Ron MacLean returning to HNIC

[Kin]

No one wants to admit it, and most won't like to hear it,  but one of the main reasons this hasn't worked out for Rogers is because the leafs have been awful.

I think there's a lot of truth to that but I think it's a bigger problem than just the Leafs being bad. Or even Canadian teams being bad. Right now there's a major problem with the product. As bad as any one wants to think the studio show is, and I take no backseat to anyone in how bad I think the studio show is, I've never believed it drove ratings one way or the other. I don't turn the game off during the intermissions and I don't not watch a game I'm interested in because the studio show is bad.

Right now there's a larger problem with the game that's turning people off. You can attribute it to parity or styles of coaching whatever but there's a uniformity to teams and games that makes for very little in the way of compelling matchups. The Cup finals games weren't significantly better, whether in terms of style or skill, than a game between two middle of the pack teams.

We just got through what was maybe the best NBA finals of all time because it featured two great teams full of great players playing exciting basketball. The NHL does not have a comparable product right now.

 

[ZBBM]

Oh man, this is the best news I've heard all day. Strombo was unwatchable. The whole thing was a garbage fire from the first game.

Freidman was probably the best of the regulars - if they could be less reliant on past players, I'd love to see Mclean, Friedman, Marek and Scott Morrison as the standard group.

Basically, abandon "edgy", and go with insight.

This, many times over.

 

[Kin]

Outside of Stromboulopoulos having an earring I'm really struggling to come up with anything about HNIC that could even vaguely be called "edgy" or even attempting such. It was a bunch of ex-players talking in a circle.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Outside of Stromboulopoulos having an earring I'm really struggling to come up with anything about HNIC that could even vaguely be called "edgy" or even attempting such. It was a bunch of ex-players talking in a circle.

Yeah, I don't get the strombohate as I said before. Aside from the skinny tie he mostly did what MacLean did when he hosted, which is just to let the others guys talk. And I thought that he was pretty good in other roles like interviews and such, which was really always his biggest strength coming in.

 

[herman]

Outside of Stromboulopoulos having an earring I'm really struggling to come up with anything about HNIC that could even vaguely be called "edgy" or even attempting such. It was a bunch of ex-players talking in a circle.

Yeah, I don't get the strombohate as I said before. Aside from the skinny tie he mostly did what MacLean did when he hosted, which is just to let the others guys talk. And I thought that he was pretty good in other roles like interviews and such, which was really always his biggest strength coming in.

That's still a problem, considering who those talkers were.

Ultimately, I think Nik is right. No one tunes in specifically for the intermission shows. People aren't watching because there is nothing to care about. 82 games is a long grind. The salary cap as well as having so many teams has diluted the entertainment value/premiere players players per team too much to produce a story worth following.

Hockey in its current state will never be a game ruled outright by superstars the way basketball is, and everyone is pretty much covered up in helmets and gear so the recognizability factor is further diminished. Hockey players are also devoid of personality, so a lot of the between game attention that other sports generate is not quite there.

 

[Frank E]

I think Strombo was fine, and I did like the energy he brought.

I don't much care for Kypreos, but overall I enjoyed last year's broadcasts.  I think the holding the sticks and the stupid putting the cards into the machine to show a graphic thing was dumb.

 

[Al14]

Welcome back Ron MacLean!

I can now start to watch HNIC again after a 2 year hiatus.

Good riddance Strombo!  You never really belonged, especially because you are a Habs fan!

 

[Kin]

Hockey in its current state will never be a game ruled outright by superstars the way basketball is, and everyone is pretty much covered up in helmets and gear so the recognizability factor is further diminished. Hockey players are also devoid of personality, so a lot of the between game attention that other sports generate is not quite there.

Hockey will never be ruled by superstars in that way, at least not with the rules the way they are, but it did used to be ruled by great teams. That's what's disappeared from the game. In each of the last five years I think you could have played the playoffs 100 times and gotten 100 different results. Nobody is separate from the pack.

 

[Al14]

I think Strombo was fine, and I did like the energy he brought.

I don't much care for Kypreos, but overall I enjoyed last year's broadcasts.  I think the holding the sticks and the stupid putting the cards into the machine to show a graphic thing was dumb.

I stopped watching HNIC specifically because I didn't like Strombo. He was not a true hockey dude. I also wasn't impressed that he was a Habs fan!

At first, I didn't like MacLean when he replaced Dave Hodge, however, Ron's hockey knowledge, hockey involvement, and his professionalism, quickly turned me into one of his fans.

He wouldn't be my 1st choice as a hockey commentator, but, I can live with Kypreos.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

No one wants to admit it, and most won't like to hear it,  but one of the main reasons this hasn't worked out for Rogers is because the leafs have been awful.

I think that everybody's admitted that that's played a role in the ratings being down, but I can't see how it would have anything to do with the terrible product Rogers has produced.

I just don't think their panel has any sort of meaningful impact on the ratings and that the success (or lack there of) of the Canadian teams will be what drives ratings.

 

[Kin]

One of the things I was struck by recently was in all of the interviews with the HNIC Punjabi guys they specifically talk about trying to bring new fans into the game and how they're a little loose with terminology and try to have fun with it because of the cultural barriers inherent. It shows in some of the great calls they've made this playoffs.

I think the English version could use a dose of that. The idea that everyone needs to be a hockey lifer and come at it from the same perspective just seems to be arguing for a slow death.

 

[Frank E]

No one wants to admit it, and most won't like to hear it,  but one of the main reasons this hasn't worked out for Rogers is because the leafs have been awful.

I think that everybody's admitted that that's played a role in the ratings being down, but I can't see how it would have anything to do with the terrible product Rogers has produced.

