NHL Awards Little Pop, Even Less Substance

Thursday night the NHL decided to take their Awards Show on the road and away from the usual location at the center of the universe, Toronto. Destination - Vegas Baby! Vegas! It had some big stars on hand, unfortunately all the stars were the hockey players and not the entertainment or the presenters. The NHL at least got it right in their choice of host, well it wasn’t so much the NHL but Jeremy Roenick, he’s good. And did a decent job.. As many know, Roenick is not shy behind the mic or in front of the camera but still I was a little disappointed that Gretzky wasn’t there for JR to make his head bleed for superfan-99 overhere.

Where there was a huge drop off was in the show itself. You would think that in Vegas that they would be able to find a celebrity or two, maybe someone good as the entertainment, is that too much to ask? Shaka Khan, seriously? Shaka Khan as your main singer? Weak at best! CSI Producer Jerry Bruckheimer was there as a presenter, could he not have helped or at least been consulted to bring up the production value? Then there is the NHL players themselves, not the most compelling speakers at the best of times. Jean Beliveau was good but the rest all were stiff and looked forced. In the players defence the majority of the winners were Russian’s and their English was not flawless. They did a good job but it was a little rough. That brings us to the more awkward moment. With all the international flavour and majority of Russians who were recipients of awards, presenter Glenn Anderson made a quip that he thought he’d ended up in the wrong place - "down the road at the Russian awards.". It was funny but maybe not the most appropriate thing to say.

This presentation makes a good case to do the awards like the NBA, NFL and MLB and just release the name and give them an award in person and not try to make it a sceptical. For example, until the MLB EA Sports Game commercial with Dustin Pedroia, last years AL MVP, I had no Idea what that award even looked like.

The Espy's

After watching the ESPY’s on Sunday I have sadly come to the conclusion that Justin Timberlake is actually pretty funny and actually does have some talent. (See the opening to the Show Here, it is actually worth looking at) . It pains me to say but he actually did do a good job overall as the host of this awards show. For those who don’t know the Espy’s are the sports equivalent to the Academy Awards but on by ESPN and brings in the top athletes and some entertainment personalities for their 2 hour show.

For a list of winners click HERE

Sure there were some awkward moments as they did show Brett Farve plenty and cracked some jokes then would pan between him and would be replacement Aaron Rogers. Also it appeared that Beck’s (David Beckham) wife Posh is either very bitter and was utterly displeased to be there or she is just a very snobby lady. I think perhaps it is a little from column A and a little from Column B.
One of the funniest skits was when a video of an angry Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State University football coach, during a news conference that showed Justin Timberlake as the reporter and the classic line "I'M A MAN, I'M 40!" (see it here).

This is an award show that gets it right, they show only a handful of categories on TV, actually has entertaining skits and in this case songs and give a list of the other awards that were won but didn’t need to show the acceptance and the un-drama (thats right-UN-drama!).

It had a bit of everything...the highlights, the lowlights, the memorials of the people lost over the past year and the things that go beyond sports and society and go straight to the heart. Exactly what sports is supposed to do.