Rumor: Ron MacLean done on Hockey Night in Canada.

Has MacLean burned all his bridges?

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HockeyFeed
Published 2 years ago
Rumor: Ron MacLean done on Hockey Night in Canada.

There are rumors floating around of a big change coming to Hockey Night In Canada, one of the most viewed hockey shows on a week by week basis, including a major change that I think most fans will be in support of at this point.

The rumor comes from controversial Toronto sports columnist Steve Simmons, who in his most recent Sunday Notes column hinted at the fact that veteran broadcaster Ron MacLean would be stepping down from his role as the host of Hockey Night In Canada. To be clear Simmons is not reporting that MacLean will be fired or is simply quitting out of the blue, but rather describes the eventual departure of MacLean as a mutual decision between the two parties. MacLean has likely had enough of his role on the show and the producers of the show have likely had enough of MacLean as per Simmons' sources.

The timing of the news is very interesting indeed and it comes at a time at which I believe MacLean's popularity is currently at an all time low among fans of the sport of hockey. MacLean was recently involved in a major controversy that led to the firing of long time MacLean co host Don Cherry, and fans on both sides of that story came away with a poor opinion of MacLean. There was a faction of fans that felt MacLean threw his long time friend and co host under the bus, while another faction felt MacLean had enabled Cherry for far too many years and should have thrown him under the bus sooner. Either way neither group walked away from that incident as fans of Ron MacLean.

More recently there were some moments during the Hockey Night in Canada panel segments that led some observers to question whether or not MacLean was having issues with another member of the telecast, in this case National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman. Friedman was being critical of the NHL's officiating after a horrific performance from referees Chris Lee and Dan O'Rourke in the Stanley Cup Playoff semifinal contested between the Las Vegas Golden Knights and Montreal Canadiens, and MacLean appeared to try and shut down his comments on multiple occasions.

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