Eddie Olsucks
We head into tonight as one of those "you better win" games with a wagging finger. And there's sure to be plenty of news coming your way...But in the meantime...
As promised, I polled a few other blogs on the interwebs to get their feelings on our good friend, Eddie Olczyk to see if perhaps it was just us who hated the fact that he gets to do nationally broadcasted games for the team he works for. Would Mickey Redmond be impartial calling a game for VERSUS The NBC Sports Network? Hell no. But would they ever let Mick shoot a wink out to a national audience? Hell no.
So I sent some very nice and (somewhat) politically correct e-mails to those teams who had the (dis)pleasure of playing Chicago recently VERSUS The NBC Sports Network. Three teams in month of December (not including us) faced off against "Edzo" and his Blackhawks: Phoenix, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh. I also figured the sting might still be there for the Philadelphia Flyers would would have seen plenty "Edzo" in 2010 Stanley Cup Finals.
So, as a diplomat for my network, I tried to keep it all in-house here at the Bloguin network and reached out to Hipchecks (Phoenix Coyotes) State of Hockey News (Minnesota Wild) and the infamous Pensblog (guess who they write for). I had to go over to SBNation to get my Flyers blog, Broad Street Hockey.
Make the jump to read the team that was first to respond...
Oh god man, you have no idea.We like to call him Eddie Olsucks.Think about this,Olczyk has called tons of Penguin games over the years, a team that he was fired by. And there is no question, in our minds, that he holds that against the Penguins.
He is very quick to remind everyone about him coaching the Penguins, and how he helped Marc Andre Fleury develop.
Let us tell you. He was one of the worst coaches in Penguin history. Yea, the team was bad, but holy shit. Night in and night out he made some of the worst strategic moves ever recorded.
And now he is on tv,questioning other coaches.
We're with you 100% of the way.
We heard about his performance (Sunday). There is no way he should be allowed to broadcast national games when the blackhawks are involved. It is embarrassing.
-Pensblog Staff
I found this entry interesting given the fact that they actually show a lot of animosity towards a former coach. And the fact that they actually take his Penguin stroking as offensive...as a kind of..."I helped this team, they're good because of me!" That's the kind of thing you wouldn't think about from our end of the rink.
A rare 'thank you' to the boys at Pensblog for responding literally like five minutes after I sent them the e-mail.
What do you guys think?
I can't believe they let this idiot do his own team on national tv. They don't let lions announcers do national games or pistons announcers!! Why should it be any different in hockey. It's not like he's any smarter than any other color guy out there.
Great post. And nice response from the Pensblog. I remember when they hired Olsuck as their coach. They were bleeding money and he was cheap. Always a great combination....
Funny - the guy was traded like 50 times. You think he would have ended up in Detroit at some point. Even by accident.
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"We heard about his performance (Sunday). There is no way he should be allowed to broadcast national games when the blackhawks are involved. It is embarrassing." I think this really sums it up.
As much as I hate some of the other teams (Red Wings, Chicago, Anaheim, etc.) this sort of thing reminds me in the end that we're all hockey fans and we can at rally about what is good and bad hockey... and commentators ha.
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I mean, isn't our good buddy Pierre McGuire employed by NBC? Shouldn't that say enough about their staff right there?
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@freakazoid0587 I hate that little pimple. I saw him at the Det Bos game last season and my sister had to stop me from chucking my full beer at him.
She was good to stop you. A beer is too expensive lol; maybe he'll be here for the next "dollar hot dog" night
I'm genuinely surprised that Pensblog doesn't like Eddie with all the fawning he does over the Penguins; not quite as much as he does with the Hawks, but it's still there. They're definitely right though, he couldn't coach his way out of a paper bag.
I think that's fucking hilarious. And pretty cool of them that they helped out and weren't tools cuz of the semi rivalry
Still curious on what the flyers, yotes, and wild fans think. Philly fans are probably still in the middle of writing a list that wont be finished for another couple of days
I live in Northeast Pennsylvania and I am a huge Red Wings fan. It seems like every time I watch a game on TV, whether it's the Wings or not, I see his damn face there. That dude MUST have some serious frequent flyer miles stacked up. He's all over the place. I don't think he should get a lick of credit for helping Fleury develop. I believe that if it weren't fer Doc Emerick, his broadcast partner, Eddie would be just simply lost and fumbling his lines. There are plenty of other suitable guys out there who could just as easily fill in for him and do a better job at it. I do like the Eddie Olsucks bit from Pensblog.
