What was more painful than Ron Francis’s picks last night? Watching ESPN fall flat on its face and have an ugly start to their NHL TV premier!
Leaked picks before the draft
Let’s start with the fact that by lunchtime an ESPN insider leaked to the press all of the Kraken’s picks. So instead of watching with excitement, many fans had it on in the background or flipped back and forth because there was nothing better on TV.
The Kraken’s picks were supposed to be submitted to the league by 10am EST; however, Twitter was buzzing before 9am as picks began to be leaked.
By lunchtime, all but one of the Kraken’s picks were known by the media. Talk about a buzz kill, right?
This wouldn’t be so bad if this wasn’t ESPN’s first NHL related broadcast since acquiring the rights this spring. Instead of waiting with anticipation, everyone already knew the picks and there was minimal interest.
I am sure some leaks were inevitable as players and their agents were informed of their selection to the Kraken; however, for 29 of the 30 to be leaked before 1pm is just brutal.
The only suspense left in the expansion draft was to see if any side deals would come out and there were none!
Chris Fowler’s multiple failures
On top of picks being leaked hours in advance, Chris Fowler seemed to stumble through the show and fumble fuck his words more often than not.
Did anyone else catch how Chris Fowler called the Carolina Hurricanes the Carolina Panthers? I mean there is a Panthers in the NHL, but wrong state. At least the Canes social media team had some fun with the tongue slip.
And one I didn’t catch until I went online this morning, does Fowler know that Long Island is in New York and the Devils are in New Jersey? He proceeded to call the Islanders and Devils both “New York teams”. I mean it is basic geography and not exclusive to the NHL.
Read the fucking game notes bud.
Overall, not a good start for ESPN and their NHL coverage. Hopefully they figure it out for next time. At least the bar is set fairly low for TNT’s premier. It can’t be much worse than last night!
ESPN, do better!
Left me me missing Pierre