The Hockey Writers Presents: Overtime

22 May 2012

hockey journalism, Jim Neveau, John Tortorella, long form journalism, News, overtime, Sean Conboy

The Hockey Writers has a new member of the family. We now have a second website for those of you who prefer Long Form journalism. The site is called Overtime – and we’re thrilled with the early success its showing. We’re only a week into it and already have had tremendous feedback from the hockey community. Here are a couple examples from Overtime:

Jim Neveau Read the full story here…

In the world of sports, there has been a plethora of colorful characters over the years, but in more recent days, that seems to be changing. In an age where it is the norm rather than the exception for players to issue statements prepared by their publicists and for coaches to rely on tired cliches to explain decisions that they make, it is a sad reality that the days of guys like

(James Guillory-US PRESSWIRE)

Billy Martin and Jim Mora have come and gone.

Granted, there are still exceptions to this rule of sanitized athletes and coaches. Guys like New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan and Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Nyjer Morgan have developed cult followings for the way that they handle interviews and press conferences, but for every guy like that you have 20 others who will offer you a response that is so canned that they ought to sell it at Costco.

That is why it is so unique that there is a guy like New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella on the scene in the NHL Playoffs. His constant barrage of criticism of officiating, of abrupt endings to press conferences, and even condemnation of the way that other teams play the game has served as some real theater for a city that is used to interesting sports characters. Torts may not have the longevity of a guy like Yogi Berra when it comes to making an impact on the Big Apple, but if these playoffs have taught us anything, it’s that we can never quite know what to expect from him.

Sean Conboy Full story is here…

You know Colin Cowherd. He’s the talk radio lugnut and terrible human being who serves as a sort of biofuel for the sports blogosphere’s viral sound bite engine. Cowherd trades in the predilections of our weird times: dog-whistle bigotry, incendiary contrarianism and, when subtlety escapes him, old-fashioned shin-kicking (be warned: clip features a ‘Man Card’ reference). He’s admittedly “not a hockey person,” which is unsurprising considering his checks are signed by ESPN, The Worldwide Leader in Sports That We Hold the Rights To Broadcast And Also Synergized Content Crossovers (Next on First Take, Calvin Johnson and Skip Bayless have a Snickers eating content. Hungry? Why Wait?)

Yesterday, on his syndicated radio show, Cowherd took up the cause of New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella, whose press conferences are starting to resemble the Senate Subcommittee hearings of Tron Carter. Though Tortorella has every right to plead the Fifth after losing a critical game to the New Jersey Devils, his treatment of reporters jumped the fence from coolly pathological to post-Lehman Brothers Patrick Bateman with Wednesday’s petulant 37-word presser. If the Rangers drop the next game in New Jersey, I fear he’ll walk into the media room in a cold sweat and start seething about Pale Nimbus business cards with Romalian type.