Strachan off Hockey Night in Canada’s Satellite Hot Stove

From Bruce Dowbiggen of the Globe & Mail:

Looks like Al Strachan is out of the Hot Stove and into the fire.

On Tuesday, Usual Suspects received the following e-mail from Jeff Keay of CBC: “Hot Stove has a number of guest contributors who we rotate through the lineup. At this time, we’ve made the decision to take Al out of the regular rotation and to use some of the other personalities we’ve added to the broadcast over the summer.”

Translation: Strachan has been dropped from the Hockey Night In Canada segment a second time, having first been let go in 2005.

Read the entire article here.

Cannot say I am totally surprised by this announcement.  Strachan stirs the pot and doesn’t exactly apologize for it.  CBC seems okay with that sort of mindset if it brings in ratings (see: Donald S. Cherry) but generally stays far away from that type of television personality.

For all his criticisms, I do think Strachan knows the game of hockey.  For the most part, he has fairly astute comments on the games going on and the happenings around the NHL.  That said, he does have his detractors and that’s the main reason this announcement doesn’t surprise.  Remember, as Dowbiggen notes, Strachan has already been let go once by the CBC.

From a selfish perspective, I am hoping this opens the door for personalities like Eric Duhatschek to return to the Satellite Hot Stove sgement.  To be honest, I am still trying to figure out why Duhatschek was taken off in the first place.

In fact, last May I wrote a plea to the CBC to bring Eric Duhatschek back to the Hot Stove.  You can read that here.