Those in favor of uncensored broadcasts got a little taste of it Wednesday night during the Boston Bruins-Florida Panthers first-round playoff Game 2 on ESPN.
With less than two minutes to go in the third period and Florida leading Boston 6-2, Bruins forward Tomas Nosek sent Panthers center Eric Staal to the ice with a high hit. instigating several other scrums between the teams. As the officials waited to sort out the penalties for both teams, ESPN’s broadcast picked up a hot mic argument between Nosek and Staal.
Nosek appeared to be accusing the Panthers players of flopping, prompting Staal and teammate Matthew Tkachuk to jaw right back.
Incredible work by everyone all around. pic.twitter.com/jfeDcnonPX
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) April 20, 2023
“That’s f*cking nice. Clean hit, good clean hit,” Staal could be heard yelling sarcastically on ESPN’s broadcast. “F*cking loser!”
“Oops,” play-by-play voice Sean McDonough said, recognizing the profanity was making it onto the broadcast. “Oh boy,” he added after another f-bomb dropped.
Oh boy indeed. That was some legit hot mic action. But it did a good job of emulating the chippiness going on between both teams, which continued through the final whistle.
“Yeah, well they’re not happy,” analyst Ray Ferraro added.
Great job by McDonough pausing between “oops” and “oh boy,” allowing the audience to hear some of the jawing that was going on between Nosek and Staal. After the second blatant f-bomb, however, McDonough brought Ferraro in to help mask some of the hot mic profanity. Not quite the uncensored broadcast so many fans clamor for. But, at least it sounded that way for a few seconds.
