Biased Commentators

[DavePoulin4PM]

What do you expect people to do? Praise the organization? This organization hasn't won a playoff series since 2004. They're the picture of ineptitude.

You want talking heads to praise the organization? Win something of significance. It's really that simple.

 

[DarkKnight]

someone listens to bobcat period. what a blowhard

Guy has completely mailed it in for years and he doesn’t even claim to watch much hockey, so why would anyone give one f*** what his perspective is escapes me.

 

[Stephen]

They're just stereotypically contrarian, naysaying radio show guys.

 

[LeafsNation75]

When someone like Jim Hughson has said "There is nothing better on a Saturday night than defeating the Maple Leafs" when the Canucks defeated them in Vancouver this past season, I wish Rogers would have taken him off from broadcasting anymore Leafs games. Yes we know deep down he loves the Canucks and I guess you can say Rogers does not care about that, however for their lead broadcaster to say something like that during a national broadcast when he is supposed to be impartial was very stupid.

 

[Walshy7]

When someone like Jim Hughson has said "There is nothing better on a Saturday night than defeating the Maple Leafs" when the Canucks defeated them in Vancouver this past season, I wish Rogers would have taken him off from broadcasting anymore Leafs games. Yes we know deep down he loves the Canucks and I guess you can say Rogers does not care about that, however for their lead broadcaster to say something like that during a national broadcast when he is supposed to be impartial was very stupid.

the entire rest of canada believes there is a toronto bias in hockey media. So rogers employing deliberately neutral or even slightly anti-leaf media members helps to appeal to those not from toronto. It's disgusting that when you listen to an Edmonton or calgary game the callers are noticeably hoping the home team wins, not homers but at least want the tem they always call to win, but we get hughson who'd rather the florida panthers win such is his hatred toward the leafs

 

[Swervin81]

Hughson's a massive Canuck homer, but as far as non-Canuck Leaf games go, he and Simpson are more or less fine. Boring as hell to listen to... think Joe Buck and Troy Aikman level boring... but fine. Romanuk and Millen are a f***ing clownshow that needed to be blasted off into space eons ago. Put back Bowen on the regional Sportsnet telecasts and find somebody not named Millen to flank him. It's like Romanuk evolves with more hilarious f***ups over time. It begins with innocuous ones, like Mike "Bobcat" or mixing up a couple of players on the ice, but then evolves into calling Willy "Michael Nylander", and then evolves further into calling JVR "Vanbiesbrouck" and "Nieuwendyk". And then there's the time he evolved and ascended into a plane of stupidity nobody even knew existed when he thought Jeff Chychrun was dead and mixed him up with Steve Chiasson while Jeff Chychrun is alive and well, probably going "WTF" when he heard Romanuk talk about his "death". It doesn't help that he's paired with Greg "lemme pick one stat and harp on it all game long while I keep calling Dan Bylsma 'Lindy Ruff'" Millen, but come on. Romanuk can be the 2nd guy for national coverage for all I care and he can do the rare Leaf Wed/Sun national games while Hughson does Saturday games and occasionally moonlights on Wednesdays and Sundays for the national bracket. But come on, why can't we have Bowen for the regional SN games?

As far as guys like Bobcat and the radio talking heads go... ignore the shock jocks and just tune them out. they're worthless for the most part. Especially a guy like Bobcat who doesn't even follow hockey. Just be thankful Mike Wilner doesn't do Leafs talk.

 

[LeafsNation75]

the entire rest of canada believes there is a toronto bias in hockey media. So rogers employing deliberately neutral or even slightly anti-leaf media members helps to appeal to those not from toronto. It's disgusting that when you listen to an Edmonton or calgary game the callers are noticeably hoping the home team wins, not homers but at least want the tem they always call to win, but we get hughson who'd rather the florida panthers win such is his hatred toward the leafs

The thing is when Rogers will show a national game involving the Oilers and Flames if they are not playing against each other, their regional broadcasters get to broadcast their nationally televised games. When I see that I say to myself why the hell was Joe Bowen replaced on TV for Paul Romanuk, if they can get their regional announcers broadcasting their national games. It's also the same for Canucks nationally televised games if it the 2nd game scheduled to be shown a Wednesday night.

