Ken & Mickey

[Datsyerberger 279]

Seeing as I've seen quite a bit of discussion about these guys here and there, I'm wondering what general opinion LGW has on this pair.

As someone who watches the majority of his Wings games (and for that matter, a non-Wings game or two a night) on internet streams (usually coming from the various local networks), I've had the opportunity to experience a variety of broadcast crews. Given those experiences, here's my relative thoughts on Ken & Mickey:

-- They're slight homers. That's okay, they're home team announcers. The majority of their viewership are Wings fans. They don't go overboard with it, they strike a good balance between good broadcasting and homerism. (More on this in a little). They can and do get as excited over good plays and goals by the away team as they do with the Wings.

-- They've got good voices for it. Strong, clear, and not heavily accented. They don't have particularly unique quirks, but that also keeps them from being irritating (More on this in a little, too).

-- Interesting vocabulary without sounding like the bipolar Emrick (who, on one hand, tries to have 50 words for everything under the sun, and on the other hand, uses the modifier "back" to describe movement or location every other sentence, regardless of the direction or action).

-- Their hockey knowledge and pronunciation of odd names is on the whole pretty good. They correct their mistakes if they notice them, and do so quickly without disrupting the flow of things.

-- They occasionally segue into stories, but most of the time said stories are fairly interesting, and they usually don't do so at the expense of missing too much of an important play (usually).

-- They can be flat-out hilarious sometimes. On the other hand, they do have a tendency to hee-haw too much every now and then, but that's one of my few knocks against them (and a good bit of the time I'm laughing with them).

-- They break down and analyze a play fairly well. Maybe not the best in the league at this, but they don't leave me scratching my head.

-- One of the bigger gripes I've seen against them is how much they whine about penalties, particularly in regards to consistency and ticky-tacky calls. They ARE one of the whiniest duos in the league about this. That said, what's usually left out is they tend to go off about it regardless of whether it's against the Wings or not. They don't shy away from pointing out a bad call, a ticky-tacky new NHL joke penalty, a dive, or awful inconsistency, and I for one appreciate that (rather than simply gobbling on the league's collective schwanz. Leave that to VS).

A couple notes regarding some parentheticals above:

-- As I said, I don't mind a small amount of homerism in 'local' broadcasting and I feel it's appropriate. Ken & Mickey balance this well. Some guys, on the other hand, are frigging awful homers. The Anaheim guys particularly come to mind. I remember watching one game. Here's how it went:

(Anaheim goal): "skate pass skate pass SKATE PASS SKATE PASS SHOOOT SCCOOOOAAOAO--OAAARRRRRBGJHASLDSAKDSDLKL!!!!111one!11eleven!!1one"

(Away team goal): "skate pass skate pass SKATE PASS SKATE PASS SHOOT score." -- Absolutely deadpanned goal call, completely killed the excitement of the play.

I'm really not exaggerating that. At all.

-- Also, vocal quirks. There's memorable, and then there's annoying. I was watching Calgary - Montreal last night (A Montreal network, don't remember which). Every time the play-by-play got wound up, his voice started to sound like he was being strangled while his balls were being crushed in a vice. I couldn't enjoy a goal without cracking up, because every time I heard his voice go like that, all I could hear in my head was his voice sounding like "MMOEEAEMMRRRRRGNNNH.. PUTTIN ON THE RIIIIIIIIITZ!" (think Young Frankenstein - Edit: Link for the uniformed -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH2nQHPs4aA). If I had to listen to that 82 times a year, I'd either tear my hair out or develop a hernia, I'm not sure which.

Now, as for some other broadcast teams I like: Most of the Canadian ones in general, the Phoenix guys & Pang, and the Dallas guys... Shaving Cream & Razor or whatever their names are.

On the whole, I really like Ken & Mickey. Thoughts?

Edited February 10, 2009 by Datsyerberger

[Feldmarschall 9]

Pretty spot-on analysis of Ken and Mick. I don't watch too many other teams but the one guy that always stands out is that hyperactive Buffalo announcer. That guy is a raging homer and he gets so excited I sometimes watch Buffalo clips just to get a quick laugh. I was getting quite seriously worried about the possibility of him having a heart attack on the air when Campbell destroyed Umberger a couple years back.

[uk_redwing 495]

FSN Detroit makes Red Wings hockey.

[19Hockeytown5 0]

I can't imagine watching Red Wings Hockey on FSN without ken and mickey! They are all I've ever known

Bob cole from cbc said "That's it. The game is over" (in the worst monotone ever) when the Red Wings won their recent cup. I laugh every time I see the clip (I saw the game on NBC).

