550: Wyshynski on Rasslin’, Media, Blogs, NHL Playoffs, Twins, Canada & Fun

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I told my wife last year, or maybe two years ago, that if it ever got to the point where Nick had obligations that precluded him from doing the show on a daily basis, the first person I’d ask to co-host with me would be Greg Wyshynski from Yahoo’s Puck Daddy. Something about two jerks from Jersey talking about sports, media, blogs and life always felt like the kind of show people would love.

Everytime he’s been on the show, that’s how I’ve felt about it…THIS is the show. This is the show we wanted to make, talking with big names in our industry — there is no debate that Wyshynski has made himself (and Puck Daddy) one of the leading hockey voices in the country — about sports, life, media and whatever else we want.

Now, let’s not forget that Wyshynski has his own daily radio show talking about a lot of this same stuff (though decidedly more hockey than I’d feel comfortable with) and hasn’t once had me on the program.READ MORE

Call of the Day: Mike Emrick + Overtime = Win.

As someone who grew up in New Jersey, right over the bridge from Philadelphia and a few hours south of the Meadowlands, I’ve always hated the Devils. Following a Flyers team that has featured, what, 20 different starting goalies in the last ten years, I’ve certainly always hated Martin Brodeur. So this season, with the Flyers atop the standings, the Devils near the bottom and Brodeur having the worst season of his (grits teeth) illustrious career, it’s actually been a lot of fun following New Jersey.

Still, the one thing the Devils will always have that the Flyers, don’t anymore: Mike Emrick. Sure, Doc will call the occasional Versus or NBC game that might feature the Flyers, and obviously he’s the lead guy for the playoffs so he should get a full dose of Philly games there, but as a kid who got to listen to Emrick call games for the Flyers from 1988-93, it’s always been annoying to hear him do Devils games. Pardon the nostalgia, but the play-by-play tandem of Mike Emrick and GeneREAD MORE

Call of the Day: One Left Cross Does Not A Goalie Fight Make (VIDEO)

Following a ton of Pittsburgh fans on Twitter, I caught a series of tweets last night that went something like this: “GOALIE FIGHT!!!!!”

Consider my interest piqued.

And consider me disappointed, too. Sure, there was a “goalie fight” at the end of the Penguins 3-0 victory over the Islanders last night, but it wasn’t exactly a history-making tussle. In fact, Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro got walloped by one punch. One punch!

Seriously!?! NHL.com billed the video as “Goalies gone Wild.” Hardly. ESPN.com put a link on their front page that reads, “Goalie brawl mars Pens’ win” which is wrong on two levels if you know what a brawl is and know that your team winning an in-game fight never mars a victory, it enhances it.

And no offense to the Penguins fans excitedly tweeting, but that’s not a goalie fight. That’s your backup goalie knocking the crap out of DiPietro to endear himself to your fanbase forever, but it’s not exactly a “fight.” Totally blame DiPietro for having a glass jaw. Man alive that was disappointing.

This does, however, giveREAD MORE

DL514: All Star Weekend, Pro Bowl, Bubba Watson, Djokovic, College Hoops, More

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Here’s the email I sent Nick this morning:

• Pro Bowl blowout • NHL All-Star weekend/skills competition/player All-Star Draft • Golf – Watson/Mickelson • Djokovic – Murray • Kevin Durant calling Bosh soft • Insane college basketball games (UConn 2OT loss, Duke smoked by St. Johns) • Soccer transfer window is insane

That’s the show. I was really excited for a great weekend in sports, despite having no meaningful football. Nick was less than thrilled. Where’d you fall and did I convince Nick that the weekend was better than the thought?

DL501: We’re Back, With Wyshynski on SportsTalk Radio, Winter Classic, All-Star Pick’em

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Be honest, you thought we were never coming back, didn’t you. 500 and that’s it. Hell, I thought we were never coming back too. But there are bills to pay and swanky, drunken parties to justify, so here we are.

Here we are, in 2011, with GREG WYSHYNSKI FROM PUCK DADDY!!!!!!

I don’t know why I’m that excited. We barely even talk about Martin Brodeur’s demise (I do get in a ‘dead man skating’ line late in the show). But I love Wyshynski, mainly because I can have him on the show to talk about hockey and we don’t actually talk about hockey at all, really. Well, we do talk about the Winter Classic, what it means for the NHL and NBC and why the premise for Dan Shaughnessy’s SI.com column about it’s demise because of A LITTLE RAIN is about as lazy as column writing can get.

