Milbury is NHL’s unofficial spokesman
October 19, 2009 · 17 Comments
Some good additions over the past several years – the latest being Glenn Healy – has given Hockey Night In Canada its strongest lineup in years.
Ron MacLean has improved as a host because he seems to have kicked the habit of baiting referees.
Don Cherry continues to entertain. Jim Hughson is among the leading announcers in the business. And, Hughson’s partner, Craig Simpson, is producing some of his best work.
During Saturday’s New York Rangers-Toronto Maple Leafs telecast, Simpson made a simple but important point that eludes most analysts. He noted that a spectacular save made by Ranger goalie Henrik Lundqvist was the result of the puck hitting him rather than the result of an outstanding athletic achievement.
True, Lundqvist positioned himself properly. But the community of game analysts, which is over-populated by ex-goalies, tends to gush over every save made by a netminder instead of critically analyzing the guy taking the shot.
Greg Millen of Hockey Night and Leafs TV comes to mind immediately.
In addition to Hughson and Simpson, reporter Elliotte Friedman’s work is first rate. And the acerbic Healy, by setting up at ice level as the game telecast’s third analyst, has dragged the venerable old show into the 21st century.
The problem is, outside of Cherry and also Al Strachan, you are unlikely to hear a Hockey Night commentator criticize anyone in a position of NHL power.
The worst for this is Mike Milbury who is outspoken only in the sense that he passionately defends the establishment. If ever in his TV career Milbury has made a comment that ran counter to the official thinking of the NHL or club officials, we missed it.
He likes fighting and thinks opponents of fighting are girls. He thinks the NHL Players’ Association inflicted the worse atrocity known to mankind by firing executive director Paul Kelly, whom, the guess here, was viewed by the NHL’s hierarchy as the perfect guy to be ensconced as the players’ leader.
Milbury’s toeing the company line, of course, would have absolutely nothing to do with his hope and aspiration of getting back into the NHL as a coach or general manager.
Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com, Milbury’s colleague on the Hotstove segment, brings a similar sensibility. We’re not going to say that whatever LeBrun’s sources tell him or whatever may please his sources is what you’re likely to hear on Hockey Night. And, to be fair, LeBrun is a good reporter. But his commentary is predictable and soft.
Consider the issue of Leaf general manager Brian Burke’s off-season move to trade two first round draft choices to the Boston Bruins for forward Phil Kessel.
A non-playoff team trading away two first rounders is high-risk — we would say reckless and irresponsible — and is virtually unheard of.
But as far as Milbury and LeBrun were concerned, hey, it was okay. First round picks don’t mean as much as they used to, they told us. With free agency at 25, the market will be flooded with young stars. Teams won’t be able sign all their top players.
This argument is so weak, so ridiculous, it’s hard to know where to begin. We’ll mention just one team – Pittsburgh, which has two of the top three players in the world, both former high round picks, under long-term contracts. True, with the salary cap, teams need to make choices. But with rare exception, they’re able hang onto their best players. Still, the opinion of Milbury and LeBrun may have won them points with Burke.
The best analysis came from Friedman, who did some research and discovered that over the past twenty years only Stanley Cup contenders, and very few of them, traded away two first round draft choices for a player. The exception was Philadelphia Flyers making its deal for Eric Lindros. But that was a special case. Lindros was coming out of junior hockey and hailed as a future superstar, the best Canadian prospect since Wayne Gretzky.
If you needed further evidence of the folly of trading firsts, you needed to look no further than three rookies showcased by Hockey Night on Saturday and starring for their teams – Matt Duchene (selected third over all in 2009 by Colorado Avalanche), Tyler Myers (Buffalo Sabres’ 12th over all pick in 2008) and the Rangers’ Mike Del Zotto (20th overall in 2008).
True, some high draft choices don’t pan out. But Kessel also comes with his own baggage and question marks.
Cherry, to his credit, is unafraid of taking a position that runs counter to the collective thought of the hockey community. A few weeks ago, the conventional wisdom in Toronto had it that centre Nazem Kadri (7th overall last June) should be returned to junior hockey despite an excellent training camp. The Toronto Star’s Damien Cox told us that those who felt he might deserve a spot with the big team “should know better.”
Cherry disagreed with Cox and the Leafs, and he was right. The club should have kept him for the first 10 games of the regular season and then made a decision. It’s called rewarding performance. And he might have popped in a few goals, something the Leafs desperately need.
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Good points on all. Glad the CBC is using Kevin Weeks as the second guy in the later Saturday games. Much better as an on-air guy than a goalie. And what’s all this about goalies as commentators? One of the best, at least here in NYC and the US, was John Davidson. Glenn Resch does a great job with Doc Emrick on Devils telecasts, too ….
Not to say that Milbury and Lebrun were correct, however using pittsburgh as an example to support your argument without mentioning the pens opposite in the blackhawks and their issues is a poor choice.
I just discovered your site, Mr. Houston! We missed you over at the old Mop and Pail !!! So glad you are back with your commentary.
Good to see you’re back.
Awesome to see you’re back, and as current as ever. I’ve counted on you to call a spade a spade in the sportsmedia world, and I look forward to reading you again!
Wow…someone who can make actual “accurate” observations about CBC and HNIC!! I’ll be looking in on this blog regularly. Now, what about the choices of games to cover? Programming decisions? How about pointing the fingers at the right people for this “Toronto-centric” broadcaster? Yes, we know about the population, market, bla bla bla. A public organization with exclusive Canadian rights to Saturday night NHL games cannot EVER ignore Canadian teams that are not Toronto or Montreal. Fans of the Ottawa Senators (and not just in Ottawa) are STILL seething about the refusal to cover the Ott-Atl game on October 10th. Having quality broadcasters like Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson means nothing when your game isn’t being shown. And for goodness sake, Bob Cole is enough to ruin any broadcast…buy the man a sailboat and some golf clubs already!
Milbury as a spokesman for anything is absurd. Ask any Islanders fan, for one. And back as a player … ask any Rangers fan. Milbury should be banned from ever alighting in the state of New York … even in Buffalo.
AS AN ISLANDER FAN,ANYONE ONE WHO PUTS ANY STOCK INTO ANYTHING MILBURY SAYS IS NUTS TRUST ME IVE SEEN HIS KNOWLEDGE FIRST HAND!
Pretty much everything Damien Cox of the Toronto Star says is just dumb. All he does is attack how people who play the game do things while his fat ass sits around and watches.
Milbury thinks that picks aren’t worth as much as they used to be? And he wonders why he isn’t a GM anymore?
Ron McLean may have stopped baiting referees, but until he learns to think for himself wrt the NHLPA, rather than simply parroting what the anti-cooperation forces are telling him to say, he is not improving. Though he does now make a good foil to Milbury’s defence of “the establishment”.
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great work mister houston ! ! extremely interesting even for a CANADIENS and ALLOUETTE FAN ! ! so good to see you holding the media accountable.. keep up the good work in your supposed retirement..