Need more Roby and Rayzor

I've quickly grown to hate the Sabres' road telecasts this season. There's nothing wrong with the game and the intermissions. All standard-issue stuff. No arguments with Rick Jeanneret, Harry Neale or host Kevin Sylvester. But there's no longer any real postgame show. No analysis of what went right and what went wrong when these games scream for it.

If you watched Saturday's collapse in Pittsburgh, weren't you dying for Mike Robitaille and Rob Ray to dissect the carnage? You can't all turn the TV off in disgust, right? I'm assuming lots of you want insight.

The Sabres don't think so. Larry Quinn said over the summer the postgame show was getting dumped on the road because it was just three guys talking (Roby, Ray and Sylvester). What's so wrong with that? He said the ratings on the road were lousy. I believe him but the team stunk last year and many road games are on Saturdays, an admittedly tough ratings night.

Every road "postgame" show now is a total rush job. Saturday night, for instance, Sylvester piled through two quick questions of Lindy Ruff and two more of Dan Paille. No more locker-room interviews or Ruff's postgame press conference with the media at large. After a few highlights and lots of commercials, the whole thing was done and signed off in 11 minutes.

Sure makes you pine for the glory days of Roby and Brian Blessing sparring for an hour on "Hockey Hotline".

The Sabres are clearly going in another direction, pushing you to their Web site. You'll usually see some locker room and Ruff video there. It seems they're more interested in the glitz of the Sabres Show, their nicely packaged weekly magazine, than their actual game telecasts.

Seriously, do they really think we care more about a show featuring Maria Genero's inane talks with players at local restaurants or her probing "interviews" with the likes of Tom Golisano?

I want substance and I want hockey talk. That means Roby and Rayzor. They've chosen Genero's fluff and it's pure silliness. Phooey to that.

---Mike Harrington

Comments

[Ryan]

I wish I could see any kind of post game show; I don't care who is on it. On Center Ice, they always seem to cut it off almost immediately after the game is over.

[BBQ]

What's the point of watching when all you are going to get is some garbage that the team is telling the announcers to say? It's ridiculous. If the team sucks (and on many nights it does) who will say it? No one. If that's the case, you might as well put Quinn on the air and let him BS his way through the post game. "Yeah, I know we lost 7-4, but did you see that really cool 5 minutes in the first period"?

Don't just blame Connolly. He isn't the only one that has taken the last two years off and gotten a paycheck.

[Brown Bags Anyone!]

Get Out the Boy Butter...it's gonna be a long season... LOL

[Mark]

Wait, that was an interview? I thought we were just seeing footage of Adam Mair on a bad date.

Harry Neale may not know player names, but against pittsburgh he forgot the TEAM NAME. He finally just had to say "them" because he couldnt come up with "sabres" or "buffalo". Poor delivery, annoying voice, no insight, and it just sounds like Jeanneret cant stand him.

Roby and Ray are great. They both need more air time and more leeway to be fired up about their answers.

[Matt]

Robitaille has turned into Don Cherry Lite: an old hockey grump without the crazy clothes and controversial, over-the-top statements. I agree that his analysis seems to be the same every game. Dunno what happpened but he is a shell of what he used to be. Might have a lot to do with who's around him: Blessing had insight, intelligence and most of all fire, while Sylvester is just another cookie-cutter talking head. Man, Blessing used to get so outraged by others' statements on Hockey Hotline that I used to think he'd lose his s--- right there on the set and throw something or grab someone by the collar. Robitaille, back then, was the same way. It was fun. Those days are long gone.

Now, I don't watch pre-game or post-game anymore. They've pretty effectively neutered it. And I can't stand Maria Genero and her inane, idiotic pieces.

[Morning Joe]

Steve likes the girls. How the game is played? Who cares about that?

[Steve in Wheatfield]

You have go to be kidding me! I can't reach for the remote fast enough after a game is over. It doesn't matter if it's home or away.

Robitaille is really bad. He has no clue what the viewing public want to see and/or hear. His Telestrator...or Robistrator or whatever they call it adds nothing to the show. Who the hell cares if Adam Mair didn't cut off the passing lane to the off winger in order to prevent a shot from the point that wasn't going in anyway???

Sylvester AND Robitaille have a real bad habit of talking out of their a##. I really have to shake my head at some of the things they say.

I love Harry Neale, but he takes WAYYYY to long to get to the end of a joke that no one under the age of 40 understands anyway.

If anything, we need MORE Maria Genero. Who cares if she isn't a "professional hockey analyst" like the guys noted above. Maybe a smokin' babe in the studio or at the rink during intermission will add just that right touch to keep guys like me from changing the channel so quick.

