TSN--Hodge and Healey

[CentreHice]

Sorry about all the Leaf threads here, guys....but I hate their media and their obnoxious fans so much and I have no one else to share this with.

Just watched the first intermission of the Bruins-Leafs game (Jan.1/04).

Dave Hodge and Glenn Healey, talking about the trades the Leafs may make....how great the schedule is....
I'm paraphrasing here...but it's close...

HODGE:
"The majority of the schedule is at home...with most games against teams who are weaker than they are. Leaf fans looking forward to their first Stanley Cup since 1967......" and blah blah blah...

HEALEY:
"It's an excellent schedule for the Leafs...and it's great to be on top looking at 29 other teams in your rear-view mirror."


Over half of the schedule left, with four or five other teams at their heels...and more to come....and plenty of time to fall....and they're planning the parade route again.

I understand that Leaf fans are beyond starved for a Cup...but they act as if they've been there year after year. It's hilarious.

[seventeen]

I wouldn't waste any effort at all on those guys. They are so far out of true contention for the cup, that it just isn't worth the brain power that must be expended to weigh their chances.

[jkr]

CH,

I share your sentiments completely. I love to watch hockey , even the leafs - but this TSN leafs edition is too much. Knowledgable leaf fans must find this show an insult to their intelligence.

Their argument is in reverse. They have reached a conclusion ( that the leafs are a Cup contender) and then they try to make the facts fit the conclusion. Anything that points in another direction is ignored.

Healey is kind of OK when you get him away from a leafs game but Hodge has turned into a pompous know it all. I still remember his lecture at the beginning of last year's playoffs. The tone was "you may be tired of hearing that the leafs are contenders but your going to listen anyway". He then went on to list all the older players who have won Cups. This list included Roberts - in 1989! It was with great delight and Hodge's lecture in mind that I watched game 7 of the Flyers series last year.


This is the same team that the Toronto media pronounced good enough to win maybe one round. Yes, they WERE on a roll but as the last three games show, they are coming down to earth.

[jkr]

If I had any doubts about Healy's abilities as a commentator, they were erased while I listened to his comments about the SUndin stick throwing incident.

His "no harm no foul"comments completely miss the point. Just because no one was hurt after a broken piece of metal was flung into the stands- well that makes things alright. Ridiculous. It was a reckless , potentially very dangerous act.

[CentreHice]

Yes, and I noticed on Saturday's Coach's Corner last Saturday (New Jersey game)...Cherry glossed over the Sundin stick incident and NOTHING about the 7-1 pasting at the hands of the Sens.

The T.O. media and fans complained for the next three days about how "boring" the Devils are....okay...but in the 30 years since they joined the league as the Kansas City Scouts, they have 3 Cups in the last 30 years...and how many do the Leafs have in that span? There isn't ONE Leaf fan that wouldn't take boring hockey to have a parade. Then all we'd hear about is how they play the trap to perfection.

[blny]

jkr said:

If I had any doubts about Healy's abilities as a commentator, they were erased while I listened to his comments about the SUndin stick throwing incident.

His "no harm no foul"comments completely miss the point. Just because no one was hurt after a broken piece of metal was flung into the stands- well that makes things alright. Ridiculous. It was a reckless , potentially very dangerous act.

I wouldn't put too much stock in what comes out of his mouth or Simmons'. It's a debate. As debates work, you don't necessarily believe the side you're arguing for. You merely have to argue it well.