There is bad hockey writing, then there's Damien Cox

[Mils]

This guy obviously knows nothing about the NHL. Just disgusting.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/stor...mp;lid=tab5pos1

Ignorant, consdescending, misleading, unoriginal, and generally uninformed.

[Pierre the Great]

guess what he's not an american.

He works for the Toronto Star

http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/94646

And he's on TSN's the Reporters

http://tsn.ca/shows/feature/?fid=1804&hubname=

Damien Cox is a sports columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper. He has covered the Toronto Maple Leafs for over 15 years, and has covered the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics, as well as other international hockey events. He won a National Newspaper Award for a series on hockey development in 1998. Cox has also worked extensively in radio and television in the past decade and has been a frequent contributor to The Hockey News and ESPN.com, among other publications and media outlets. For three years, he was co-host of "Prime Time Sports," heard daily on the FAN590 in Toronto, and on the Rogers radio network across Canada. Cox has been named three times to The Hockey News' "100 People of Power and Influence in Hockey."

I didn't see what was wrong with it.

[markierung]

"First, of the major sports (and some chuckle at the fact that the NHL, with its microscopic U.S. television ratings, still sees itself as one of North America's four biggies), hockey is the one that is most interested in attracting new customers because, right now, it has the fewest."

That was a brilliant line

[BTH]

I didn't see what was wrong with it.

Well he seemed a bit biased against Tucker (probably because he's a "pest" and he seems to be anti violence in hockey) the way he said that the comments were only alleged and besides, fighting is good for the game and Sean Avery is not.

But there's really nothing blatantly wrong with it, IMO.

[markierung]

the entire article is so condecending though

it's as if he's explaining hockey, i hate that

[Pierre the Great]

the entire article is so condecending though

it's as if he's explaining hockey, i hate that

Have you watched a hockey game in the states? That's all they do, from the writers, to the broadcast people. Its all about "learning the game" which i think is a joke, because the "game" has been in the US for eons and if people don't know it by now, they never will. That's the main problem with Bettman, he thinks people don't know it. Yes they do, they're not stupid, they can figure out hockey. They just choose not to watch because they rather like their nascar, college football, college basketball, nfl.

All hockey writers in the states besides non hockey mags, write like they're explaining the game to someone who has never heard of the NHL.

When Nascar got huge, they started doing the same thing, explaining this rule and that rule. etc. etc. National NHL broadcast games are like that. They spend 85% of the game talking about what offsides is, or icing. Its very annoying, especially when nobody except people who want to watch hockey are watching.

So if you didn't like the talking down explanation of hockey in this article this is a good indication of just how bad of shape the NHL is the states.

I don't think when CBC started broadcasting Toronto FC games, the announcer explained the rules of football. Or CBC/TSN explaining the rules of baseball to a Canadian audience or basketball.

Welcome to Hockey in America.

[Mils]

Have you watched a hockey game in the states? That's all they do, from the writers, to the broadcast people. Its all about "learning the game" which i think is a joke, because the "game" has been in the US for eons and if people don't know it by now, they never will. That's the main problem with Bettman, he thinks people don't know it. Yes they do, they're not stupid, they can figure out hockey. They just choose not to watch because they rather like their nascar, college football, college basketball, nfl.

All hockey writers in the states besides non hockey mags, write like they're explaining the game to someone who has never heard of the NHL.

When Nascar got huge, they started doing the same thing, explaining this rule and that rule. etc. etc. National NHL broadcast games are like that. They spend 85% of the game talking about what offsides is, or icing. Its very annoying, especially when nobody except people who want to watch hockey are watching.

So if you didn't like the talking down explanation of hockey in this article this is a good indication of just how bad of shape the NHL is the states.

I don't think when CBC started broadcasting Toronto FC games, the announcer explained the rules of football. Or CBC/TSN explaining the rules of baseball to a Canadian audience or basketball.

Welcome to Hockey in America.

First: I didn't know Damien Cox had all of that experience. Maybe this is just a poor article. I wanted to throw up.

Second: I agree with you, the explanatory tone of many American broadcasts is tough to deal with.

