I caught the replay and enjoyed the hockey. It just really absolutely sucked to have the f'd up English commentators actually ruin it for me. I wanted to watch it on mute, but also wanted to see how stupid they were all game. They would be 100% better off streaming the game and arena noise, rather than the ****tards we had "commentating" it here in the states.
I watched this replay on my 360 app, which makes the app that much nicer. You get ESPN3 (which is meh), but you also have highlights and full length replays available. Was nice to skip intermission and have really short commercial breaks since the KHL doesn't ave commercial breaks like the NHL.
Id rather listen to a Russian call of the game. Anywho this may be just what hockey in America needs. It's been a while since there's been a true US-RU/USSR rivalry.
I caught the replay and enjoyed the hockey. It just really absolutely sucked to have the f'd up English commentators actually ruin it for me. I wanted to watch it on mute, but also wanted to see how stupid they were all game. They would be 100% better off streaming the game and arena noise, rather than the ****tards we had "commentating" it here in the states.
I watched this replay on my 360 app, which makes the app that much nicer. You get ESPN3 (which is meh), but you also have highlights and full length replays available. Was nice to skip intermission and have really short commercial breaks since the KHL doesn't ave commercial breaks like the NHL.
I'd rather listen to Pierre Maguire rant about a hockey player than listen to Stewart Scott and his glass eye talk about a game I know he doesn't care for.
All he talked about was himself. I felt like I was watching a televised job interview with a hockey game in the backround.
It would help if they decided to actually call the game instead of talking about the NHL and making fun of the KHL/the game all the time. If they feel so strongly about the KHL they shouldnt have accepted the job in the first place. Way to ruin a game experience.
As far as Russian debuts in the United States go, ESPN's opening 2012 broadcast of the Kontinental Hockey League on Tuesday wasn't exactly Baryshnikov at the American Ballet Theater. The game, shown live on ESPN2 at 1 p.m. Eastern time with a replay at 8, was a dud. Dynamo Moscow topped HC Lev Praha 1-0 on an unmemorable third-period goal by Alex Ovechkin. But give the Worldwide Leader in European hockey (at least for one day) credit for doing something the NHL isn't doing these days: facilitating live coverage of games.
While the play was desultory -- it made a viewer long for an NHL preseason game, which would be unbridled excitement by comparison -- the broadcast was surreal. Not Mark Gastineau-surreal but a funhouse of ad libs, Cold War comedy, and a focus far away from the play on the ice. The announcers (Steve Levy and Barry Melrose) called the game from a voice-over booth at ESPN's Bristol headquarters -- some 4,200 miles away from the action at Prague's O2 Arena -- and their lack of familiarity with some of the KHL's figures provided viewers with memorable moments including this exchange:
For instance, ESPN viewers missed some game action because the KHL does not have commercial breaks. (That philosophy is unlikely to catch on in America.)
