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Despite strongly opposing the NHL's crackdown on obstruction, Ron MacLean stayed mum on the subject during the early weeks of this season. But on Saturday, the Hockey Night in Canada host could no longer restrain himself, no pun intended.
MacLean, who believes hooking and holding are inextricably tied to the game, aired a series of clips showing Wayne Gretzky hooking players during the Canada Cup in 1987. MacLean noted that Jim Kelley rated the 1987 hockey tournament the best ever, although Canadians outside the Toronto market, where Kelley is a semi-regular co-host on The Fan 590 radio station, must have been saying, "Jim who?"
MacLean's argument was this: Because the 1987 tournament was the best ever (according to Kelley), and because players were allowed to hook and hold, hooking and holding should stay in the game.
"Everybody loved this hockey," MacLean told Colin Campbell, the NHL's senior vice-president and director of hockey operations.
Needless to say, MacLean has consistently applied wonky logic to arguments that range from silly to hardly plausible. For example, he says that, because goal scoring has not increased, zero tolerance hasn't worked. But changing the game was not about goal scoring. It was about improving the quality of play.
The product that MacLean knocks was in full view on Saturday. Seen in most markets, the Toronto Maple Leafs-Montreal Canadiens game, in which five goals were scored, was fast-paced, never dull and produced plenty of scoring chances.
Before the crackdown started in 2005-06, MacLean predicted the players would never adjust. Well, despite the officials continuing to call the game closely — too closely, many would say — restraining fouls are down 21 per cent from last year.
Even if MacLean isn't getting it, the players seem to be.
Busy weekend
Kurt Browning's analysis was limited mainly to U.S. television before his work for the CBC at Skate Canada over the weekend. Browning, the four-time world champion, has provided commentary on 10 skating telecasts aired on ABC and ESPN2 over the past two years.
In 2006, he was in the CBC studio for analysis of the Olympic figure skating events at Turin, although he prefers to use the term "studio deconstruction" because of his sharp criticism of Russian Evgeny Plushenko, who won the gold medal despite, in Browning's view, delivering a weak artistic performance.
"For some reason, it just really bothered me the way he won the Olympics," Browning said. "I think what I said was valid, and people seemed to respond to it."
Analyzing the men's competition at Skate Canada was only half of Browning's weekend schedule. At the Elgin Theatre in Toronto, he's rehearsing a Peter Pan musical in which, for the first time, he acts, sings and dances.
He flew to Quebec City on Friday night, provided commentary for the men's event, returned to Toronto on Saturday to rehearse and flew back to Quebec on Saturday night for TV work on Sunday.
Browning is still doing ice shows and will also provide TV commentary on the CBC's skating coverage this season.
Final CFL numbers
The CBC wrapped up its last CFL season in good form by producing one of its best audiences of the season, 598,000 viewers for the Toronto Argonauts-Saskatchewan Roughriders game on Saturday. For the season (23 games), the CBC averaged 430,000 viewers, up 3 per cent from 416,000 in 2006.
TSN averaged 346,000 over 50 games, down 3 per cent from 356,000 in 2006. The decrease is attributed to late-season competition from the World Series and Hockey Night in Canada and too many October telecasts involving the sad-sack Hamilton Tiger-Cats (three wins and 15 losses).
TSN will become the CFL's sole rights holder in 2008.
- Mark Milliere was announced yesterday as TSN's new vice-president of production. He replaces Rick Chisholm, who has joined the CTV-Rogers Olympic broadcasting consortium. Milliere, who started working for TSN in 1987, was most recently the vice-president of news and NHL on TSN.
- CBS earned a 22.5 overnight rating (percentage of potential households tuned in) for the New England Patriots-Indianapolis Colts telecast on Sunday, the best overnight for an NFL telecast since 1986, according to CBS.
- Using its flex schedule, NBC has picked up the Patriots-Buffalo Bills game for prime time on Sunday, Nov. 18.
- GolTV will televise tomorrow's exhibition game between the Los Angeles Galaxy (David Beckham is expected to play) and the Vancouver Whitecaps (10 p.m. EST).
- Brian Duff of the NHL Network will stay as the host of Leafs Lunch on AM640 Toronto through the end of the season.
Rating the weekend
| EVENT | NETWORK | VIEWERS | SKINNY |
| Friday | |||
| Football. Alouettes-Blue Bombers. | TSN | 263,000 | Down from season average of 346,000. |
| Football. Alouettes-Blue Bombers. | RDS | 142,000 | Well below season average of 212,000. |
| Saturday | |||
| Soccer. Newcastle-Portsmouth. | Sportsnet | 122,000 | One of Sportsnet's best EPL numbers. |
| Figure skating. Skate Canada. | CBC | 189,000 | A busy afternoon. |
| Football. Guelph-Laurier. | Score | 37,000 | Not bad for OUA semi-final. |
| Football. Argos-Roughriders. | CBC | 598,000 | Way above 430,000 season average. |
| Auto racing. Busch Series. | TSN | 113,000 | Core NASCAR audience. |
| Football. Eskimos-Ticats. | TSN | 218,000 | Late-season drop-off. |
| Hockey. Leafs-Canadiens. | CBC | 1.345 million | Up from season average (1.203 million). |
| Hockey. Leafs-Canadiens. | RDS | 641,000 | Below the season average of 673,000. |
| Football. Arizona State-Oregon. | Score | 39,000 | Too much prime-time competition. |
| Football. Stampeders-Lions. | TSN | 252,000 | Hockey competition. |
| Hockey. CanucksAvalanche. | CBC | 647,000 | Just under 649,000 season average. |
| Sunday | |||
| Soccer. West Ham-Bolton. | Score | 55,000 | Mediocre vs. bad. |
| Figure skating. Skate Canada. | CBC | 308,000 | Strong number for men's event, plus gala. |
| Football. NFL regional. | CTV | 370,000 | Tops for CTV this season. |
| Basketball. Celtics-Raptors. | CBC | 199,000 | Wasn't seen in Atlantic Canada. |
| Auto racing. NEXTEL Cup. | TSN | 277,000 | The average. |
| Football. NFL regional. | Sportsnet | 696,000 | Pats-Colts game draws top 2007 audience. |
| Football. Cowboys-Eagles. | TSN | 234,000 | On target. |
