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Huge changes to NBC's on air roster + biggest waiver wire ever |
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There are big changes heading to NBC’s coverage of the NHL. The first one we knew about. Legendary broadcaster Doc Emerick has retried and will no longer be the lead play by play voice for the network. The other big change is one likely to please the majority of NBC’s viewing audience. Mike Milbury was let go. He will no longer be a part of NBC’s coverage in any capacity. HALLELUJAH
Mike Milbury was horrendous at his job and was allowed to be horrendous for many years. I cannot fathom how a sports league as large as the NHL allowed him to be one of the faces of their coverage. Hockey is already severely impacted in a negative way with the socioeconomic dynamic of the sport. You already are dealing with a high entry point not conducive to many Americans. IF the league was lucky enough to draw in people they were met by one of the biggest buffoons in sports media. Nothing about Milbury’s personality was endearing or welcoming nor did you ever come away from listening to him and feel like you learned anything. If you were trying to pick somebody with the intention of driving people way Mike Milbury would have been a perfect choice.
Here are the other changes to NBC’s coverage
The lead broadcast will now have Kenny Albert taking the play by play duties. I don’t think Albert is bad at his job, but it is as vanilla a choice you could make. I think the second team with John Forslund and Brian Boucher should actually be the lead team. It is nice to see Mike Tirico’s name on the list. He is a pros pro and will only continue to get better at calling hockey. He is a busy guy with the Olympics and football, but he has the skills to be the lead voice in hockey if he is able to put the time in. He is the type of person who can call anything if given enough preparation time.
Mike Babcock and Ryan Callahan will be joining the studio for analysis. I personally have no interest in listening to what Mike Babcock has to say about anything. When he was given the best rosters hockey has ever seen he did all he could to dumb them down and make everything boring. I don’t want or need that approach to hockey on the broadcast side of things. Can’t they find any fun personalities who were also really skilled and fun to watch when they were a player?
As for the on-ice developments the Penguins are still chugging along at training camp with their scrimmages and practices. They did lose a day of practice due to an ‘abundance of caution’ relating to Covid, but they are back at it. Here are the lines from today
Nothing surprising with the forwards. Kasperi Kapanen is in town, but he has to still quarantine before joining the team. On defense it is interesting they are going with a Matheson-Marino and Pettersson-Ceci pairings. I personally would keep Pettersson with Marino because it is a known commodity and the Penguins need to start the year strong. I do think the team will try to make Mike Matheson a thing. They are pot committed to him and if he can be serviceable it obviously opens the door to moving Pettersson and his 4M cap hit.
If you’re one of those people that can’t resist the temptation of saying your team should claim someone off of waivers have I got a list for you
This might be the largest number of players put on waivers in a single day.
Tyler Johnson and Mathieu Perreault stick out to me as players who could help a number of teams. The Penguins are definitely a team they could help, but no money to fit either one of them into the cap.
Some other notable players include a couple of Hurricanes. Both Jake Gardiner and James Reimer were put on waivers.
Here is an update on the players Pittsburgh put on waivers
Only one day left in the offseason until the Penguins and Flyers kick off the regular season. I’ll have some predictions about the season tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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