 

[LeafsNation75]

Hughson's a massive Canuck homer, but as far as non-Canuck Leaf games go, he and Simpson are more or less fine. Boring as hell to listen to... think Joe Buck and Troy Aikman level boring... but fine. Romanuk and Millen are a ****ing clownshow that needed to be blasted off into space eons ago. Put back Bowen on the regional Sportsnet telecasts and find somebody not named Millen to flank him. It's like Romanuk evolves with more hilarious ****ups over time. It begins with innocuous ones, like Mike "Bobcat" or mixing up a couple of players on the ice, but then evolves into calling Willy "Michael Nylander", and then evolves further into calling JVR "Vanbiesbrouck" and "Nieuwendyk". And then there's the time he evolved and ascended into a plane of stupidity nobody even knew existed when he thought Jeff Chychrun was dead and mixed him up with Steve Chiasson while Jeff Chychrun is alive and well, probably going "WTF" when he heard Romanuk talk about his "death". It doesn't help that he's paired with Greg "lemme pick one stat and harp on it all game long while I keep calling Dan Bylsma 'Lindy Ruff'" Millen, but come on. Romanuk can be the 2nd guy for national coverage for all I care and he can do the rare Leaf Wed/Sun national games while Hughson does Saturday games and occasionally moonlights on Wednesdays and Sundays for the national bracket. But come on, why can't we have Bowen for the regional SN games?

As far as guys like Bobcat and the radio talking heads go... ignore the shock jocks and just tune them out. they're worthless for the most part. Especially a guy like Bobcat who doesn't even follow hockey. Just be thankful Mike Wilner doesn't do Leafs talk.

For as bad as Hughson and Simpson are with their Leafs hate, I think it was a lot worse when Glenn Healy was the third commentator and working games with them.

 

[Rude Dog]

Strange you included Brunt. He is a wings fan i believe, but imo is the most interesting and independent thinker on toronto radio. Unlike many radio hosts who talk to hear themselves, i find him very insightful. Not a fan of Shannon.

 

[DavePoulin4PM]

For as bad as Hughson and Simpson are with their Leafs hate, I think it was a lot worse when Glenn Healy was the third commentator and working games with them.

It was worse when Healy was there for who? All Glenn does is spit the truth and back it up with facts. He often acts like the smartest guy in the room because he is the smartest guy in the room.

Many fans watch this team through rose coloured glasses. Guess it was frustrating that Healy would provide a dose of reality?

 

[LeafsNation75]

It was worse when Healy was there for who? All Glenn does is spit the truth and back it up with facts. He often acts like the smartest guy in the room because he is the smartest guy in the room.

Many fans watch this team through rose coloured glasses. Guess it was frustrating that Healy would provide a dose of reality?

Yeah just like the time he crapped on the Leafs for not selecting Brendan Gallagher in the 5th round of the 2010 draft because they passed on him with the 144th and 146th picks, since Montreal took him 147th overall.

 

[Ryan Michaels]

When someone like Jim Hughson has said "There is nothing better on a Saturday night than defeating the Maple Leafs" when the Canucks defeated them in Vancouver this past season, I wish Rogers would have taken him off from broadcasting anymore Leafs games. Yes we know deep down he loves the Canucks and I guess you can say Rogers does not care about that, however for their lead broadcaster to say something like that during a national broadcast when he is supposed to be impartial was very stupid.

Thats not a dig at the leafs, its much closer to praise. Its gripes like these that make this argument ridiculous, and i specifically targeted this one because ive seen it time and time again, its not exactly a smoking gun.

 

[LeafsNation75]

Thats not a dig at the leafs, its much closer to praise. Its gripes like these that make this argument ridiculous, and i specifically targeted this one because ive seen it time and time again, its not exactly a smoking gun.

Still when was the last time you heard a broadcaster on a national broadcast say how great it is when one team defeats the other one? If Joe Bowen say that on the radio it's fine because he works for the Leafs and is expected to be a homer towards them. So for Hughson there should have been a different set of rules.