[PROBIE4PREZ 58]

they are funny when they argue about calls being legit or not .. its mostly mickey crying about a soft call and Ken tries to explain to him the circumstances .. Mick seems plowed sometimes and yacks on n on about nothing .. thats their only knock i have on them ..

I hated John Keating doing play by play .. i think he has the worst voice on that broadcast team ..

[19Hockeytown5 0]

what.....do you.....mean....? John............Keating.....is great........for........broadcasting.

[sureWhyNot 19]

I love both of them. Seriously you can call me a homer but I have listened and/or watched a lot of other teams feeds and quite frankly I haven't come across any pair that matches up, or even comes close to matching up with Ken, Mickey AND Murph (gotta give Larry some love too.)

John Keating.... Not so much.

[esteef 2,679]

what.....do you.....mean....? John............Keating.....is great........for........broadcasting.

Or how about asking players who barely speak English big long drawn out questions? The players are like WTF?!!

John Keating =

esteef

[Datsyerberger 279]

Oh yea, I like Murph too.. he's pretty good for a relative newcomer. But that's a different discussion entirely.

[maltbymaniac 13]

imo,murphy is a bumbling idiot.

how long has mickey and ken been doing r coverage?

[Jamaica Jon 1]

Yeah Mick can get a little ridiculous with his complaining about penalties (to the point of being irritating), but most of the time he has a point. I like that Ken always plays devil's advocate with him.

Through the first half of the season, Ken said "commercial zone" when referring to the new icing rule about 90 times a game (literally). That got on my nerves eventually, but since then he hasn't used it very much at all.

Other than that, and even with that, these guys are awesome. Absolutely love them.

Oh, and Emrick sucks balls.

[wingfan1991 221]

they are funny when they argue about calls being legit or not .. its mostly mickey crying about a soft call and Ken tries to explain to him the circumstances .. Mick seems plowed sometimes and yacks on n on about nothing .. thats their only knock i have on them ..

I hated John Keating doing play by play .. i think he has the worst voice on that broadcast team ..

yup thats one thing this year i noticed a lot.. mickey wont stop with "that's a penalty, geeeez" .. like mickey enough about the 60s, we know its changed! ken one day is gonna tell him off, got a feeling.

btw no one beats bob cole.. guy is and was the greatest voice.

[Copenhagen848 58]

I used to like Strader and Mick on Pass Sports back in the day....but I love the duo of Ken and Mick now. Ken is an excellent play by play guy and I love good 'ol Mick. As already mentioned, FSN Detroit is Red Wings hockey. Also as mentioned, I could easily live without John Keating....he is an absolute moron. Don't care for Murph too much either to be honest.

[hardcoretom21 71]

actually Jim Hughson has THE best voice

[egroen 384]

I am always suprised to find fans from other teams for the most part hate Ken and Mickey:

1) For being homers

2) For being arrogant

3) For Mickey rambling on about the old days

One funny post I remember was someone said how they missed a call because they were too busy talking about how they wore cod fish in their hockey pants back in the day to keep warm. That actually made me laugh.

Anyways, I love it when Mickey tells an old-time anecdote, personally -- compared to Pierre and Eddie, he rarely lets it interfere with the pace of a game.

Edited February 10, 2009 by egroen

[evilmrt 636]

Oh I think you know what I'm going to say here, based on what I have as my avatar....

they definately bring great to watching the Wings on tv. when I go to games, I've found myself wishing Ken and Mickey were sitting behind me, so I could hear the running commentary. oh yeah, theres usually SOME kind of commentary, but its usually not up to FSN Detroit quality

and for anyone who has suffered through Strader and Pang (ugh) on FSN Arizona....how can you not like Ken/Mickey?

[Lovin Jiri Fischer 147]

"These refs are more liberal than the socialist party"

MY FAVORITE!

[Sound-Chaser 3]

It didn't take me long to warm up to Daniels. He a great play-by-play guy, knows his hockey, and has a good rapport with Mickey. He helped make it easier to forget the slug we had in '97, Mike Goldberg. Yuck.

[MannyK 16]

actually Jim Hughson has THE best voice

I agree. I really like his announcing style...... I grew up with him announcing EA NHL games, and then when I finally realized he was on CBC doing Canucks games (and other Canadian playoff games), i was shocked that he actually announced REAL NHL games...... heh.

but yeah, I agree. Jim Hughson rocks. I also like Gary Thorne's voice a lot for announcing hockey, but i generally think he's an idiot, for the most part.

