Winter Classic Review, Part 1: NBC Presents Controlled Chaos

Today and tomorrow at Noon, we’ll be reviewing the TV implications of the Winter Classic. Right here, we’ll review the coverage of the actual game. Tomorrow, we throw out suggestions regarding locations, timeslots, and other surrounding events for the 2012 Winter Classic.

I think I might be swearing myself off Twitter the next time NBC broadcasts the Winter Classic. The natural order of Twitter is that you’ll get a lot of opinion, and a lot of it is hard to not notice without keeping a level head. Between the comments of people I respect and the comments of people I don’t, it becomes difficult to maintain something original, relevant and sincere. Also, I end up yelling at people, and have to explain to my family why I’m typing so angrily. The fact is, you’re going to get some extremes when you’re dealing in social media.

But good lord, are people ever angry about this year’s Winter Classic, one way or another. From the bad ice, to the camera angles, to Washington and Pittsburgh, or Pittsburgh being in a second classic, or Crosby and Ovechkin being hyped. Even the side-switches in the third period were criticized as the league selling out their integrity, despite the NHL having done this in every Winter Classic. There was very little of the event that wasn’t overly dissected. It might as well have been called the Whinter Classic.

To which I respond: Chill out. This is a once a year (okay, now twice a year) event where we take some of the best hockey players on earth and put them in a completely new venue for the sake of drumming up some buzz and event hype about the league. We’re in January, take everything with a grain of salt. Hockey fans take everything so seriously, as if the slightest mistake by a broadcaster is a personal affront to themselves, their families, their religious beliefs, and that band you think is really cool. Lighten up, have a beverage, and enjoy the damned game, or don’t watch it and don’t complain.

That said, as a media critic, I’m now going to complain about a few thing. Have a problem with it? Go start your own media blog where you don’t complain about things. The following aren’t all complaints, just critiques. Some positive, some negative.

1. Better Intermission Entertainment. I am not as annoyed by the Franco Harris/Jerome Bettis shootout that filled up NBC’s second intermission. It was a cute idea, though maybe should’ve been reduced to clip form. The tiebreaker of them throwing a football into a hockey net was … uninspired, but I can’t imagine all of this is on NBC. Overall, the intermission show for this needs to be a little bit more focused on selling the NHL. You’ve already got people watching the game, now sell the sport in general. Let people know what’s going on in the NHL for 2010-11 if they haven’t been watching carefully enough and are using this as their entry point to the season after a Fall of football. Some better “fun” segments could be an actual building of a backyard rink (NBC Universal must own a home improvement show somewhere on all their networks) or a look at the fan atmosphere around Heinz Field.

2. Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk are starting to finally develop as a team. Doc Emrick and John Davidson probably had the best relationship that any two people from diametrically opposed worlds (Rangers/Devils) could hope for. They had chemistry, and a desire to explain the game in a way that didn’t pander. The team of Emrick and Olczyk still hasn’t figured out a way to keep from pandering at times, but they’ve slowly become a solid announcing duo. Eddie O. may not be the world’s biggest name, but I still like him as the spokesman for the game on American TV because he represents what the NHL wants to see: Middle-class American kids who can make it in the sport. Who better to communicate it to them?

3. I still think I like Darren Pang more than Pierre McGuire. For the record, I do not hate either man anywhere near their greatest detractors do. However, I just feel like Pang adapts to that role the best when employed in a three-man booth. McGuire is an opinionated man, as well he should be. He’s smart and has a slightly different opinion and tone from what the typical NHL analyst has. Either find a way to work him into a two-man booth or a one-up, one-down, or hold him to the studio and allow Pang, who seems much more willing to defer to the men upstairs, take that over.

4. Is it wrong that Hockey Day in America sounds really exciting? When Mike Milbury announced that NBC would be hosting a day of hockey from Millenium Park in Chicago, something in me just got really jazzed. I know this had very little to do with the actual game, but I felt I needed to point this out, and also let you know that we’ll be getting more details this week.

5. The camera angles are fine, as long as you have them ready. I don’t mind the blimp cam or the cable cam or whatever fancy shots the NBC folks want to use. This is the NHL’s biggest showcase on TV prior to the playoffs. Let people think that this league can do things no other league can when you put your minds to it. That blimp shot, when it finally settled, was the very definition of cool. That we saw a goal from that distance was nearly mindblowing. However, some of the shots were simply either out of place, not cut away from quickly enough, and at times blacked out. I’m fine with the league pulling out all the toys it wants, just make sure they’re in able hands. Practice makes perfect.