The Official Ottawa Sports Radio Thread #5

[SanderSen]

Pierre is fine, he's often the best segment in the morning. But for sure he's conflicted here, the Pens are NBC's flagship team. Pierre and NBC have been covering "the best player in the world" for years. Seeing them getting shut down in dramatic fashion is tough to explain to a US market. Pierre knows how good the Sens are but like every pundit out there figured the magical Pens would make short work of them.

Bingo. And to be fair he has been giving Ottawa the dark horse label, it is just with the Pens it is a bit coloured.

He even talked about a slash on Cole Ottawa wasn't called for, which is funny the way the Pens were slashing Sen's hands. Burrows was clearly can opened when he got injury but I have not heard or read a single media comment about that "should have been a 5 on 3" call - that's ok by me but the hypocrisy of calling out non-calls on Ottawa is pretty rich.

 

[trobby]

The boys at the team and Pierre have been testy with each other over the last little while. They sound like an old couple heading for a divorce.

Pierre was just spewing a lot of BS this morning.

 

[BatherSeason]

The boys at the team and Pierre have been testy with each other over the last little while. They sound like an old couple heading for a divorce.

Pierre was just spewing a lot of BS this morning.

Pierre has been spewing BS for a long, long time.

Remember when Justin Pogge was gonna be the best goalie that ever played in the league, solely based on him playing for the National Junior team? Or when Brian Elliott wouldn't survive one season in the NHL because goalies drafted late in drafts NEVER win Cups? Where is Justin Pogge now?

(Yes, I know Elliott is no good, but teams keep throwing money at him)

 

[Spex]

Good for JR. I like McGuire, but what a load of BS.

Really? I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder, but I found JR coming off as petty this morning.

Ok, so Pierre offered up a theory on why the Pens sucked the other night, so what? Should a host, who's also the program director btw, really focus on that and turn it into a pissing match with a guest about traffic and transportation options?

 

[otown]

Really? I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder, but I found JR coming off as petty this morning.

Ok, so Pierre offered up a theory on why the Pens sucked the other night, so what? Should a host, who's also the program director btw, really focus on that and turn it into a pissing match with a guest about traffic and transportation options?

Not petty at all. Pierre suggested something and JR simply pointed out that he didn't think that would have been a legitimate reason for not practicing at the CTC. Pierre was back-peddling once he realized that it wasn't going to fly with JR and wanted to move forward. Nothing wrong with holding Pierre accountable for his opinions.

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

Cool, so I just realised why Simmer irks at time. He's like a faux-Pierre McGuire. Just now they were taking calls and emails about where people were when Alfie scored that great goal. Then Simmer turns it into all sorts of minutiae about that town and so on, just a buzzkill. I'd rather just hear more emails and callers and so on, with focus on that rather than on yourself, it's a bit of a derailment. On the plus side, he has REALLY got back on the rails in the next segment. His hockey insights are so, so good. Thanks!


I kinda did like the J.R. and Pierre going back and forth about the traffic thing.

 

[Stylizer1]

I think why Pierre started to get crusty was JR saying that it was either a dumb or stupid excuse.

 

[Samsquanch]

Lmfao we just had another great episode of "Melnyk says the darndest things".

7-1 prediction tonight. We will easily beat Nashville or Anaheim. Emphasis on easily. Some good stuff in there.

Pretty sure this point the dude is just embracing his persona of being an outspoken idiot.

 

[Langdon Alger]

That's the first time I've ever heard Pierre get annoyed on radio or TV. He's usually in a good mood and quite positive. His argument was pretty dumb though.

 

[Senscore]

Lmfao we just had another great episode of "Melnyk says the darndest things".

7-1 prediction tonight. We will easily beat Nashville or Anaheim. Emphasis on easily. Some good stuff in there.

Pretty sure this point the dude is just embracing his persona of being an outspoken idiot.

He said it would either be a blowout victory for us or a one goal nailbiter that could go either way.

