Cupless44
Registered User
- Jun 25, 2014
- 7,154
- 3,298
Regardless of who's writing puff pieces (I would contend Botchford's Athletties are mostly just a puff piece for his Twitter followers), Iain McIntyre can write an actual paragraph. I appreciate that. It's not the most amazing skill, but Botchford has been writing in Twitter-mode so long that his articles are stacks of one-liners, easily digestible for the hordes. As a long-time admirer of the English language, it's really repellent. But that's personal taste.
In terms of hockey knowledge, I'm no big fan of McIntyre, but Botchford's actual hockey knowledge is in the negatives. I should start collecting examples of his absolutely clueless takes, but just from his most recent piece on The Athletic, he had some gems, e.g. the Minnesota Wild would "have to accept" Virtanen for Zucker or that "he's concerned that Green doesn't view Virtanen has a top-6 forward." LOL what Virtanen does he watch? Does he know who Zucker is? Likely not. Too busy tweeting out GIFs.
Anyways, you pretty much agreed that Botchford isn't an insider sort of journalist, so we're on the same page there.
Completely disagree. McIntyre has become a predictable schill for management and pretty bland to follow. Breaks nothing.
Botchford and Paterson, along with some of the Canucks Army guys are the only local journalists who will actually call out this Canuck management for countless mistakes and no vision over the last 5 years of running this team.
BTW you don't have to be a hockey expert to see how poor Jim Benning and John Weisbrod are at their jobs.
Do you think Travis Green has given Virtanen a really good look and extended run in the top 6 to try to untap his considerable skills? Yeah Id say no. Meanwhile Horvat has had to play with the worst collection of pedestrian wingers this year that matter nowhere near as much as Virtanen's development to this teams future.
Botchford does have his schtick but at least he is entertaining. I would rather read the Athletties than retreads Kuzma or McIntryre