Shannon is now one of the Oilers synchophats roped in by Lowe to be an apologist and use his precious national presence and reputation to pretend to give unbiased coverage of the Oilers.
A few years back he started, out of the blue, really beating the McDavid drum every time he was out east on TV. Clearly he knew his plan, and sure enough the next season when they moved to the new rink, he was based out of Edmonton on the intermission panel. Oilers know that he can sprinkle in appearances with his contacts out east like Primetime Sports, and the Oilers get national biased coverage. People still see Shannon as some national guy and unbiased, when really he is now a guy the Oilers have secured coddled in house. That’s not by coincidence, and the Oilers know exactly what they are doing in bringing a guy close like that.
Debrusk, very very similar. He had just started to shed the stink of the regional broadcasts and his Oiler past and making a name for being a quality colour guy nationally.
Then they moved Remenda to the same panel as Shannon and Debrusk back to call regional games, and now he too is again an Oiler apologist, doing most regional games and then using his national gig and presence to turn the Oiler Saturday or Sunday games into more very slanted coverage by him.
Again, no coincidence that the Oilers wanted him close to the team so that his national, supposed unbiased coverage, comes out with an Oilers centric tone.
|