Dan Dunleavy popular among fanbase?

[Stads]

 

Below is an excerpt from a NYT/The Athletic article that ranks each teams' broadcast. I need to know which of you is being quoted here. We need to talk.

Is there " widespread praise" for DD? I think he's trying his best but there are problems which have been well documented here. I don't know who scored until 3-5 seconds after a goal goes in. The DD-Razor banter about nonsense as the play is going on is insufferable.  I get that this topic is highly unnecessary, but I'm bored.

 

The Results: In his second full season as Sabres play-by-play broadcaster, Dunleavy continues to earn widespread praise from Sabres fans. That’s impressive, given the impossible task he was thrust into of replacing the late, great Rick Jeanneret.

 

“Dunleavy had big shoes to fill but has done it well,” wrote one Sabres fan.

“Dan Dunleavy is among the best play-by-play guys in hockey today, and in a market where everyone grew up with Rick Jeanneret, it’s all the more impressive that he earned the respect of the fans and has been accepted as the new voice of the Sabres,” wrote another.

Edited June 10 by Stads

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Sounds like both his wifes wrote in those reviews / comments.

The only other possibility is that he has 2 kids that are still of the age where they like dad.

That said, he is okay.

It was inevitable that he, or whomever came after Rick, would be compared to the greatest ever.

[John Gianelli]

At first I didn't like him, but Dunleavy has grown on me. I enjoy his banter with Ray. I loved RJ (and Ted Darling), but at the end of his tenure, RJ would sometimes go 2-3 minutes without giving the score, which was frustrating when listening on the radio. Yes, you can tell my generation by the fact that I listen to AM radio in the car.

[Weave]

Maybe when the Sabres are decent I will care enough to notice.

[dudacek]

I don’t listen to Sabres games on the radio, which seems to be Dan’s biggest criticism.

i like the excitement level of his voice in games that call for that. His word play can be cringey at times but his tone is good; he’s got a touch of that old Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster in that he spends most of his time calling the game rather than drifting into anecdotes while the play goes on - at least compared to what I hear on national broadcasts. I think he gets the part about how the sound of his voice needs to convey the rhythms of the game. I liked how he called the explosive squad of 22/23.

He’s a pro in the sense that he strikes a very good balance of letting us know he’s for the Sabres without ever feeling like he is pandering to them, or misleading us. He’s a decent foil for Ray; it feels like Rob has accepted him as part of the team now and the needling is more camaraderie than testing.

I’m comfortable hanging out with him for 3 hours a couple times a week. I find myself getting annoyed when my feed is the other team’s. I’m looking forward to see what he does with a good team to work with.

[PASabreFan]

On brand.

[Buffalonill]

When the Sabres are good I'm hoping for a new broadcasting team

Right now I don't care 

[dudacek]

7 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

On brand.

Why do you hate the fans so much?

[Believer]

8 hours ago, Stads said:

The DD-Razor banter about nonsense as the play is going on is insufferable.

Simply awful. Complete distraction from game play. Dopey, to boot.

[That Aud Smell]

Dan's a solid pro and a good guy.

That's fine for me, for now anyway.

As others have noted upthread and elsewhere: I just want the team to be good.

[That Aud Smell]

9 hours ago, Stads said:

Is there " widespread praise" for DD? I think he's trying his best but there are problems which have been well documented here. I don't know who scored until 3-5 seconds after a goal goes in. The DD-Razor banter about nonsense as the play is going on is insufferable.  I get that this topic is highly unnecessary, but I'm bored.

That said, "widespread praise" is a weird conclusion to draw. And the one area where he must improve is calling goals. We cannot have a 50-word narrative start when the puck crosses the goal line that ends with words like "... and Tage Thompson has put the Sabres in the lead, 1-0!"

[PASabreFan]

7 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Why do you hate the fans so much?

Only some of them.

Enjoy mediocrity.

[dudacek]

1 minute ago, PASabreFan said:

Only some of them.

Enjoy mediocrity.

That’s why I’ve got you on follow 😘

[SwampD]

1 minute ago, PASabreFan said:

Only some of them.

Enjoy mediocrity.

I like Dan. He’s better than mediocre. I don’t know how much out of market hockey people watch here, but I watch a lot. There are only a handful of broadcast teams around the league that I think are better. 

[Pimlach]

I think DD is terrible at PBP.  He gives us no sense of puck position.  He doesn’t consistently say who has the puck and where.  He is late to the action.  
 

In other words, he barely does the job.  I have ESPN+ so I can listen to other teams broadcasts.   Dan is less than mediocre.  We should expect more given the rich broadcasting and PBP history of the franchise.   

[K-9]

NHL hockey is too fast for him and Dunleavy cannot keep up with the play. You can get away with that on a TV broadcast but not on the radio, where the audience is dependent on the PBP announcer to paint the image for them. Listeners should be able to follow the puck up and down the ice, but Dunleavy leaves huge gaps in the action making that difficult. The broadcast crew serves the TV audience first and I get that, but it would be nice to have a dedicated radio broadcast team as well. 

