I am originally from Toronto, but live in California and so I dont get a lot of hockey talk so I listen to 3 different hockey podcasts: Overdrive, Steve Dangle Podcast, and 31 Thoughts.
I try to watch NHL Network, but they never go indepth about interesting topics. It is a network of grown men who are former professional hockey players, but it seems like their programs are directed toward 10-15 year old kids or toward casual fans, but it usually is not casual fans that watch networks like that. Plus, I am not a fan of the cheerleader type of stuff they do. Like if a player scores short side, sometimes it is a nice shot, but usually a goal like that is a bad goal. NHL Network will say it was a great play, these other shows will say that the goalie was out of position.
So that is what I like about those podcasts. They talk about stuff that the casual fan would not know and are not *always* trying to promote their biases. They definitely talk about the on the surface kind of stuff, but can and do go a bit further with it.
On Overdrive I truly enjoy Ray Ferraro's insight. If I cant listen to the full show in a day I will at least listen to Hour 2 just to hear what Ferraro had to say about whatever topic they decide to talk about.
On the SDP they are definitely Leafs-centric but that is fine and while they usually do talk about great things about the Leafs they do mention stuff the Leafs are bad at and are willing to say not everything is rosy.
31 Thoughts is just fantastic for lesser known behind the scenes type of stories. They also have guests from areas of the sport that people would not normally talk about.
