Hockey's Hot Stove by Al Strachan

Author:Al Strachan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2020-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14 Filling the Gap

After John Shannon left in 2000, Hot Stove started to move in a different direction, and as a result, it featured a constantly changing parade of panelists. Some of them lasted only one or two shows, while others made a few appearances, but didn’t last.

Far too many were totally unsuited for the type of show Hot Stove was meant to be. Some of them qualified as insiders—Sean Burke and Scott Mellanby, for instance. They had graduated from NHL rosters and worked their way up to the management level.

But the show’s aim was to tell viewers what was going on in the hockey world. These guys certainly had the requisite knowledge, but there was no chance they would share it with the public. Their jobs required them to be closemouthed.

Murray Wilson and Brian Hayward also made appearances. Again, they were former NHL players, so they knew the game. But once more, even though the knowledge was there, it wasn’t going to be revealed to the audience. Both of them were team announcers and therefore team employees. And when you have a job like that, you’re expected to present nothing but sugar-sweet views of the NHL.

Don’t get me wrong. I liked all these people and count them as friends. Furthermore, they were good at their primary jobs. But they weren’t going to fulfill the vision that John Shannon had established for Hot Stove.

Aside from various team staff, a few newspaper beat writers made cameo appearances. Usually this was in response to a development that had received a lot of attention during the week but concerned only one franchise. A writer from the city in question would be called in for the day, but he wouldn’t be expected to contribute anything that did not directly relate to that high-profile story.

Regardless of who they were or where they came from, one thing remained true. As is the case with any job, you could get away with a mistake if you had seniority, but not if you were still in the tryout stage.

John McKeachie, as warm-hearted a guy as you’re ever likely to meet, proved this to be true in a rather unfortunate fashion. It was decided that he would fill the role as the western representative one day, and his primary contribution had to do with a highly regarded potential free agent that the Vancouver Canucks coveted. McKeachie, who hosted a radio show in Vancouver, assured us that the kid was determined to come out of college and join the NHL, and that soon, perhaps even that very day, he would sign with the Canucks. We taped the show at 3 p.m. that day and by the time it aired, around 8:30, the kid was indeed in the NHL. He was the property of the New York Islanders.

The announcement had been made about 6 p.m. but with JD off fulfilling his duties with the Rangers, there was no way we could rerecord. We had to go with McKeachie’s mistake and an explanation about the show being taped in the afternoon.

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