Sabres Broadcast Team to Travel with Team This Season. With the Exception of West Coast Games

[Stoner]

  On 9/28/2022 at 12:50 AM, K-9 said:

Whether a team is good or not should have no bearing at all on a pbp announcer’s ability to do his job. And if that’s the case with DD, he should be fired immediately. He owes his best to the fans, regardless. 

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He does his job. I think just like Rick decided he was going to do a radio call on TV come hell or high water, Dan decided he was going to do a TV call on radio. You can't have both. I don't think this makes Dan incompetent. My point was that Dan will not take his call to the next level unless the game deserves it. It's also a principled stand. Listen to Sabres Preds on RJ Night. He rose to the occasion.

[That Aud Smell]

  On 9/27/2022 at 7:18 PM, PASabreFan said:

Dan's a modern Ted Darling. Quick... name Ted's most famous call.

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  On 9/27/2022 at 11:39 PM, nfreeman said:

Ted Darling wasn't RJ but he was pretty darn good IMHO.

"He shoots, he scores!"

"And a souvenir for a lovely young fan from Lackawanna."

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I appreciate PA’s kindness toward Dan, but let’s pump the brakes on the Ted Darling comparisons. Unless the only point is that neither Ted nor Dan are standalone entertainers, which, fine. That’s true.

Also, as for trademark calls, the joke in middle school was that the best Sabres player was some guy named Shootsie — seemed like he was always scoring.

[Stoner]

  On 9/28/2022 at 1:12 PM, That Aud Smell said:

I appreciate PA’s kindness toward Dan, but let’s pump the brakes on the Ted Darling comparisons. Unless the only point is that neither Ted nor Dan are standalone entertainers, which, fine. That’s true.

Also, as for trademark calls, the joke in middle school was that the best Sabres player was some guy named Shootsie — seemed like he was always scoring.

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That's not a trademark call. Just a glitch for lack of a better word. Ted had sort of an odd way of speaking.

[SwampD]

  On 9/28/2022 at 12:13 PM, PASabreFan said:

He does his job. I think just like Rick decided he was going to do a radio call on TV come hell or high water, Dan decided he was going to do a TV call on radio. You can't have both. I don't think this makes Dan incompetent. My point was that Dan will not take his call to the next level unless the game deserves it. It's also a principled stand. Listen to Sabres Preds on RJ Night. He rose to the occasion.

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Truth be told, with a month and a half left in the season and the Sabres already knocked out of the playoffs, listening to RJ make a nothing Tuesday game sound like a playoff game got a little tiresome.

I like Dan. I think he’s good.

[That Aud Smell]

  On 9/28/2022 at 2:21 PM, PASabreFan said:

That's not a trademark call. Just a glitch for lack of a better word. Ted had sort of an odd way of speaking.

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It seems like you're likening the two announcers based on more than the fact that they both have/had straightforward approaches to calling the action. I can't get down with that. Ted was iconic. He's in the HHOF. Dan thus far has been serviceable.

[K-9]

  On 9/28/2022 at 12:13 PM, PASabreFan said:

He does his job. I think just like Rick decided he was going to do a radio call on TV come hell or high water, Dan decided he was going to do a TV call on radio. You can't have both. I don't think this makes Dan incompetent. My point was that Dan will not take his call to the next level unless the game deserves it. It's also a principled stand. Listen to Sabres Preds on RJ Night. He rose to the occasion.

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A TV call on radio cannot work. It’s impossible, especially with someone as slow on the call as DD, who has chronic problems keeping up with the sheer speed of the play. And that’s when he even bothers to do the actual pbp instead of blabbering on about something irrelevant to the action. 

Per the bold, it’s not about what the game deserves, it’s about what the listening audience deserves. Night in, night out. Regardless how good the team is, regardless of the magnitude of the game. If DD purposely can’t summon the excitement for a routine game, then he is holding his audience in contempt, imo. That said, everyone can have a bad night now and then and I wouldn’t hold that against a good pbp guy, except I wouldn’t know if DD is having a bad night or not given what I think of his ability in the first place. 

But again, that’s not his problem. His problem is that he is simply too slow and can’t keep up with the action well enough to give even a halfway decent picture of the action to his radio audience. His best work is as a feature reporter. He’s good at that. It’s not his fault he just doesn’t have the requisite play by play chops the job requires. 

Edited September 28, 2022 by K-9

[Contempt]

  On 9/28/2022 at 3:14 AM, Doohickie said:

Do I agree with @nfreeman on something?  Is the apocalypse nigh?

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  On 9/28/2022 at 3:14 AM, Doohickie said:

Do I agree with @nfreeman on something?  Is the apocalypse nigh?

