Jack Edwards

Silverdude2167

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Jack is getting a press/criticism for blowing his top after the missed puck in the netting call lead to a goal for CBJ. Like always with Bruins highlights and some of Jack's more intense calls he is getting lambasted. I can not remember any other instance when the press has written about another announcers call (maybe I just did not take as much note).
 
How does everyone feel about Jack here? Is his act getting old, or is he getting grilled because of the hate for the Bruins that seems to exist throughout the NHL fan base and league.
 

McDrew

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We have this thread every few months.  Jack is a complete homer, and a little over the top at times (see: comparisons between Sirhan Sirhan and Matt Cooke), but the Bruins are shit this year, and its still great to hear someone call a game with such passion.  The price of that passion is sometimes he goes over the line. 
Do you think we could do better? 
 

Silverdude2167

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I don't mind Jack, but reading some comments from stated Bruins fans (mistake I know) it seems people are getting tired also alot of press on this one. I think he is unfairly critiqued and is very favorable to the opponent when they deserve it.

Curious if people were getting tired of him around here.
 

TFP

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I admit, I was one of the biggest Jack supporters on the board and I'm definitely growing tired of him. His act is wearing thin, and at times I just want him to shutup and call the game. The passion is admirable, but the histrionics just drown everything else out. I don't want him to turn neutral, but after years and years of hearing it, the his complaints start to ring hollow. I've recently started listening to music during the games and found it quite pleasant, which was surprising.
 
Brick seems to be less and less enthusiastic in his support of Jack as time goes on too. Which is a shame because Brick is the best in the business as far as I'm concerned.
 

Titoschew

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I grow a little weary of him now and then.  But, he was the perfect voice and temperament as the Bruins emerged from some seriously lean years and forged a new identity.  
 

Ritmo

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If he just called the games, and dialed back some of the over-the-top drama, he'd be among the best.  Knowledgeable about B's and the opponent, not a lot of mistakes.  Understands flow of the game and recognizes potential turning points, etc., and describes with passion.  There are certainly times when he makes me cringe, but I've come to appreciate him after having to hear so many others calls games since I live on the west coast.  And, while he is undoubtedly a homer, he never hesitates to give the other team credit and excitement when it's due, or to criticize the play of the Bruins.  Another point in his favor, he does a great job of asking Brick leading questions and letting him provide the insight he's so good at.  Brick is indeed the best.
 

Salem's Lot

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I like Jack. He's a total homer but I expect some level of that from the home broadcast, but that last game really aggravated me. The last thing I want to hear when my team is getting their asses kicked is the play by play guy bitching that the ref missed a puck out of play call almost 2 minutes before the goal against. It was embarrassing, and it's stuff like that that he needs to tone down.
 

kenneycb

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Sparky Lyle said:
He sucks.  Why people in this place suck his dick is a puzzlement to me.  He's horrible.  Horrible!!!!1
Dale Arnold is horrible.  Not sure who's sucking his dick here but to each his own.
 

kenneycb

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The dick sucking was in re: Edwards.  I now realize that it was unclear in the initial post and I gravely apologize for doing so.
 

Turrable

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Joe B from the Caps announcing team is bland as shit and always calls goals for the opposing team in this sad, quiet tone like he just watched his dog die. Jack at least gets up for good hockey and usually calls opposing goals with enthusiasm if they deserve it. I'll take him over the boring guys you hear in everyone else's local crew.
 

InstantKarmma

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I'm where TFP is, Jack's act is wearing thin, but I haven't started listening to music while the game is on. He's still better than most of the other announcers out there.

He's like Longfellow's little girl with the curl - when he's good, he's very good and when he's bad he's horrid.
 

SawxSince67

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What are you even talking about?
 

 
 
I do enjoy Jack and I think he is a decent announcer. He and Brick work well together and it's all part of the Bruins Experience (tm).
 
But, there are times when I have to look away. Just like when when Soupy drops his gloves...
 

savage362

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I don't mind Jack and generally don't mind his rants from time to time. That being said, I was getting sick of hearing about the missed puck in the netting by the end of the game. It's one thing to rant for 5 minutes about something but to bring it up every chance you get the rest of the game can wear pretty thin.
 

cshea

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I missed the Columbus meltdown, but I'm starting to get sick of Edwards. I appreciate his enthusiasm and passion for the team and game, but sometimes he just goes overboard and it is starting to drive me nuts. Maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy though.

