Not a great debut for the NHL on ABC

ABC televised their first hockey game in 17 years, featuring the New York Rangers versus the Boston Bruins in the NHL Thanksgiving Showdown.  How was it?  Let’s put this gently.  It didn’t go well. Here’s a totally biased review from the Rangers’ perspective.

The worst part of the telecast was the announcing team.  Play-by-play (if you could call it that) was provided  by Sean McDonough with Ray Ferraro the color commentator.  A. J. Mleczko was ABC’s version of the “Inside the Glass” reporter.

For one thing, there was a complete Boston  bias from all three of the announcers and there’s a reason for it.  Sean McDonough is a born and bred Bostonian.  He is the son of a Boston Globe sports reporter and does play-by-play for the Red Sox.

A.J. Mleczko was born in Nantucket and played hockey for Harvard.  She lives in Concord, Massachusetts.

Ray Ferraro may not be from Boston, but he has harbored a grudge against the Rangers for years.  When he became a free agent as an Islander, he signed with the Rangers specifically because he wanted to remain in the New  York area.  Then, after 65 games as a Blueshirt, they dealt him to the Los Angeles Kings in the awful trade for Jarri Kurri, Marty McSorley and Shane Churla. So, the guy who wanted to play in New York got traded clear across the continent.

As a result, the entire game was a succession of Boston-centric conversations with little or no Rangers context.  When the Rangers were outshot 17-5 in the first period, McDonough kept reciting the shot total as if shots on goal are the sole method of distinguishing how a team is playing. It felt like every sentence was beginning with “The Rangers have a good record but….”

The one concession that was made in the Rangers’ favor was to laud the work of igor Shesterkin who was Superman making up for the ineptitude of his teammate (intentional sarcasm).  Even their adoration for Shesterkin started to shift when Jeremy Swayman made some good saves for the Bruins.

Not once did they get into the quality of Adam Fox, his league leading scoring or his ability to break up plays in the defensive zone.   The fact that the  Rangers stink on faceoffs was hammered into our heads repeatedly.  It was relentless.

Reaves was run by Brad Marchand, but Mleczko said it was “more of a collision.”  Then, she was talking about how they were jawing with each other when the camera clearly showed Reaves standing and not “jawing.”

When Charlie McAvoy stuck his knee out to trip Kevin Rooney, Mleczko actually made excuses for McAvoy, saying how difficult it is to check someone from the position he was in.  Okay, so just try a knee on knee.

Aside from the Boston bias, the other issue was the simple fact that they didn’t call a hockey game, they talked over a hockey game.  If McDonough was supposed to do play-by-play, he didn’t know it and all we heard was a steady drone of hockey data, Bruins trivia, ABC/ESPN promos and other anecdotes.

The first Ranger goal

When the Rangers won a faceoff and kept the puck in the Boston zone for 37 seconds, but it took 30 seconds before McDonough bothered to describe the play, preferring to talk about Shesterkin’s goaltending, then his first reference to play was to say “quick passes but no shots generated for New York.”  Oh yes, then Strome scored.  At least Ferraro was able to point out that it was a “seven game point streak” for Strome.  Sorry Ray, it’s an eight game streak.  Then, Mleczko pointed out how Fox had moved up on the play, except he only touched the puck once among the 19 passes in the zone and didn’t have anything to do with the goal.

Did they mention the work by Panarin in keeping the puck in?  Did they mention that the whole play was caused  by a Ranger faceoff win?  Nope…just awful.

Second period

When the second period started, there was a graphic showing the shots and offensive zone time.  Believe it or not, the Rangers had more offensive zone time (4:57 to 4:48), but Ferraro then said that the Bruins “had a lot of possession.”  No…they had a lot of shots on goal.

When play began, they didn’t bother to mention what was happening on the ice for 17 seconds, not even noting that Brad Marchand had taken a penalty.   On the power play, Zibanejad  hit a post and they called it Swayman’s best save (you could hear the ping when it hit the metal).

McDonough went into a lengthy description of Tukka Rask and the Boston goalie situation and believe it or not, they then spent one minute and 44 seconds discussing that topic while ignoring the play.  Trust me, I timed them.

We then got about two minutes of actual play-by-play before we learned that Mike Reilly’s dad was drafted by Montreal and he has twin brothers who played at the University of Minnesota…and the whole clan is in Boston for the holiday blah…blah…blah.

Then we learned that Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy were teammates at B.U. under former Rangers coach David Quinn blah…blah…blah.

The we got to hear Brad Marchand who was “miked up” and we got to hear him yell “go, go, go.”  Wow. Of course that led to a discussion of whether Ray Ferraro ever wore a mike yadda yadda yadda.

Maybe that was a good thing.  McDonough made a lot of mistakes when it came to identifying Rangers.  He mistook Filip Chytil for Alexis Lafreniêre and then he called Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin.  Yikes.

