The short lived hosting duties on Hockey Night in Canada for George Strombo

[Big Phil]

from being don cherry’s straight man (maybe it was my age and the late 80s/early 90s but did anyone else get a vince mcmahon being the straight man to jerry the king lawler vibe?) to his hatchet job on alex burrows, he just always struck me as smug and crooked, and all that small town canadiana stuff felt alternately gross and disingenuous.

MacLean, being a former ref himself, always took the side of the refs to the point where it was nauseating. Cherry will at least tell it like it is. It is one of the things I have never liked about the NHL, this over-protection of the refs and any criticism that comes their way. If they have a bad game, they deserve it, I'm sorry but they deserve the criticism if they didn't do their job well. MacLean just always seems like a mother with a cub bear when it comes to the refs.

 

[Hollywood Burrows]

Rogers is a terrible company run by some of the dumbest, least capable people ever to have achieved any degree of authority or control over anything. So, obviously they have botched their purchase of the NHL rights.

I've been watching hockey for around 30 years now. I am sick of Ron Maclean. I've been sick of him for maybe 15 years now. His shtick is tired. His opinions are bad.

Of course Strombo had bad opinions and a tired shtick. I'm not really here to defend him. But it's hard not to notice that most of the people stanning Ron Maclean here and elsewhere are older. If the NHL wants to maintain any relevance to viewers under 30 they absolutely need to dramatically reduce the number of old, hackey white guys on their broadcast. It is killing my soul to have to watch something that positions 48 year old Elliott Friedman as the young, progressive voice. Only a broadcast whose first intermission segment is two guys with a combined age of ~150 could pull that off.

At least Strombo was born after the invention of colour TV. I'll take him as a host over smug, clueless boomer Ron Maclean any day. Get rid of every boomer on HNIC and I might start un-muting the pregame and intermission segments.

 

[Tarantula]

I didn't mind Strombo but I also don't mind Maclean. I also usually don't watch much of the intermissions or pregame anymore for any sport, where once it was all one had. I had more of a opinion back when there was no remote and only 2 channels and a rotating antennae!

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I'm not too familiar with Burrows but isn't he just your standard mediocre diver ala crappy Claude Lemieux?

If so those guys exist for hatchet jobs.

MacLean, being a former ref himself, always took the side of the refs to the point where it was nauseating. Cherry will at least tell it like it is. It is one of the things I have never liked about the NHL, this over-protection of the refs and any criticism that comes their way. If they have a bad game, they deserve it, I'm sorry but they deserve the criticism if they didn't do their job well. MacLean just always seems like a mother with a cub bear when it comes to the refs.

to be clear, this is the alex burrows hatchet job i was referring to—

december 2009, burrows dives, auger calls a game misconduct, the league overturns it. auger looks bad.

——

january 2010, auger says something to burrows before a game. the exchange is caught on camera, with no sound.

in the third period of that game, auger calls two weak penalties on burrows (plus a misconduct at the end of the game), which the canucks lose by a goal off a game winner with burrows in the box.

after the game, a visibly upset burrows spills the beans in the media scrum, saying auger told him he would "get me back."

that weekend, maclean does a completely over the top eleven minute segment on burrows with colin campbell on HNIC.

——

some outcomes of all of this—

——

on the next HNIC, the canucks refuse to make players available to the CBC for interviews

——

december 2010, maclean finally sort of apologizes

——

june 2011, colin campbell's son wins the stanley cup

——

june 2012, auger "retires" from officiating, reffing exactly zero playoff games between the burrows incident and the end of his career

 

[Hot Water Bottle]

some outcomes of all of this—


——

june 2011, colin campbell's son wins the stanley cup

——

The Bruins were gifted the Cup in 2011 to punish Vancouver for something that happened on HNIC?

 

[Big Phil]

to be clear, this is the alex burrows hatchet job i was referring to—

december 2009, burrows dives, auger calls a game misconduct, the league overturns it. auger looks bad.

