ESPN had rough night covering Sabres’ playoff return

The Buffalo Sabres are in the NHL playoffs for the first time in 15 years, and ESPN didn’t appear to be ready for their arrival.

Buffalo is one of the more exciting young teams in the NHL, breaking the league’s longest playoff drought by clinching the top seed in their division. Maybe ESPN didn’t see it coming, or maybe they just don’t expect the Sabres to be around very long. But during their coverage of Buffalo’s first-round matchup with the Boston Bruins Sunday night, the Sabres and their fans probably felt a little disrespected at times.

The highlight of that disrespect occurred during the second intermission, when studio host Steve Levy challenged Mark Messier and P.K. Subban to name Buffalo’s goalie, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and it didn’t go well.

“Probably should mention Buffalo’s goalie’s name,” Levy acknowledged. “Did you want to take a crack at that, anybody?”

Both analysts chimed in with their cracks. Messier’s attempt sounded something like “Luka Lakkanen,” while Subban completely forgot the “Ukko” part of his name, before Levy ultimately offered the correct pronunciation.

In their defense, it took years before sports analysts and hosts were comfortable saying Giannis Antetokounmpo. And some sports media personalities, like Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo, probably still opt for just “Giannis” or “The Freak” instead of saying “Antetokounmpo”. But while that might fly on a sports radio show, it shouldn’t be the standard for ESPN’s studio analysts.

ESPN is paying nearly $400 million annually for NHL game rights. They should know how to pronounce the goalie’s name from one of the best teams in the sport. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen wasn’t making his first start Sunday night. He’s started 185 games in his career and just helped the Sabres break the longest playoff drought in NHL history. ESPN analysts should be able to say his name.

And after botching their goalie’s name, ESPN did little to win Sabres’ fans over after they beat Boston 4-3 to take a 1-0 series lead. Following the win, Leah Hextall interviewed Buffalo star Tage Thompson on the ice and said, “The Sabres are the only franchise that you’ve ever known in your eight-year career.” The problem, however, is that Thompson was drafted and began his career with the St. Louis Blues before being included in a trade to Buffalo for Ryan O’Reilly. Thompson politely ignored Hextall’s question about that part.

Hockey fans expect to be slighted by ESPN’s daytime programming. Stephen A. Smith doesn’t shy away from the fact that he leans into the “nobody cares about hockey” mantra. But ESPN’s NHL programming should do a better job of flipping the narrative.