Pierre McGuire: One bad goal will sink Canada
February 27, 2010 · 38 Comments
The Canadian men’s hockey team was well in control of its a semi-final game against Slovakia, ahead 3-0 with 8:25 to play, when Roberto Luongo let in a soft goal.
From then on, it was a scramble for the Canadians, who were lucky to withstand the Slovaks’ assault and escape an overtime period.
Canada hasn’t received anything close to excellent goaltending in the Olympic tournament. Luongo has allowed a bad goal in every game he’s played except for the shutout over Norway.
The United States, on the other hand, enjoyed a relatively easy ride to the gold medal game largely because of Ryan Miller’s goaltending. The Canadians are in the gold medal despite the performance of their goalies, not because of it.
It would repetitive to ask, one more time, why the Canadian brain trust never considered giving Marc-Andre Fleury a start. But it should be asked. As Don Cherry pointed out in my previous column, Fleury was playing the best of the three, Martin Brodeur being the third, leading into the tournament.
Anyway, a loss by Canada because of inadequate goaltending will make the decision to start the tournament with Brodeur and then go to Luongo, while ignoring Fleury the main talking point of the post mortem.
I asked analyst Pierre McGuire, who will call the gold medal game for CTV along with announcer Chris Cuthbert, about the goaltending, the tournament and what Canada will need to do to win.
What is the one thing about the Canadian that has stood out for you?
I’ve coached in the Stanley Cup final (as an assistant for Pittsburgh Penguins). I’ve called five straight Stanley Cup finals (for NBC). I’ve called eight junior gold medal games (for TSN). And I’ve never seen such intense scrutiny and pressure on a team. I don’t know how these guys are doing it every single day. I’ve never seen such a pressurized situation in my life. These guys deserve huge acclaim just by getting on the ice and making any kind of skilful hockey play. It’s amazing.
During the women’s gold medal game, the camera went to members of the men’s team in the stands on two or three occasions. It was a grim bunch. No laughing, no smiles.
The pressure on the Canadians is my stand lone moment. It’s unbelievable. And I’m right down there at ice level and I feel it. It starts when they come on the ice for a warm-up and it doesn’t dissipate. Even when they have success it doesn’t dissipate.
Will fatigue be an issue in the gold medal game? Canada has played one extra game. It prevailed in a close game against Slovakia in the semi-finals while the Americans romped to a 6-1 win over Finland.
I don’t think fatigue will be an issue at all, because in the last four days you’ve had two days of rest. You didn’t have to play on Thursday and you don’t have to play on Saturday. These guys are used to dealing with that sort of stuff. It’s not difficult and they’re not moving from city to city, so I don’t think fatigue be an issue at all.
Is goaltending the most critical match-up?
The answer is yes. If Ryan Miller plays like he did in the preliminary round against Canada, and Canada gets 45 shots or more, and he stops more than 40, it’s going to be difficult.
For Luongo, he’s probably going to have to face between 22 and 28 shots, not much more than that. And he just can’t give up a bad goal. That’s going to be the most important thing. He can’t give up a bad goal. And for the USA, Miller is probably going to face between 42 and 46 shots and he’s going to have to be virtually letter perfect.
Were you surprised by the Canadians dominating the Russians?
I wasn’t. I saw that in 2005 at the world junior championship in Grand Forks. I saw it in 2006 in Vancouver at the world junior. Brent Sutter drew up the game plan to beat the Russians – attack them physically.
I could feel it in the warm-up. The Russian players knew. And Chris Cuthbert asked me. He said, “Pierre is that the Russian team you’ve seen.” I said, “No, because, they’re preparing themselves physically and mentally for the physical assault that’s coming.” And they know. In any international event against Canada involving the best players, they know what’s coming.
Do the Canadians have to play in similar way against the United States?
They have to play with the same energy. They have to manage the puck a little better. But the most important thing for the Canadians is to not give up a bad goal early. That really put them behind the eight ball in the last game against the Americans. Bad goals took away the energy and momentum. So, they have to get off to a good start. That’s going to be really important.
Canadian viewership, English and French language, for the Canada-Slovakia semi-final was 9.7 million, the third largest audience for a Vancouver Olympic sports event telecast. CTV’s audience was 8.4 million.
