This week's issue involving the Maple Leafs' radio broadcasters "was the first collision" between new GM Lou Lamoriello and the team's "powerful rights-holders, Rogers Media and Bell Media," according to David Shoalts of the GLOBE & MAIL. The "stare down began with Lamoriello’s edict restricting Leafs charter flights to players, coaches and team executives, forcing the radio and television broadcasters to take commercial flights instead of travelling with the team." Lamoriello "might have won the first round, but in a rare show of unanimity, senior managers at both Bell and Rogers are unhappy with the policy." One of those senior execs on Monday said that the "issue of broadcasters riding on the team charter is not going away." He and his colleagues at the other media company "do not want to see Lamoriello operate the Leafs the same way" he ran the Devils from '87-'15, where "even the most minor decisions required his stamp of approval." Bell and Rogers plan to "keep the pressure on the Leafs GM." Shoalts notes this "could get mighty interesting because compromise is not something that comes easily to Lamoriello" (GLOBE & MAIL, 9/30).
