Friday, October 13, 2006

 

A Monster Move

Two things about this Red Wings/Sabres game tonight.

1) Can anyone explain to me why Joe Louis is always half-empty? I thought it was "Hockeytown, U.S.A.".

2) I see that TSN has agreed with my assertion that hockey broadcasting is stale ane boring, and are attempting to mix things up by moving Pierre Maguire out of the broadcast booth, and down to ice-level for the entire game. I like the move. It's different, I like the stuff Maguire discovers down there, and it should mean more quality time for Miller.

Comments:

Possible answer to 1):

The Tigers are\were playing and most people were more interested in the race for the World Series than an early October Wings - Sabres tilt.
 


What a crappy excuse.
 


Agreed. It certainly is the answer, but that is just sad. They can't fill two arenas in the same night?

Buffalo is getting killed by the refs in this game. Horrible officiating.
 


They said it's because of the Tigers game, but Joe Louis hasn't looked very full in the playoffs lately either.
 


Unfortunately, the Joe hasn't been as crowded since the lockout as it used to be. I'm not saying that it hasn't looked kinda half empty anyways, but the Tigers game was at 4:30 (Wings game at 7pm) and I know I watched the Tigers on TV until the game got over and then switched to the Wings game which had 8 minutes left in the first.

I just think that the Wings have to do amazingly well in the postseason to garner the big crowds. Even during the first round of the 2006 playoffs, there were plenty of empty seats in the lower bowl which just pisses me off.
 


"They can't fill two arenas in the same night?"

.....I'll hold off.

On a related note, I decided that the Sabres and Oilers are the most entertaining teams to watch so far this year. Or to continue an earlier point, the Sabres are the Oilers of the East. I mean seriously, is there a team that moves the puck in transition like the Sabres? Freaking great team to watch. I'm going to adopt them as my own.
 


So the Wings are now the Atlanta Braves?
 


As a corollary to question 1, do they not have ushers in Hockeytown, U.S.A. to tell the people in the front rows not to get up in the middle of a play? I can't count the number of times I've seen people up and head for snacks during the game. (Although the dumbfounded "Oh, there's a camera there" looks are mildly entertaining.)
 


Andy,

Good to know I'm not the only one who saw a very one-sided game. Is is a law that the Wings get a Power Play with 2 minutes to go in every freaking game?

Chelios runs into Max and falls down... Max goes to the box for the 4th time.
 


I could be wrong about this, but haven't other networks sent guys down to ice level before? I seem to remember Glen Healy standing in between benches for one game, though I don't remember who it was for (Sportsnet, possibly, or maybe an American feed). Whoever it was, they still had two guys up in the booth, and the guy at ice level just sort of jumped in once in a while.

The only problem I could see with moving the colour guy to ice level is that the already-spotty "analysis" will get even worse when the guys don't have an overhead view. Greg Millen can't notice on-ice trends with a replay machine and a man describing the play sitting six inches from his ear: I'd be shocked if his comments at ice level were anything more insightful than "GO CANUCKS!"
 


Damn. Who played worse? The Sharks in the third against Edmonton, or Oakland the entire series against Detroit?
 


oh come on. At the time grabia posted, the Tigers were still playing ball in a close game to put them within one win of the pennant. I think metro Detroit can be forgiven for sticking by their tvs to see how that one turned out.
 


I think metro Detroit can be forgiven for sticking by their tvs to see how that one turned out.

But I thought they were Hockeytown?

Metro Detroit has a population of 4.9 million. I find it hard to believe they aren't enough bodies to go around. As Christy stated, the lower bowl was half-empty against the Oilers in the 1st roud last year, too. I think it has little to do with the Tigers.

Pleasure, NBC had Maguire doing the bench thing last year, too. I liked it then, and I liked it tonight. He was providing info that I found relevent, like how many times Lindy Ruff kicked a water bottle. There's no reason why Miller can't do the replay stuff from upstairs.
 


Andy, last fall I saw Edmonton play the Bhawks in Chicago on the night the Eskimos advanced to the Grey Cup. After the game I emailed an Edmonton friend about the Oilers' crappy showing but he hadn't seen it because, he said, his and the entire city's eyes were glued to the Esks game that night. Somehow it didn't occur to me to smack down Oilers fans for being consumed with a football team surging toward a championship.

If that Oilers game had been at home, are you really so confident they would have filled every seat? I'm sure you'll point out all kinds of ways the situations are different, but you've gotta admit they're comparable.

All I'm saying is Tiger fever is more than an excuse and dismissals of it in this thread strike me as disingenuous. Last night put us where we haven't been in 22 years. I'm twice as much a Wings fan as a Tigers fan, but if I'd had a ticket to the Wings last night, I wouldn't have been in the Joe at 7:15 either.

ok, class dismissed! (Sorry if this came off all lecture-y.)
 


If that Oilers game had been at home, are you really so confident they would have filled every seat?

I'll field this one: yes.
 


Detroit has always been a baseball town. It became "Hockeytown" because of a clever marketing campaign while the Tigers were trying to figure out exactly how bad a baseball team could be without actually playing blindfolded. Baseball fans have finally emerged from hibernation to see a team full of castoffs, discards, and players with something to prove play out of their minds and expunge the memory of 119 losses in 2003 (and they only avoided the record for being historically bad by winning five of their last six games!). The Wings have a whole season in front of them, and have made the playoffs--and won a Cup--a lot more recently than 1984.

And regardless of whether the Wings have become the Braves (my vote goes for the Yankees! (snicker)), the fans have developed the same attitude. They are spoiled by success--and this isn't meant as a criticism. It is a natural result of extended success to expect more of the same, just as a fan base of a poor team has a tendency to become cynical, depressed, and pessimistic.
 


Bah - I was AT Joe Louis (as an Oilers fan of course) for Games 1 and 2 of the first round last season. We needed an extra ticket for game 2, and were able to buy one at the Wings box office, less than one hour before the game, in the SAME ROW as the seats we already had! Hockeytown my ass! I could not get playoff tickets in Edmonton without selling my first born!!
 

Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?