Ray Shero chides Jack Edwards

Look, I watch Paul Steigerwald 60 games a year, so believe me when I say that Jack Edwards (the NESN play by play guy for the Boston Bruins) is probably the biggest homer announcer in the league. He definitely flies the flag, and while all these TV guys are team employees (and boy does that show) the ones who do it well- like Edwards and Steiggy- really have a way of sticking out.

Which is all well and good, but to paraphrase a line from the show 'The Wire': when you come at Ray Shero's team, you best not miss.

During NESN's broadcast of the game Saturday afternoon, play-by-play announcer Jack Edwards criticized Pittsburgh writers' nomination of Matt Cooke, who effectively ended the career of Bruins center Marc Savard with a blindside hit several seasons ago, for the award last season, and invoked the name of an assassin while discussing Cooke.

"Nominating Cooke for the Masterton is about the equivalent of nominating Sirhan Sirhan for prisoner of the year," Edwards said. "An outrageous lack of judgment on the part of the Pittsburgh press."

Sirhan murdered presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

Penguins general manager Ray Shero was visibly enraged when he learned of Edwards' comments and confronted him in the first intermission.

Shero declined to comment on what Edwards had said, but shortly after their conversation, Edwards posted the following on Twitter:

"I am sorry for insulting Matt Cooke, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the National Hockey League, and anyone else upset by my Cooke comments. I made a mistake. My fault all the way. This is my apology. Bad week, bad emotional reaction by me."

It's a reasonable excuse given what all the people of Boston have been going through, but it doesn't excuse that Edwards is a putz. Shero stood his ground, and protected his guy who gets assailed publicly around the league on a regular basis with an outdated and inaccurate narrative of his game/character.

(Checks schedule, sees next game is in Ottawa)

"Oh, indeed."