Part of my issue may lie more with NESN's insistence on shoving the zone time thing down our throats. I'm not sure If that's a NESN production decision or something Edwards decided to include, but they throw that clock up there with little to no context as if it's something innovative. Maybe they could tell us that after X amount of time in the OZone, a team is more likely to score a goal or draw a penalty? Then at least there is some context and not just a random clock up there. I wish they would incorporate some of the newish analytics into the broadcast. Give me basic team Corsi/Fenwick stats which are very easy to track. They have fancy names but are very simple stats. As much asI hate Joe B and Craig Laughlin Washington, that broadcast has been one of the first to incorporate Corsi/Fenwick into broadcasts. The stats are all available and easy enough to include with SOG totals.
 

Red Right Ankle

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Announcers kind of already do that, they just don't use the name or actively show you the stats on the screen.  They talk about "getting outshot at even strength" or "team X drawing more PPs has been the key to getting ahead in this game,"  which are both directly or indirectly referencing Corsi/Fenwick-style stats.   
 
Their best use for announcers would be in talking about each team's style of play, current records and future prospects.  For example, pointing out that despite their record, the Bs are still top ten in the league in CF% would be helpful in talking about the team's prospects for the rest of the year.
 
I agree that contextlessly talking about zone time is silly, but it's better than not having it at all.  
 
The funny thing is, if Jack got into them, he'd probably be really good at using them regularly and familiarizing people with them considering how much he likes to hammer on his themes, e.g., "vulnerable minute," every game.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Here's the thing with Jack: he was the enthusiastic homer announcer back when the Bruins weren't very good, well before the recent rise to sustained quality. He wanted the job, he took the job and poured his emotions into it. So when the Bruins started having great moments, beginning with that seven gamer against Montreal as an 8 seed long ago ("MARCOOOOO STURM!!"), Jack's enthusiasm and joy were genuine, not canned like Arnold's or a hundred other announcers.
 
Yeah, he's beginning to wear a bit thin. But IMO he's a fan of the team who's calling the games, and I'll take that any time because it's obvious he loves the Bruins.
 

cromulence

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Turrable said:
Joe B from the Caps announcing team is bland as shit and always calls goals for the opposing team in this sad, quiet tone like he just watched his dog die. Jack at least gets up for good hockey and usually calls opposing goals with enthusiasm if they deserve it. I'll take him over the boring guys you hear in everyone else's local crew.
 
Guessing you're also a non-Caps fan in the DC area? You aren't kidding about the goal calls - he's like Hawk when the other team hits a homer. If the Caps are on the road, you typically can't hear him make the call for the other team's goal at all because the crowd drowns him out. 
 

mikeford

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He's a PBP guy who acts like a color guy which is the key reason that he sucks.

If he was in the Heinsohn seat I wouldn't say shit. But he's supposed to be Mike Gorman and he's horrible at it.

Comparing him to that bum Joe Beninati is hilarious since he's awful too.
 

Ed Hillel

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For the most part, people don't watch sports to learn about the game, but to watch their team kick the shit out of the other and to get excited about it. That's why Tommy and Jack work, and why there should be more like them. They know the game and they are complete homers. The more they piss off fans of other teams, the better. The problem is, the older you get, the worse guys like that are for your prostate. That's why people like him less as they get older and Sparky can't stand the guy.
 

yeahlunchbox

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I like Jack. Him and Brick aren't Fred and Derek but they're not Arnold and Kluzak either. Jack, despite his reputation as being a homer gets very excited when the other team makes a play as well. That excitement for both teams makes it very easy to know when something important is happening on the ice if you're forced to do something else and have the game on in the background and is a good alert to focus on the TV. That excitement for the game of hockey itself instead of just the team signing his checks I feel is infectious and doesn't necessarily come through from a lot of other announcers. And I think if you ignore the excitement and focus on just the nuts and bolts of how he calls the game he's outstanding. Describing the action as it's happening, getting names right and setting up his color analyst to make good points about what is happening on the ice are all things I feel he does at a very high level.
 

Turrable

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cromulence said:
 
Guessing you're also a non-Caps fan in the DC area? You aren't kidding about the goal calls - he's like Hawk when the other team hits a homer. If the Caps are on the road, you typically can't hear him make the call for the other team's goal at all because the crowd drowns him out. 
 
Yup. I caught the end of the Capitals game last night, hearing him forced to call an OT vintage Johnny Rocket felt so beautiful.
 

kenneycb

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With regards to the names part, I wanted to kill Emerick during the Cup run two years ago for making me think Claude was randomly shuffling the lines up midgame. I think that's my biggest peeve amongst other announcers, especially in hockey.
 