NBC’s Mike Milbury on the Canada-U.S. hockey rivalry: “It’s like getting even with your big brother. There’s a feeling of entitlement when it comes to the Canadians and hockey. They are a little bit nervous about the Americans, because the little guy came to play.”
NBC’s Jimmy Roberts, on hockey in Canada: “You know the old axiom. There are two things that matter in Texas, right? There’s football and there’s spring football. That’s the kind of the way it is in Canada with hockey. Tomorrow they’ll get a shot at what they feel is the single most important prize of these Games.”
NBC’s Cris Collinsworth, on Canadian hospitality: “It’s like they’re hosting you in their house. . . We’re all very lucky to have the Canadians around. They’ve been a great host.” From an NBC release.
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I didn't hear much of PTS, but have another question for those who did: McCown has been a very vocal opponent of the IOC and their travelling circus – especially if it ever meant his tax dollars having to fund it. Did this come through during his shows from out there or was it generally positive?
In spite of his pre-games positioning as a reluctant participant who would be "kicking ass and taking names", McCown has been solidly tethered to the Kool-aid drip. Assisted by the dreadful Shannon, it was one big fawn fest with a steady parade of members of the broadcast fiasco pleading their case or justifying their existence.
The only names McCown has taken were autographs! If there are two brands that have been seriously damaged, if not destroyed, they're Brian Williams and Bob McCown.
I can't believe how much whining McCown did before the Olympics… he's been on his best behaviour since the first minute. Can't stand Shannon and his stupid fake laugh – trying way to hard… at this point I'd even have Kelley instead of him…
Insider, any truth to the rumour that "Kate The Intern" is Leif Petersen's daughter? Wasn't Keith Pelley Leif's best friend until his unfortunate death? It's not what you know, it's who you know….
Speaking of wasted time … finally caught a version of the McCown's show from the games. So much background noise I could barely hear what the h… was being said. Was it that way throughout?
Simply put, from a business standpoint they cannot, and likely will not, continue to lose millions of dollars with this current configuration. The spin coming out of it will be focused on a couple of big ratings for hockey and the national pride our athletes gave us. But make no mistake. Internally this is a disaster for the consortium. And as Bill has pointed out, ratings have not delivered in Pacific prime and day time — a huge disappointment.
…and speaking of CTV coverage…..my interpretion of what "hell" will be….will be locked for eternity in a room with the wall lined with televisions and NOTHING playing but Michael Lansberg..
Please God..forgive my sins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even worse, Landsberg and LaFlamme broadcasting together for all eternity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With Jamie Campbell adding some colour commentary!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now that the Olympics are coming to an end, one overriding question comes to mind. What was the thought process when the broadcast team for Vancouver was put together? Did the Consortium think that these people would miraculously grow brains, develop skills or acquire talents on the flight out west? Hell, they made the room temperature IQs that populate the hockey panel sound like geniuses!
The problem was, that in order to follow these Olympics (and most of us did) we had no choice but the Consortium. There was no other place to go to, especially since they had a pretty good handle on synchronizing the commercial breaks. NBC was not an option because, though the quality of the talent was superior, hardly anything relevant was live. Radio @ The Fan 590? No thanks, I’d rather listen to a dentist drill than endure Doug Farraway, David Alter, Alex Seixeiro, or, God forbid, Erik Tomas. John Shannon (almost) makes me wish for the return of Jim Kelley. Instead, we had to endure the drivel that was the sticky notes and glue sticks coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics and maintain our sanity by using the mute and jump buttons on our remotes often and diligently.
Let’s hope that this cluster f…k causes advertisers to demand that the Consortium cleans up this mess prior to London 2012 before spending another dollar.
Insider, I totally agree with you. Absysmal failure on the broadcast team with a few exceptions. It would be nice just to be able to leave the coverage on without having to mute or lower the volume so you just pick up the crowd noise to get a feel for it. I did my best to get the RDS coverage when it was offered for Free on Rogers.
Ultimately, whether people will or won't watch CTV has very little to do with the commentary… there's really only one choice of where to watch (though I may go NBC for the hockey game, at least for game play itself).
Nothing really would make me change the channel for most of the coverage. Freestyle skiing and Snowboarding were particularly maddening and abysmal, both play by play and colour, but thankfully those events didn't take long to run so I could endure it in short bursts.
