[Rumour] Ron Maclean to replace George Stromboulopoulos on HNIC

[CaptainCrunch]

Strombo was terrible, he can go back to wasting money on CBC. MacLean, I can't stand him, he's not funny, he's smarmy and he's a massive Oilers backer.

At least Bettman can look forward to the annual kick the crap out of Maclean and make him look like a dummy interview at the all star game.

[GirlySports]

As I said above, add reporters. There is no reason why the new Hockey News podcast (put together 3 months ago) blows a national panel out of the water.

If they want the young crowd, they need these guys like Puckdaddy. Get reporters from other sports to make guest appearences that they love hockey. Like Keith Olberman is a HUGE hockey historian. Get him on once or twice a season.

Let's add to this.

Hockey guy = Kypreos, Shannon, Friedman, Jafee, Armstrong, Hrudey

Wednesday Panel:
Millard, Hockey Guy, Hockey Guy, Reporter

Saturday Panel:
MacLean, Hockey Guy, Hockey Guy, Reporter/Special Guest

Play-by-Play (National)
#1 Hughson, Simpson, Johnson
#2 Randorf, Galley
#3 Broadhurst, Whitney

Females? There's Casie Campbell, Jen Botteril, Tara Sloan and of course Leah Hextall

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Agreed. However, there is a difference between having a village idiot on the panel and having a panel made up entirely of village idiots. Cox, Healy and Kypreos are redundant.

I don't think they are redundant. In fact, Kypreos and Cox are quite often at opposite ends of an issue. I think I agree about Francis being a better fit, though.

[Weitz]

I think Healy, Cox, and Hrudey should all be shown the door at Sportsnet.

[saillias]

Originally Posted by kermitology

George is a hockey fan, not a hockey person. Regardless of the fit of his suit, he just wasn't a good host. He was out of place with the rest of the panel and he didn't lead the show.

James Duthie would be the guy I'd be trying to get somehow. He turned into a great host after a few years as a dufus.

Not sure why they didn't just go with Darren Millard. Already a host. He's got the chops and the experience. TSN people seem perfectly happy to stay at TSN.

Originally Posted by dustygoon

Petrillo?

Recently hired by TSN, does Leafs Lunch or some other Leafy radio show out of Toronto. She's no longer an option.

[Five-hole]

I would bet the cross-section of people who appreciated George's fashion-forwardness and who watch the HNIC panel is fairly limited.

That's a problem for the game, though. George was an effort to bring in younger viewers, but nobody is going to tune into a sport because the panel are fashionably dressed. Hockey is still dominated by old-school mindsets. The number of complaints in this thread about tight suits is a fitting reminder.

But to bring in younger viewers the culture needs a bigger change than George. It would start with marketing the personalities of its athletes, instead of turning all of them into sound-byte spitting robots. I recall asking Burke at a talk he gave at the UofC a couple of years ago that, if he demands that his teams play an entertaining brand of hockey, how this is consistent with media training of athletes. His reply was that he demands respect for the game and hockey attracts those kinds of people.

Well you're also going to get those kinds of viewers and turn off younger audiences who have an endless of alternatives for where to spend their entertainment time whose brands resonate more with the demographic. The other major sports all have players that ooze personality (too much at times, even), and hockey tries its best to squelch all of it.

Who can identify with Connor McDavid? Is there a more milquetoast personality in the game? Same goes for Sidney Crosby for that matter.

[GirlySports]

Subban is that guy. But the over 55 crowd doesn't like him either.

[Timbo]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Subban is that guy. But the over 55 crowd doesn't like him either.

I'm almost 55 and I think Subban is great. I dunno if I might feel different in 7 months though.

[Alberta_Beef]

I think Rogers should give more airtime to DeBrusk and Sutter, I think either would be a solid addition to HNIC over Cox and/or Healy

[Huntingwhale]

I hated Strombo at first, but he grew on me. Even though he looks like he's stoned out of him mind all the time, I liked him as a host. But I like Mclean better.

But what confuses me is if SN is so eager to ''listen'' to viewers who prefer Mclean and make the change, why the hell don't they listen to everybody who complains about Healey or Doug Mclean? It's literally everybody who doesn't like them. I can understand the debate of Strombo/Ron and understand the argument for both sides. But I can't for the life of me figure out why they don't listen to the viewers when it comes to Healey or Doug.

Either way, SN still sucks and only 10 more years of this crap.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Weitz

I think Healy, Cox, and Hrudey should all be shown the door at Sportsnet.

Hrudey is fantastic - and the one guy that doesn't falate the Oilers at every opportunity

[puckedoff]

Originally Posted by Five-hole

The number of complaints in this thread about tight suits is a fitting reminder.

Ha I see what you did....

[Joborule]

Strombo wasn't bad at being a host when I watched. He did what he had to do. But bringing Ron Maclean back will provide a hockey host that presence alone speaks hockey.

