George Stroumboulopoulos Isn't Going to Make Hockey "Urban" or "Hip"

The superrad new face of HNIC, dude. Photo via Flickr user, JMacPherson.

On Monday, Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada went public with plans to revamp their NHL coverage beginning next season. Rogers has announced a lineup of new hosts—what they’re touting as a “Dream Team” to the amusement of hockey junkies across the country—who will handle hosting duties during a hugely expanded slate of nationally televised NHL games next hockey season.

Here’s what we know for now: talk-show host, Montreal Canadiens fan, one-time sports reporter, and CNN ratings flop George Strombolopolous will be the new host of Hockey Night in Canada. He’ll bring his casual stylings to the Saturday and Sunday night broadcasts, which will still air on CBC (although Rogers will be monetizing the broadcast, and—obviously—making editorial decisions).

Don Cherry’s seemingly endless broadcast reign has been preserved, and the iconic Coach’s Corner segments will continue to air on Saturday nights during the first intermission. THUMBS UP!

While former Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean will continue to caddy (or babysit, as you prefer) Cherry during those segments, he’ll have a reduced role on Saturday nights. MacLean will, however, remain the host of Hockey Day in Canada and will supposedly have a bigger role on Sunday night.

In lower-profile alterations, Darren Millard will take over the hosting duties for Sportsnet’s new Wednesday Night Hockey broadcast. We might accurately describe him as the Christian Laettner of this so-called “Dream Team.” Meanwhile podcaster extraordinaire Jeff Marek will host Thursday Night Hockey due to be broadcast on Sportsnet360. He’ll also handle some pregame “That’s Hockey” type duties in the afternoons.

So that’s the new hosting lineup, and while that’s pretty significant for hockey fans, we still don’t know that much about Sportsnet’s coverage plans beyond this small little peak behind the curtain. What analysts will join Marek, Millard, Strombolopolous and company? Who will be calling the games?

There are significant blanks still left to fill in and rumours persist of serious bloodletting still to come for the on-air talent at CBC sports. But we can begin to see the contours of a plan from our new live hockey coverage overlords, and it’s a plan built around the cross-demographic appeal of Strombolopolous.

It’s critical to note here that while Rogers owns the right to broadcast NHL games nationally in Canada, these decisions are still largely about closing the gap with their principal rival: the men Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos once unintentionally referred to as “those fuckers at TSN.”

Rogers is going to have a mammoth advantage over TSN beginning next season, and they’ll probably need every inch of it. As a result of Rogers’ landmark $5.2 billion broadcast rights deal in November, they’ve monopolized the right to broadcast NHL games north of the 49th parallel for 12-years. If you’re watching hockey in Canada: you’ll be watching it on a Rogers station (probably on your Rogers cable package, or through a Rogers supported streaming site). The only real exceptions: if you live in Quebec or are watching a regional broadcast of the Winnipeg Jets.

While Rogers has their hand firmly on the “live hockey faucet” in Canada going forward, TSN still employs the most respected names in hockey analysis, broadcasting, and news. Even on this mammoth Strombolopolous announcement, TSN’s Bob McKenzie was the first to break the news, which is ironic, hilarious, and perfect.

It’s not a secret that Rogers was hoping to poach some key personalities from Bell and TSN—broadcaster James Duthie in particular—but TSN retained their principles, locking their entire cast of key players up to contract extensions. Sportsnet may have the games, but TSN is prepared and they know the landscape better.

Last week TSN’s principles completely flattened their Rogers competitors during NHL trade deadline coverage. During TSN’s 10-hour “Tradecentre ‘14” broadcast they averaged nearly a quarter million viewers and more than 3 million people tuned in to at least a portion of the broadcast. That’s 10% percent of the fucking population.

TSN wasn’t shy about slapping Rogers around over their superior broadcast, and numbers. Indeed a Bell PR press release made it very clear that TSN had netted “four times the audience delivered by TSN’s only other competitor on NHL Trade Deadline Day.” That’s a pretty clear shot fired, I reckon.

So can Rogers—who own the games themselves for the foreseeable future, but languish behind their rivals in terms of the quality of their coverage—use their massive structural advantage to narrow that gap? For the moment, surely, TSN’s NHL coverage remains exponentially more polished, and respected by hockey fans. The Strombolopolous hire doesn’t change that equation on its own, but it’s precisely the type of risk Rogers needs to be taking.

Also within this “hockey broadcasting wars” context, the somewhat outside the box Strombolopolous hire suggests a certain level of preoccupation with catching TSN on the coverage side. If the Strombo hire hints at anything, it’s that. It’s suggestive of a promising level of self-awareness—even if the description of Strombo as a “hip, urban guy” misses the mark by a mile—from our new and hopefully benevolent NHL broadcast rights masters. They know they need to up their game, and that at least is probably a good thing for Canadian hockey fans on balance. @thomasdrance