Ditto Insider. While this was a big undertaking, it was a failure. Check out quotes from consortium executives on google; now, they are saying they will "break even in London over the 2 games". The 2 games! What happened to "let's wait and see" how vancouver goes? Also, their claims of revolutionizing the games coverage has not materialized. Yes, more channels were involved. They claimed more platforms, but all that has been done before. The failure came in their inability to mesh these networks and their personnel together. They failed to tell us viewers what was on where, until blogs like Bill's started mentioning it. They had typical cable sports personalities not ready for a conventional network make some big errors, like bringing champagne onto the set and constantly cheerleading the Canadian athletes – a carryover from their b- and c-level personalities carrying the torch, a true PR disaster which should have had heads rolling.
I totally agree with Insider and Booker T…this coverage was mediocre at best. The first week was embarrassing, and the second week they managed to be be better, but overall their effort is/was sloppy. For the record, I do not work for the CBC, I'm not even in the media business – I just love sports television. I'm tired of hearing the "numbers". CTV seems to think they were the reason for the numbers, but anyone with a brain knows that is bull. It was sloppy, sloppy coverage. I hope Fecan and his group are ashamed….
Shannon is a mooch and a shill, always has been, always will.
Pierre McGuire talks too much but he has some good things to say – gotta take the good with the bad.
As for Cassie Campbell, many people slag her as an analyst but I remember a few years back she did commentary for a Habs game during the era that HNIC was almost exclusively showing the Maple Leafs. She was the only one from HNIC at that time that you could tell had done her homework on the Canadiens. She knew about the players, their strengths, weaknesses etc. I really appreciated that.
Finally: I think Luongo has got to be good, not necessarily great, and we'll be OK today …
Just when most of the controversy about the coverage had died down CTV parachutes in Jennifer Burke a "recent hire" to read news on hockey final Sunday and she makes reference to sleeping with the enemy aka Brian Burke. A little Tacky What were they thinking— morale over there must be in the toilet.!
How is Jennifer Burke doing her job controversial? She is a part time replacement anchor. Perhaps you noticed CTV has a few staffers in Vancouver, they may be short staffed in Toronto.
Parachuting? She is an award winning journalist and broadcaster that has been with CTV since last October (her second time around). Most people know she is married to the Team USA GM , today USA are "the enemy". That is humour, try it. It's fun.
I don’t care about your marital woes; but healthy married couples sleep together.Try that , it's fun too. Get a grip.
Ziggy R U Jen B`s agent ? you know why she was there —this weekend —as you said she was hired in Oct. Wouldn't others be more worthy? You are right it is humourous… and sad too,if you work at CTV!
…'one bad comment per game' is what that should have said. I guess my keyboard should be locked now, huh?
It's too bad one bad comment per comment doesn't sink announcers doesn't sink announcers and render the mic's mute for the rest of the game. At least today we'll have a choice. Go with Emrick and Olczyk and you won't be treated to gems like 'going offside so much isn't helping (insert team name here)'s chances to win'.
Pierre is entertaining and that's what's important in TV. Seems to me he made some good points here. Personally I think the key players are Crosby and Heatley. They have another gear they can shift into. I saw Heatley play a lot in Ottawa and I can tell you when he decides to crank it up a notch he is an awesome player. I also think the selection of the back-up goaltender fo today is potentially crucial. I would put the pads on Fleury.
I like Pierre well enough. When you sift through the hyperbole he actually has decent information to convey. I think the danger is that, like his partner Gord Miller, at times he starts to act as though people are tuning in to watch him. He's thinks he's the show. Also, enough with the "I was an assistant coach with Pittsburgh when they won the Cup." Pierre has dined out on that for years. He knows darned well that he was the video coach. Nothing more or less. The important assistant coaches on that team, the guys who ran practices and acted as sounding boards for Bowman, were Barry Smith and Rick Kehoe.
I agree with this. For me McGuire is ok, although shorter doses usually better. I do get annoyed about how he has to tie back everything to the world junior tournament… bloody hell. That tournament is about as real as a hotdog.
I agree does TSN have to hype that thing at every posible moment, they are marketing geniuses though since people seem to be buying into it.
Yeah, have to admit, it was/is very smart to invest in it. I used to love watching the tournament when I was younger, now I can't be bothered – its just way over-hyped.
