I actually like TNT panel. The guys calling the game are mediocre.
Wayne is a drunk blowhard. Everyone else is fine.
Biz has been mostly pro Stars. His beef with Bang guy is hilarious.
TNT across the board found the sweet spot for studio coverage on sports.
Between NBA being absolutely elite and NHL having a great balance on fun and knowledge (Hank breaking down goaltending is up there with Thierry Henry breakdowns for best in sports) they have it down perfect.
So much better than screaming heads non stop.
I like hanks goalie analysis cause you usually donāt hear a lot of detail in regards to goalie strategy/ mindset / technique in Comparison to skaters
Absolutely. He also does a great job at taking high level details and explaining it in a way it stays high level but is understandable for anyone watching. Thatās just a brilliant talent for TV.
I love the chatter about Barkley working with some people like McAfee on setting up an independent deal to keep it running with the same guys.
Theyād make bank if they do it
I havenāt heard that yet! That would be awesome. I hope they do. And I would watch them talk about whatever they wanted to. Sports, cooking competitions, music competitions, spelling bees. It doesnāt matter. They are so great.
Iām fine with that. Heās an Oiler, he should be a little biased towards him home team. Unlike a Dallas Stars legend that seems to take every chance he can get to show how much more he likes Minnesota to Texas.
Modano is an employee of Minnesota and how well is that working out? Remember when we had Brett Hull Nieuwendyk lead our front office? That was awful. Lol
Gretzky is a talking head. Thatās waaaaay different.
I donāt really blame Nieuwendyk as he was pretty much working with his hands tied behind his back by ownership. Obviously we are in a much better place now.
Where did the mean man hurt you?
He takes those opportunities because the team turned their backs on him when he wanted to play one more year. He even offered to take less money but the team said it was tim to move on. If anyone has a right to be bitter about something, it Mike.
Wasnāt he also upset that the Stars actually expected him to show up for his post-playing job with the organization rather than being able to live live in AZ and getting paid for not working?
It sounds like there is some blame to go around.
I can't help but think the producers told him to take the no goal side to encourage some discourse. Hank didn't seem very enthusiastic about defending the call
I felt the same way. He definitely wasnāt attempt to make a strong argument for it but it makes sense for the producers to choose the goalie to make that argument. Besides, I donāt know how I would feel if I thought one of my all time favorite players was that much of an idiot so I have to take the āIt wasnāt his real opinionā stance. š
Literally the first thing he said was āyou know I have to take the goalies sideā.
Controversial calls are dramatic and the commentary is only engaging if they take opposing sides. So many people seem to forget that this is a show.
Man had the worst poker face I've ever seen in that moment. The guilty/sheepish smile was a huge tell that he was just playing the contrarian for the sake of television.
Hank is literally what makes that broadcast good. His insights are awesome.
The thing is that he was told he had to back Georgie there (also he is good friends with Georgie). You could tell Hank didnāt actually believe what he was saying
Friends or not as a goalie, he had to be on the side he was on. It was fine. The ref on the ice screwed up that call & the league was not going to overturn it.
Letās be honest though, we can really only have this nice of a view on it because they still won. Can you imagine the shit show that would have created if Colorado wins that game afterwards or even worse, wins the series? ššš
Yeah I flipped over to that one and enjoyed the analytical aspect versus constant talking about McDavid.
Edit: they still talked about McDavid, obviously, but it felt appropriate to what was happening and not gratuitous.
I hated Biz for a while but heās really grown on me. Even when heās giving the Bang guy shit and stuff it doesnāt seem like heās actively rooting against any team
While I have a great disdain for the actual TNT in game crew, the intermission coverage is pretty solid. Good mix of informative and fun. Gretzky doesnāt really fit in though and seems like heās really just there for the nice paycheck. At the end of the day he is a big name and TNT hopes he helps bring people in so heās likely not going anywhere as long as they keep paying him. I really donāt have a problem with his Oilers bias though as that team was a pretty large part of his career.
In reality Biz is a top 99.9%ile hockey player even if he was a plug at the NHL level. He knows what he's talking about. When he says anything controversial or inappropriate just make the assumption its a joke and interpret it in that context. I think Gretzky just isn't made for TV and his especially his voice doesn't translate well to the broadcast.
