MacLean got royally screwed in Rogers' "vision" for HNiC. It's a travesty.
..there's still time to change. Anything's possible. Who knows what will be in a year or two from now, maybe they'll move Ron back as the HNIC host and move George to another role - anything could happen.
What's for sure, is that they've totally lost me on Saturday nights. Last Saturday's Leaf game was Hughson and Simposn... weekend before that was.. I forget, but someone else. And the weekend before? Who knows, probably two other guys. Then we had Hughson and Simpson on a Wednesday night somewhere in there...Rogers' sh* is all over the place, I have no idea what they're doing thus far. They probably don't know either just yet. Every night is a complete crap shoot, no one knows who's doing what or who's going to be hosting/commentating/appearing. This isn't the way to connect to an audience and keep that audience - and they'll find that out sooner or later.
For now, my excitement about Saturday nights is gone. Not a big deal, life goes on and there are other things to do in life other than worry about a hockey broadcast lol. Maybe down the line they'll settle things down and we can get comfortable with Saturday night hockey again. Or maybe Rogers' plan is to keep everything random for the next 12 years, maybe they think it's an approach that will work. Hope not.
What's happening right now is one of two things:
1. Rogers plan is to keep everything random, by placing all these different commentators/personalities/hosts all over the place on any given night. They think this keeps things fresh, and are going to go against the basic forumla of sports broadcasting over the past 50 years, which is to have your main play-by-play guy, and a color guy or two - and make it the same guys each week so the audience can gain a familiarity with the product and look forward to tuning in. So they're going against that age-old formula that all other sports leagues also follow, and are banking on this "random" approach to work.
or:
2. Rogers has no effing clue what they're doing, and can't get their sh* together. That's why the TV personalities' schedules are all over the map and we as viewers have no idea who we're going to see/hear on any given night. Judging by this company's inept business practices when it comes to our phone/internet/tv services, this option seems to be the more likely one: they just don't know what to do.
Either way, it sucks. Haven't liked it a single bit so far. Just me though.