Hi, this is Fred Wallace with Off the Wire, brought to you by Auto Logic, the Logical Choice.
With one NHL season behind us and another on the horizon, I thought I’d lay my observations of the Rogers NHL TV coverage on you, now that year 1 of the 12 year rights purchase has been completed.
Now in fairness, I don’t watch a lot of NHL Hockey prior to the playoffs, choosing instead to watch the Ontario Hockey League given a choice.
But……..
You might remember a year ago I offered the opinion that the viewers would miss Ron MacLean as host, no matter who, or how good the new host was.
I stand by that, although it is quite possible George Stroumboulopoulos may become more comfortable, more familiar, more acceptable to viewers in that role with the passage of time.
Next, I miss Joe Bowen doing Leaf games on TV.
I fully understand that Joe sees things from a Leafs perspective, but I was surprised by his total absence on TV and equally surprised by the number of times I saw and heard the supposedly deposed TSN pair of Chris Cuthbert and Gord Miller.
Overall, I didn’t see a ” brave new beginning ” for TV hockey coverage as promised in Year 1 of the Rogers presentation.
What I did see was a duplication in performance from most of the surviving CBC performers, and awkward entries by the ” new ” Rogers announcers who truthfully looked like understudys in Year 1 of the NHL on Rogers.
I’m Fred Wallace