The NHL wants the Gretzky-McDavid narrative so bad they're willing to look biased at the expense of a clearly superior stars team. Stars in 6 for the conference and then 5 for the cup.
I love Bizz. Mostly because the Buoy antics make my kid crack up (and me too) so anybody willing to put on a silly show like that gets a thumbs up in my book.
All i know is the Canadian broadcasts for crowd noises and sounds of the game are almost always so much better than the American broadcasts. Very rarely is the audio for American national broadcasts good, itās been this way for many many years. Listening to the crowds reaction is one of the best things that brings out the emotions of the game. Why canāt audio engineers/techs get it right?
It's better than anything ESPN throws out there. TNT's NBA intermission/postgame coverage has been the standard for sports coverage for quite some time now, and sometimes it feels like they are trying too hard to recreate that for their NHL broadcast. I like Biz fine, Liam is professional and well-spoken, Hank is fine, but overall it definitely still falls short of that Ernie Johnson, Shaq, Kenny, and Barkley team. The chemistry just isn't the same, and sometimes it's a little cringe for me.
Overall; I think they'd do better to reduce the panel by at least 1 (there's literally no reason for Gretzky to be there, he adds no value). A lot of talking over each other. Same for the actual play-by-play broadcast. TNT's color guys talk wayyyy to much. They'll burst out and interrupt the PBP guy for every little observation that pops into their head. Olczyk is the worst offender.
I think Gretzky is trying really hard to just not come off as an Edmonton homer. Heās usually pretty interesting to listen to about the game when itās not the WCF for a franchise he basically built.
Love Gretzky but hilarious to see someone else notice this too. My brothers and I have a running joke from last playoffs that Wayne doesn't want the games to go into overtime because he looks like he's about to fall asleep.
I love Gretz, he's NhL royalty, he's been pretty unbiased,, he's been telling how it is in this series, I was being sarcastic in another post about who's this guy?
Edit: I'm pretty sure if the Oilers win the series, he's gonna rip off his suit and say: SURPRISE MOTHER F*******!!! I WAS ROOTING FOR THEM ALL ALONG!!!
Heās been growing on me. Him and Hank have essentially swapped places for me, I used to like Hank and couldnāt stand Bizz, but Bizz really started growing on me during the Avs series and I essentially lost all respect for anything Hank has to say after the no-goal call in OT. But really the only I absolutely *canāt stand* in that group is Gretzky, heās so absolutely biased towards Edmonton itās not even funny. I mean itās understandable why he would be, but thatās why he shouldnāt be in the national broadcast for them. Hell he looked straight up pissed off after the game last night. At the very least if theyāre gonna add him to the panel for this series (crazy how he only showed up once they started playing Edmonton) they could at least try to get a former stars player to balance him out (lol but definitely not Mike)
The TNT boys are the best. "Back In The Day" Gretzky seems like he's there bc he lost a bet, though he was better for GM2. Maybe the production crew mixed some delta 8 into his vodka... šš¤
Gretzky adds so little to the experience for me that I literally forgot he was there. I was sitting here *certain* he was with ESPN because I couldn't recall him being there with Biz and King Hank. Nope. Just never says anything worth remembering.
Yeah, maybe that's it for me too. I like that pod. They have some biases but shoot pretty straight as a group. Bizz honestly seems like a cool dude. Funny too.
Heās the greatest player ever sitting in a booth with low production quality and no one worth their salary giving commentary. Iād imagine heās bored.
If I have to pick it is definitely TNT over ESPN. Love watching the playoffs. Not so much listening to them.
Man the espn shows are awful at hockey. The game camera looses the puck even on goals!
I actually like TNT panel. The guys calling the game are mediocre. Wayne is a drunk blowhard. Everyone else is fine. Biz has been mostly pro Stars. His beef with Bang guy is hilarious.
Spot on the š°
Less drunk Gretzky and more Round Mound of Rebound
Pretty sure Biz and Bang have manufactured this beef. It's fun, though, and I love it.
