I don’t expect much from the NHL nor from the Versus Network, and frankly that’s a good thing, it saves me a lot of aggravation.
Thanks to Wyshynski at Puck Daddy though, I’ve gotten my mojo back.
How else can you explain that the lowest of the low amongst hockey bloggers gets the call to help out Versus, the American network of hockey?
That’s right, Versus has hired the infamous Eklund (that link is a MUST read) to be their voice of the hockey blogosphere.
I provide you the link to the Versus site merely to prove that it’s not some jerk-around that Versus did something this stupid and I do NOT encourage anyone to visit Dwayne Klessel’s page either at Versus or his own kingdom of stupid.
I’m not going to pile on about Klessel because, let’s face it, if you’re familiar with him at all you know his site is a joke and that the man himself is a poser of the highest order and a phony. If you don’t know him, don’t bother getting to know him or his joke of a hockey blog full of terrible rumors.
What’s got me amazed here is that there is information galore all over the Internet about what a fraud he is and Verus still found him to be their go-to-guy for web analysis of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Unreal.
This is an amazing level of carelessness on the part of a network that has not improved much since Day One of their contract with the NHL. I can’t believe that it makes me this angry especially when there are at least three kings of the hockey blogosphere that could have been/may have been contacted about this instead.
Any one of Paul Kukla, Greg Wyshynski or James Mirtle would’ve lent a lot more credibility to Versus on this one, even adding any of the numerous folks who are acolytes at any of their respective big time sites would have done the trick as well.
Instead we get a heaping dose of continued failure from a network that insists on continuing to treat their core audience like children who have never been to a game.
Versus: The Official Network of the Failboat
I’ve heard back from all three blogging gurus about this and Mirtle reports that he was not approached at all. I have to wonder if that has more to do with James being from Toronto and Versus folks not really being aware of where or what Canada is.
Greg Wyshynski adds in a similar tale in that he was never approached about such a thing either. Wyshynski also has a distinct pedigree having come from both Fanhouse and being featured at Deadspin.
Paul Kukla, on the other hand, was approached by Versus at the beginning of the season and tells me that while he was flattered and intrigued by the offer he didn’t want to lend his and his website’s name to something that might be “tied in with other less-reputable bloggers.” Versus said they could not guarantee this would be the case, a response that opens up another entirely insane can of worms regarding the network.
Interpret that how you wish, but apparently Kukla’s response was taken seriously enough that he wasn’t approached about doing the same for them for the playoffs and obviously Versus decided to go with, perhaps, the least reputable guy on the Internet.
What an awful network and what an awful set of decision makers. I can’t say how happy I am that the NHL is tied up with them until 2011.