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You guys can be wrong together. Dunleavy is the worst in the league and it's not particularly close.

He brings absolutely nothing to the table, barely tells you what's going on, and is as exciting as a wet dinner roll.

[LTS]

  On 9/28/2022 at 4:55 PM, Contempt said:

 

You guys can be wrong together. Dunleavy is the worst in the league and it's not particularly close.

He brings absolutely nothing to the table, barely tells you what's going on, and is as exciting as a wet dinner roll.

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I'm not sure if you've actually sampled all the play by play around the league, including some of the national networks.  At worst it's very close, but I wouldn't consider him the worst, probably not even the second worst.  There are some really bad play by play announcers out there.

[dudacek]

Of all the things likely to ruin the good vibes around here once the puck is dropped for real, I’d forgotten about Dunleavy moving to full-time.

I don’t listen to radio broadcasts and don’t find him anywhere near the bottom-of-the-barrel for TV.

He’s the least of my worries.

[JoeSchmoe]

I like Dan as a personality, but listening to him on the radio is just terrible. As one example of many, during Biro's 2nd goal last night, I had no idea what was going on. No idea whatsoever. I just heard a goal horn. It's almost not even worth listening to.

I hope he could stay on as a host or some other capacity though, because he is a likeable guy.

Edited September 28, 2022 by JoeSchmoe

[Zamboni]

  On 9/28/2022 at 5:54 PM, LTS said:

I'm not sure if you've actually sampled all the play by play around the league, including some of the national networks.  At worst it's very close, but I wouldn't consider him the worst, probably not even the second worst.  There are some really bad play by play announcers out there.

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Very true. Contempt hasn’t sampled them all. That’s obvious. But it’s also ok to not like DD at all.

I wonder if there are any other teams broadcast crews not physically going to every away game. How does one find this out? 🤔

[Doohickie]

  On 9/28/2022 at 6:23 PM, JoeSchmoe said:

I like Dan as a personality, but listening to him on the radio is just terrible. As one example of many, during Biro's 2nd goal last night, I had no idea what was going on. No idea whatsoever. I just heard a goal horn. It's almost not even worth listening to.

I hope he could stay on as a host or some other capacity though, because he is a likeable guy.

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To be fair, even watching the game it was hard to figure out what had happened.  It was a hard shot from the top of the circle and pretty much the whole world was convinced Tuch had tipped it.  I've watched the replay several times and I never saw the puck once he shot it.  No one knows what happened except that it went into the net.

[JoeSchmoe]

  On 9/28/2022 at 6:39 PM, Doohickie said:

To be fair, even watching the game it was hard to figure out what had happened.  It was a hard shot from the top of the circle and pretty much the whole world was convinced Tuch had tipped it.  I've watched the replay several times and I never saw the puck once he shot it.  No one knows what happened except that it went into the net.

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At that time, I assumed the puck was cleared. No idea the Sabres were even still attacking. No idea there was a shot. Nothing. They were talking about the last scoring chance even though the Sabres were still on the attack. 

[LabattBlue]

Even watching the stream, in the last minute of play, he is babbling on about Power using his frame(reciting his height and weight), while the puck and play moved on.  
 

Completely unnecessary, and missing part of the PbP call instead.  Not sure how to describe his PbP style, other than to call it terrible. 

[JoeSchmoe]

They should just get Dan and Duff to switch jobs. I think I might like Dan more in the Duff position.

Duff is a little on the dry side. Dan has a little bit more personality from what I've noticed, but he just can't call a game that's suitable to listen to on the radio. I think Duff is quite good at calling a game. 

[K-9]

  On 9/28/2022 at 7:25 PM, LabattBlue said:

Even watching the stream, in the last minute of play, he is babbling on about Power using his frame(reciting his height and weight), while the puck and play moved on.  
 

Completely unnecessary, and missing part of the PbP call instead.  Not sure how to describe his PbP style, other than to call it terrible. 

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I describe it as slow and unable to keep up with the action on the ice well enough to paint an accurate picture for those not able to watch on tv. 

[#freejame]

The argument about DD being terrible for radio is hilarious considering everyone loved RJ who was AWFUL for radio for the last decade and a half of his career. 

[Contempt]

  On 9/28/2022 at 5:54 PM, LTS said:

I'm not sure if you've actually sampled all the play by play around the league, including some of the national networks.  At worst it's very close, but I wouldn't consider him the worst, probably not even the second worst.  There are some really bad play by play announcers out there.

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Yes. Yes there are and even they manage to at least vaguely describe a hockey game in progress most of the time.

Dunleavy's call is akin to calling your friend on phone and having them describe the game to you while they are in the middle of a totally unrelated conversation with two other people.