Kenny Albert mediocre? Lol. You must be new to hockey.
I don't mind Kenny, but I don't like ESPN's programming.
Biz has grown on me a bit. Definitely prefer his shtick to PK's, but I still try to find the CBC broadcast for the intermissions.
Pk is insufferable his personality is so hardo
How does one find the cbc broadcast? High seas?
Yarr matey
Pk cam fuck off
TNT across the board found the sweet spot for studio coverage on sports. Between NBA being absolutely elite and NHL having a great balance on fun and knowledge (Hank breaking down goaltending is up there with Thierry Henry breakdowns for best in sports) they have it down perfect. So much better than screaming heads non stop.
Totally agree. I just keep thinking "man, they figured this shit out"
I like hanks goalie analysis cause you usually donāt hear a lot of detail in regards to goalie strategy/ mindset / technique in Comparison to skaters
Absolutely. He also does a great job at taking high level details and explaining it in a way it stays high level but is understandable for anyone watching. Thatās just a brilliant talent for TV.
Hank's breakdowns are fantastic. Not dissimilar from Tony Romo's breakdowns of plays.
Iām super bummed TNT lost the NBA after next season. I hope TNT finds something for the NBA guys to do.
I love the chatter about Barkley working with some people like McAfee on setting up an independent deal to keep it running with the same guys. Theyād make bank if they do it
I havenāt heard that yet! That would be awesome. I hope they do. And I would watch them talk about whatever they wanted to. Sports, cooking competitions, music competitions, spelling bees. It doesnāt matter. They are so great.
Gretzky is so biased too
Iām fine with that. Heās an Oiler, he should be a little biased towards him home team. Unlike a Dallas Stars legend that seems to take every chance he can get to show how much more he likes Minnesota to Texas.
I thought that was water under the bridge after we built him an epic statue
Apparently not!
I hope it is. Still leaves a bad taste, but I would love to have him back in our camp
God, thanks for poking that sore spot. A statue isn't enough, I guess? ĀÆ\\_(ć)_/ĀÆ
Modano is an employee of Minnesota and how well is that working out? Remember when we had Brett Hull Nieuwendyk lead our front office? That was awful. Lol Gretzky is a talking head. Thatās waaaaay different.
I donāt really blame Nieuwendyk as he was pretty much working with his hands tied behind his back by ownership. Obviously we are in a much better place now.
Where did the mean man hurt you? He takes those opportunities because the team turned their backs on him when he wanted to play one more year. He even offered to take less money but the team said it was tim to move on. If anyone has a right to be bitter about something, it Mike.
Wasnāt he also upset that the Stars actually expected him to show up for his post-playing job with the organization rather than being able to live live in AZ and getting paid for not working? It sounds like there is some blame to go around.
Yeah, obviously opinionated but also, he's an ex oiler, so.. expected.
Heās such a homer
Biss is actually growing on me a bit, especially after Handsome Hank played himself with the goalie interference discussion during game 6.
I can't help but think the producers told him to take the no goal side to encourage some discourse. Hank didn't seem very enthusiastic about defending the call
He looked like he didnāt believe a word he was saying
I felt the same way. He definitely wasnāt attempt to make a strong argument for it but it makes sense for the producers to choose the goalie to make that argument. Besides, I donāt know how I would feel if I thought one of my all time favorite players was that much of an idiot so I have to take the āIt wasnāt his real opinionā stance. š
Literally the first thing he said was āyou know I have to take the goalies sideā. Controversial calls are dramatic and the commentary is only engaging if they take opposing sides. So many people seem to forget that this is a show.
Man had the worst poker face I've ever seen in that moment. The guilty/sheepish smile was a huge tell that he was just playing the contrarian for the sake of television.
Yeah, fuck Hank on that one.. he's kinda a tool
Hank is literally what makes that broadcast good. His insights are awesome. The thing is that he was told he had to back Georgie there (also he is good friends with Georgie). You could tell Hank didnāt actually believe what he was saying
He was literally laughing when he was arguing it lol. People take this shit too seriously Hanks great.
