From William Houston of the Globe & Mail:
A sequence early in last night’s coverage of the Stanley Cup final’s sixth game illustrated an important difference between the telecasts of the CBC and NBC.
The CBC’s Don Cherry wondered, correctly, how much “gas in the tank” Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-André Fleury had left after a hectic fifth game.A few seconds later, NBC’s Pierre McGuire asked a question on the same subject to Penguins forward Ryan Malone, who said the team had plenty left and was ready to go.
Cherry wondered; McGuire produced an answer.
Both networks did a fine job of covering the Cup final, but NBC worked harder at it, got closer to the action and, correctly, focused on the star players.
McGuire’s work between the benches gave NBC a huge advantage over the CBC. He was able to interview coaches and players between stoppages in play and reported on news from the benches.
In the third overtime period of the fifth game, he reported that Petr Sykora was predicting that he would score the winning goal. A few seconds later, he did.
Read the entire article right here.
Well, what can I say? Houston is way, way off. In fact, I couldn’t disagree more with the points he raises above. First off, Cherry wondered whether Fleury had enough gas in the tank and, after watching his performance on Wednesday night, I’d say Cherry was bang on. But instead, Houston applauds NBC for asking Ryan Malone if the team had any gas left. Is that a joke? Which player in his right mind is going to say his team is tired and out of gas???
Secondly, since when have interviews with coaches and players between periods and during the games been anything more than useless??? Every answer is cliche and adds nothing to the game. Instead of these useless interviews, I much prefer watching the game, replays and hearing reports on injuries from the likes of Oake and Friedman.
Finally, who the hell cares that Petr Sykora told McGuire he was going to score? Would that have changed the game for the viewer???? I mean, was Crosby going out there with the mindset that he wasn’t going to score???? Sykora’s comment was completely useless to the viewing public.
