Prime Time Sports Summary - April 18, 2007

Here are the NHL Stories from Prime Time Sports last night (National Hour):

Host: Bob McCown
Guests: Jim Kelley from Rogers Sportsnet
NHL Phone In: Al Morganti from Comcast Sports and Eric Duhatschek from the Globe & Mail

Main NHL Story: Today was PTS' weekly NHL phone in by Mrogant and Duhatschek. The main topic was the firing of Don MacLean by the Columbus Blue Jackets. At the time of the conversation the firing had not yet officially occurred, but most of the Hockey Pucks points were quite relevant. The general consensus was that MacLean was fired because of the revenues the Columbus management was not seeing. Duhatschek brought up the point that over the 6 life of the team, the first year was their best. Even with the acquisitions of Rick Nash, Sergei Federov, etc, they were not able to get a better record than the inaugural team; which was full of NHL castaways and had Ron Tugnutt playing net. Management had felt they had given MacLean ample time to make this team decent and match the other expansion teams, who all are doing quite well. Morganti brought up the fact that he could see this coming as far back as the Hitchcock signing. When Morganti interviewed Hitchcock, post-hiring, it seemed to Morganti that Hitchcock was hired by the upper echelons of the Blue Jackets and MacLean had really no say. No matter what happened in Columbus, MacLean just signed a three-year contract last summer, so he will be taken care of in-between jobs.
McCown asked the Hockey Pucks who would be next in line for the GM position. Hat suggested Dave Taylor, Jimmy Nill, David McNabb and Steve Tambellini. Tambellini being his number one choice. Morganti suggested Neil Smith or Hitchcock himself could step into the role. However, Kelley responded that Hitchcock wants another Stanley Cup and wants to do it as a coach, not a GM. Further to that point, the Carolina Hurricanes made the right decision at the right time given that Columbus and possible other NHL teams will be looking for a new GM and Rutherford, for sure, would have been at the top of that list had he not re-signed.
Another topic discussed briefly was the attention Hockey Night In Canada is paying to the officiating in the NHL. Hat mentioned that this topic always comes up on the Satellite Hot Stove and you can't let it get to you, the officiating and calls will balance out over the year and by isolating specific incidents will only raise your blood pressure. Morganti said he needs to be talked about, especially in Canada, because the NHL is going around touting that this is the best NHL ever and there is nothing wrong with the league. And as long as Canadians are talking about the flaws, the NHL still has pressure to enhance the game.