NLL Insider

Finally! The season’s underway. It always seems like an eternity between the Champion’s Cup game and the start of the next season. And when you’re a player or a coach, the pre-season feels like it will never end. You tend to get a little stale when your preparation is predominantly practice with next to no game action.

I took in last night’s ’08 season debut via the B2 broadcast. Although it was great to be able to take in the game on live video, the broadcast was lacking in a number of areas.

My first frustration was somehow losing the link early in the contest, but I was able to get it back quickly using the site instructions.

The play-by-play was less than adequate even if you are an occasional fan, let alone a student of the game.  There were mispronounced names, wrong players identified on numerous occasions, a complete lack of understanding of what penalties were being called or even knowledge of officials signals, which distracted from the enjoyment of the game. And apparently in the eyes of the play-by-play announcer, Roughneck backup goalie Ryan Avery is the spitting image of starter Steve (Chugger) Dietrich.

Dietrich took a high hard one in the head off the stick of Dan Carey around mid-game and was momentarily replaced by Avery, momentarily being the key word here as Avery played a grand total of 1 minute and 19 seconds. He made one save and allowed one goal. But, for the rest of the broadcast, we heard constant references to the fact that since Chugger had left the game, the Mammoth had been taking control. This was annoying and I found myself talking at the screen every time I was subjected to hearing references to Avery making a save or letting in another goal. Surely someone involved with the B2 production should have recognized the situation.

Lastly, for some reason beyond my understanding, the production crew seemed to think it was far more interesting on occasion to pan the audience during critical points of actual game action. I still have no idea how Colorado lost possession with about 30 seconds left in the game and holding on to a precarious one-goal lead. All I saw was the referee handing the ball to the Roughnecks for a last attempt to tie the game.

Oh well, at least I was going to get to see the last chance with the goalie out.

Wrong again Robin, as the production crew quickly went back to a crowd pan while I had had to listen to the play-by-play and try to visualize what was actually going on. Not good, since I wasn’t looking for Uncle Harry in the stands. I just wanted to watch an exciting, dramatic finish after 60 minutes of great action .

I guess my point is that this is not the first attempt at broadcasting the league’s games via the B2 medium so my expectations are that the production should be far more polished than it was. The broadcasts are a world-wide reflection of the professionalism of the league. Improvement is needed.

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