Obviously, NHL players, obviously.

Please, please, please, stop saying "obviously" so frequetly during your interviews.

Jason Blake is, to my ear, the worst offender, tallying 3 instances of "obviously" in a recent 75 second interview with Deb Kaufman at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. But the overuse and abuse of the word is an assault on my ears and my intelligence.

In the modern NHL broadcast, player interviews are commonplace. In the spirit of "Player Access," before, during, and after games, players are called upon to offer their views on what they expect to see, or have seen. Sometimes a player might recall a play that has been made, or he might make suggestions as to what might soon occur. In either case, the experienced hockey fan does not really need to hear the word "obviously," as in, "Obviously, we need to get the puck to the net." And to a less-than experienced hockey fan, it might not be "obvious."

I guess the player does not want to hear someone tell him, "No kidding," but please, enough with the "obviously," already.