Bob Cole, Harry Neale and the Leafs to be demoted on CBC

by Sean Zandberg on Jun 24, 2007 2:05 PM PDT Comment 4 comments

Thanks to Matt for pointing this out. This story was broke by William Houston at Globe and Mail Sports a couple of days ago.
It appears that there will be some changes to CBC's play-by-play department and their televised games.
Jim Hughson and Greg Millen will take over as the top play-by-play team, replacing the long-standing Bob Cole and Harry Neale tandem, who will have a reduced role. Hughson and Millen are younger and more fresh and deserve the promotion, as Cole and Neale have sounded a lot less enthusiastic and more prone to Alzheimer's in recent years.
All the years of hearing Bob Cole countdown until the final buzzer of a Cup-winning game and Harry Neale quoting Shakespeare and the like away are officially over. It's been over 20 years.

To the joy of many, the Leafs will get less exposure on national Hockey Night in Canada than ever before. Teams like Ottawa and Montreal will get more national exposure. William Houston put in this controversial way:

Another issue for Hockey Night is the quality of the Leafs' team. Insiders suggest there's a concern about the limited success the team is likely to achieve in the next several years. Most hockey experts rank the Leafs as the weakest among the six Canadian NHL teams. The probability of the Leafs making the playoffs any time soon is questionable at best. Hockey Night will seek to showcase Canadian teams with a better chance of advancing to the postseason.

He also mentioned that perhaps a big cause for the lack of viewers watching the Sens in the playoffs was because they were not given enough airtime nationally during the season. That is debatable.

T Tags:Bob+Cole Harry+Neale Leafs Demoted Hockey+Night+In+Canada

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Cole has always had a great voice but perhaps it is time for him to retire.. Hughson is teh [sic] awesome though, we've been spoiled to have him on the west coast. Too bad he's had to be paired up with John "sloppy canucks BJ" Garrett for those years..

Not sure about Millen, he always seems so angry or something. High stress level in the voice, it irritates me. I like Neale because he's more laid back.

Could be worse though, could be Pierre McGuire! *shudder*

by James on Jun 24, 2007 5:03 PM PDT reply actions

sloppy canucks bj???
Waaaahahaha!

Garrett is a major homer indeed. But I like his analysis.

I like Millen more and more all the time. He just needs to keep that fucking magic marker off my tv screen!

by Sean Zandberg on Jun 24, 2007 6:51 PM PDT reply actions

Hrudey is the king of the magic marker! He could give Madden a run for his money on that sucker. But that's only on the "behind the mask" segment so that's alright.

Hadn't seen Millen do it yet but that would be annoying during the game, even on a replay!

As for Garrett, you are pretty much guaranteed he will fall on the side of the Canucks, EXCEPT if a canucks player thugs a goaltender. He's a goalie first, canuck second ;)

by James on Jun 24, 2007 8:02 PM PDT reply actions