Colorado Avalanche Media Coverage Part IV

[Metallo]

Most of the job is getting access to information and being palatable.

To get info you need to ask good questions and have some credibility. For that you need knowledge. Also a reporter is not a tape recorder. You need to process the information, fact check, and also add some perspective.

 

[John Mandalorian]

To get info you need to ask good questions and have some credibility. For that you need knowledge. Also a reporter is not a tape recorder. You need to process the information, fact check, and also add some perspective.

“Adding some perspective” is typically where things go wrong. No thanks.

 

[5280]

My vote is for Sadowski, I hate hyperbolic reporting.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Folks, I’m 1000% not qualified. Won’t be me.

Rick is a good guy, but I don’t think he wants to do the work. He shows up late to practice, complains about every little thing, and goes about his day. He’s getting up there too so not sure how long he’ll do it.

Ryan is a good guy and will be missed. Some of his lack of knowledge on hockey things was evident but he worked his ass off and was nice to everyone. I expect him to be on the National scene within 5 years.

They’ll likely bring in someone from the outside, which is good. No idea who that might be. The Avs don’t give much access to anyone but they don’t have problems giving it to The Athletic so whoever they bring in will be okay.

 

[Balthazar]

Ryan is a good guy and will be missed. Some of his lack of knowledge on hockey things was evident but he worked his ass off and was nice to everyone. I expect him to be on the National scene within 5 years.

I can see that.

 

[Avs_19]

Dater and Chambers show up when they feel like it, Sadowski shows up late, and AJ will occasionally sleep in because he played video games all night.

People are happy they don't have to read Clark's hyperbolic and nerdy tweets though.....

 

[Balthazar]

Dater and Chambers show up when they feel like it, Sadowski shows up late, and AJ will occasionally sleep in because he played video games all night.

People are happy they don't have to read Clark's hyperbolic and nerdy tweets though.....

Happy to get a new guy yes.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Clark gave effort. Clark was also not a reporter.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Folks, I’m 1000% not qualified. Won’t be me.

Rick is a good guy, but I don’t think he wants to do the work. He shows up late to practice, complains about every little thing, and goes about his day. He’s getting up there too so not sure how long he’ll do it.

Ryan is a good guy and will be missed. Some of his lack of knowledge on hockey things was evident but he worked his ass off and was nice to everyone. I expect him to be on the National scene within 5 years.

They’ll likely bring in someone from the outside, which is good. No idea who that might be. The Avs don’t give much access to anyone but they don’t have problems giving it to The Athletic so whoever they bring in will be okay.

It’s probably due to who they’ve hired and not out of brand loyalty. If The Athletic hires someone who they didn’t like or trust, it won’t matter if they’re from the Athletic.

 

[Hasbro]

My vote would go for someone who previously covered the Leafs or the Habs and would bring some kind of real hockey journalism culture to the Avalanche. Something they didn't have in 25 years.

I'd be worried about them bringing those Canadian hockey journalism "ethics" with them.

 

[Metallo]

I'd be worried about them bringing those Canadian hockey journalism "ethics" with them.

Not sure what you are referring to.
P.S. In fact I have no idea at all.

 

[Hasbro]

Not sure what you are referring to.
P.S. In fact I have no idea at all.

Trade rumors, nationalism and hot dog vendors.

 

[Metallo]

Trade rumors, nationalism and hot dog vendors.

The first two I can see but I don’t get the 3rd one.

 

[Islay1989]

The first two I can see but I don’t get the 3rd one.

Steve Simmonds on Kessel.

 

[MarkT]

I think Clark moving on is overall a good thing. I actually think he's perfect for the Seattle market. He writes as if his audience knows very little about the team and about hockey in general, so that's perfect for a new hockey market. He's also black and extremely "progressive", which is also perfect for Seattle. It also sounds like he'll continue to be one of the lead national writers for any social justice (comments disabled) topics, which he's also well-suited to.

Meanwhile, we'll be getting someone new, and the odds of that person being as uninformed/ignorant about hockey as Clark are (hopefully) quite low. At the same time, given the quality of most of the writers for The Athletic, the odds of Clark being replaced by someone at least as good if not better than him are quite high.

So basically, Clark gets to write for a market perfect for him and about topics he actually cares about (i.e. not hockey) and we should be getting a writer at least as good as Clark but who most likely actually knows and cares about hockey. This looks to be a huge win-win for everyone involved.

 

[Goulet17]

Disappointed to lose him from the market as he seemed to be directly fed information from Sakic and Co. I am not sure that anyone fills that void in the current Avalanche media market, so that maybe a true loss. Perhaps the new Athletic reporter for Colorado will be able to fill that void.

As for Clark, he had a different focus and he was not a true beat reporter, which was fine. It seemed like Clark was viewed by the Athletic and others as a rising media star, so it should not be a surprise that he is moving on to another market.

 

[Metallo]

I think Clark moving on is overall a good thing. I actually think he's perfect for the Seattle market. He writes as if his audience knows very little about the team and about hockey in general, so that's perfect for a new hockey market. He's also black and extremely "progressive", which is also perfect for Seattle. It also sounds like he'll continue to be one of the lead national writers for any social justice (comments disabled) topics, which he's also well-suited to.

Meanwhile, we'll be getting someone new, and the odds of that person being as uninformed/ignorant about hockey as Clark are (hopefully) quite low. At the same time, given the quality of most of the writers for The Athletic, the odds of Clark being replaced by someone at least as good if not better than him are quite high.

So basically, Clark gets to write for a market perfect for him and about topics he actually cares about (i.e. not hockey) and we should be getting a writer at least as good as Clark but who most likely actually knows and cares about hockey. This looks to be a huge win-win for everyone involved.

