Sean McDonough has had a long, storied career as a play-by-play broadcaster on the national level. WEEI’s Courtney Cox believes he’s one of the only good things about the NHL on ESPN.
During The Greg Hill Show Wednesday, Cox argued that ESPN’s analysts don’t mesh well together, and that leads to an uncomfortable feeling while watching.
“Ugh, it’s brutal,” Cox said. “Sean’s the only endearing part of it.”
“P.K. (Subban)’s great, but the other two (Mark Messier and Chris Chelios)? They’re like, my mom used to say, boobs on a bull. Useless,” said Jermaine Wiggins of the network’s studio analysts.
“They’re just low energy, and P.K is trying to appeal to a younger audience, and I get it. He’s really trying, but they’re trying to get him to do all these technical things where he’s drawing on screens. Nothing’s ever working, so whoever’s producing it needs to get that figured out,” Cox continued. “Then he’s trying to make jokes and the other guys are just ‘meh’.”
“‘We’re trying to talk hockey here, P.K., not be entertaining’,” Wiggins said as he impersonated Messier and Chelios.”
Wiggins then argued that a pairing of P.K. Subban and TNT’s Paul Bissonnette would be wildly entertaining. He then added that Subban is trying to work under the same guise as Inside the NBA, but Chelios and Messier are not willing participants.
The topic came up after Wiggins joked to McDonough that Chelios and Messier “need a little bit more energy” during an interview with the ESPN hockey voice.
However, Hill argued that the NHL broadcasts on the Worldwide Leader are much better than the local games.
“The ESPN broadcast, in my mind, leap years ahead of the NESN broadcast,” Hill countered. “Let me remove Andy Brickley from that discussion. Brick? Chef’s kiss. I can’t take Jake (Edwards) anymore.”