Silverdude2167

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yeahlunchbox said:
I like Jack. Him and Brick aren't Fred and Derek but they're not Arnold and Kluzak either. Jack, despite his reputation as being a homer gets very excited when the other team makes a play as well. That excitement for both teams makes it very easy to know when something important is happening on the ice if you're forced to do something else and have the game on in the background and is a good alert to focus on the TV. That excitement for the game of hockey itself instead of just the team signing his checks I feel is infectious and doesn't necessarily come through from a lot of other announcers. And I think if you ignore the excitement and focus on just the nuts and bolts of how he calls the game he's outstanding. Describing the action as it's happening, getting names right and setting up his color analyst to make good points about what is happening on the ice are all things I feel he does at a very high level.
He was not the best at calling soccer, but I think he picked up a lot from calling the World Cup for ESPN in 2002. He does a great job of making sure you know a play is developing and build up his voice along with it. Every once and a while when I go back to watch old USMNT highlights I am surprised to hear his voice.
 

erfus

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kenneycb said:
With regards to the names part, I wanted to kill Emerick during the Cup run two years ago for making me think Claude was randomly shuffling the lines up midgame. I think that's my biggest peeve amongst other announcers, especially in hockey.
 
Emerick has been in that stage where he's probably having difficulty picking out numbers.  A bit like Cusick in his later years.  
 
I'm not an Edwards fan, never have been.  I get why fans like having a fan call the game but I think he's a clown and an embarrassment.  He may get the names right, but a lot of times he gets the verbs wrong and beyond parroting back whatever Andy Brickley said last game he seems to have no understanding of how the game is played.  His verbal crutches are beyond annoying and I probably end up watching 1/2 the game on mute to avoid his soap box spiels.
 
But, in full disclosure, if there were an option to just get the on-ice and crowd noise without the announcers available, I'd probably take that for every sport.  
 

joe dokes

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Silverdude2167 said:
He was not the best at calling soccer, but I think he picked up a lot from calling the World Cup for ESPN in 2002. He does a great job of making sure you know a play is developing and build up his voice along with it. Every once and a while when I go back to watch old USMNT highlights I am surprised to hear his voice.
 
Who else would quote the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" after a soccer match.
I'm where TFP is, Jack's act is wearing thin, but I haven't started listening to music while the game is on
 
Music is one option, so is -- on Comcast and games at the Garden anyway -- switching to the Spanish feed through the Comcast set up. It  isn't spanish but an announcer-less feed with the arena sound sorta jacked-up.  It's sometimes out of synch  a tiny tiny bit with the "regular" cable box, but on those little DTA's, it matches right up. And it goes mute during commercials. If you've got a good sound system on your TV, hockey sounds are pretty cool.
 

McDrew

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If anyone hates Jack (or pretty much any other announcer), the audio mix usually has the commentators coming out of the center channel with the ambient noise coming out of the left/right channels.  If you can kill the center channel, you'll get just the ambient noise. 
 

McDrew

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Also, they go on a minor tangent every couple of games with the zone time.  Usually happens around whenever a team can get enough zone time that they can rotate out at least the defensemen, if not the forwards.  Jack+Brick will explain tired defenders + fresh offense = more likely to score. Also, I believe they only pop up the zone time counter when it hits 30+ seconds, that's when it starts to be important. 
 

TFP

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joe dokes said:
Music is one option, so is -- on Comcast and games at the Garden anyway -- switching to the Spanish feed through the Comcast set up. It  isn't spanish but an announcer-less feed with the arena sound sorta jacked-up.  It's sometimes out of synch  a tiny tiny bit with the "regular" cable box, but on those little DTA's, it matches right up. And it goes mute during commercials. If you've got a good sound system on your TV, hockey sounds are pretty cool.
 
 
AMcGhie said:
If anyone hates Jack (or pretty much any other announcer), the audio mix usually has the commentators coming out of the center channel with the ambient noise coming out of the left/right channels.  If you can kill the center channel, you'll get just the ambient noise. 
 
Thank you both for this. Excellent info.
 

Dim13

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Jack is kind of a cartoon character and I really don't get too worked up one way or another with him. But last night, the thing that kind of stood out was how he was making the Bruins win like a Miracle on Ice/David vs. Goliath-esque performance. Not taking a single thing away from the Bruins win - they were struggling, played with tons of needed "jam" (as we were reminded about 50 times during the broadcast), and dominated.
 
