[Ready for grading.]


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I recently did the play-by-play for the Texas Renegades vs Calgary Dragons game 5, and I'd like to share some thoughts about it. It was a lot of fun, honestly not too much work, and definitely a good experience for newer members to try out (not that I'm a veteran just yet).



1. P a c i n g
I like to think I'm a good typist. I can average a hair over 100 words per minute while going through an essay, hitting bursts of maybe 115 wpm or so. However, going through the game sheet and typing everything out was just a lot of work, and a lot of words. Some events are more meaningful than others, and for the purpose of not slowing the PBP pace to a crawl, have to be left out. If we look at (or rather, listen to) actual NHL commentators, the good ones manage to spit out almost every significant event that happens on the ice. Hits, shots, passes, puck movement, almost everything. Probablydrunk had the excellent idea of doing a voiced PBP, but didn't finish it due to technical difficulties. With the standard text format, it's just not possible to include all of those without taking too long to finish. I've only done one PBP ever, so I'm obviously not an authority on the subject, but I like to think I put out updates at a good, fairly steady pace. It's a pretty general balance to reach, and shouldn't be too hard for anyone, newbie or veteran.

2. Stylistics!
Color coding! Indenting! Skipping a bunch of lines to create dramatic pauses! Exclamation points! Much like actual NHL commentators, PBPers have to add a certain energy to the text itself. I honestly just made it up as I went along, and people seemed to like it, so I guess the requirements are pretty loose. It took me a hot minute to think of how to color code for a team with black and white color scheme, but bolding all of their players' names as they showed up within my comments seemed to be satisfactory. Calgary was the easy process, just red, but it was still a stark difference from the standard black text. Also, not everyone knows all rosters of all teams, so it doubly served for clarification purposes.

3. game.Initialization()
I was told 8 o clock, and I did not receive the game link until much later. Obviously not such a big deal, but I think communication between the committee and PBPers could be emphasized a bit more. Just a little thing, but I do think it could be improved. Also, it didn't really happen much in my PBP but much more so in the other ones, I love the chatter after the game post is put up and before puck drop. It makes it feel more alive, and I expect it to only grow as we get closer to elimination games, and the Challenge Cup and Four Star Cup finals.




Here are some of the significant events that I decided to cover in heavy detail in the PBP;

1. Goals (duh)

Quote:1st period
1. Calgary Dragons , VLAD McZehrl 2 (Randy Randleman, Oferyn Martell) at 4:41
2. Calgary Dragons , Nicholas Pedersen 2 (Sachimo Zoidberg, Alex Mack) at 16:29

2nd period
3. Texas Renegades , Vladimir Lidstrom 2 (Liam Kinsler, Mikhail Krivokrasov) at 1:36 (PP)
4. Calgary Dragons , Krišs Labsvārds 1 (Esa Anrikkanen, Sachimo Zoidberg) at 17:35
5. Calgary Dragons , Steven Jalopski 1 (Esa Anrikkanen, Jaime Hill) at 18:49
6. Texas Renegades , Jed Lloren 2 (Simon Palat) at 19:17

3rd period
7. Calgary Dragons , Esa Anrikkanen 2 (Steven Jalopski, Sachimo Zoidberg) at 6:09
8. Texas Renegades , Liam Kinsler 1 (Jed Lloren, Asbjørn Alexandersen) at 13:46

These were the mandatory highest priority things to cover, as goals are what wins and loses hockey games. Actually, it might be intangibles, but we're going to go with goals for now. Each one was accompanied by a picture, a few goal horn emojis , and a little line like 'CALGARY WANTS ANOTHER!' or 'TEXAS AIN'T DEAD YET!'. Excitement! Danger! Goal!

2. Penalties

Quote:First period
Nicholas Pedersen (CAL) for Tripping (Minor) at 9:53, Nicholas Pedersen (CAL) for Interference (Minor) at 19:43

Second period
Nicholas Pedersen (CAL) for High sticking (Minor) at 2:36, Chara Brojled (TEX) for Tripping (Minor) at 7:29, Kaspars Tsizling (TEX) for Hooking (Minor) at 13:05

Third period
Nicholas Pedersen (CAL) for Hooking (Minor) at 9:31, Sachimo Zoidberg (CAL) for Hooking (Minor) at 16:46

Whether or not a penalty leads to a goal, it's still exciting whenever 5 on 4 or even 5 on 3 hockey starts up. This is inherently due to the percieved higher likelihood of scoring a goal, but even if not, it's still generally more intense than even strength. Saves made by the defending team's goaltender are probably more important and awesome, in the biblical sense.

3. Fights

Quote:Nothing. There were no fights this game, and I think that's a damn shame.

This is another gimme, as fights in hockey are always thrilling and emotional. It's great for the players, fans, viewers otherwise. I was hoping to see at least one, but I wasn't indulged as such.

4. Important faceoffs and important hits

Quote:0:01 of 1st period - Liam Kinsler wins face-off versus Esa Anrikkanen in neutral zone.
1:21 of 1st period - Asbjørn Alexandersen is hit by Fernando Pergher and loses puck.
3:05 of 1st period - Liam Kinsler is hit by Michael Boychuk and loses puck.
6:17 of 1st period - Nicholas Pedersen is hit by Simon Palat and loses puck.
8:50 of 1st period - Oferyn Martell is hit by Vladimir Lidstrom and loses puck.
9:54 of 1st period - Jaime Hill wins face-off versus Maxim Horvat in Calgary Dragons zone.
10:22 of 1st period - Liam Kinsler wins face-off versus Esa Anrikkanen in Texas Renegades zone.
13:48 of 1st period - Maxim Horvat wins face-off versus Alex Mack in Calgary Dragons zone.
15:16 of 1st period - Schnitinfritz Jagr wins face-off versus Liam Kinsler in Texas Renegades zone.
16:30 of 1st period - Esa Anrikkanen wins face-off versus Travis Kudleychuk in neutral zone.
17:53 of 1st period - Asbjørn Alexandersen wins face-off versus Nicholas Pedersen in neutral zone.
18:02 of 1st period - Ignant Ogorodnikov wins face-off versus Nicholas Pedersen in Calgary Dragons zone.
19:44 of 1st period - Esa Anrikkanen wins face-off versus Travis Kudleychuk in Calgary Dragons zone.

The opening faceoff, of course, plus certain other ones that occur right after or before other markedly significant events in the game. Also on this list, hits that cause turnovers, because those lead to breakaways sometimes, which frequently lead to goals.



That's all I can really think of right now, I highly suggest anyone with the time and patience for it should sign up to run a PBP sometime.