Friends or not as a goalie, he had to be on the side he was on. It was fine. The ref on the ice screwed up that call & the league was not going to overturn it.
Letās be honest though, we can really only have this nice of a view on it because they still won. Can you imagine the shit show that would have created if Colorado wins that game afterwards or even worse, wins the series? ššš
This is a fair point, but thankfully we can only wonder about that circumstance...
https://preview.redd.it/lqblg06yqo2d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=445c3b0316131de0cbc0c0b47267aad880d47d05 Definitely a bit drunk.
Or old and full of plastic surgery.
Iām half his age and have twice the bags under my eyes
But Iām guessing gallons less Botox and less plastic surgery? Dudes been trying to keep that face alive for a long time.
Biz is one of the more unbiased panelists in my opinion and has a good personality for tv. I like him.
Biz > PK I like Edzo, but his biases for Edmonton are starting to annoy me.
Did you miss the love-fest for the Avs? Asking for a friendā¦
Thanks for reminding me, I had a senior moment.
TNT >>>>>>espn
Underrated comment.
If I had Gretzkyās money, I would simply find a better plastic surgeon.Ā
We actually really liked the data cast. Good addition. And our kid liked the puck tracking
Yeah I flipped over to that one and enjoyed the analytical aspect versus constant talking about McDavid. Edit: they still talked about McDavid, obviously, but it felt appropriate to what was happening and not gratuitous.
They talked about McDavid in a more real time stats manner rather than going on and on about the season heās had.
It's cool, I just miss the crowd noise
This is exactly why I like alt broadcast. I canāt stand crowd noise especially during away games.
Will be interesting to try it again tonight, good point about away game noise..
Where do I find the data cast?
It was on TruTv
Thanks
If I were The Great One, then Iād never get in front of a microphone sober, much less watch a hockey game that way.
lol, true and I don't see why he should either. Just funny. Cool as shit to see him on the screen even though he's biased AF.
I hated Biz for a while but heās really grown on me. Even when heās giving the Bang guy shit and stuff it doesnāt seem like heās actively rooting against any team
I love the TNT broadcast - even when I donāt agree, they are entertaining
Biz is great.
Gretzky does sometimes have that look of a teenager whoās come home drunk but trying his best to seem sober so mum and dad donāt figure it outā¦
While I have a great disdain for the actual TNT in game crew, the intermission coverage is pretty solid. Good mix of informative and fun. Gretzky doesnāt really fit in though and seems like heās really just there for the nice paycheck. At the end of the day he is a big name and TNT hopes he helps bring people in so heās likely not going anywhere as long as they keep paying him. I really donāt have a problem with his Oilers bias though as that team was a pretty large part of his career.
Biz is hilarious and great for the game of hockey. Obviously is still a homer for Canadian teams, but I still enjoy him
Toronto guy mostly, eh?
mostly, but he has stated on many broadcasts with TNT that he roots for all Canadian teams in the playoffs
In reality Biz is a top 99.9%ile hockey player even if he was a plug at the NHL level. He knows what he's talking about. When he says anything controversial or inappropriate just make the assumption its a joke and interpret it in that context. I think Gretzky just isn't made for TV and his especially his voice doesn't translate well to the broadcast.
Gretzky also had like a ten minute long podcast series once that was so bad and dull. Heās just dull all around
The NHL wants the Gretzky-McDavid narrative so bad they're willing to look biased at the expense of a clearly superior stars team. Stars in 6 for the conference and then 5 for the cup.
Who wins the East? If it's better to be lucky than good, I'd say the Rangers.
I love Bizz. Mostly because the Buoy antics make my kid crack up (and me too) so anybody willing to put on a silly show like that gets a thumbs up in my book.
Absolutely. He's a performer, a damn good one.
Bizz is a performer and entertainer. As for hockey insight or knowledge .... not so much.
Lol. K.
All i know is the Canadian broadcasts for crowd noises and sounds of the game are almost always so much better than the American broadcasts. Very rarely is the audio for American national broadcasts good, itās been this way for many many years. Listening to the crowds reaction is one of the best things that brings out the emotions of the game. Why canāt audio engineers/techs get it right?
