Here’s What Grinds My Gears About TSN

Hey everybody, I’m back with a rant in between my ‘Week in Review’ posts. I’ve always been annoyed with TSN, but lately my annoyance has been boiling over. This last bit about Matthews signing for more than McDavid, at 13.5 million per year, has brought me to a point where I feel the need to tell you what grinds my gears. I hope this post doesn’t send you to click on their 5 minute bit.

It seems that ever since TSN lost the TV rights to Sportsnet, they have slowly started to become like the TMZ of the sports news world. Joffrey Lupul made reference to this a couple of years ago, totally makes sense to me now.

It seems like they think ‘Hey, we have nothing to talk about, let’s troll Leafs fans! Maybe we can make some fans worry that the team won’t be able to sign their high end players and stay under the cap!’

No, don’t talk about things that are relevant now, but something that can’t happen until after the season is done or even two years from now. Hey, maybe if they can’t sign those three forwards, (Matthews, Nylander and Marner) then we can talk about the Leafs trading Nylander again! See the gIt’s so TMZ. I’m starting to understand now why fans of other teams get annoyed with these outlets and their constant focus on the Leafs.

I’m finding lately using the term ‘insiders’ also becoming a bit of a joke. Sure people like Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger and Pierre Lebrun know a lot of people that work for teams. They know more or less stuff about some contracts and I’m sure they know some of the big players on the ‘inside’. However, GMs aren’t exactly giving them enough info as to who is getting traded. Things that really matter to average fans like us. The lack of trades in the NHL and Gary Bettman are other topics that grind my gears, but I digress.

I’ve been monitoring trades since Aug 1st, not minor league deals but bigger ones where we recognize the names. Only Elliotte Friedman has nailed the Demers for McGuin trade. Every other trade, there has been nothing in advance from the TSN insiders.

https://twitter.com/mydogSnots/status/889445953719205888

Dreger was on fire for a while when his (second?) cousin Dave Nonis was running the Leafs. Since they had a family connection, no wonder he was getting so much information. He was on top of potential trades and other moves but as soon as Dave got canned, that info has pretty much dried up. (Insert Lou Lamoriello)

The second part of my rant has to do with the Toronto TSN radio station.

When I first starting listening to TSN 1050, they had a great lineup. It started off with Mike Richards who was funny as hell followed by Macko and Cauz. They were an acquired taste, but very funny in their own way. Leafs Lunch with Bryan Hayes, Jeff O’Neill and Jamie McLennan was the best two hours of sports radio ever. The quality tailed off after that, but that stretch of radio was great!

Then someone had the brilliant idea of fixing something that wasn’t broken.

Mike Richards was moved to the afternoon, and then his show wasn’t the nearly as good. They replaced him with Micheal Landsberg who was good on OTR, but is dreadful on the radio. They then got rid of Richards in the afternoon and replaced him with Scotty Mac. He’s OK, just OK.

Macko and Cauz stayed in the same spot, but then were replaced by some syndicated US show that I won’t even bother with. Then, Leafs Lunch was changed. They kept the name but replaced the hosts with people that just don’t cut it.

At east once a week, Andi Petrillo, will inform you that she was only child , and the day after each game, she will make some reference to how she has some unnatural crush on Andersen. It isn’t exactly what I would call entertaining radio. I was hoping more women could get involved in hosting sports radio shows, hoping Petrillo could break some ground when she started but she’s not doing any future female hosts ANY favours.I do however like the additions of God Miller, Mike Johnson and Craig Button, but in small doses.

They had Patrick O’Sullivan on the show for abut 5 or 6 months last year. He could be abrasive at times, and I can understand why someone would like him, but he cut through the BS with a clever. I guess they like BS (big surprise) and replaced him with more BS. So you get a lot of this form former fans of the show.

Thank God they kept the boys from Leafs Lunch and just moved them to the drive home slot for Overdrive. That is by far the best show on the station and in my opinion, the best show on sports radio. The best parts of that show are by far is Jeff O’Neill and the 20 minutes they spend with Ray Ferraro. Sometimes it gets so funny I literally laugh out VERY loud during their conversations. Too bad the rest of their programming isn’t even half that entertaining.

Anyway, to be fair to TSN, they do a great job at televising games and showing highlights,  but everything else is pretty much turning into hot garbage. It’s too bad because they have the potential to be so much better.

I don’t consider this a professional review by any means but thanks for listening to what grinds my gears about TSN.  (Honestly I could easily write another 15000 words about this)

Here’s to the Leafs beating the Habs tomorrow night! #GoLeasGo

#CousinEddieLeafs #budsallday