Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin are not the best commentary duo in the NHL, according to a poll of fans across the league.
The Athletic, which released the survey results on Thursday, surveyed 7,000 fans and asked them to rate their favorite teams’ broadcasts on a scale of 1 to 5. Fans were also allowed to rate as many other local broadcasts as they wished. .
The survey ranked broadcasts by creating a local ranking and a national ranking and then averaging the two ratings. The methodology attempts to balance the feelings of potentially biased home fans with the opinions of more neutral outside parties.
The long-time beloved Monumental Sports Network duo finished eighth out of 32 broadcasts.
Joe B and Locker ranked fifth among local rankings and 13th among national rankings, and their overall ranking improved by one spot from ninth place last year. The dynamic duo are approaching 30 years together in the booth, first teaming up in 1996 after Kenny Albert left Home Team Sports to become the radio voice of the New York Rangers.
Since then, they have been the voices behind the Capitals’ Stanley Cup-winning season (2018), the franchise’s first Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1998 and nearly all of Alex Ovechkin’s 853 career goals. . The pair won dozens of Emmy Awards, while Beninati was also named broadcaster of the year and received the Capital Board of Governors Emmy Award in 2020.
“I went to my first Caps game this season,” one fan wrote in the survey. “And I missed them. Strange, right?”
Bally Sports Detroit’s Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond took first place after finishing second in last year’s poll. One of the best decisions cited from Daniels’ 2023-24 season is Patrick Kane’s overtime win in his return to Chicago against the Blackhawks.
Last place in the standings was the Boston Bruins team of Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley. Edwards has long been a controversial figure in broadcasting not only for his intense homerism in Boston but also for putting his foot in his mouth on more than one occasion.
For example, during the 2023 playoffs, he compared the Boston Bruins loss to the Hindenburg disaster. Earlier that season he found himself in trouble after embarrassing forward Pat Maroon. He’s also not afraid to criticize Capitals forwards Tom Wilson and Alex Ovechkin, and once called Braden Holtby an “AHL quality” goaltender.
Edwards retires from the booth after a 19-year career with Boston ended this season.
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