Why don't ex-hockey players get into broadcasting? ... Jays keep swinging and missing ... Bills' Daboll has history with Chargers GM
TORONTO — On one channel, there is Charles Barkley talking to fellow Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal at halftime — and you don't want to miss a word.
Two all-time greats now working on the best panel in basketball.
On another channel there is football Hall of Famer and Super Bowl champion, Troy Aikman, calling a game. And when baseball playoffs were on just a few months back, there was Frank Thomas on the panel with Alex Rodriguez and Big Papi, David Ortiz, three of the greatest hitters in recent baseball history, now broadcasting.
The new star of hockey broadcasting in Canada is Kevin Bieksa. He is refreshingly honest, original and quirky, and once he finished 18th in Norris Trophy voting. The more established star broadcasters among former players are Ray Ferraro, Eddie Olczyk, Craig Simpson and Keith Jones. All of them decent NHL players themselves, none of them alltime anythings.
Which begs the question: What is it about hockey — the sport, the culture, the product — that doesn't attract playing stars to the broadcast booth?
Wayne Gretzky tried coaching. Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic have been
NHL general managers for years. Brendan Shanahan is president of the Maple Leafs and Cam Neely is in the same position in Boston. Mario Lemieux owns a serious portion of the Pittsburgh Penguins. All of them in the
Hall of Fame.
None of them behind a microphone. None of them on television.
THIS AND THAT
Didn't understand the Mike Babcock pettiness with Jason Spezza on opening night last season and don't understand the same with Joel Quenneville and Keith Yandle in Florida right now. Yandle hasn't missed an NHL game since March 22, 2009. Now he's being scratched. Expect better from a hockey lifer like Q to respect that 866 consecutive game streak ... The NHL season will be five days old on Sunday and I've already watched Leafs, Habs, Oilers, Canucks, Jets, Flames, Senators, Blues, Avalanche, Flyers and Penguins — some of them twice, some three times by Sunday morning. I've never consumed this much hockey, this quickly, this enthusiastically ... For about five years now, the Maple Leafs have been trying to play more responsibly, altering their coaching and their roster and their mindset in order to do so, but through two games there is zero indication they are anywhere near where they need to be. One look at how Barry Trotz's Islanders smothered the talented New York Rangers on opening night and you see the difference between a team that knows how to win and one that is just guessing at this point ... Strangest thing through two Leafs games. Less is apparently more: Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner have played 48 minutes apiece and produced next to nothing in two games. John Tavares and William Nylander have played about 34 minutes apiece and have nine points already ... Yes, Freddie Andersen wasn't sharp through two games, but the number of uncontested shots in tight taken by Montreal and Ottawa was close to ridiculous. Also missing: Anything resembling sustained offence ... The over-under on Joe Thornton staying with Matthews and Marner is five games ... I know Paul Maurice is allergic to playing young defenceman, but with the blueline he has in Winnipeg, doesn't he have to give Ville Heinola a chance to play for the Jets? Somebody has to move the puck.
HEAR AND THERE
Where would the Raptors be without Chris Boucher? The question is real, the answer may not be. Heading into Saturday night, they only had three wins, second worst in the NBA ... Boucher is long and skinny and unconventional, but no doubt he is fun to watch and his story remains remarkable ... The NBA's apparent investigation into Terence Davis' situation has entered its third month. And you can't get anyone from the league to say anything about its very existence ... The season is just over three weeks old and there has already been 12 games postponed due to COVID-19. Makes you wonder what's in store for the rest of the NBA and NHL seasons ... Not cool:
Brian Burke calling Arash Madani “Adnan” on radio and not realizing he'd done it ... I seem to be in the minority on this, but I would have brought Mike Milbury back to NBC hockey. I thought he brought an edge to their between-periods panels that they don't have anymore ... I hope Josh Ho-Sang tears it up in Sweden, where he is on loan from the Islanders. He turns 25 this week. Somebody somewhere has to be believe in him ... Homecourt advantage has all but disappeared in the NBA: Twelve teams have more road wins than home wins this season ... It's wonderful to see Pam Oliver at 59 and Christine Simpson at 50-something still tearing it up in sports broadcasting. It's wonderful and all too unusual for women ... When Toronto/ Hamilton's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 33 points with 10 assists for the Oklahoma City Thunder the other night, he became just the third Canadian to score more than 30 points with at least 10 assists in an NBA game. The other two: Steve Nash and Jamal Murray.
SCENE AND HEARD
I had the pleasure of covering the four Buffalo Bills Super Bowl teams and maintain to this day that their run, with no championships, is one of the great accomplishments in NFL history. One question, though: There was nothing called Bills Mafia back then. It was a healthy tailgate scene. But when the did this Mafia thing become so fashionable? ... Love this story, Brian Daboll played high school football in Buffalo, a few grades below a guy named Tom Telesco. Telesco is now the GM of the Los Angeles Chargers and he's reportedly looking to hire the Bills offensive coordinator, Daboll, to be his next head coach ... Arthur Smith, the new head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, is the son of Federal Express billionaire magnate, Fred Smith, who owned the Memphis Maddogs in 1995, for their one CFL season. Arthur was 13 at the time, Damon Allen and Rickey Foggie were the Memphis quarterbacks and Joe Horn, Eddie Brown, Greg Battle and Rodney Harding also played on that team ... San Francisco assistant Robert Saleh probably had his choice of head coaching positions, so why settle on the New York Jets? ... What an amazing rookie year for Canadian Chase Claypool, who ended up scoring 13 touchdowns in 17 games, including a playoff loss, for the Pittsburgh Steelers. That's more TDs than Jerry Rice, Calvin Johnson or Odell Beckham Jr. scored in their rookie seasons, although it was nowhere near Randy Moss' number of 17 scores as an NFL freshman.
AND ANOTHER THING
Teoscar Hernandez is a cheap $4-million buy for the Blue Jays if he continues to hit the way he did in the shortened baseball season. His next contract could be somewhere in the teens for the 28-year-old Dominican late bloomer ... DJ LeMahieu wanted two things: $90 million and to stay with the New York Yankees. He got both. The Blue Jays couldn't promise a home game or where they're going to be playing and wouldn't go beyond $78 million over fewer years. Nothing wrong with their offer. You just can't compete with the Yankees when a player wants to be a Yankee ... It's looking like JT Realmuto is heading back to Philadelphia, which means the Jays could take runs at remaining free-agent stars Trevor
Bauer and George Springer and still wind up going 0-for-everyone in the off-season ... Just what you wanted: More Winter Olympic sports. Now apparently there's going to be singles bobsledding, with Kaillie Humphries competing for the U.S . ... Sad to hear of the passing of legendary Canadian rower Kathleen Heddle. Her and partner Marnie McBean combined for three gold medals over two Olympic Games. To put that into total sports perspective in the country, in non-boycotted Olympics, Canada has won just four gold medals in swimming, total, the entire sport in Olympic history. Heddle and McBean took home three themselves, including one as part of an 8's team, the most ever ... Born this date: Muhammad Ali, Kip Keino, Robert Kennedy Jr., Jacques Plante, Andy Kaufman and Don Zimmer ... And happy birthday to Trevor Bauer (30), Roy Jones Jr. (52), Matt Duchene (30), Dwyane
Wade (39), Albert Pujols (41), Neville Gallimore (24), Jeremy Roenick (51), Tim Bernhardt (63), Mike Zigomanis (40) and M.L. Harris.