The thing that bothers me the most is that he's American...
Canadian team, Canadian game, American voice bringing it to a Canadian audience. It's not that I hate Americans, it's just that hockey is deep culture here, and it makes sense that we listen to a voice that comes from these parts when we listen to our own local team. Just the sound of his voice is an anachronism in a hard working hockey town in Northern Canada. It also seems to say there are no Canadians or Edmontonians good enough to do it.
Nationality shouldn't mean a lick, last that I checked the guys on the ice aren't all Canadians or Edmontonians either.
That said I don't care about his voice as I have heard much worse in life. What I do care about is having the PBP guy paint me a picture with his words. ie "Elias dumps the puck in, Justin Schultz beats Elias to the puck, curls around the net and passes to Hall cutting up the middle, Hall takes it wide and fires a hard wrister that Brodeur deflects into the stands"
Instead from what I saw in preseason it'd be "Elias dumps it in, you know Bob Elias played with former Oiler Jason Arnott on the Devils last Cup winning team, do you remember who the Oilers got in return for Arnott from the Devils? Faceoff coming up in the Oilers zone, RNH lines up for the draw, so any idea on that Bob, I'll give you a hint......". Now naturally Stauffer would know the answer because he's sharp that way but that's just my example of how he does things.
He seems like a nice guy and all, but the purpose of radio at least in my eyes is to do PBP for those that cannot watch the game so that they can follow and basically picture the game through their ears as ridiculous as that sounds.