——

january 2010, auger says something to burrows before a game. the exchange is caught on camera, with no sound.

in the third period of that game, auger calls two weak penalties on burrows (plus a misconduct at the end of the game), which the canucks lose by a goal off a game winner with burrows in the box.

after the game, a visibly upset burrows spills the beans in the media scrum, saying auger told him he would "get me back."

that weekend, maclean does a completely over the top eleven minute segment on burrows with colin campbell on HNIC.

——

some outcomes of all of this—

——

on the next HNIC, the canucks refuse to make players available to the CBC for interviews

——

december 2010, maclean finally sort of apologizes

——

june 2011, colin campbell's son wins the stanley cup

——

june 2012, auger "retires" from officiating, reffing exactly zero playoff games between the burrows incident and the end of his career

I mean, I took Burrows side on that one for sure. I believe him with what the ref told him. Burrows wasn't the easiest player to like but there isn't much of a precedent with players doing this (it isn't as if it happens every week that a ref allegedly says he'll "get him back") so it was easier to believe the player on this one. Not to mention Auger quietly leaving the NHL after this. I know the NHL acts like refs are little snowflakes and can't get any criticism towards them but the fact that the NHL didn't employ Auger shortly after this incident in a way is an admission by the NHL they did wrong.

MacLean just has too much of a bias to see this. The best referee is a referee whose name you don't know throughout the game. That is when you know the ref is doing a good job.

Now, as for the Boston thing. The Canucks were just an incredibly soft team who had plenty of players come up short when the going got tough. Boston was sort of the tortoise while Vancouver was the hare. We all know who wins that race............and in this case it was the tougher one too. So I don't think any of that had to do with Burrows/Auger.

 

[crobro]

It seems like Brian Burke is positioning himself as a replacement for Don Cherry

GM Corner

 

[Michael Farkas]

I think so too...

 

[Nick Hansen]

It seems like Brian Burke is positioning himself as a replacement for Don Cherry

GM Corner

He definitely has that style, but a bit more nuanced and in tune with how things are now. He was on the Friedman podcast a couple of months ago...did well. Seems like a good man.

 

[Johnny Engine]

He definitely has that style, but a bit more nuanced and in tune with how things are now. He was on the Friedman podcast a couple of months ago...did well. Seems like a good man.

I mean, he's not literally shouting the whole time, so that's good.

 

[NyQuil]

It's tough to fill in for Ron MacLean who knows everyone who has every played, coached or reffed a hockey game and where they were born.

 

[FerrisRox]

june 2011, colin campbell's son wins the stanley cup

What does this have to do with anything?

 

[crobro]

Strombo could have pulled it off if at least he followed the sport

It was painful watching him talk hockey on air, it was like trying to explain something hockey related to your wife.

 

[FerrisRox]

Strombo could have pulled it off if at least he followed the sport

He not only follows the sport, he's been a huge hockey fan since childhood. He got his broadcasting start working at the Fan590 before he went to Much Music.

 

[blood gin]

One thing I really miss is the Tim Thompson intro videos. They were so brilliantly done. Legendary hockey moments synced up to great music.

I have no idea why they stopped running those and instead had Strombo do some weak, forgettable narration intro. It just didn't get the blood pumping. At all.

I really have no idea what they ever saw in him. Didn't strike me as charismatic or anybody that was worthy of that position.

 

[blood gin]

Rogers is a terrible company run by some of the dumbest, least capable people ever to have achieved any degree of authority or control over anything. So, obviously they have botched their purchase of the NHL rights.

I've been watching hockey for around 30 years now. I am sick of Ron Maclean. I've been sick of him for maybe 15 years now. His shtick is tired. His opinions are bad.

Of course Strombo had bad opinions and a tired shtick. I'm not really here to defend him. But it's hard not to notice that most of the people stanning Ron Maclean here and elsewhere are older. If the NHL wants to maintain any relevance to viewers under 30 they absolutely need to dramatically reduce the number of old, hackey white guys on their broadcast. It is killing my soul to have to watch something that positions 48 year old Elliott Friedman as the young, progressive voice. Only a broadcast whose first intermission segment is two guys with a combined age of ~150 could pull that off.

