Rob's vocab... Credit where credit is due

[Andrew Amerk]

7 hours ago, French Collection said:

These guys need to keep working. The scorers made enough money to live at the Country Club.

And yet, Tom Brady is moving into broadcasting whenever he is done sucking at football. 

[Taro T]

9 hours ago, Andrew Amerk said:

And yet, Tom Brady is moving into broadcasting whenever he is done sucking at football. 

For whatever reason, the networks like making unlikeable football players and coaches into color commentators/ halftime desk guys.  There's a long list:  Harrison, Bruschi, Rex Ryan, Collinsworth, etc.  Just to name a few.  Is there any other player less likeable than Brady?  He was a shoo in.

[bob_sauve28]

11 minutes ago, Taro T said:

For whatever reason, the networks like making unlikeable football players and coaches into color commentators/ halftime desk guys.  There's a long list:  Harrison, Bruschi, Rex Ryan, Collinsworth, etc.  Just to name a few.  Is there any other player less likeable than Brady?  He was a shoo in.

Well, OJ was well liked...until he wasn't 

[Taro T]

Just now, bob_sauve28 said:

Well, OJ was well liked...until he wasn't 

That was sooooooooo last century.  ;)

 

[bunomatic]

Rob has his Rickyisms and thats why we love him right ? ......Right ?

[Curt]

My daughter is learning to talk.

Some times she will come out with something and I’ll wonder in amazement where she even learned that word.  Sometimes she will put 3 coherent words together and I’ll feel so proud of how far she has come.  Sometimes she uses words completely wrong.  Sometimes I have no idea what she is trying to say.

I pretty much feel the same way about Rob.  😂

Edited March 4, 2023 by Curt

[gomper]

8 hours ago, Curt said:

My daughter is learning to talk.

Some times she will come out with something and I’ll wonder in amazement where she even learned that word.  Sometimes she will put 3 coherent words together and I’ll feel so proud of how far she has come.  Sometimes she uses words completely wrong.  Sometimes I have no idea what she is trying to say.

I pretty much feel the same way about Rob.  😂

I work with children.  This is 100% accurate. Sometimes 2 year old Cason makes more sense than Ray.

Edited March 5, 2023 by gomper

[OverPowerYou]

On 3/3/2023 at 9:29 AM, Weave said:

Listen to the wonder that is Jack Edwards and then glow in the competence that is the Sabres broadcast team.

Andy Brickley is damned good though.  We could use that in our broadcast.

Listening to NESN/Bruins play by play is like listening to two angry homer Bostonians eating clam chowder talking about a hockey game while watching 

[shrader]

This new found hatred for the refs from Ray is pretty funny. That was always the only thing of value he added to a broadcast, his random one liners. Originally it was all of the old guy comments at RJ/Neale, then it was jabs at Marty or the Peters/Rivet show. Now it’s ref day hate. 

[Stoner]

18 minutes ago, shrader said:

This new found hatred for the refs from Ray is pretty funny. That was always the only thing of value he added to a broadcast, his random one liners. Originally it was all of the old guy comments at RJ/Neale, then it was jabs at Marty or the Peters/Rivet show. Now it’s ref day hate. 

Good observation. He's never been that way and I've respected him for it. This change along with Dan saying he shoots he scores after at least a few opponent goals makes me think some memos got sent out.

Edited March 5, 2023 by PASabreFan

[JohnC]

6 hours ago, shrader said:

This new found hatred for the refs from Ray is pretty funny. That was always the only thing of value he added to a broadcast, his random one liners. Originally it was all of the old guy comments at RJ/Neale, then it was jabs at Marty or the Peters/Rivet show. Now it’s ref day hate. 

Ray does not have a habit of criticizing calls. But the officiating was so terrible/erratic in the Tampa game that he would derelict as a commentator if he didn't call it out after the replays demonstrated how egregiously bad many calls were. 

My sense of Ray as a commentator is that he enters the game with little preparation and quickly scoots out after the game to beat the traffic. Ray is Ray. I prefer a minimalist broadcast to a verbose broadcast. I prefer watching more than listening to a game. I'm fine with the pair who call the games. 

[wiselyman3]

Honestly I really like Dunleavy. I think he's been great and is doing as good of a job as taking over for a legend as possible. Rob Ray is fine too, obviously not the smartest but he's funny sometimes and by no means ruins it for me. I'm suprised alot of you don't like Dunleavy, but oh well

 

Dunleavy and Ray are 10x better than the national announcers have been. ESPN is brutal

[Stoner]

15 hours ago, wiselyman3 said:

Honestly I really like Dunleavy. I think he's been great and is doing as good of a job as taking over for a legend as possible. Rob Ray is fine too, obviously not the smartest but he's funny sometimes and by no means ruins it for me. I'm suprised alot of you don't like Dunleavy, but oh well

 

Dunleavy and Ray are 10x better than the national announcers have been. ESPN is brutal

When Dan is on he's very good. I don't understand the lapses but of course we were used to having balls to the wall hockey calls 1055% of the time for well over 50 years. I think that's the legend bar that's going to be tough to match. Rick was just a force of nature.