 

[Stephen]

Why is it so upsetting to hear commentators speaking negatively about your team, especially when they're good?

 

[Jmo89]

Hughson is really the only one who bothers me. Simpson has actually leveled out alot the past couple years IMO and maybe that's because he covers the Leafs so much now. Hughson is blatantly anti-leaf. I don't need a commentator to be pro-leaf, but I'd like them to at least be neutral and not giddy when things are going bad.

As for the others you mentioned I just chalk it up to a case of the media being the media. Unfortunately the majority of media died awhile ago and has mostly become about negativity. Its not surprising that the sports media has followed suit.

What's that old saying? Negative attention is still attention? Who cares about that local positive story, here's one about someone who died half way across the world.

The media's obsession with negativity along with the Leafs being very very bad for a long time* has created a bunch of sports journalists who don't know how to be positive about anything. Frankly, in many cases they're simply poor at their jobs.

*I recognize that the Leafs being so bad for so long has somewhat created this problem for themselves, but I find blind optimism and blind pessimism to be equally detrimental.

 

[LeafsNation75]

Hughson is really the only one who bothers me. Simpson has actually leveled out alot the past couple years IMO and maybe that's because he covers the Leafs so much now. Hughson is blatantly anti-leaf. I don't need a commentator to be pro-leaf, but I'd like them to at least be neutral and not giddy when things are going bad.

As for the others you mentioned I just chalk it up to a case of the media being the media. Unfortunately the majority of media died awhile ago and has mostly become about negativity. Its not surprising that the sports media has followed suit.

What's that old saying? Negative attention is still attention? Who cares about that local positive story, here's one about someone who died half way across the world.

The media's obsession with negativity along with the Leafs being very very bad for a long time* has created a bunch of sports journalists who don't know how to be positive about anything. Frankly, in many cases they're simply poor at their jobs.

*I recognize that the Leafs being so bad for so long has somewhat created this problem for themselves, but I find blind optimism and blind pessimism to be equally detrimental.

I know this is not the same situation with negative broadcasters like Hughson, but I remember Elliotte Friedman once said if he writes a positive story about the Maple Leafs, he says fans of the other 6 Canadian teams will e-mail him or message him on Twitter to stop with writing positive stories about the Leafs since they think he is being pro Toronto. When he says that it's an example that you can not win with how the media looks at the Leafs.

 

[Jmo89]

I know this is not the same situation with negative broadcasters like Hughson, but I remember Elliotte Friedman once said if he writes a positive story about the Maple Leafs, he says fans of the other 6 Canadian teams will e-mail him or message him on Twitter to stop with writing positive stories about the Leafs since they think he is being pro Toronto. When he says that it's an example that you can not win with how the media looks at the Leafs.

Hah, that's a funny remark I haven't heard before. It does seem to be a case of two extremes. Other fans hear too much about Toronto, and because of that Toronto fans deal with alot of the bashing.

I still face-palm when CBC did that intermission special where they talked about Toronto getting (if I remember correctly,) Vesey, Stamkos, and Matthews and pencilled them all into a lineup... And then they went back to the crew and basically bashed fans for dreaming about it.

So first they piss off the rest of Canada on a national broadcast with an intermission of Toronto having the perfect offseason, and then they blame it on the Toronto fans.

 

[LeafsNation75]

Hah, that's a funny remark I haven't heard before. It does seem to be a case of two extremes. Other fans hear too much about Toronto, and because of that Toronto fans deal with alot of the bashing.

I still face-palm when CBC did that intermission special where they talked about Toronto getting (if I remember correctly,) Vesey, Stamkos, and Matthews and pencilled them all into a lineup... And then they went back to the crew and basically bashed fans for dreaming about it.

So first they piss off the rest of Canada on a national broadcast with an intermission of Toronto having the perfect offseason, and then they blame it on the Toronto fans.

