calls the game (just says player names basically as the puck gets passed around). It’s really strange, and the only thing that makes sense is a stroke. He seemed to get a tiny bit better/quicker as the season went on, but something is off.

The Caps color guy has the worst voice in the league. So whiny and nasal.

Edit: Just did some googling to see if anything new came out about Edwards and apparently he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Not sure if that would cause his speech issues but…

 

[Johnny Rifle]

I agree with the general consensus on Mears, he just doesn't move the needle in any particular direction.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

You know it’s bad when people think that Colby Armstrong is good. Pens fans are really used to shitty broadcasts.

I hope FSG get it right.

Lol...

FSG getting something right with this team?

Edwards is very good when he’s just calling the game. But he sometimes goes off the rails a little too far and ends up getting in trouble. But I think he suffered a stroke before last season or something. He has slow speech, way behind the play, barely calls the game (just says player names basically as the puck gets passed around). It’s really strange, and the only thing that makes sense is a stroke. He seemed to get a tiny bit better/quicker as the season went on, but something is off.

The Caps color guy has the worst voice in the league. So whiny and nasal.

Edit: Just did some googling to see if anything new came out about Edwards and apparently he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Not sure if that would cause his speech issues but…

Edwards sucks and karma is taking its time dismantling whatever that carcass of trash has left on earth.

 

[Riptide]

LOL... no kidding? REALLY!? It was no humanly possible to be a bigger suck up than those two people.... how can they treat their loyalty and blind eye to the club like this!

Meh. I did like how they actually talked about the quality of the players on the other team as well. I remember having to suffer through a OTT broadcast (bc that was the only channel I could get showing the game) and one of the PIT blueliners tripped and OTT went in and scored... and all we heard on the broadcast was how good the OTT player was who deeked the D out of his skates to score. Where in reality the dude just tripped (OTT player didn't make any fancy move). I actually muted a good chunk of that broadcast as that was better than listening to those tools.

So in comparison... I liked Mears and Errey. Replaceable? Sure. But being forced to watch a LOT of other broadcasts (NHL Center Ice will frequently only broadcast 1 feed, so it's 50/50 if I'm getting the PIT feed)... they were above average.

 

[Allie Kitsune]

Edwards is very good when he’s just calling the game. But he sometimes goes off the rails a little too far and ends up getting in trouble. But I think he suffered a stroke before last season or something. He has slow speech, way behind the play, barely calls the game (just says player names basically as the puck gets passed around). It’s really strange, and the only thing that makes sense is a stroke. He seemed to get a tiny bit better/quicker as the season went on, but something is off.

The Caps color guy has the worst voice in the league. So whiny and nasal.

Edit: Just did some googling to see if anything new came out about Edwards and apparently he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Not sure if that would cause his speech issues but…

The only time I ever really liked Edwards was that one time against the Flyers where a Boston player gets away with a cheap hit and he was all "OH, NOW THEY WANT A CALL?" and started laughing like a movie villain.

 

[DesertedPenguin]

Guess who's back? Mearsy's back.



Basically, we're getting a swap of play-by-play guys and a new color analyst on TV. The only guy who actually lost his job is Errey.

 

[Andy99]

So I guess that means the TV team is Getzoff and Armstrong…can’t say that’s thrilling

 

[DesertedPenguin]

So I guess that means the TV team is Getzloff and Armstrong…can’t say that’s thrilling

I think they're going to have a couple people. I think Armstrong is still doing some national stuff.

 

[orby]

I like Potash. His shtick is a little corny, but it's an inextricable part of the Crosby era for me. I think he and the players legitimately enjoy the back-and-forth and it's nice to see how they make each other smirk. Dupuis doing the "thanks Daaan" bit at the end of every interview used to crack me up.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I'm still surprised Errey was canned. I'm guessing they like Colby Armstrong more.

But the more I think about it, elevating Getzoff makes sense. He's had a really close relationship with Mike Lange, who he replaced in the radio booth with Lange's encouragement and blessing.

With Mike Lange’s blessing, Josh Getzoff begins a new era in the Penguins radio booth

When Mike Lange arrived in Pittsburgh in 1974, Bob “The Gunner” Prince, the longtime voice of the Pirates, welcomed him with a gift: an hourglass-shaped...

www.post-gazette.com

FSG has Dave O'Brien and Joe Castiglione as the lead play-by-play guys for the Red Sox. They've been doing it for decades at a high level. O'Brien used to call games for ESPN and Sean McDonough, ESPN's primary hockey play-by-play broadcaster, is a fill-in broadcaster for the Red Sox when Castiglione is off.

FSG also has Jack Edwards call Bruins games for NESN. I don't like Edwards, but he's been doing this a long time and he has name recognition in Boston, just like O'Brien and Castiglione do.

With no Lange available, why not go to the guy who Lange mentored? I think Mears is well-liked as a person, but Getzoff seems to have more of an "it factor."

It's hilarious to me that the person who did his job best (by far) out of the 4 core commentator positions across tv/radio is the only one who is out entirely.

If it's indeed Colby replacing Errey, that's a huge IQ/experience downgrade. The guy's funny enough, but he doesn't bring much outside of that.

I like Potash. His shtick is a little corny, but it's an inextricable part of the Crosby era for me. I think he and the players legitimately enjoy the back-and-forth and it's nice to see how they make each other smirk. Dupuis doing the "thanks Daaan" bit at the end of every interview used to crack me up.

Yes, he's needed. The players receive him well. He gets more personality out of them than his replacement would.

 

[Fordy]

what the hell? i was fine with it until this. only errey is out, ridiculous

 

[DesertedPenguin]

Getzoff official. New rinkside reporter. Color analysts TBA.

 

[FlightlessBird]

Potash is MUCH more tolerable when he’s in the studio. Thank god we won’t have to see him dress up anymore.

Wonder what that means for Rob King. Maybe he’ll be the studio guy for Pirates only.

 

[WickedWrister]

Getzoff official. New rinkside reporter. Color analysts TBA.

Can't say I'm familiar with Hailey Hunter. Just looked her up and it seems like she's mainly a golfer/analyst for NBC sports? Potash was a little bit of a weirdo but he was our weirdo.

As for the color guy, I personally view Colby as an upgrade over Errey. I don't know, maybe I won't have the same opinion after like 70 broadcasts but I liked what I saw last year. I haven't seen anyone make this comparison but I don't think Errey being let go is in the same realm as Mike Lange being demoted to radio. Errey had a 20+ year run in the broadcast booth, that's a tremendous accomplishment. They're not Supreme Court justices where they get to serve until death lol. I'm sure some internal metrics or viewer focus groups BS told them the change would be beneficial to ratings.

What I want out of that color guy role is for someone to provide insight into the game that the play-by-play and the viewer do not have. I think Colby is perfectly capable of doing that. On a more basic level, I don't find his voice annoying and I think he has things to offer besides being comic relief. I know Colby does work with TNT so maybe they split his duties with someone else. Mike Rupp?

 

[Factorial]

Hailey Hunter: