[3 postings in a row -- I'm just catching up on the hockey mail]
 
In the past month or so, I've seen several of the WCHA games of the
week on TV [The WCHA game of the week is a re-showing of a local tv
broadcast from the weekend before. It is on SportsChannel on Wednesday
nights, in Madison on WHA Cable on Sunday nights).  The games are from
Madison (Wisconsin), Grand Forks (North Dakota), Marquette (Northern
Michigan) and I think one other site that often has local TV coverage.
 
What struck me in the games I've seen from Marquette and Grand Forks
was the quality of the play-by-play and commentary. While obviously
oriented towards the home team, the announcers did a good job
describing the play, explaining the significance of the events, and
complimenting and criticizing the play and players of both teams (and
of course, the refs).
 
Unfortunatly in my opinion, the Madison broadcast team that gets on TV
is the worst of the two choices (yes, we have 2 radio stations that do
all the games). Paul Braun and Bill Howard do the games for WIBA radio,
WHA-TV (the local PBS station, which does tape-delays of every home
game), WISC-TV (for a few games this year, anyway) and the Game of the
Week when it is from Madison. In my biased opionion, they are too
chatty (and therefore don't describe the game) and too often don't tell
what the other team is doing well. To give credit however, Bill Howard
really knows hockey (he is the UW's part-time goalie coach, and played
with Jeff Sauer at Colorado College) and his commentary (when it is
about the game) is usually very good.  His personal obsession is the
marble theory of hockey officiating.
 
The other broadcast pair, Jack Swanson and Bill Brophy (sports editor
of the Wisconsin State Journal) on WTSO radio have not been spoiled (in
my opinion) by doing TV -- so they still describe the actual play of
the game, as well as being rather colorful in their commentary.
 
	--david