Great thread
@CharasLazyWrister
Most of the sentiments pro and con about Jack have already been posted here and I can't disagree with a lot of what's been said on either side of the fence. I do appreciate how difficult it is to be a play by play announcer especially for hockey. The challenge for guys like Jack (and Doc Emerick) is to be engaging, exciting at the right times, and not to mail it in. In a lot of ways I think Jack has taken many pages from Doc's playbook (for better or worse depending on your opinion of Doc) with the catch phrases and the way he uses them. Both try to not be repetitive which I think is cool (though not necessarily all the catch phrases but hey how many ways can you call a dump in) and he does take the pulse of the game and works with it.
Let's face it, calling just about 82 games for pretty much the same audience is gonna drive some people nuts.
What I like about Jack:
1) He clearly loves the sport
2) He definitely does his homework
3) He's not boring or repetitive
4) He tries to call things down the middle for the most part
5) He's enthusiastic
6) He's a local guy who's been a Bruins fan all his life and he has a clear understanding of the team, its history and the relationship with the fans
What I don't:
1) He does tend to go overboard at times (which he seems to be aware of)
2) The pontificating. I can do without that
3) Can't the puck go off
the glass instead of
off glass?
In all, I think Jack is a self-aware guy and does make an effort to do the best he can. That said, I would have loved Dave Goucher as some have mentioned too
