The only thing I can see (outside of the obvious, as noted) is that she doesn’t have a traditional sportscaster-style delivery. She talks like a normal person having a normal conversation, and we’re used to getting blasted with high volume chatter. It’s the difference between listening to an audiobook and getting harangued by a carny.
Personally I think she brings a lot of legitimate insight to the game. She points out technical details that even committed hockey fans are unlikely to notice, and that’s not common in national broadcasts. I’ve learned from listening to her, which is more than I can say for the majority of color guys. We do not need to be told at 90 decibels that the game is going to hinge on which team wants it more, or that so-and-so is a real heart and soul player. It’s more interesting to know that Aho opened up his hips as he picked up that loose puck, which gave him the stability and heads-up awareness to make the right pass.
The best description I’ve seen of the USA broadcast was when someone said it’s like baseball-style commentary at a hockey pace. In that context, if Mlezcko just chattered and became white noise to ignore, she’d get roasted even harder. As it is, she’s giving us stuff to think about and that’s not working either because people don’t think she sounds “right”. It makes you wonder what people really want, except again for the obvious.