I honestly don't remember that intermission segment. However I guess it happened since Toronto still has the highest amount of people watching HNIC and they were going for the ratings. It's why TSN and Sportsnet might start off with the Leafs as their lead story.

 

[diceman934]

Everybody has bias. If you think you aren't biased, or anyone else should not be biased, then you don't understand bias. You just understand that and take it for what it is.

I reply to a comment calling them neutral and fair and said they are bais which means that they are not neutral and fair. And now you are attempting to say that everyone is bais and saying I do not understand bais when it is clearly you that seems to struggle with gasping what bais is as it is not neutral and fair as is my point!

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

I actually stopped listening to the FAN590 15 years ago because of vitriolic pundits like McCowan and Damien Cox. I still remember the day too: it was about 10 games into Eddie Belfour's stint with the Leafs and he had a bad start. They were ripping into Pat Quinn really bad and McCown said Quinn's tenure as GM has been "nothing but disaster after disaster" (this of course after going to the conference finals twice while he was coach, one of which while he was coach and GM). Belfour turned things around shortly after that and in my opinion was the best goalie the Leafs had in the modern era.

Then he stated something like "name another franchise with so few accomplishments in the last 40 years" or some such and I had enough and called in and listed off 5 teams easily that were even worse than the Leafs over that duration (Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, Detroit all at the time had been pretty crap for a long time, can't remember who else). The egomaniac can't stand being wrong so he said "It sounds like you need another station to listen to." so I took his advice and stopped listening pretty much to all sports radio that day and haven't looked back. It's nothing but poison.

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

McCown doesn’t know much about hockey or baseball so take everything he says with a grain of salt.
For years he’s had to promote basketball so of course he’s dumped on hockey and the Leafs.

I almost vomited when McCown was named somewhere in the list of 100 most influential people in hockey a while back (more than 10 years ago). Never quite understood the reasoning behind it, something about having helped found the St. Mike's Majors I think (now defunct I believe).

 

[therealkoho]

how were they trashing the team?

nobody really knows Daisy, but it seems to be a narrative that has caught on

 

[therealkoho]

I almost vomited when McCown was named somewhere in the list of 100 most influential people in hockey a while back (more than 10 years ago). Never quite understood the reasoning behind it, something about having helped found the St. Mike's Majors I think (now defunct I believe).

The Bobcat has done many things in Toronto but founding the Majors isn't one of them. There are more then a few posters here whom I really respect for both their general hockey knowledge and their ability to not mythologize that knowledge, nor become fawning fans.

McCown once kicked Bettman off his show after the umpteenth argument they had on air, no one else would dare, and Bettman still comes on.

 

[therealkoho]

Strange you included Brunt. He is a wings fan i believe, but imo is the most interesting and independent thinker on toronto radio. Unlike many radio hosts who talk to hear themselves, i find him very insightful. Not a fan of Shannon.

Brunt is indeed and that goes back to the Hamilton Jr Red Wings, Cox who like Brunt is also from Hamilton is a Bruins fan, The Bobcat is a bleed blue Leafs fan from Scarborough and Shannon as I understand it grew up a Canadiens fan.

Brunt is a really good writer, if haven't read his books you might want to look them up

 

[therealkoho]

I actually stopped listening to the FAN590 15 years ago because of vitriolic pundits like McCowan and Damien Cox. I still remember the day too: it was about 10 games into Eddie Belfour's stint with the Leafs and he had a bad start. They were ripping into Pat Quinn really bad and McCown said Quinn's tenure as GM has been "nothing but disaster after disaster" (this of course after going to the conference finals twice while he was coach, one of which while he was coach and GM). Belfour turned things around shortly after that and in my opinion was the best goalie the Leafs had in the modern era.

Then he stated something like "name another franchise with so few accomplishments in the last 40 years" or some such and I had enough and called in and listed off 5 teams easily that were even worse than the Leafs over that duration (Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, Detroit all at the time had been pretty crap for a long time, can't remember who else). The egomaniac can't stand being wrong so he said "It sounds like you need another station to listen to." so I took his advice and stopped listening pretty much to all sports radio that day and haven't looked back. It's nothing but poison.

link?