I hope you are right. Avs fan really deserve good coverage.

 

[Metallo]

Disappointed to lose him from the market as he seemed to be directly fed information from Sakic and Co. I am not sure that anyone fills that void in the current Avalanche media market, so that maybe a true loss. Perhaps the new Athletic reporter for Colorado will be able to fill that void.

As for Clark, he had a different focus and he was not a true beat reporter, which was fine. It seemed like Clark was viewed by the Athletic and others as a rising media star, so it should not be a surprise that he is moving on to another market.

Good riddance if you ask me. Don’t need another journalist not interested in hockey and only interested in the Avs as a stepping stone to something else.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Good riddance if you ask me. Don’t need another journalist not interested in hockey and only interested in the Avs as a stepping stone to something else.

Your heads in the clouds with this. Keep in mind that in almost all US markets, hockey is competing with the NFL, MLB, and the NBA.

Someone who’s a) good; b) knowledgeable about hockey; and c) dedicated to remaining in Denver is a very small cross section of people if you represent it in a vin diagram. It’s not realistic. You might as well ask for a
unicorn while you’re at it. It’s not that it’s impossible but it’s very unlikely.

This person you’re describing is most likely from Canada. If that person were to come to the Avs, they’d most likely try to make it back to a Canadian market as soon as possible as they’d feel like they’re being wasted.

I think the people who are ok with another version of Clark are being practical and realistic regarding the market realities.

 

[Islay1989]

Good riddance if you ask me. Don’t need another journalist not interested in hockey and only interested in the Avs as a stepping stone to something else.

lol. Imagine thinking that being a regional reporter will be someone's ultimate inspiration. 99% of the people will treat this gig as a stepping stone.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Sadowski is professional and to the point but he’s generally like 3-4 hours delayed on any news that breaks.

 

[Pokecheque]

Good riddance if you ask me. Don’t need another journalist not interested in hockey and only interested in the Avs as a stepping stone to something else.

You must think the Avs beat reporter gig is like the best job in the world or something.

By all accounts Clark put the work in, it's one of many reasons he's a rising star. Who cares if he viewed or didn't view the job as a stepping stone to something greater? Are you mad at Lauren Gardner because she had ambitions beyond Altitude? All we should care about is the job they do while they're here. Whether you liked his work or not is purely subjective but he put the effort in regardless.

And to say Clark "wasn't interested in hockey" is asinine to say the least.

 

[S E P H]

I am a big believer that to be a great journalist for a particular sport, you have to play it to a certain level. I am not talking about you have to make the World Junior club for any nation, but playing the sport, even in your late forties can grasp concepts as a writer that you probably wouldn't have thought of by simply watching the games. I wouldn't even care if it was similar sports like roller hockey or floorball either.

Would you lot want business majors to write dedicated articles for the New England Journal of Medicine? It's the same way where you don't want a rugby writer making articles for Formula 1...it just doesn't make sense. I appreciate Clark, I agree with the others where he put the work in, but I mean that's what majority of people do at their jobs right? Again I think a lot are turning a bit of a blind eye that majority of his articles were fluff pieces to make the subscription quota like how the police conduct speed traps. Plus you can make a good case that he wasn't as developed into the sport as others.

I think what happened is we've been stuck by below-average blokes that got "grandfathered" into the positions they have. Denver Post was already a disaster like twenty years ago and Dater was hired off the streets it seems like and then DP having idiots in head offices' hired Chambers as part of the club to grandfather him into as well. Then DNVR is a fanbase website made by fans, AJ is just the same. Sadowski is probably at the age where he doesn't give a damn anymore like Bob McKenzie. Which means we were stuck left with Terry Frei - who was actually quite good - and even if he was harshly fired, he went on a stupid tangent which was ridiculous to bring up in the first place. Clark is just going be another piece of meh since he had like zero passion for our club and that shows for how insanely short his time was here.

 

[Islay1989]

To quote Arrigo Sacchi, you don't need to be a horse to become a jockey.

And Terry Frei most certainly wasn't good.

 

[MarkT]

You must think the Avs beat reporter gig is like the best job in the world or something.

By all accounts Clark put the work in, it's one of many reasons he's a rising star. Who cares if he viewed or didn't view the job as a stepping stone to something greater? Are you mad at Lauren Gardner because she had ambitions beyond Altitude? All we should care about is the job they do while they're here. Whether you liked his work or not is purely subjective but he put the effort in regardless.

And to say Clark "wasn't interested in hockey" is asinine to say the least.

I disagree that whether or not his work was good is purely subjective. If you know anything about writing or about journalism, it's easy to objectively point out the differences between Clark and someone like Russo. Anyone looking at those two objectively can tell you that Russo is several levels above Clark when it comes to writing about hockey and being a hockey journalist. Now of course we can't expect every writer to be among the best, but we can expect that the writer has an above-average level or interest and knowledge in the topic they are writing about. Clark did not have that. His interest in hockey is clearly below the level of most fans, and his knowledge of the game is beginner-level. He was completely incapable of speculating intelligently about roster movement or analyzing gameplay. He was great when he had a one-on-one interview to base his article about, or he was doing an in-depth piece about a player, but those are the skills I want in a monthly magazine writer, not a semi-daily beat reporter. So, yes, he is clearly a hard-worker has some skills as a writer, but that's clearly not everything you need to be a good hockey reporter.

I think maybe my view on Clark is different than some because I don't really read Dater (although I used to) or DNVR or Chambers. So I'm not comparing him to those guys. If I were I'd probably think he's great. What I read is pretty much every writer on the Athletic staff, and by that standard Clark is one of the worst.