ESPN Production

[Farce Poobah]

Re: ESPN Production

An obviously bad mistake made on air by Clay Matvick tonight, for which his writers should all be fired, or at least forced to do actual research for a month.

In the introduction of Neal Broten, the claim was made that he's the only player to win a national championship, Olympic gold, and Stanley Cup.

Without even cracking a record book, I say Ed Belfour. I imagine others out there may be able to find more.

Neal is such an icon that he doesn't need to be introduced with sloppy facts.

 

[mookie1995]

I think they screwed up the announcement, in that I think Broten did that all within a year, but I could be wrong.

Ken morrow went from 80 gold to islanders Stanley cups (and for a run of cups at that)

 

[manurespreader]

Re: ESPN Production

I really had no problems with the production. It conveyed the excitement and intensity of the game and melrose made a few points that I had not thought about, though yes he mispronounced a few things for sure. I thought it was the best national championship game in quite a few years.

 

[badgerhawk]

Re: ESPN Production

Neal Broten "Only player to win NCAA title, Olympic Medal, and Stanley Cup." - Clay Matvick

Eddie Belfour did the same, but I guess I don't have access to all the resources ESPN does...

- it would have been correct had they included his Hobey Baker award.

I'm not sure but did they say only player or only U.S. born player?

 

[Tater]

Re: ESPN Production

For a niche sport in the grand scheme of things, we had every single game of the tournament televised, mostly on national networks, and all in HD. I am not complaining.

 

[jml42691]

Re: ESPN Production

Other than the commentary (which most knew was gonna be terrible) the broadcast of the championship game seemed much better than the semifinal games. It looks like they figured out the issues with the microphones and not once during the game did I notice any picture quality problems (which I had non-stop through both of Thursday's games).

 

[ARM]

Re: ESPN Production

My wife, who is not exactly real hockey knowledgeable, spent almost the entire game remarking how bad Melrose and Thorne were and how they almost ruined watching the game for her.

For last night's game, I thought Thorne was the bigger problem. He kept saying Michigan when he meant UMD and vica versa. Then he'd give the name of the player for Michigan who was wearing the number of the UMD player he intended to mention. For a professional PBP guy at this level, that is worse than the usual pronounciation attrocities. What I thought they did better than some years was they stayed mostly focused on that game rather than going off on unrelated tangents all of the time. They actually seemed to be somewhat invested in the outcome, which was nice. Maybe it helped that it was a very good game, so it was hard to mess up.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: ESPN Production

My only complaints would be the player sound bytes that they repeated ad nauseum, and they should spent some energy to produce some pieces on the history of UMi hockey, UMD hockey, NCAA hockey and even tied in some bits on hockey in MN. I don't recall seeing a single clip of hockey that wasn't from this season and if they did, there wasn't much of it. Why not show some clips of some of UMi's titles? Why not show something from the UMD-BGU game? Something from the last FF at the X? Some backyard rinks?

Other than that, to have every game available from the regionals on in HD, I can live with any minor glitches and the occasional mistake by the announcers.

 

[bigmrg74]

Re: ESPN Production

My only complaints would be the player sound bytes that they repeated ad nauseum, and they should spent some energy to produce some pieces on the history of UMi hockey, UMD hockey, NCAA hockey and even tied in some bits on hockey in MN. I don't recall seeing a single clip of hockey that wasn't from this season and if they did, there wasn't much of it. Why not show some clips of some of UMi's titles? Why not show something from the UMD-BGU game? Something from the last FF at the X? Some backyard rinks?

Other than that, to have every game available from the regionals on in HD, I can live with any minor glitches and the occasional mistake by the announcers.

A piece on UMD's past heartbeaks in the past would have been nice. And perhaps something to do with Michigan's 9 titles as well, along with the Mike Legg Goal.

 

[DabbyMac]

Re: ESPN Production

Ironically, I mentioned to Neal at the Friday night event at the X that I owed him a beer for being one of my best hockey trivia questions while he signed my kid's jersey. In fact, his brother asked me to repeat the question and they all pondered who the second guy was when I said, Belfour was the only other player to win a cup, ncaa title and an olympic gold medal.

Clay comes out Saturday night and just blows it. I expected better from a WCHA announcer, especially with NoDak folks littered throughout the building.

 

[Scally Lama]

Re: ESPN Production

For a niche sport in the grand scheme of things, we had every single game of the tournament televised, mostly on national networks, and all in HD. I am not complaining.

+1...for a guy that's highly versed in watching college hockey in a few square inches on UStream, FastHockey or B2, I'm not about to start complaining about HD broadcasts, even if Gary Thorne flipped his rosters around.

 

[7&7]

Re: ESPN Production

All things considered, I thought ESPN did a good job, however i do wish someone would have hit the UMichingan band director over the head with a stack of new sheet music

 

[uaafanblog]

Re: ESPN Production

I watched all the games on ESPN's streaming site. Every commercial break they put up a graphic that said something like "your event will return shortly" with no audio. It got to be a bit disconcerting during the 2 minute breaks ... that's a load of silence to make your viewers endure ... Maybe they could put up some Muzak with it?

Melrose called UND at least once during the final. I suppose it was nice to see his hardon for them lessening. I got nothing bad to say about Gary Thorne ... he's a good egg. Melrose though is interminably annoying.

 

[Kepler]

Re: ESPN Production

i do wish someone would have hit the UMichingan band director over the head with a stack of new sheet music

You can't blame MTV that Snooky's whine is annoying.

 

[wolverine318]

Re: ESPN Production

All things considered, I thought ESPN did a good job, however i do wish someone would have hit the UMichingan band director over the head with a stack of new sheet music

I wish the Michigan band was given more than 30 seconds per performance slot and allowed to open up their song book. It is not the bands' fault. They are given limited times to play. Therefore, they will only play what gets the Michigan fans up and cheering. If you come to Yost, the michigan band plays mostly a mix of classic rock and pop.

 

[jml42691]

Re: ESPN Production

I wish the Michigan band was given more than 30 seconds per performance slot and allowed to open up their song book. It is not the bands' fault. They are given limited times to play. Therefore, they will only play what gets the Michigan fans up and cheering. If you come to Yost, the michigan band plays mostly a mix of classic rock and pop.

But every other band was under these same restrictions as well throughout the tournament, and they were all interesting and entertaining to listen to while not being annoying like Michigan's band who only played 2 songs throughout the entire tournament.

 

[billmich88888]

Re: ESPN Production

But every other band was under these same restrictions as well throughout the tournament, and they were all interesting and entertaining to listen to while not being annoying like Michigan's band who only played 2 songs throughout the entire tournament.

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah (same thing every year) blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah that (**** rock and roll music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah (only 2 songs) blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah (they didn't play any classical music!!!) blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah I(I need to find SOMETHING to complain about!!!) blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah ( I AM SO easily annoyed!!!) blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

 

[wolverine318]

Re: ESPN Production

But every other band was under these same restrictions as well throughout the tournament, and they were all interesting and entertaining to listen to while not being annoying like Michigan's band who only played 2 songs throughout the entire tournament.

You know that is not true. I was watching on tv and I definitely saw the Michigan section doing William Tell riding the pony dance and bullwinkle dance on tv. My wife was there and she definitely backs me up.

Yay for telling the truth!!!!

 

[SteveP]

So more than 3.2M watched the FF
Earth to Bristol, Earth to Bristol, come in please!