[PASabreFan]

My beefs with Dan are chiefly:

He can call a good game but only does so when it fits his mood apparently. Maybe the perfect guy for this group of Gen Z slackers.

Worse, he gaslits. Big time. Almost comically. Maybe why Dudacek likes him.

"Buffalo now down 5-1. And here they go again looking for another one to get right back in it!"

See also: going from 3-0 down to 3-1 is not cutting a lead in half.

[TheAud]

I think Dunleavy is below average in every way, pretty much across the board.  I guess his voice sounds fine.  

That said, if the Athletic article was based on some sort of actual data (unclear to me that is the case or not) I think it's possible that a bunch of fans who read and post on a Sabres fan forum all off-season are perhaps not representative of the majority of fans that may consider Dunleavy a good announcer. 

I.e., maybe normal people do in fact, like him. 

Edited June 10 by TheAud

[Taro T]

21 minutes ago, K-9 said:

NHL hockey is too fast for him and Dunleavy cannot keep up with the play. You can get away with that on a TV broadcast but not on the radio, where the audience is dependent on the PBP announcer to paint the image for them. Listeners should be able to follow the puck up and down the ice, but Dunleavy leaves huge gaps in the action making that difficult. The broadcast crew serves the TV audience first and I get that, but it would be nice to have a dedicated radio broadcast team as well. 

Dan is absolutely not a radio guy and it's a shame that the 2 roles don't get broken back out to being separate roles.  (Totally get why they don't go back to that (don't want to spend money on separate announcers and crews for providing commentary for the same event), but it is still a shame they don't.

That said, through the years, TV broadcasts of NHL games across the board has moved away from true PBP into more of an NFL style TV broadcast where they PBP guy and the color guy end up talking about a lot of other stuff than just the game action.  It works in NFL broadcasts because they have 20 seconds or more to kill after every single play.  It doesn't work with end to end action sports like hockey.  But, not completely convinced that Dunleavy couldn't do a very good TV broadcast; at times he does, particularly when the Sabres are in the mix for being relevant.  But he's never going to give you the true PBP that you're looking for.  That, unfortunately is no longer in the job description.

[thewookie1]

He's ok, that's about how I'd describe him. Good guy, average play-by-play, pretty good with clever goal nicknames but slow to the punch.

 

He's not good as a radio announcer however; I can't paint any picture in my head like I could with RJ. But for TV he's fine.

[Taro T]

And oddly enough, for box lax, the sport is still niche enough that the broadcasts are more pbp than just banter, and John Gurtler has become a pretty good annoucer.  He seemed very bad following in the footsteps of the legendary Ted Darling, but he's found his footing calling the Bandits.

Would really like ALL NHL coverage to get back to more of that style pbp.  Doubt it happens.

And might try to catch more Preds games.  Pete Weber is still oldschool enough to call the game the right way.  But he's a dying breed.

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, Taro T said:

Dan is absolutely not a radio guy and it's a shame that the 2 roles don't get broken back out to being separate roles.  (Totally get why they don't go back to that (don't want to spend money on separate announcers and crews for providing commentary for the same event), but it is still a shame they don't.

That said, through the years, TV broadcasts of NHL games across the board has moved away from true PBP into more of an NFL style TV broadcast where they PBP guy and the color guy end up talking about a lot of other stuff than just the game action.  It works in NFL broadcasts because they have 20 seconds or more to kill after every single play.  It doesn't work with end to end action sports like hockey.  But, not completely convinced that Dunleavy couldn't do a very good TV broadcast; at times he does, particularly when the Sabres are in the mix for being relevant.  But he's never going to give you the true PBP that you're looking for.  That, unfortunately is no longer in the job description.

I am tired of the "don't want to spend the money bullcrap" with this team.  

We once had great TV and Radio coverage back when everybody, in every job within the organization, made way less money.   If money is the reason then get guys that can do justice to both TV and radio.   

I am tired of settling for whatever we get with this team.  Bigger than that, I am tired of the lower standards that have become a part of our world today.  

Edited June 10 by Pimlach

[inkman]

He’s never going to fill RJ’s shoes adequately for most here.  I understand it but don’t really agree.  RJ is a legend but his hysterical screaming was a bit much.  It was cool getting caught up in the moment but he was super over the top. Anyone who followed was going to be cast in his shadow and never live up to the legend. It’s ok.  He’s fine.  Would I like some improvements, sure.  Is he as good as most teams PBP announcers? Certainly.  

[Taro T]

6 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I am tired of the "don't want to spend the money bullcrap" with this team.  

We once had great TV and Radio coverage back when everybody, in every job within the organization, made way less money.   If money is the reason then get guy that can do justice to both TV and radio.   

I am tired of settling for whatever we get with this team.  Bigger than that, I am tired of the lower standards that have become a part of our world today.  

To the bolded, pretty sure we all are.  But take it up with people that have some say in the matter. 😉 

[CallawaySabres]

He is as bad as this team is right now. Other than the uniforms, this whole franchise pretty much stinks from A-Z (ownership, roster, coaches, in-game experience, broadcasting.)