Classic plus/minus
Rating the Winter Classic, moments after the end:
PLUS: "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the "seventh-inning stretch," which was when the teams switched sides during the third period. Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Denis Savard, Billy Williams, Ferguson Jenkins and Ryne Sandberg was pure Wrigley.
MINUS: They did it well past the midway point of the third period, and the game was essentially over.
PLUS: When was the last time you saw hockey players wearing eye black?
MINUS: What's with those Indiana Jones hats for Detroit coach Mike Babcock and his staff?
PLUS: The Cup champion Red Wings are still the class of the league. Outstanding team.
MINUS: Sad to say, but it's hard to imagine if the casual sports fan -- the person who flipped over from the Nebraska-Clemson game on CBS -- could name even one player on the Red Wings.
PLUS: Excellent point by Bob Costas in the closing segment, pointing out that Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls kept getting thwarted by the Detroit Pistons on their way up, the way it looks like the Blackhawks will have to do.
PLUS: National anthem gave a person goose bumps.
MINUS: No snow
MINUS: Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville, the man we heartily endorsed last summer to be the new Islanders coach (before he made a preemptive strike and took himself out of consideration) didn't do himself any favors by staying too long with goalie Cristobal Huet. the guy had a poor game. One of the Red Wings interviewed during the first intermission even mentioned that the goalie was having trouble finding the puck. By the time Quenneville pulled Huet, it was too late. Took some of the zest out of a great show.
PLUS: Great coverage. NBC did a fine job, and so did the NHL Network in the 90-minute pregame show. I'd say it ran rings around the tedious day-long Super Bowl pregame shows, but I never have watched any of those Super Bowl pregame shows.
PLUS: Nice job with the handshake lines afterward, showing the national audience hockey's greatest tradition.
MINUS: Game wasn't a spine tingler. Hey, you can't have Sidney Crosby winning it in a shootout every year
PLUS: Good for NBC. Who knows if the ratings will be as good as they were last year, but it was a solid effort. It gives the network a chance to have a different kind of big event. it gives the peacock network a chance to flex its creative muscles on New Year's Day inasmuch as it doesn't have the Rose Bowl any more, as it did for years.
PLUS: All in all, just a great idea. For one day every year, the NHL is something special. Wrigley Field was a great venue. Let's play two.
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Comments (10)
As if Henrik Lundqvist was any easier to pronounce, you idiot.
who is this nhl insider?i've followed the nhl 40 yrs and you have to be joking.nobody can pronounce chris chelios?chris osgood?lidstrom is hard to pronounce.listen yankee boy go back to watching the yankees buy 3rd place or the knicks draft euro garbage that doesn't even make an nba roster.you are a horrid representation of an nhl insider for a blogger.better brush up on the nba,you aren't much of an nhl fan.does your paper give you free tix to go to nhl games to schmooze with sean avery?
new york has 3 teams in state and yet not one insightful writer who has anything more to bitch about than a players name and how to pronounce it nice job mr insider
Give the guy a break. If you read it again, it says that the casual sport fan will not be able to name any of the Wings, i.e. no big names like Crosby last year. It doesn't say anything about being able to pronounce the names.
he SAYS name 1 player....chelios alone qualifies as a 3 time olympian,not to mention lidstrom.the guy isn't an insider either.just a wannabe.
MINUS....The TV broadcasters sounded like they were inside of a CONTROL Cone of Silence. Crowd noise coming across the airwave was at a minimum Took away from the atmosphere of the game.
MINUS....Not having an ill Mike Emrick.
This wasn't a spine tingler and last year was? Last year's game was boring as hell, even from the stands of Ralph Wilson with almost no scoring or hitting. This one had a player flip over the boards in the opening minutes and had 10 goals scored with some great end to end action and a hockey god-like score from Pavel Datsyuk. Oh yeah, you can't pronounce his name. Jesus Christ, why the hell must the NHL and the MSM fellate Sidney Crosby????
For the love of God, the guy doesn't mention ANYTHING about pronunciation of names. Only the factor of NAME RECOGNITION amongst casual sports fans....
Thanks for the review!
If you have to do it, you might as well do it right