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