[Weave]

33 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

When Dan is on he's very good. I don't understand the lapses but of course we were used to having balls to the wall hockey calls 1055% of the time for well over 50 years. I think that's the legend bar that's going to be tough to match. Rick was just a force of nature.

A week ago I watched an interview with Ken Squire.  He was a legendary auto racing announcer for NASCAR.  He retired not too long ago.

The interviewer asked him what trait he attributed to his success.  Ken answered (in my words) the ability to selectively exaggerate what he sees, and the first thing I thought of was how Rick called a hockey game.  The change in tone to build drama as a play unfolds, regardless of how routine that play was.  Classic targeted exaggeration.  But Rick could sustain it all game.

Maybe Dan is getting better at exaggerating play as it unfolds.  I’ll have to pay attention next game.

[dudacek]

I think Dan has done a very good job with his cadence this year.

Having better material on the ice to work with has certainly had a role.

[Taro T]

2 hours ago, Weave said:

A week ago I watched an interview with Ken Squire.  He was a legendary auto racing announcer for NASCAR.  He retired not too long ago.

The interviewer asked him what trait he attributed to his success.  Ken answered (in my words) the ability to selectively exaggerate what he sees, and the first thing I thought of was how Rick called a hockey game.  The change in tone to build drama as a play unfolds, regardless of how routine that play was.  Classic targeted exaggeration.  But Rick could sustain it all game.

Maybe Dan is getting better at exaggerating play as it unfolds.  I’ll have to pay attention next game.

 

58 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I think Dan has done a very good job with his cadence this year.

Having better material on the ice to work with has certainly had a role.

Would be very interested to hear his take on this, but expect part of why Dunleavy sounded so blah before but actually seems decent if not actually good for a TV announcer is he might just not have been able to fake it.  (He knew the team was dreck and it was hard to elicit enthusiasm for dreck.  But this team is fun.  It's easy to get into the flow of the game.)

My take.  Would really be interested in hearing his take on it.

[nfreeman]

I am enjoying DD and Rayzor much more than in previous years -- no doubt due to the Sabres being a better team, but I also think DD and Rayzor have both improved.  I'm at the point where I enjoy their work.

[Two or less]

 

I know the game was on espn+ tonight so i doubt anyone listened to the radio, but i have a friend who works the controls in Rochester making sure the Sabres games are broadcast on a local station there and he shared a funny story Rob Ray said tonight on the radio call.

Rob Ray said "I wish i could skate like Connor McDavid just one time" and turned it into a story about "I asked Alex Mogilny how to get faster and he told me to smoke... i didn't take his advice." 😂

[Quint]

All I know is Ray likes to say "down low" a lot. And who's going to argue with him?

[Stoner]

Someone on ESPN said Cozens was waiting for his hole to open.

Perpetually 15... Sad but fun.

[shrader]

6 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

Someone on ESPN said Cozens was waiting for his hole to open.

Perpetually 15... Sad but fun.

And speaking of ESPN+, I'll take the Sabres team over last night's broadcast team any day.  I was flashing back to the old days where the Bills games were called by CBS' Z-team.

[Stoner]

13 minutes ago, shrader said:

And speaking of ESPN+, I'll take the Sabres team over last night's broadcast team any day.  I was flashing back to the old days where the Bills games were called by CBS' Z-team.

True. Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts?

[LTS]

10 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

Someone on ESPN said Cozens was waiting for his hole to open.

Perpetually 15... Sad but fun.

He was referencing how Cozens looked like a running back.  I believe that is common parlance in that situation.

[K-9]

On 3/6/2023 at 9:28 AM, PASabreFan said:

When Dan is on he's very good. I don't understand the lapses but of course we were used to having balls to the wall hockey calls 1055% of the time for well over 50 years. I think that's the legend bar that's going to be tough to match. Rick was just a force of nature.

Rick was part of a dying, if not already dead, breed. He made his bones as a radio play by play guy which is an entirely different discipline. TV only guys, which is all we have in today’s land of simulcasts, don’t possess the skills required to paint the picture for the radio listener. It requires much more focus and stamina than simply having the audience rely on the TV images for the story of the game.

Edited March 9, 2023 by K-9

[Taro T]

On 3/8/2023 at 8:30 PM, K-9 said:

Rick was part of a dying, if not already dead, breed. He made his bones as a radio play by play guy which is an entirely different discipline. TV only guys, which is all we have in today’s land of simulcasts, don’t possess the skills required to paint the picture for the radio listener. It requires much more focus and stamina than simply having the audience rely on the TV images for the story of the game.

True, but in fairness to Dunleavy, listened to him a bit during the Aisles game and he was much better than he typically is for TV & Radio coverage games.  He painted a decent picture of the action and also didn't go off into the weeds of stuff unrelated to the play while the clock was actually counting down.

So, he can do an old style broadcast, but somebody he reports to doesn't want him to do that for TV is what seems to be the situation.