Media mistakes in hockey

By Lee Manchur Sports Central Columnist

Due to the success of the U.S. Olympic Men's ice hockey team at the Winter Olympics this past February, viewership for the 2002 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs is as high as it's ever been below the 49th parallel.

With professional hockey now being broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, and Fox SportsNet, there has been a need for more broadcasters and play-by-play men. Each of these people have their own styles, but some are using terms that should be reserved for basketball and football; terms that have no place in the sport of hockey.

For example, the word "puckhandling" should not be in a hockey fan's dictionary despite some U.S. commentators using that word. "Puckhandling" implies that one is actually handling the puck.

In basketball, a player actually holds the ball in his hand, but in hockey, the correct term should be "stickhandling." The object the player is holding is the stick, not the puck. Thus, when a player makes an outstanding deke on the goaltender, his is "stickhandling" the puck, not "puckhandling" it.

Another basketball term used by U.S. commentators in hockey is the word "double team." No matter how good a hockey player is, and no matter how many players are defending him, there is no such word as "double team." In a slower sport like basketball, you can shadow a player up and down the floor (i.e. "double-teaming" him), but in a fast-paced sport like hockey, where the fastest players can skate 600 feet (the perimeter of a hockey rink) in under 14 seconds, it's impossible to have two players checking one opposition player all the time.

These are a few examples, but there are others. I recently noticed an ABC play-by-play man use the word "walls" instead of "boards." "Shanahan checks Forsberg into the walls." What kind of play description is that?

Glass and boards are the more appropriate words that should be used.

I have to give a big applause for the ABC/ESPN crew, though. In all the games I've seen, they've done a superb job of introducing the sport of hockey to the American people by clearly explaining some common rules, but by also bringing up facts and figures the more experienced hockey fan can appreciate. Yes, even myself, a Canadian by day and an exotic hockey fan by night, enjoys watching the ABC broadcast of a game every now and then.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.