I love Ken and Mick, and i HATE Murphy......... I'm just glad FSN Detroit doesn't call him "Hall-of-Famer" Larry Murphy anymore, at least they don't do it ALL the freakin time anymore... so annoying

Edited February 10, 2009 by MannyK

[Chunkylover 26]

I like the clarity of their voices, as opposed to Rick Jeanneret, Sam Rosen, and Pete Weber, who have fat-guy voices. Add Gary Thorne to that list.

You can hear where Ken wants to be as unbiased as possible but not disrupt the broadcast booth's chemistry. Yeah, it's annoying that Mick still hasn't accepted the new game, but then most of the calls he complains about are pretty unacceptable as well, so I give him the benefit of the doubt.

Larry Murphy as a color commentator is dreadful; he has absolutely no cadence and that disrupts the presentation. With that said, when he's between the benches, the three of them are just awesome. When Murph and Mick start taking friendly jabs at each other or waxing nostalgic they are hilarious.

I don't think Doc Emrick is bad, but he in no way compares to our guys.

As a side note: I don't believe Mickey can drink because of his health problems, which is why he always asks people to have a ginger ale for him.

Edited February 10, 2009 by Chunkylover

[agziolkow 1]

I lived 2 hours north of Dallas for a little over a year and, while I had the NHL Center Ice hockey package...I'd watch some of the Wings vs Dallas games on FSN-Dallas for the HD feed and I remember being quite annoyed by the Dallas broadcasters.

I honestly can't remember what it was that bothered me so much about them..but I definitely started opting for the non-HD, non-full screen feed of FSN-Detroit to listen to Ken and Mickey.

As for Phoenix, I think I remember having really no big opinion either way. Didn't one of our old broadcasters go over there? I vaguely remember Panger giving me a bit of a general "eck" feeling when he does national games.

I'm going out of town for the rest of the week, but I'll have to switch over to some of their games while the Wings game is on a commercial break and update my opinions soon.

BTW, Mickey is the man

(edited for Panger)

Edited February 10, 2009 by agziolkow

[Echolalia 2,961]

"These refs are more liberal than the socialist party"

MY FAVORITE!

I don't know if Mickey said this or I heard it somewhere else (this was probably about 8-10 years ago): "Stevie Wonder could've seen that hook!"

[PROBIE4PREZ 58]

lol no one likes John Keating .. I remember he asked Datsyuk how he can just turn up the fire or something stupid and Datsyuk gave him a funny wtf look and John repharsed it better .. Any one think the pairing of Gary Thorne and Redmond would be any good? wasnt Gary the play by play n Bill Clement just gave his 2 cents or stated the obvious?

[stormboy 47]

like others have said, i've gotten a bit annoyed this year with mick *constantly* bitching about weak calls. i just feel like, okay, mick, we get it. you don't like the calls. in the "good old days" that wouldn't get called. the one thing i do forgive about it is that he *usually* calls it both ways, with a slight bias for the wings. i remember a few games ago hossa clearly interfered with a guy (checked him before he got to the puck) and the non-call led directly to a red wings goal. off course mickey wasn't pissed about it, per se, but he did make it very clear that the other coach totally had a right to be angry, as that was a totally blown call. so i do appreciate that, but the same complaint over and over and over again gets old.

sometimes i feel like ken actually gets a bit annoyed when he's like, "well, mick, it's the way it is." *shrug* i do appreciate, though, that they don't just jerk the league off like VS does -- they actually point out when they disagree with things.

also, after every single goal, mick goes, "i think that hit something in front," even on goals where it clearly didn't.

overall, i really love ken. he makes the calls really exciting when both teams score. i HATE it when announcers don't say anything when the other team scores other than maybe a monotone "that was goal scorer's fifth of the season" a few seconds later. he still gets more excited for the wings, though, which as a home-town announcer, is his right and in fact his job.

some of the mick one-liners are amazing as well. i swear he sits up in the broadcast booth with a bottle of jack. it seems like he gets crazier and crazier (drunker and drunker) as the game goes on. love it.

and for the record, i like jon keating.

[up2here 41]

Try watching a Blue Jackets game on FSN Ohio,youll appreciate Ken and Mickey. Side note, Mickey is part of an interesting Red Wings trivia question.Mickey Redmond and Steve Yzerman are the only Red Wings in history with back to back 50 goal seasons (Stevie actually had back to back 60 goal seasons).

Edited February 10, 2009 by UP2HERE