So yeah, there’s that. We also wonder how in the world a terrible Fiesta Bowl can get 10.8 million viewers and there’s a debate about whetherREAD MORE

Call of the Day: This Is A Strange Way For Versus To Promote A Show On HBO

During the first intermission of the Flyers-Penguins game on Tuesday night, the Versus hockey panel of Bill Patrick, Brian Engblom and Keith Jones spent an entire segment talking about whether or not the HBO cameras are to blame for the Washington Capitals recent woes (Keith Jones thinks the answer is yes). First, though, Patrick posed the question if the HBO cameras were, in any way, helping the Penguins on their — now defunct — 12-game win streak.

In a word, “no,” explained Engblom. The whole segment was a thinly-veiled promotion for the HBO series 24/7: Penguins/Capitals, which chronicles the weeks leading up to the Winter Classic for both teams. The show begins tonight on HBO.

Jones could be right in that having cameras in every meeting, practice and intermission could be hampering the free-wheeling side of some of the Caps. But the whole “hey, we’ve got a conspiracy on our hands, right…riiiiiiight” by Patrick was clearly the best way they could ‘naturally’ promote the show on another network.

That said, didn’t it feel a little like talking aboutREAD MORE

Hey Internet, Who Wants A Photo Of Alex Ovechkin’s Hairless Face?

Okay, fine, it’s not technically hairless yet, but you’ve certainly heard the news by now that five, six and seven-o’clock-shadowed hockey phenom Alex Ovechkin signed on with Gillette to be their global sponsor.

From Steinbog, yesterday:

Men’s grooming company Gillette will announce a multi-year partnership with Ovechkin on Tuesday, in which the Caps star will become one of the company’s global ambassadors. He’ll join such international sports icons as Derek Jeter, Kaka, Rafa Marquez and British rugby star Jonny Wilkinson in representing the company. And yes, as part of the partnership, Ovechkin has agreed to remain “well-groomed,” in industry parlance.

“If you see Alex in some of his recent commercials, he’s had kind of a clean-shaven look,” Gillette spokesman Mike Norton told me. “With Gillette, we really want guys to look their best. And some guys like to be fully clean-shaven, some guys like goatees or well-trimmed beards. It’s all about helping guys to look their best.”

Thanks to our friends at Gillette (they’re my P&G sponsor in the Blogger Fantasy Football League) we have visual evidence that OvieREAD MORE

DL463: Greg Wyshynski on NHL vs. NBA, Jersey Sponsors & Alexander Ovechkin’s Miniature Giraffe

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Greg Wyshynski from Yahoo’s Puck Daddy joins the show to talk about the NHL and, in the process, completely dump on the NBA. I made a joke to start the show that we had him on the first day of the NBA season and he brought up the fact that he feels hockey is on an up-swing and NBA is going the other way. He mentioned this cover (right) and said that he feels SI could run that right now.

I think he’s nuts.

We talk about the fact that the NBA has more attention than at any time in recent memory and, yes, a lot of that attention is negative. While I don’t think that matters one bit to David Stern, Wyshynski thinks that the fact that there are far more teams you “love to hate” than actually love is a bad thing for the NBA. He suggests, and who am I to refute, the NHL doesn’t really  have that. It’s a likable group right now. I still think he’s nuts.

That leadsREAD MORE

Call of the Day: Joe Beninati’s Movie-Guy Goal Calls Will Always Win

This, folks, is why the NFL will eventually start scheduling games every single night of the week. Or somehow, this is Bud Selig’s fault for giving teams way too much time off between the LDS and LCS. Maybe we should blame soccer, too. They’re always good for a few fantastic clips.

Yes, until the NBA starts the regular season (I refuse to make the Call of the Day anything from a pre-season NBA game) and college basketball starts raining down the buzzer beaters and subsequent court stormings, we may be stuck with…random early-season hockey highlights.

Look, I’m happy to link to hockey, and Lord knows the NHL is great with their ability to embed videos (when the actually load). Full disclosure: I had this entire post ready to roll with the clip the NHL put up of the Devils’ game-winner in overtime, but the call was terrible. Why? Because the NHL embedded the clip of the home team…that lost.

If you’re trying to build excitement for your league, don’t put clips up when the announcers sound likeREAD MORE

Call of the Day, On Ice: TBS Announcers Should Take Excitement Lessons From Edmonton

Our Call of the Day was a link to the video for Tim Lincecum’s strikeout party against the Braves. While putting the post together, it turned more into a post on how boring the TBS announcers have been so far. Maybe they should think about hiring some of the announcers covering the Edmonton Oilers.

Here are two videos of Jordan Eberle’s first-career NHL goal. It’s a doozy, and both calls are awesome.

First, via NHL.com:

Next, via SportsNet.ca: