When Maple Leafs President & GM Brian Burke recently "made it clear to his NHL brethren" that he no longer supported analyst Don Cherry's appearance on the CBC's "Hockey Night in Canada," he "found he had surprising support for the concept," according to Steve Simmons of the TORONTO SUN. Burke "wasn’t alone in wanting the outspoken Cherry silenced." There is a sense within the NHL that "HNIC" co-hosts Cherry and Ron MacLean "are too combative, too critical, too agenda driven for the NHL’s liking." The CBC now faces a dilemma, as Cherry "remains its ratings grabber," and he "still commands attention far beyond the game itself and long after Saturday night is over." Simmons asks, "What happens if the NHL, as part of their negotiating with the CBC, demands the only way they go further with CBC is without Cherry? ... Would the CBC support their difficult meal ticket? Or would they push Cherry out?" Cherry works on annual contracts, and he "has not talked about retirement in any way." He turned 78 last month, and by the "time the Hockey Night contract is up, Cherry will be 80." A year "prior to that, the negotiations would have to begin on a new deal," and Cherry's age "will certainly factor in." Sources said that those negotiations, from the NHL end, are "almost certain to start ... with the request of Cherry's absence from the broadcasts." The industry "betting is, if Cherry goes, host MacLean would follow along right with him." Simmons writes, "Knowing Cherry, he wants to go out on his own terms after this many years of throwing darts and having just as many thrown back at him" (TORONTO SUN, 3/9).
SQUASHING GRAPES? In Toronto, Rosie DiManno writes Cherry "may be a hockey anachronism, out of time and out of place, but it is up to the CBC to determine whether his Sonny & Cher shtick with Ron MacLean is still worth the candle." When Cherry "uses his platform to launch a personal trash-talking tirade against the Leafs general manager, and that general manager is president of the franchise that brings HNIC its biggest eyeball audience, and the 'Coach's Corner' [caper] hijacks the show with an inside baseball bit of highly personal hockey blather, then maybe the CBC should reconsider its priorities." The Leafs are a "far more formidable product than the Cherry brand" (TORONTO STAR, 3/9).