Third: In all fairness, there are some American hockey writers who get it right. Adrian Dater of the Denver Post does an excellent job in my opinion, and Terry Frei does a good job in general (though he is known to come up with a loser every once in a while.) -- Of course, those are both Denver-based writers, so I'm probably biased.

[Pierre the Great]

Yeah I agree Mils hockey writers in the states are hard to come by. If the paper hasn't stopped covering hockey all together like most do now (bettman at this point is baghdad bob saying the iraqi forces were crushing the americans) the good ones are once in a blue moon. The hockey writer in st. louis is a satrical writer for crying out loud! and only one of the two columnists only writes about the blues. The other one believes hockey is stupid because not enough black people in the sport. The main one has the pathetic rams to cover, then spring training starts in feb. So no blues coverage at all.

[simonus]

PTG, you are really talking about the NBC broadcasts, the versus games assume some level of familiarity

[Fanpuck33]

Have you watched a hockey game in the states? That's all they do, from the writers, to the broadcast people. Its all about "learning the game" which i think is a joke, because the "game" has been in the US for eons and if people don't know it by now, they never will. That's the main problem with Bettman, he thinks people don't know it. Yes they do, they're not stupid, they can figure out hockey. They just choose not to watch because they rather like their nascar, college football, college basketball, nfl.

What are you talking about? I never hear or see "teaching the game" stuff during games. Between periods and during the pregame show, yeah, but not during the play. I can't remember the last time someone defined offsides or anything on the air during gameplay. As for people knowing the game, no, they do not. Tons of the people who only watch the occasional hockey game don't understand stuff like offsides. They don't know why the whistle blows half the time. Peter Puck is needed!

[jetsniper]

Dater and Frei both suck!

[Electron]

Anybody else think the announers for both Buffalo and Tampa are a joke? Everytime I hear some goofy soundclip on my hometown sports radio I cring at the awful commentating.

[BTH]

Dater and Frei both suck!

That's really why complaining about sportswriters is a waste of time - no matter what a writer says, there will always be some people who like him along with a group of people who hate him with a passion.

[Pierre the Great]

What are you talking about? I never hear or see "teaching the game" stuff during games. Between periods and during the pregame show, yeah, but not during the play. I can't remember the last time someone defined offsides or anything on the air during gameplay. As for people knowing the game, no, they do not. Tons of the people who only watch the occasional hockey game don't understand stuff like offsides. They don't know why the whistle blows half the time. Peter Puck is needed!

oh come on, how many times do you here on NBC or before that ABC and before that FOX and on NBC Olympic coverage, about the rules and what's this and what's that. Its every freaking minute of the telecast. The announcers talk down to you because they assume you're new to the game when ratings would suggest that the people who watch KNOW the game. Yet the three letter networks act like its the X-games and your a horrified parent.

[jetsniper]

That's really why complaining about sportswriters is a waste of time - no matter what a writer says, there will always be some people who like him along with a group of people who hate him with a passion.

I don't think I've come across a sports writer I've liked yet. All the guys in Calgary suck and Dater and Frei both cover the Avs, they both suck. Dater is too positive about them, Frei is too negative.

[BTH]

I don't think I've come across a sports writer I've liked yet. All the guys in Calgary suck and Dater and Frei both cover the Avs, they both suck. Dater is too positive about them, Frei is too negative.

And I like all the Gazette writers - Red Fisher ( the old guy - usually considered the best of all time), Jack Todd (the crazy guy who yells about everything), Pat Hickey (the objective guy who just states the news), Mike Boone (the funny guy who tries to be witty), Stu Cowan (the editor - big on statistics and very objective) and the occasional article from Kevin Mio, though I don't know his writing well enough. I like every one of them but I hear plenty of complaints about all of them, especially Todd and Hickey.

[Mils]

I don't think I've come across a sports writer I've liked yet. All the guys in Calgary suck and Dater and Frei both cover the Avs, they both suck. Dater is too positive about them, Frei is too negative.

Dater is glass half full. Frei is glass half empty. I think, in tandem they make for some very good coverage of the team.

And I also very much enjoy their coverage. Dater is a bit less formal, more conversational, and Frei is all business all the time. They both have an awesome sarcastic edge, which I also really like.