At least Strombo was born after the invention of colour TV. I'll take him as a host over smug, clueless boomer Ron Maclean any day. Get rid of every boomer on HNIC and I might start un-muting the pregame and intermission segments.

It's done a fine job maintaining relevance. The product on the ice is as exciting as it's been since the first year post lockout.

Why do these guys need to go? Why such contempt for them? If you're being turned off of hockey because of old hackey guys then what kind of person are you? What exactly do you think a broadcast should look like?

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

A predictable failure really. People like their sports broadcasts 'straight'.

 

[FerrisRox]

A predictable failure really. People like their sports broadcasts 'straight'.

I think you might be mistaking your own preferences for what other people like.

NBA rights holders twenty years ago got rid of all the traditional "straight" broadcasters and brought in on air talent that was different, younger, less formal, more opinionated and more light hearted and the league's television ratings began to improve by leaps and bounds and they started retaining audiences during the intermission which they never did before and the league itself began to grow a younger demo which drove their advertising dollars through the roof.

At the same time the NFL, seeing what the NBA had done, began a very similar plan and started to make their pre-game and half-time coverage much less formal than it had been previously and brought in youngers and more personality-driven on air talent as well.

Saying "People like their broadcasts 'straight'" is simply not backed up by the evidence of what's happening with ratings.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

NFL and NBA broadcast hosts still are pretty straight. It's part of the act. They just added more and more opinionated hotheads to sit next to them who yell at each other. That's not what Strombo added to the equation. The NHL already had a 'straight man' vs 'hotheaded opinionated bozo' combo in Cherry and MacLean.

If they had wanted to follow the lead of the other leagues, they'd have added some more former players to the mix who then can get angry with or at Cherry. Though I suspect Cherry could not tolerate another 'angry guy' next to him, so he probably would have left.

 

[BadgerBruce]

You can't replace Ron. Those are nearly impossible shoes to fill.

I get what they were trying to do in desperation but that was too drastic, too off-putting...

Everyone is replaceable.

 

[Spirit of 67]

I can never spell his name correctly so I am going to say "Strombo" for this one. We all know who it is.

Anyway, what is your take on this? I thought it was a mistake initially to replace MacLean with Strombo. Look, the guy does seem like someone who you could sit and have a beer with and talk hockey. I'll even forgive him for being a Habs fan, in fact it would liven the debate. But there was just something desperate that came out of that choice. It is almost as if Rogers wanted a "young, hip" host in there to draw more younger fans. It doesn't work that way. HNIC has been about tradition and substance and sort of routine. No one is going to tune in more so because of Strombo or even if you had thrown Mike Myers in there.

The problem I think there was with him was that he looked out of place with the other hosts. Despite being in his 40s he still had a garage band sort of look to him. His tie wasn't always done up, his beard was messy, he still had piercings in his ear and he just never seemed to fit in with the discussion. MacLean, for all his faults, was a seasoned vet when it came to this stuff. He seemed to be able to lead the discussions better.

MacLean did hang around Rogers with that Hometown Hockey program. I get the feeling they wanted him there just in case things didn't work out (hello NBC and the Leno/Conan scenario). Then after two years in 2016 and the first time since 1970 that no Canadian team made the playoffs they let him go and ratings were sagging.

Was it fair? Or should he have never been there in the first place?

Hated him long before HNIC. He had no chance with me.

 

[BadgerBruce]

Maclean was a 26 year old Red Deer, Alberta, weatherman with a season of correspondent work for the local Calgary Flames broadcast under his belt when .........

Dave Hodge got the axe. March of ‘87, Flyers and Habs in overtime, producer’s voice in Hodge’s earpiece telling him to say goodbye, we’re going to the national news ....