Of course, when the Bruins scored their second goal was there any insight into the defensive mistake that led to Bergeron  being wide open and  uncovered?  Nope.  Of course, when Bergeron scored that was their cue to talk about Patrice Bergeron for the next 53 seconds (I timed it) while ignoring the play-by-play.

When Marchand took down Kakko and could have been called for a penalty, the description was “taken back for Boston by Marchand.” It was a trip.

On the second Ranger goal, just listen to McDonough ‘s description.  “Beautiful save by Swayman, on the original shot by Lindgren, but there for the rebound, Dryden Hunt.”  Swayman kicked the rebound right to Hunt.  That’s not a beautiful save.

Okay, enough already.

Third period

They slept through the lacrosse goal attempt  by Chris Kreider. They didn’t even mention that it was a lacrosse attempt until after a commercial break and Ferraro called it the “Michigan move” and never clarified.  Although most call it a lacrosse shot, it was first known as the Michigan move since a University of Michigan forward first tried it in the NCAA playoffs in 1996. Of course, I had to Google it to find out.

Even after the Rangers outplayed the Bruins in the second period, the announcers said that it “flattened out” after the first period “rout.”   Halfway through the third period, with the game tied, Ferraro actually said that the Rangers were the better team the last  half of the game. A miracle.

McDonough continued to misidentify Rangers.  When Ryan Reaves lifted Bergeron’s stick and saved a goal, McDonough called him Adam Fox.  Yeah….

When Lafrenière scored the Rangers fourth goal, all of the talk was about Gauthier who deserved credit for the set up, but not once did they mention the shot.

When the Rangers scored the empty net goal to make the score 5-2, the screen graphic was “Boston Goal”and the scoreboard read 5-3.  Wishful thinking.

We were spared a lengthy recap of how the Rangers won so unexpectedly because ABC had to get to college football.

The three headed monster

A big problem is that they went with the three-headed announcing team with Mleczko able to contribute at will.  As a result, it was a constant conversation, not the call of a game.  It’s a much better strategy to use the “Inside the Glass” reporter at specific points in the game instead of constantly keep her in the conversation.

The problem with three announcers is when a point is made, all three had to contribute.  So, a ten second observation becomes a 30-40 second conversation.  It’s just dreadful.

FInally, the one time that Mleczko  actually was in a perfect position to provide context was when Panarin and Marchand were jawing at each other and Panarin threw his glove.  She didn’t  say much of anything about it, but said that her family was at the game and there was lot of “that” going on in her home.

Finally, the announcing team must think that because there was no hockey on ABC for 17 years, it was 17 years since we all actually watched a hockey game.  Someone needs to tell them that their audience is probably made up of hockey fans who don’t need to be educated on every nuance of the game.  We already know.

The technical side

ABC is using this moving high angle camera that was somewhat disconcerting.  It’s more difficult to follow a moving play when the camera itself is moving.  It’s not how you watch a hockey game when  you are at the arena and it doesn’t work at home.  They also used it in a completely arbitrary manner.  Just stop.

They were somewhat lacking in replays.  In the second period  Ryan Reaves laid a huge hit into Tomas Nosek.  No replay. We saw every goal 20 times and when Dryden Hunt hit the netcam with his shot, we were treated to that repeatedly.  There were many opportunities for replays that they didn’t use.

The audio mix wasn’t great with crowd noise drowning out the announcers (was that a good thing?).

Was anything good?

During the second intermission, the Hockey Fights Cancer feature about Liam Fitzgerald was fabulous.

Mark Messier and Chris Chelios actually had some insight into the game along with Steve Levy.

The verdict

This game was borderline unwatchable.  We’ll give them a pass because they haven’t done a hockey game in 17 years, but it was pretty awful.  Sean McDonough would be well served to watch some Doc Emrick tapes.  Emrick was the master at providing a lot of  information and not letting it interfere with his call of the game.

Three in-game announcers may work for baseball, but it doesn’t work for hockey and they need to fix that fast.

Was there a bias for Boston?  Okay, the announcers were  not “homers” in terms of rooting for the home team, but they were definitely more knowledgeable about the Bruins and it showed. They definitely went overboard with the love for the Bruins in the first period and almost begrudgingly gave the Rangers credit for the win.

If there is a lesson to be learned, it’s that Ranger fans should be very grateful that we have Sam Rosen and Joe Micheletti along with analysis from Steve Valiquette and Henrik Lundqvist.  They know their viewers are knowledgeable and treat them that way.  It’s a lesson the the ABC team should learn.

We’ll give them time. The next ABC game for the Rangers will be on February 26.  Hopefully they will be better.  And since ABC has the Stanley Cup Playoffs, we will hopefully see more of these guys starting in May.

And if you think we are off base with this review, check out social media.