I'll have a bit more excitement if they've actually confirmed that he's taking over the Leaf games. If so then it would be a huge gain. A legitimately good choice and one that doesn't feel as annoying as Hughson. Truly feels like he's suffering having to call Leaf games. I get the national broadcast thing to a degree. But the vast majority of the viewing audience for Leaf games...will be Leaf fans. There aren't that many that simply don't like the Leafs but are spending their evenings tuning in for the heck of it. You don't have to necessarily go full homer here. But a bit of leaning in that direction seems like a fair idea.
Anyways will hope for the best here. About time for Sportsnet to actually capitalize on their situation. Get some legitimately good people to cover the games.
the issue here all along was that Hughson was always taking jabs at the Leafs, sometimes subtle, other times obvious.
The problem is that Hughson is an employee of Rogers. And Rogers owns the Leafs.
So why would an employee continue to bash his employer's assets? It's like you going to work everyday and bashing your company infront of your boss - talk about asking to get fired. Employees that run around work all day complaining about everything have a target on their head and all of a sudden their employer starts to look for every little reason to dismiss them.
Jim's in a huge position, he's the successor to Bob Cole, Foster Hewitt, etc. He's been running his way out of that position all these years by bashing his employer's team. It was just a matter of time, we all saw it coming.
Oh well. Maybe that's what he was hoping for, so he can go back out west and do the late games like he wanted to?
Cuthbert seems like the complete package in terms of taking over for Cole, Hewitt, etc. Non-biased, clean cut, and can elevate our excitement during nervous moments of the game.
Jim carries a bit of a negative vibe, and he kind of reminds us of Joe Bowen in terms of homerism. He's a Leafs buzkill. Why would Rogers keep him on the Leafs broadcasts when he's a Canucks guy? He's better than a regional guy but less than a national guy. Chris is a national guy.
Cuthbert can come in and keep it down the middle, he's a step above Hughson, period.