Enough Time Has Passed That We Can Now Talk About That Flyers vs Penguins NBCSN Broadcast With Mychal Kendricks
So last night’s Flyers vs Penguins game was pretty much unwatchable for the most part. That’s because the Flyers gave up 5 goals to the Penguins for the 3rd straight time and ended up losing 5-2. Whatever. That’s neither here nor there. If you don’t blog a loss, it’s like it never happened. Old hockey trick.
While the game was unwatchable, the broadcast was beyond unlistenable and it’s all because the big wigs over at NBCSN thought it would be a brilliant idea to bring in Super Bowl Champion Mychal Kendricks inside the glass with Pierre McGuire. For the first time in my life, I actually wished that I was deaf because even putting the broadcast on mute wasn’t doing the trick.
Now I’m somebody who often finds myself taking Pierre McGuire’s side. So many people love to hate on the guy and I think a lot of the hate is unjustified and unwarranted. You’re going to hate on the guy because he genuinely seems to enjoy his job and does plenty of research on all the players? I get he can be a bit extra at times but I just don’t think “being very knowledgable at your job” is a good enough reason to hate somebody. But last night? With Mychal Kendricks in the glass with Pierre? Well now I fully understand and embrace the hate because that was the most excruciating period of hockey I’ve ever had to listen to.
Nothing against Mychal Kendricks. He went in there and did exactly what NBCSN wanted him to do. He’s a guy who isn’t too familiar with hockey in general, let alone the little intricacies of the game. Obviously the goal here was to explain the game to Mychal Kendricks while at the same time explaining the game to everybody watching at home who also aren’t too familiar with the sport. It’s a good idea in theory but in practice?
It was nothing but 20 straight minutes of Pierre trying to force football analogies to literally every single play that happened on the ice. And just when you thought he’d finally shut the hell up and just let the game to the explaining for itself? He kept yammering on about god knows what. Every. Little. Thing. That happened in the game was immediately followed up with “so how much different was that to what it’s like as a linebacker in the NFL?” Uhhhhh hey dipshit, it’s a lot different. They’re two completely separate sports. The only saving grace of the entire experience came from Kendricks himself when he stuffed that bitch Mike Milbury into a locker during the intermission.
What the fuck is Milbury even doing asking that question? Bud. We’ve got the Flyers vs the Penguins going on right now. One of the biggest rivalries in the game. And you’re asking Mychal Kendricks why an opposing player didn’t play in the Super Bowl that was over a month ago? What the fuck answer did you think he was going to give, you neanderthal? Christ.
Like I said, I thought Mychal Kendricks did great last night given the fact that he was probably told to just go in there and play up the fact that he knows nothing about hockey. The rest of the guys? Holy shit. I know you’re trying to “grow the game” and get more people interested in the sport, but if I have to hear Pierre force another sport-to-sport analogy during a broadcast again I’m going to barge into that studio and beat the shit out of Milbury with his own shoe.