I'm used to Edwards' over-exaggerating and hyperbole, but overestimation of the B's opponent (who were 2-2-4 in their last 8 and having comparable goal scoring issues as the Bruins) was a little aggravating to me last night and not needed to emphasize how important the win was. Then again, I'm a Wings fan, so when Edwards was exalting the Wings for their stellar play over the past two weeks, and how no one gave Boston a chance to win the game going into it, I was yelling at the TV, "Not true!"
 

cshea

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AMcGhie said:
Also, they go on a minor tangent every couple of games with the zone time.  Usually happens around whenever a team can get enough zone time that they can rotate out at least the defensemen, if not the forwards.  Jack+Brick will explain tired defenders + fresh offense = more likely to score. Also, I believe they only pop up the zone time counter when it hits 30+ seconds, that's when it starts to be important. 
I get that but it seems pretty rudimentary. I know they have to dumb down the broadcast for the casual fans, but it seems pretty obvious that having the puck in the offensive end for extended stretches is good. I just wish that they would expand the numbers beyond "the Bruins had the puck in the attacking zone for 1:08!" Is there some threshold where a goal/penalty becomes more likely? Maybe they could include shot attempts during these stretches?

Edit: my favorite usage of the zone clock was when they rolled it out during the Chicago game when Chicago was on a 5-on-3. They've had the puck for over a minute in the offensive end while 2 men up! Wow!
 

Fred in Lynn

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I hate homers in the booth. When they're someone else's, they're annoying, and when they're yours, they're embarrassing. I don't need nor want an announcer to root for me. I know how to do that.
 

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Living in Florida, you gain an appreciation for competency, and Jack is competent IMHO. He understands the game, knows the players, and is fairer than he gets credit for (he's a homer in the sense that he only gets up for Bruins goals/plays). Since I don't get the Bruins broadcast consistently, Jack is a welcome and familiar voice to me. His best attribute is that he gives Brick space to do his thing.
 

MoGator71

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I wonder how he'd have reacted if the Bruins scored?
 
kenneycb said:
With regards to the names part, I wanted to kill Emerick during the Cup run two years ago for making me think Claude was randomly shuffling the lines up midgame. I think that's my biggest peeve amongst other announcers, especially in hockey.
 
Tim Saunders (our radio guy) is getting really bad with this. When Chris Therien was doing color with him he caught a lot of the mixups but this season the Flyers decided to stick Therien in the Pierre box for TV and kick Steve Coates upstairs to do radio color and it's been brutal. I generally like Tim but it's to the point where he's mis-calling Flyers players, never mind the other team. And it's bad ones...I mean I could see mixing up Pierre Edouand Bellemare and Chris Vandevelde since they play on the same line, both shoot left, and wear similar numbers (76 and 78). But he calls Wayne Simmonds Jake Voracek and vice versa a couple times a night.
 

lexrageorge

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Like all announcers, Edwards has his strengths and weaknesses, but it's my opinion the former seriously outweigh the latter.  
 
Strengths:  He knows and understands the game and how it's played.  I heard him once on an interview in WEEI and he went into detail about a team's power play strategy and the importance of the half wall.  He takes the time to understand the opposing players, and he seldom gets a name wrong (and when he does he usually corrects himself if there's time).  He doesn't try to compete with Brickley for air time or commentary.  He knows a hell of a lot more about hockey than Joe Morgan did about baseball.  And he realizes that the shootout is a useless gimmick. 
 
Weaknesses:  He's a homer, yes.  Some of his comments are over the top, and sometimes he tries too hard on his analogies and it backfires.  But that's part of the package, IMO.  I still recall him referring to the Canadiens as the Edmund Fitzgerald after the Bruins eliminated them in a sweep a few years ago; I laughed my tail off; others hated the analogy.  But I'll still take that over the vast majority of announcers that can't even get players names' correct. 
 

TFP

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Jack's broadcast intro tonight was cringe-inducing.
 

charlieoscar

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Shades of Johnny Most.

Especially "love" it when he finds a new word or phrase...jam being the latest. And I often wonder about "intentionally shot wide." Did he or did he just miss?
 

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Ok.  That Stamkos goal was pretty.  Naturally.  But you fucking guys like Jack Edwards!!!!!!!!! He just blew his load.  For the other team!!!!!!!!!
 

yeahlunchbox

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He couldn't possibly have blown his load for a great play by the other team because everyone says he's the most ridiculous homer going