HNIC's Ron McLean's take on Canucks Alex Burrows

I realize this is a couple of days after it was aired but I only got to view it today, as the pub that I was at did not show it, so I was not aware of this until Sunday.

So I’m watching this replay of the interview (Parts One & Two) that HNIC's (Hockey Night In Canada) Ron McLean had with Colin Campbell and listening to what they both had to say and thinking what a bunch of crock! Are you telling me that the hit on Burrows by Nashville’s Pred’s Jerred Smithson was not a head shot?

Take a look at in slow motion and you can hear the sound and see Alex Burrow’s head hit the boards, his helmet being pushed back, as he then bounced to the ice surface. Whether he survived the collision of his head from the boards is incidental. So what if he lifted his head up, looked down the ice towards the play and then put his head down on the ice again.

It does not necessarily mean he was milking the hit.

How does anyone know whether Burrows was dazed or not when he apparently tried to get up and slumped back down again? Watching the “little birdies go around” could easily have caused that reaction.

It was McLean that brought up the subject of “head shots”, which was to be a topic at the board of governors meeting, so why would it not be a five minute major Ron? For McLean to add dialogue to what he could not  know was being said on the ice, is downright stupid and irresponsible!

To insinuate that it was all pretend, is passing judgment and at last notice, I don’t remember McLean being any sort of an NHL paid executive. To say it was a glancing blow and it did not warrant a five minute penalty but just a two minute minor, is just “the centre of the universe” and a former referee sprouting league propaganda.

Do you think the CBC and HNIC, is going to attack the NHL, their client, who pays them tons of contract money?  For Mclean to launch a character-assassination on Burrows and Coach Vigneault on national television is something Canuck ownership should respond to. So how about some feedback from Canucks owner, Francesco Aquilini?

If the team is going to back Burrows; Coach Vigneault back Burrows; GM Mike Gillis back them both, then ownership had better be willing to back them also. Let’s not go jumping into a hole and pull the covers over the head just because McLean brought this whole drama to the forefront.

I’m sure Burrows and Canucks management were more than willing to let this whole incident blow over and had moved on. What purpose did it serve for McLean to raise it on national television except to score some brownie points?

McLean goes on to sprout off about other incidents that were creatively gathered and edited to make sure that Burrows was put front in centre in the site lines for the kill. Listening to McLean and Campbell was like some scripted act that they had rehearsed, for a documentary.

I could go on infinitely about the rest of the segment on those two but I'll let you watch it in case you missed it.

In conclusion, I think Ron McLean should stick to what he does best and that’s being the setup man for Don Cherry, because his journalistic insight and story—telling…causes me indigestion.

HNIC's—Ron McLean and Colin Campbell:

Part One

Part Two