Czaban Talks Hockey

There aren't too many voices in the mainstream media that I trust, but I do TRUST listening to FOX Sports Radio in the mornings with the First Shift w/Steve Czaban (nicknamed "the Czabe"). He's from the Washington D.C. area and an expert on Washington Redskins football. But sometimes when sports talkers leap outside their realm of expertise, they only wind up sounding really condescending.

Here is an example of what the Czabe feels compelled to talk about now that the NHL has come into the spotlight for the big climax. But my advice to the drive-by pundits would be to not pretend to know what they are talking about. Around this time every year, other hack columnists will write something along the lines of their ideas to fix the popularity of hockey in America. I was hoping Czabe was immune to this call.

I am skeptical. At best, a three-fight-per-night minimum would soon become clichéd and boring even for blood thirsty U.S. audiences. How much could that raise the current 1-point-something TV numbers hockey currently pulls?

Despite claiming to be a regular guy who finds the bare-knuckle brawl appealing, Czabe doesn't get a clue as to why the between hockey periods are so lengthy.

(Oh yeah, I forgot one more thing from my post last week about how hockey just doesn’t work here in the U.S. as a spectator sport. Two twenty-minute intermissions. Sorry, but we don’t love the game that much, and we’re sure as hell not that patient. Our other sports (basketball and football) have just one intermission that’s either 12 or 15 minutes. You give us that much time to wander away with remote, we’ll forget what DAY it is, much less remember that we were watching a hockey game that long ago. But I digress…)

Did the Zamboni machine not enter the equation? They do work quickly to get that thing around the large ice surface which can only cover so much at a time.

Attacking hockey by non-fans just makes the pundit look stupid.

The Daily Czabe