On-air pencil flip. And then this:

“Now, Montreal and the Philadelphia Flyers are currently playing overtime, and...we are not able to go there. That's the way things go today in sports and this network, and the Flyers and the Canadiens have us in suspense, and we'll remain that way until we can find out somehow who won this game, or who's responsible for the way we do things here. Goodnight for Hockey Night in Canada.”

Hodge immediately out.

Maclean in just one week later.

Yes, some angry protests over Hodge’s dismissal, but most people at the time just didn’t think of the host as a particularly important role within the game broadcast. Now, mess with the beloved play-by-play guys .....another story.

Point is that many viewers flat out didn’t like MacLean back then. I sure didn’t. A 26 year old (bad) punster with sophomoric weather man humour? In 87, he was geek personified. But people got over it ..... and now we’ve got a 30+ year vet most people seem to adore.

In terms of Strombo, he likely would have been given more of a fair shake if Maclean had publicly retired or resigned from the job. But the whole changeover looked like everybody’s favourite hockey host had been pushed out. Canadians being Canadians, Strombo had zero chance under those circumstances.

 

[GJB]

Disliked Strombo and that era, the show just seemed cheezy and a desperate attempt to do something different for sake of being different. Wasn't a good fit in my opinion.

 

[The Panther]

In terms of Strombo, he likely would have been given more of a fair shake if Maclean had publicly retired or resigned from the job. But the whole changeover looked like everybody’s favourite hockey host had been pushed out. Canadians being Canadians, Strombo had zero chance under those circumstances.

I don't know, that wasn't my experience of it. Granted, I was only about 10 at the time, but I remember when MacLean first came in. My parents loved him immediately, including his bad puns. Everywhere I went in Canada for the next few years, every time a HNIC game was on, all people would talk about was how much they loved the 'Ron & Don (Cherry)' show, and everyone seemed very happy with MacLean.

None of this applied to Strombo. MacLean was "Hockey Night in Canada" personifed -- dorky, polite, old-school values, just a little bit wittier and a lot younger than before. Strombo came in with his slacker, lean-forward-off-my-seat style of super-casual questioning, and it was everything HNIC had never been about.

I don't really blame Strombo; he just wasn't the right fit. They should have gone for a young, dorky, straight guy -- i.e., a younger upgrade of MacLean.

 

[BadgerBruce]

I don't know, that wasn't my experience of it. Granted, I was only about 10 at the time, but I remember when MacLean first came in. My parents loved him immediately, including his bad puns. Everywhere I went in Canada for the next few years, every time a HNIC game was on, all people would talk about was how much they loved the 'Ron & Don (Cherry)' show, and everyone seemed very happy with MacLean.

None of this applied to Strombo. MacLean was "Hockey Night in Canada" personifed -- dorky, polite, old-school values, just a little bit wittier and a lot younger than before. Strombo came in with his slacker, lean-forward-off-my-seat style of super-casual questioning, and it was everything HNIC had never been about.

I don't really blame Strombo; he just wasn't the right fit. They should have gone for a young, dorky, straight guy -- i.e., a younger upgrade of MacLean.

Here’s the difference: Dave Hodge was the host of HNIC and Cherry’s original “Coach’s Corner” sidekick. After CBC fired Hodge, Ron Maclean took over both roles, but the ‘Ron and Don Show’ essentially made MacLean. He was the deferential sidekick who allowed Cherry to rant.

But when Strombo replaced MacLean, it was ONLY as HNIC host — MacLean remained Cherry’s sidekick on “Coach’s Corner.” Think about that: CBC wanted a new and different host (Strombo) but didn’t give him the kind of platform (Coach’s Corner) that created Ron MacLean’s star. In this respect, MacLean never left — his continued presence on Coach’s Corner would be akin to Johnny Carson delivering the opening monologue before every Jay Leno show. Gone but not really gone. Anyway, Strombo didn’t get the kind of vehicle MacLean had and viewers still got to see “the replaced guy” alongside Cherry every Saturday night.