  On 9/28/2022 at 9:27 PM, #freejame said:

The argument about DD being terrible for radio is hilarious considering everyone loved RJ who was AWFUL for radio for the last decade and a half of his career. 

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To be clear, DD is just terrible. Radio, TV, doesn't matter 

[K-9]

  On 9/28/2022 at 9:27 PM, #freejame said:

The argument about DD being terrible for radio is hilarious considering everyone loved RJ who was AWFUL for radio for the last decade and a half of his career. 

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How about RJ’s first 35 years that preceded his last decade and a half? Did that pbp excellence earn him some credibility with his audience? Did it establish an endearing legacy that, even though we all knew his best days were behind him as he aged, allowed us to overlook his gaffes in the booth in his later years? 

Please. It’s a crime to even mention RJ’s name in the same sentence as DD’s. 

[JoeSchmoe]

  On 9/28/2022 at 9:27 PM, #freejame said:

The argument about DD being terrible for radio is hilarious considering everyone loved RJ who was AWFUL for radio for the last decade and a half of his career. 

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This is not even close to being true.

Sure, he had lost a step, but as someone who listens on the radio often (two kids playing travel hockey out of town), I could completely follow the game until the very end. He was great!

Last season, maybe because it was his last year, I think he upped his game a notch. Maybe it was just that the team was more exciting too.

[LTS]

  On 9/28/2022 at 6:31 PM, Zamboni said:

Very true. Contempt hasn’t sampled them all. That’s obvious. But it’s also ok to not like DD at all.

I wonder if there are any other teams broadcast crews not physically going to every away game. How does one find this out? 🤔

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Of course it's fine to not like DD.  I don't like DD.  But that's not what my reply was about... more below.

  On 9/28/2022 at 9:32 PM, Contempt said:

Yes. Yes there are and even they manage to at least vaguely describe a hockey game in progress most of the time.

Dunleavy's call is akin to calling your friend on phone and having them describe the game to you while they are in the middle of a totally unrelated conversation with two other people.

To be clear, DD is just terrible. Radio, TV, doesn't matter 

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Agreed.  The only reason I responded was you said he was the worst "and it's not even close."  Which.. is clearly not the case you indicated above.

But DD is bad.. real bad.  I'd prefer lots of others.. but I also remember John Gurtler.  So.. I'm not as concerned about DD... yet.

 

[Contempt]

  On 9/28/2022 at 5:54 PM, LTS said:

I'm not sure if you've actually sampled all the play by play around the league, including some of the national networks.  At worst it's very close, but I wouldn't consider him the worst, probably not even the second worst.  There are some really bad play by play announcers out there.

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I've listened to everyone at least for a little while. Lots of time in the car with sat radio. Who in your opinion is currently worse at covering a game so I can listen to them more? There are people I don't like listening to, mostly because I'm not a fan of that team, such as Jack Edwards, but I concede that he actually calls the game being played.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Contempt

[SwampD]

  On 9/29/2022 at 11:16 PM, Contempt said:

I've listened to everyone at least for a little while. Lots of time in the car with sat radio. Who in your opinion is currently worse at covering a game so I can listen to them more? There are people I don't like listening to, l mostly because I'm not a fan of that team, such as Jack Edwards, but I concede that he actually calls the game being played.

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The Panthers crew, the Blues crew, heck, even the Avalanche crew can be brutal. Sharks, Kings, i could go on but i don’t have to and i don’t really care if you agree. I think we got lucky with Dan and he will only improve once our RJ bias disappears. Talking only for TV of course as I have never had to listen to him on the radio. I am confident that that would be torturous. 

[K-9]

  On 9/29/2022 at 11:22 PM, SwampD said:

The Panthers crew, the Blues crew, heck, even the Avalanche crew can be brutal. Sharks, Kings, i could go on but i don’t have to and i don’t really care if you agree. I think we got lucky with Dan and he will only improve once our RJ bias disappears. Talking only for TV of course as I have never had to listen to him on the radio. I am confident that that would be torturous. 

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So, we got lucky with Dan yet at the same time you’re confident that if you listened to him on the radio it “would be torturous?” Alrighty then. 

[Contempt]

  On 9/29/2022 at 11:22 PM, SwampD said:

The Panthers crew, the Blues crew, heck, even the Avalanche crew can be brutal. Sharks, Kings, i could go on but i don’t have to and i don’t really care if you agree. I think we got lucky with Dan and he will only improve once our RJ bias disappears. Talking only for TV of course as I have never had to listen to him on the radio. I am confident that that would be torturous. 

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Yeah, I've listened to all of them, some more than others. They at minimum call the game, insufferable though they may be.

Whatever, you can like him. I'm sure someone somewhere like John Gurtler too.