I just don't think their panel has any sort of meaningful impact on the ratings and that the success (or lack there of) of the Canadian teams will be what drives ratings.

I agree with this...I think many more fringy fans tuned out when their Canadian team went into the toilet.

 

[Kin]

The problem with the idea that you can attribute a large part of it to Canadian teams not being very good is that it's not like the ratings at the beginning of the year are gangbusters either and I don't think that has much to do with casual fans coming to the conclusion that Ottawa won't ultimately have the strength down the middle or Edmonton not having defensive depth.

 

[herman]

Hockey in its current state will never be a game ruled outright by superstars the way basketball is, and everyone is pretty much covered up in helmets and gear so the recognizability factor is further diminished. Hockey players are also devoid of personality, so a lot of the between game attention that other sports generate is not quite there.

Hockey will never be ruled by superstars in that way, at least not with the rules the way they are, but it did used to be ruled by great teams. That's what's disappeared from the game. In each of the last five years I think you could have played the playoffs 100 times and gotten 100 different results. Nobody is separate from the pack.

Totally all about the PDO.

I love the hockey tournaments: more concentrated talent pools, tighter timelines, more excitement.

I think Strombo was fine, and I did like the energy he brought.

I don't much care for Kypreos, but overall I enjoyed last year's broadcasts.  I think the holding the sticks and the stupid putting the cards into the machine to show a graphic thing was dumb.

Their stick holding and stupid graphic generator mechanics was so stupid.
I did enjoy any tactics breakdowns though. The game is so fast that the underlying beauty is generally obfuscated.

 

[Peter D.]

I just don't think their panel has any sort of meaningful impact on the ratings and that the success (or lack there of) of the Canadian teams will be what drives ratings.

Not that I disagree with the notion that the Canadian teams being better would improve ratings, but last year when there were five Canadian teams in the playoffs there was still a drop in ratings.  And if people want to point to the Leafs being the driver of ratings, they were horrible for the decade prior to Rogers taking over and there was never such a massive drop in ratings.

Do I think the Strombo and the panel are the primary reason that caused the ratings disaster?  Not necessarily.  But I certainly think it had a sizeable part in it.  Speaking for myself, I know I have watched a ton less hockey the last two years than ever before because the production and talent paraded by Rogers has been insulting and sub-standard.

 

[Misty]

In my case, the panel actually does affect my enjoyment of the game and the likelihood that I'll stay with it for the entire broadcast rather than channel-flip. On average, I find myself far more likely to watch an entire broadcast when it's on TSN.

Duthie is exactly what I look for in a host, and the typical panel is usually educated, informed, and unafraid to offer up an opinion no matter what establishment feathers it might ruffle. They also have some of the better play-by-play and colour commentary guys.

HNIC just doesn't do anything for me at all. George is good at interviewing someone but useless as a host/discussion moderator. Healey and Kypryos both seem to be so full of bile that it colours everything they say. I have stayed up and watched some of the west-coast game broadcasts on occasion and usually enjoy those ones quite a bit more. I don't recall the name of the guy who used to take over the late night CBC HNIC duties (Scott Oake?) or did the lengthy interview segment with one of the players after the game, but those broadcasts were always far more insightful to me.

Ron & Don's 1st intermission segment maybe appeals to the older crowd, but they certainly don't to me. Don spends 90% of his time complaining about how Ron is messing everything up and using his time, or rambling incoherently about something that is a direct counterpoint to something else he rambled about the week before...I honestly think it's time he (and Bob Cole) were put out to pasture. Ron spends most of his time looking for that terribly outdated one-liner play on words to close out the segment with. I used to try to endure it on the off chance they'd say something vaguely meaningful, but now I've given up and use the segment as a convenient time to go do my dishes, wash the car, dust, scoop up dog poop in the back yard, sweep and vacuum the floors, file my taxes, get a root canal...all of which are more enjoyable activities.

 

[Kin]

Coach's Corner was legitimately good TV when McLean would call Cherry on his nonsense. Then the Graham James thing happened and Ron just abandoned all pretense of being another opinion in the room.

Now we get Cherry complaining that Joe Pavelski didn't make Team Canada and Ron sitting there silently thinking up petty questions he can ask Gary Bettman.

 

[herman]

I used to try to endure it on the off chance they'd say something vaguely meaningful, but now I've given up and use the segment as a convenient time to go do my dishes, wash the car, dust, scoop up dog poop in the back yard, sweep and vacuum the floors, file my taxes, get a root canal...all of which are more enjoyable activities.

#FeelTheBurn

I also much prefer the TSN crew. Even Jeff O'Neill is a more interesting hot-headed former Leaf.

I usually focus on tmlfans during intermissions.

 

[Heroic Shrimp]

Outside of Stromboulopoulos having an earring I'm really struggling to come up with anything about HNIC that could even vaguely be called "edgy" or even attempting such. It was a bunch of ex-players talking in a circle.

To me, any attempt at edginess in their broadcasts has come from the likes of guys like Kypreos and Healy, who are "edgy" in that they're loudmouths.  I'm good with guys being outspoken, but please combine that with refreshing insight, which Kypreos and Healy think they have and really don't.  They're more or less mini-Don Cherrys and one Cherry is already too much.

 

[Zee]

I'm not a Strombo hater, I actually like the guy on his own shows, he conducts interviews really well, but that being said I just didn't like him on HNIC.  Something was off seeing him as the host.  Of course he wasn't the only problem, as many of the new Rogers guys are painful to watch on the broadcast.  Strombo really had bad timing though in this case.  With the Leafs being as bad as they were the last 2 seasons, the ratings were low.  Combine that with the constant criticism of the new format and you could see this coming.  Strombo is a talented guy and has many things on the go, he'll be fine.