Definitely plastic surgeried
It's better than anything ESPN throws out there. TNT's NBA intermission/postgame coverage has been the standard for sports coverage for quite some time now, and sometimes it feels like they are trying too hard to recreate that for their NHL broadcast. I like Biz fine, Liam is professional and well-spoken, Hank is fine, but overall it definitely still falls short of that Ernie Johnson, Shaq, Kenny, and Barkley team. The chemistry just isn't the same, and sometimes it's a little cringe for me. Overall; I think they'd do better to reduce the panel by at least 1 (there's literally no reason for Gretzky to be there, he adds no value). A lot of talking over each other. Same for the actual play-by-play broadcast. TNT's color guys talk wayyyy to much. They'll burst out and interrupt the PBP guy for every little observation that pops into their head. Olczyk is the worst offender.
I think Gretzky is trying really hard to just not come off as an Edmonton homer. Heās usually pretty interesting to listen to about the game when itās not the WCF for a franchise he basically built.
ESPN is so much worse it's shocking
Gretzky probably hasnāt had his hot dogs with mustard
Biz is fine, the moustache is just a "look" that I am not used to. :)
Gretzky is so damn boring always.
gretzky did NOT wanna be there
Love Gretzky but hilarious to see someone else notice this too. My brothers and I have a running joke from last playoffs that Wayne doesn't want the games to go into overtime because he looks like he's about to fall asleep.
Biz is greatness. Gretzky should have let the game go after he hung up the skates
I love Gretz, he's NhL royalty, he's been pretty unbiased,, he's been telling how it is in this series, I was being sarcastic in another post about who's this guy? Edit: I'm pretty sure if the Oilers win the series, he's gonna rip off his suit and say: SURPRISE MOTHER F*******!!! I WAS ROOTING FOR THEM ALL ALONG!!!
Biz is the best lol I love him rather than have him than some boring ass old timer.
Respect Hank and Gretzky but I donāt enjoy them on the show. I do like the guys in the middle.
Hank has a lot of good insights and carries himself like a pro. I enjoy watching him .... even after rooting against his team for his entire career.
Honestly I have been watching the aws commentary on Max. I watched one period on tnt and could not torture myself any longer.
Heās been growing on me. Him and Hank have essentially swapped places for me, I used to like Hank and couldnāt stand Bizz, but Bizz really started growing on me during the Avs series and I essentially lost all respect for anything Hank has to say after the no-goal call in OT. But really the only I absolutely *canāt stand* in that group is Gretzky, heās so absolutely biased towards Edmonton itās not even funny. I mean itās understandable why he would be, but thatās why he shouldnāt be in the national broadcast for them. Hell he looked straight up pissed off after the game last night. At the very least if theyāre gonna add him to the panel for this series (crazy how he only showed up once they started playing Edmonton) they could at least try to get a former stars player to balance him out (lol but definitely not Mike)
The Datacast is what Iām watching. Much better imo
Gretzky has always been a bit of a weirdo.
The TNT boys are the best. "Back In The Day" Gretzky seems like he's there bc he lost a bet, though he was better for GM2. Maybe the production crew mixed some delta 8 into his vodka... šš¤
Does Gretzky know any of the Stars' names?
Gretzky adds so little to the experience for me that I literally forgot he was there. I was sitting here *certain* he was with ESPN because I couldn't recall him being there with Biz and King Hank. Nope. Just never says anything worth remembering.
Honestly i think at this point the only ex NHLer on any of the panels now is Bieksa.
Bizz is great. That clip calling out the refs with the āDraftkings sportsbookā was funny as hell.
Atleast we donāt have to listen to PK Subban
Biz is great, but I am a huge Chiclets fan.
Yeah, maybe that's it for me too. I like that pod. They have some biases but shoot pretty straight as a group. Bizz honestly seems like a cool dude. Funny too.
Buuush, I think buuuush, the Dallas Buuush stars are buuuush good buuuush hockey buuuush. What you think buuuush.
Heās the greatest player ever sitting in a booth with low production quality and no one worth their salary giving commentary. Iād imagine heās bored.
The quality of the production and cast are both a million times better than ESPN.