 

[OmniSens]

Not radio, but did anyone watch Tim and Sid today? Kelly Hrudey, Nick Kypreos and Elliotte Friedman stuck in traffic going to the arena on the phone with Sid. This was the funniest and best interview ever. Hilarious.

 

[NyQuil]

Not radio, but did anyone watch Tim and Sid today? Kelly Hrudey, Nick Kypreos and Elliotte Friedman stuck in traffic going to the arena on the phone with Sid. This was the funniest and best interview ever. Hilarious.

I saw Sid's take on the Pens-Sens and the fact that he thinks it's disrespectful to try to bring down a team's success because of the style that they play.

It's about winning.

I was impressed.

 

[OmniSens]

I saw Sid's take on the Pens-Sens and the fact that he thinks it's disrespectful to try to bring down a team's success because of the style that they play.

It's about winning.

I was impressed.

It was definitely a solid segment. Props for Sid taking it to the next level. Respect.

 

[Inkling]

I don't listen to TGOR but it's funny that Pierre only seems to be crapping on Ottawa, on Ottawa radio. He always seems to be complementary towards them on Montreal radio. Yesterday he talked at length about good memories being a part of the organization, and as I posted earlier, said that Ottawa needed to test the Pens depleted defence, rather than sit back, which is exactly what they did (i.e. test it to the tune of 4 early goals).

 

[Rand0m]

I don't listen to TGOR but it's funny that Pierre only seems to be crapping on Ottawa, on Ottawa radio. He always seems to be complementary towards them on Montreal radio. Yesterday he talked at length about good memories being a part of the organization, and as I posted earlier, said that Ottawa needed to test the Pens depleted defence, rather than sit back, which is exactly what they did (i.e. test it to the tune of 4 early goals).

I catch Pierre pretty much every morning as his segment is exactly when I'm driving my daughter to school. He's been pretty complimentary of the Sens all season, but it changed during the playoffs. My guess is that the Bruins, Rags and Pens are all NBC darlings and probably represent 95% of the games Pierre does all season long.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Pierre has been spewing BS for a long, long time.

Remember when Justin Pogge was gonna be the best goalie that ever played in the league, solely based on him playing for the National Junior team? Or when Brian Elliott wouldn't survive one season in the NHL because goalies drafted late in drafts NEVER win Cups? Where is Justin Pogge now?

(Yes, I know Elliott is no good, but teams keep throwing money at him)

Pierre has his favourite players and will never criticize them. There was a game Toronto played in Minnesota with Pogge in net where he allowed 5-6 goals and Pierre was saying how it wasn't his fault. On the other hand, he hated Elliott and would criticize him for poor rebound control. He also said Ottawa shouldn't get their hopes up when it came to Elliott because he was one of the last guys picked in his draft year. Dumb argument considering their have been some very good players who were never even drafted.

 

[SlyDawg]

I'm a staunch Pierre McGuire fan. I've had to defend him to others who think he's a blowhard and know it all and explain to them that it's how it is. It's not arrogance, it's just a really big wealth of knowledge and love for the game.

I haven't been listening to TSN1200 lately due to being on Pat leave and being busy with a newborn, so my opinions of his talks with JR and Steve are limited, but any time Pierre is on for the Sens on NBCSN, I have their feed to listen to because I enjoy the stories and commentary. I'm probably one of the few.

For the Rangers game, he was very complimentary of Karlsson and the Sens; nothing too negative and if he did say something, I generally agreed with him. If Ottawa does something stupid on a penalty and he calls them out on it, I will usually agree that Ottawa did something stupid and deserved it.

But the Pens vs Sens series has been testing me a bit, lately. Pierre is going pretty hard bias with the Pens. While I totally get it: He won a cup with them in the 90s, sometimes you can easily see the bias and the love he has for the Pens still and that he doesn't really think that Ottawa should be up against them. Pierre would have had them win in 5 and just throw one game to Ottawa because of the 'darkhorse' title. But now that we had them on a 2-1 lead, it feels like he's been giving passes towards the Pens and either calls that aren't called for them, he complains about it or calls that are called for them, he compliments about how great of a call it is.

