For those of you who do not already know me (mainly anyone reading this) I am the play-by-play voice of the Minot Minotauros in the North American Hockey League.  I would like to think young and up-and-coming “play-by-play voice of the Minot Minotauros,” but in reality I will probably never get to live my dream of replacing Pat Foley on the Chicago Blackhawks call.  The long shot odds of advancing in my chosen profession however lead to me approaching my time in the headset any less professionally; there are significantly worse fates then staying in my adopted home of Minot watching and talking about the game I love for the rest of my life.

 

“So Ken, what will you actually be writing about here?” you ask.  Well hockey (obviously) and how we talk about it.  As a broadcaster, I believe we are the waiters of the sports world.  We are not the food (that would be the players), or the cooks (the coaches/scouts/general managers), or well you get it.  The frequent patrons know what they want, and for the most part a broadcaster’s job is to bring it to them as quickly and accurately as possible.  But, for the uninitiated it becomes our job to educate them on the menu; to show them the value not just of the steak but of the mashed potatoes as well.

 

Which brings me (finally) to my first topic; officiating.  This was not going to be my first topic but as many Minotauros’ fans can tell you this weekend has lead to me thinking about how broadcasters address bad officials.  Being a Chicago native, I point directly at Ken Harrelson the television voice of the White Sox as what not to do.  For those lucky enough not to have had him assault their ears through a tv. Hawk is best know for rants against bad umpires and pouting when the Sox are losing by not saying a word for as long as an entire half inning.  He is terrible.

 

Bringing it back to hockey my view has always been the referee does not just pick up the puck and put it in your net.  Bad calls are part of the game, and you are allowed to kill the penalties called against you, even the ones that should not have been.  As such I will never blame the referee for a loss.  However, I will point out that a call was a bad call or that an official is in general doing a poor job. And I will often try to at least have some fun with it because as a Cubs fan who grew up watching Harry Caray I know, if your team is losing, laughter can be the only thing that keeps people watching.