[Morning Joe]

Harry Neale is a joke, and Kevin Sylvester is a total hack and it shows. The sad thing is that I honestly didn't mind his play-by-play that much when he did it last year. He was actually bearable in that role. But as a host/analyst, no thank you.

I love Roby but he seems to have lost a step or two. I recall some very intense tirades in the Hockey Hotline days, almost coming to blows with Brian Blessing. Those were the days. Now it just seems like he's been neutered.

But, given the choice, yes, I agree with Mike. More Roby and Rob please. We get very little meaningful analysis these days since Jim Lorentz called it quits. I'll take whatever I can get.

[Patrick]

"All standard-issue stuff. No arguments with Rick Jeanneret, Harry Neale or host Kevin Sylvester."

- - No arguments with Harry Neale?? He doesn't even know the players names let alone provide any insight into the game!

[jan]

I miss Hockey Hotline also. I'd like less Maria, more Rob and Roby.

[Chad]

Roby hasn't been giving good analysis for years. It's like he lost it after the lockout. Every game he essentially says the same thing: the Sabres are either being successful or failing because of their forecheck and battles in the corner. Really? You mean if the Sabres want to win they have to get a stronger forecheck going and win more battles? Thanks for the insight!

[Jill]

I do like seeing the players as real people... But I do agree, I enjoy a good analysis and we are not getting.

The website is not doing it for me... you have to wait and wait and wait for the interviews. I want instant gratification. I want to see the interview when it happens... I don't want to have to wait until the next day to see it. Show it live then post it online. Simple.

And some are right... why play the same interview of the player three times? Play it once on the TV broadcast... toss it on the website and be done with it. Makes sense to me.

There is so much more that can be done with this team. Show features of their charities and what their charities do, do features with the coaching and training staff, the behind the scenes look (how the players get ready for the games). Some of us know they play soccer, do hand eye coordination things... or how about their training?

Just my opinion. Thanks for listening.

[George]

"Management" (cudn't manage a pizza joint) doesn't want Roby to tell it like it is when the Butterknives screw up which is happening quite a lot recently. Also have u noticed that the Butterknives are like the D battery. They keep going & going down in the standings.

[Amy]

I remember reading at some point that even though the post game show on the road was reduced, that just meant that the player interviews and extended versions of Lindy's comments would be put on the web. I'm not seeing that. Good luck finding much content on Sabres TV from road games.

[Zach]

I am going to admit, I am not a huge fan of the Shootout. I really miss Hockey Hotline.

[buffalofanhouse.com]

No way. Roby's the man. You've gotta love a guy who has as much passion for hockey as he does. The guy pours his heart and soul into his analysis.

[Long Island Sabres Fanatic]

I for one am glad I dont have to listen to Mike Robitaille's drivel for any longer than I have to. The guy couldnt play when he was a player and is even worse as an analyst. He belabors the obvious.

[TJ]

While I'll 100% agree that the MSG post-game coverage on road games is miniscule, I don't think the solution is to have Roby - much less Ray - wax on about the same things they do every game. Since Quinn took over the TV format on MSG, it's been lame from Day One. As you said, Hockey Hotline on Empire was the perfect formula - especially when Josh Mora was leading the charge.

[buffalofanhouse.com]

Dead on, Mike. It's like the Sabres portion of MSG's just not giving an effort this year. I couldn't care less about their Web site, which they're always promoting.

[Cari]

I like Genero's spots only because it humanizes the players a little bit. The public just sees them as Buffalo's hockey celebrities, which is fine, but it's nice to see what they're like as people, so that we can actually feel like they're one of us... Just a Buffalonian.

That being said, I don't care for her much. I'd much rather watch Roby and Rayzor, like you said, Mike. And to tell you the truth, yesterday I actually was wishing that Hockey Hotline was still around...

[Buffalo Excuses]

When you have only one guy on the road, you ONLY PAY one guy on the road.

Period, End, Done.

[Anne]

I've been against Maria Genero for years. She's not engaging, she has horrible delivery and she seems to have no idea what she's talking about most of the time.

As much as I'd love to hear Pat Kaleta debating about "athletic v. voluptuous" about 5 more times, I'd much rather watch Rayzor and Roby rip the team apart for last night's monumental collapse.

[Rick]

I definitely want more Roby. Genero's fluff is terrible. She doesn't know anything about hockey. Oh that's right, that's doesn't matter because they're not trying to give us hockey information.

[Heather B.]

I'm not gonna lie, I love the fluff. Fluff is good. But I will agree that the road broadcasts are TERRIBLE and I do hate the same fluff pieces being on the website AND on the weekly TV show AND on the website. I also miss Rob and Roby. I like Kevin Sylvester fine but the road games are way too much Kevin for me.

[twoeightnine]

C'mon now. You know that you want to see that piece on Mair five more times.