Sportsnet: Paul Romanuk

[Duke Silver]

Wow, unpopular opinion here but I enjoy his play-by-play. It was refreshing last night to hear him correctly call that Petrecki tip-in as soon as it happened. I think his goal calls are great, Bowen's over-the-top ones never did it for me. There were a few awkward silences that reminded me of soccer announcers but overall I remember saying to myself a few times that I enjoyed his call.

 

[Michael Gary Scott]

Bowen goes off on tangents and screws up player names, but he has a passion for the Leafs and its clear. He's exciting and fun to listen to. Romanuk is very bland, and also screws up player names. I dont know why all the twitter bloggers love him so. I miss Joe big time. Hes the true voice of the leafs.

 

[Kyle Doobas*]

New guy's still getting his feet wet. Give yourselves a chance to adjust to the change. His voice itself might not be as exciting as JB's, but the whole 'holy mackinaw'/'ric-o-cheeet' schtick was getting pretty tired, and as others have mentioned, I like that PR is less of a Leafs homer and tries to engage GM in interesting conversations instead of just going off on irrelevant tangents during play, cracking the same old jokes about GM being a bad goalie, blah blah blah....

 

[ACC1224]

IMO, Regional games should have a Homer announcer.

 

[inthe6ix]

Don't like him at all.

Seems like whenever we score, there is silence as if he's ruffling through his papers trying to get the name of the player to match to their number. And hell, if you're gonna be the voice of our games, at least get their names right.

Season hasn't even started and I would take Bob Cole over him and I can't stand that Habs homer.

 

[Kyle Doobas*]

if you're gonna be the voice of our games, at least get their names right. .

The guy's new and it's the pre-season, with a lot of different players wearing some odd numbers. Naturally he'll become more familiar with the players over the next few broadcasts. It's not like the guy's completely senile with no hope of ever improving in that regard.

 

[rojac]

IMO, Regional games should have a Homer announcer.

Perhaps, but at most, we would have had Bowen for, I think, 15 regional Sportsnet games.

 

[InterceptSchenn]

Bowen is terrible. Guy can't go 20 seconds without talking about some nonsense and laughs like a fool in the middle of the game. PR is a breath of fresh air. At least he creates actual hockey discussions. Just get rid of Millen, the guy basis everything on "confidence".

 

[Bluelines]

He called Kessel, JVR yesterday as well. I prefer Bowen.

Its his pre-season too .. ... I noticed the chemistry bewteen him and Millen seems off to... but h's is one of our great hockey commentators, I'm sure by Novemeber he will be in great form.

 

[Cappayne]

PR is a breath of fresh air. At least he creates actual hockey discussions. Just get rid of Millen, the guy basis everything on "confidence".

Agreed. Millen was a much better compliment to Bowen's style than PR. PR needs someone with actual hockey knowledge to engage in discussions with him and answer his questions.

 

[bansheebeat]

Bowen for sure. Although I really liked that one line last night. Something like:

"Gardiner got all of the puck. Makarov got slightly more than all of the puck."

 

[kyleblogskyle]

Thanks god someone else made this thread. He is terrible. Just not entertaining. Bowen, whether you loved or hated him, at least made you care about the game. He made even the most boring game fun, bringing you to the edge of your seat.

Let's start a grassroots campaign to get him back. I am tweeting it right now.

#BringBackBowen

 

[Territory]

It drives me nuts when he messes up names. Like how do you mistake Kessel for JVR.

 

[mcleex]

Meh, not a big fan to be honest. Although when the Raptors first got Matt Devlin as the announcer to replace Chuck Swirsky (the biggest homer back then) I wasn't a fan either but then Devlin grew on me.

Maybe Romanuk will grow on me over time as well, although he seems boring. Doesn't really have that excitement to his voice even when a goal is scored.

Some things people mentioned that I agree with, I like how he asks articulate questions as someone mentioned but at the same time he also isn't that inspired.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Have to say I used to like him, but some of his mistakes are glaring in the Leafs broadcasts you would not hear TSN's play by play guys make.

 

[Cappayne]

Doesn't really have that excitement to his voice even when a goal is scored.

One thing I noticed is that he sounds just as excited for a Leafs goal as an opposition's goal. Obviously it's cool to get really excited if the other team scores a sweet goal but in general the excitement level should always be high(er) for a Leafs goal when you are the Leafs broadcaster.

 

[Quares27]

Why are people surprised that a guy who's in his first game commentating doesn't know every player? especially when a bunch of them aren't even NHLers. Bowen has been commentating 40 Leafs games a season for years and still got player names wrong all the time.

 

[Cleets]

Romanuk is terrible. Felt like I was watching someone call a high school game.

Where have all the 'Bob Cole' and 'Harry Neale' types gone?

 

[FifthLine]

Was going to make this thread the other day. He's awful. He literally doesn't even know who any of our players are.

 

[Leafidelity]

Why are people surprised that a guy who's in his first game commentating doesn't know every player? especially when a bunch of them aren't even NHLers. Bowen has been commentating 40 Leafs games a season for years and still got player names wrong all the time.

Shouldn't he have prepared this summer? Isn't this is job? He works for Sportsnet, stick in a random gametape from last year and call over it. I've never seen an announcer so unprepared for a game. He was mixing up players with completely different numbers and body sizes. If you listen to any other team the Leafs are playing against, they're never that bad.

 

[hockeyfanz*]

Interested to know the boards thoughts on him. Do you think he is better/worse than Bowen? Noticed that he can't tell the difference between Leivo & Kadri…

Romanuk kinda sucks...but better than Bowen who is downright awful. I prefer Chris Cuthbert. I like his enthusiasm.

 

[Bullseye]

Nobody is better than Joe Bowen. period.

 

[JMcLeaf]

Not a fan so far

 

[Bullseye]

Was going to make this thread the other day. He's awful. He literally doesn't even know who any of our players are.

It's frickin preseason - no play-by-play guy in the league knows all the names right now...

 

[TOGuy14]

I was never a fan of Bowen but I can't think of a time when an game caller took me out of the game as much as Romanuk did, he was awful.

The only thing worse than him was that first game on Leafs TV...