At least, unlike the Stanley Cup Finals, the WJC is on when I actually feel like watching lots of hockey.
"It was a grim bunch. No laughing, no smiles.
You'd think the Vancouver Police Department shut down the liquor stores early downtown or something. All work and no play Canada, eh?
Is it the style of the grim coach? Looks more like a yeller than one who gets the best through positive reinforcement and calm advice. Too old school?
Do you mean to tell me there's no pressure on the USA team? None at all? C'mon, Pierre, you've always got verbal diarrhea. I see no difference here. Being a good analyst doesn't mean he needs to fill every damn minute with it. We've watched the game before, you know. Ease up on the red bull and vodka's.
I much preferred Cassie Campbell's style. She's a hockey player, did you know.
Is it my imagination or does Luongo seem to be inside his net a lot. Deep inside, deeper than Henryk Lundqvist. The guy looks like he's trying to fit under a kitchen counter to get away from Mom, because she just found out he stole a cookie.
Stand tall Luongo, it's just a game and yes, we wish you well. Enjoy, stay loose.
Editor's Note: 5th paragraph "It would repetitive to ask," — should be It would be repetitive to ask….drop 'one more time', that's what it means to be repetitive. [FTFY][fixed that for you]
On another subject: I never once during these whole Olympics saw the faces of the curling commentators. It helps me when I can put a face to a voice. No idea what they look like.
The Fleury love is getting a little tiresome. Has Luongo been great? No. Has he been good enough so far? Yes. Check the stats this year, and Luongo's numbers are much better, playing in a much tougher conference with an arguably inferior team to Fleury. As a Canucks fan, I'm not completely confident in Luongo primarily due to his meltdown in game 6 against Chicago last year, but I still think the right choice has been made. It was right to start Brodeur, and right to switch to Luongo after Brodeur let in 3 soft goals and handled the puck like a hand grenade against the US . If Luongo fails in the gold medal game, then William, Roy McGregor and Damien Cox can share a drink and toast each other for being smarter than Babcock et al.
I really get the sense cox is pulling for luongo to blow it
Agreed. Luongo is actually in a no-win situation with a large portion of the media, unless he absolutely stands on his head tomorrow. If they win and he has an average to good game, it will be because of the team. If they lose, it will probably be all on him. I'm nervous, but I'm pulling for him.
Though the pair of Chris Cuthbert and Pierre McGuire is an acquired taste, to say the least, the Consortium has most definitely been plumbing new depths with the dynamic duo of Peter Loubardias and Ray Ferraro.
There is simply no evidence that Loubardias has any of the required skills or talents that one would look for in a play-by-play announcer. In any other place of employment this guy would be sent to speech therapy and eloquence class before allowing him to be exposed to the public. As far as Ferraro is concerned…well, he is a hockey player. In a nutshell, they make the volunteers at the local cable station sound like Emmy winners.
This begs the question: with colleges and universities spewing out loads of graduates from their broadcast and television journalism programs, isn’t there anyone better out there to handle a plum assignment like the Winter Olympics?
The fact that he played the game is not much of an argument against Ferraro. While some ex-players only get the job due to being part of the jockocracy (as Cosell referred to it), Ferraro does a credible job as a game analyst. I would agree that Loubardias is awful.
if CBC were covering as many hockey games as CTV has, what would be the quality of CBC's 4th line hockey announcers?
This Olympics has changed the face of Cdn Olympic broadcasting with basically every event live end to end. Just based on distribution outlets, it's going to be hard for a 1-2 channel broadcast consortium to match it even if it is downscaled a bit because it isn't in Canada.
Can't stand Maguire, its all about him, all the time. He is egotistical, loud and un-Canadian. Its saddens me to see he will be on CTVs Gold medal game coverage. I was hoping he'd stay at NBC where he belongs. Oh well at least we get Chris Cuthbert and not Gord Miller, another me-first hack like Maguire.
The guy is good enough to be interviewed for Truth & Rumours, and you slag him off. He's the best hockey game analyst in the business.
Just because he offers to be interviewed doesn't add to what I think about the guy. I respect and enjoy your work Mr. Houston but I disagree 100% that Maguire is the best, at anything. He is a self-agrandizing screamer and belongs on American TV. The less we see and hear of his screeching, the better.