I get that Crosby is considered far and wide as the best in the game still (EK and McDavid are very close to him in my books this year) but sometimes, it shows that the NHL has a very odd view about Canadian teams and that they tell their media branches to pump up the sexy picks. The Pens are just that. All because they won the lottery and got Crosby.

It's unfortunate but it's something I've learned to just accept: Pierre will always talk good about the Pens versus any of the teams facing them if he's with it. Until Crosby is out of the game there, I think we're in for a while longer for this.

But I totally agree with some here: If he used the whole transportation issue about the practice as an excuse, then I'm sorry, that was kinda weak and good on El Predicto on calling him out on it. And they're both professionals and have known each other for 15 years now. I'm sure they know they won't agree all the time and will call each other out on the radio when an opinion is wrong. Pierre just comes off as a lot more condescending sometimes than anything, but that's just the wealth of information he has.

Just food for thought for those hating on Pierre; he loves the game of hockey and the guy is a pretty smart fellow when it comes to the game. Does he have bad takes? Yeah, we all do. Just gotta take the good with the bad.

 

[Flamingo]

I agree, slydawg.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Roenick coming up at 5 today...will be interesting if he continues to roast our fanbase like most other media outlets have enjoyed thoroughly this post season.

 

[swiftwin]

Roenick coming up at 5 today...will be interesting if he continues to roast our fanbase like most other media outlets have enjoyed thoroughly this post season.

Sounds like he's doubling down...

 

[L'Aveuglette]

Sounds like he's doubling down...

I honestly can't believe the station is willingly inviting him to come on the air to bash the fanbase in the hopes that it will shame them into buying tickets. All it does is **** people off, including me.

 

[Fandlauer]

I can't believe they invited this ignorant dick just to come on and bash us. Terrestrial radio sucks anyway. Back to XM 24/7 for me.

 

[WebNewfie]

Totally agree and I'm actually a big supporter of the radio station. Listen all day from 7am to 6pm and pre and post games. Actually inviting this guy on to continue to pile on the team and the city without a single rebut from either Ian or Lee was completely asinine! I understand Ian's comment post interview that he's a pro and had no intention of arguing facts with JR, completely understand! But if that's the case why even bring him on? And for Lee to beg like a fan boy for JR to jump on the bandwagon was ridiculous. Like I said - big supporter of the station but so disappointed in both Lee and Ian right now. And yes Ian, I will email you under separate cover. Some small tweaks and the spot could have been great.

 

[Canadian Time]

Mendes, that was the stupidest decision you could have made having Roenick come on at this time, before this game. What was your train of thought?...hard-hitting journalism, reverse psychology? Seriously, that was freaking dumb. Attendancegate is such a lazy issue to report on, you folks are ridiculous. Wow, Melnyk misses out on a couple thousand tickets over 9 home games, there's a Pulitzer there for drama by golly.

 

[Stylizer1]

Totally agree and I'm actually a big supporter of the radio station. Listen all day from 7am to 6pm and pre and post games. Actually inviting this guy on to continue to pile on the team and the city without a single rebut from either Ian or Lee was completely asinine! I understand Ian's comment post interview that he's a pro and had no intention of arguing facts with JR, completely understand! But if that's the case why even bring him on? And for Lee to beg like a fan boy for JR to jump on the bandwagon was ridiculous. Like I said - big supporter of the station but so disappointed in both Lee and Ian right now. And yes Ian, I will email you under separate cover. Some small tweaks and the spot could have been great.

Mendes, that was the stupidest decision you could have made having Roenick come on at this time, before this game. What was your train of thought?...hard-hitting journalism, reverse psychology? Seriously, that was freaking dumb. Attendancegate is such a lazy issue to report on, you folks are ridiculous. Wow, Melnyk misses out on a couple thousand tickets over 9 home games, there's a Pulitzer there for drama by golly.

On a positive note the rest of the show was great.