And yes, no good Canadian teams definitely impacted ratings, but Rogers made a long-term commitment and spent a lot of dough for the rights. With all Canadian teams absent, they should at worst being getting the same ratings as before; since the idea from their end was to increase ratings and grow their audience base more.

Rogers needs to go back to what CBC did well, and that was letting the story be set up. Rogers is missing the mark in my eyes of delivering the stories of the game. When you watch games on other sports on the US networks, this is something that they replicate well. CBC also hit the mark on the old pregame montages. As well for ingame letting the scene speak for itself.

Rogers needs to clean up how cheap the production look, but probably won't. From the commercials themselves, to the game broadcast intro, and the graphical overalays, etc. They're still behind in years to the American counterparts in this department. If they want to increase ratings while being the only show in town, they got to be at a standard that's the same as everyone else. Lots of people watch games from other sports, so they know what a good broadcast from a cheap broadcast looks like.

Oh, and turn up the damn arena volume and improve the cameras.

[MarkGio]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

The host doesn't have to be a hockey guy. But it seems like Canadian audiences need him to be.

But McLean was too much of a hockey guy. So often would his "insights" be about a hockey player in a midget tournament that nobody cares about. Or about meeting a player's family in the backwater communities nobody has heard about. It was just a big shout out.

To me, this isn't about hockey knowledge. This is about old people vs. young. Old people want Cherry ranting about armed troops, young people want mathematicians ranting about analytics. Look at this thread, it's basically 10 pages of old men shaking their fists at the fashion clouds and young people passing out because their tight suites are cutting off their oxygen.

It doesn't matter. Sportsnet shouldn't be pandering to the cord cutting generation anyways.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by MarkGio

It doesn't matter. Sportsnet shouldn't be pandering to the cord cutting generation anyways.

Yeah, neither should Blockbuster.

[Red]

Originally Posted by MarkGio

But McLean was too much of a hockey guy. So often would his "insights" be about a hockey player in a midget tournament that nobody cares about. Or about meeting a player's family in the backwater communities nobody has heard about. It was just a big shout out.

To me, this isn't about hockey knowledge. This is about old people vs. young. Old people want Cherry ranting about armed troops, young people want mathematicians ranting about analytics. Look at this thread, it's basically 10 pages of old men shaking their fists at the fashion clouds and young people passing out because their tight suites are cutting off their oxygen.

It doesn't matter. Sportsnet shouldn't be pandering to the cord cutting generation anyways.

I myself enjoy these stories. Most here enjoyed learning about Ferland's upbringing etc. Who doesn't care about Johnny's story?
This is where the older CBC crew added some human touch to the show. There is more to a hockey show than goals and assists.

Problem for Flames fans is that most of these in depth player reviews happen during the playoffs and we haven't seen much of that lately. I am sure most people on here liked Cherry yelling at clouds during our run in 04 too. But that's because they were our clouds and not LA or Tampa Bay.

[united]

I couldn't respect anything Strombo said because of his tight suits. What happened to the days of everyone wearing proper engineer-fit suits?

[PeteMoss]

Pro-tip for Rogers - you want to know how guys like MacLean and Cherry become loved? Because there was just two of them. If Coaches Corner was MacLean, Cherry, Jacques Demers and Terry Crisp - Cherry would be infinitely less popular.

I know you are trying to copy NFL broadcasts and TSN (which began their giant panels from the same guy copying the NFL) but it just turns into no-one watching getting to know and like the people AND all of the talent fighting to get their sentence or two in every intermission.

You don't need 6 guys on set every intermission. Less is more. Playoff hockey is on every night so you need people to feel like they know and like your hosts if you want them to tune in when their team is out.

[Table 5]

My 5-minute, 11-point plan to improve HNIC.

1. Keep Friedman, Hrudey, and Kypreos on your main panel.
2. Shoot Healy out of a cannon.
3. If need be, hire Francis as your contrarian/lighting rod.
4. Bring back smart people like Duhatchek to be occasional guests. Or better yet, bring back Satellite Hot Stove (no Strachan though please).
5. Lure back Chris Cuthbert.
6. Buy back the HNIC song. Because this song should be ingrained in every Canadian child.
7. Cut Hometown Hockey to save money...because does anyone really watch this?
8. Put Hometown hockey money into exploring new technological innovations to showcase game.
9. Give Strombo some role that includes interviews (ie. a weekly in depth profile on people in and around the game) and ability to explore new mediums.
10. Give Leah Hextall a bigger national role, and maybe groom her to replace Maclean in a decade.
11. Keep Cherry, but phase out role after he is done. That type of guy is not someone you can just replace.

[JiriHrdina]

I'm good with that plan except #11. I've been tired of Cherry for 15 years. Get rid of him.