citizen vancouver |

A couple of weeks ago, Alex Burrows was called for interference in a controversial call that to any eye would clearly deem a phantom call – as in, there was nothing to call when the whistle was blown. That call may have lead to the short handed goal that lost the canucks that game.

Burrows commented on the call and blamed Auger for officiating with a personal vendetta. He complained in the post game interview:

The real controversy started in a pre game piece with Colin Campbell, Maclean spent much of the 11-minute segment detailing past transgressions of Burrows over the last couple of years. On-air MacLean dismissed out of hand Burrows’ claim that Auger warned him before the Jan. 11 game against Nashville that he was going to pay him back for embarrassing him in a game in Nashville a month earlier. He also mimicked what Burrows “likely” said to his trainer after getting an elbow in the face and splayed out on the ice when no one could see Burrows’ face.

Needless to say, hockey commentators like to fill in the void of information when viewers are hungry for details. It’s quite comical when they interpret a look and put it in words as to what the hockey player was thinking or whispering to his team mate. But this time was a bit different, Ron’s agenda was clear, not only in what he imagined Burrows saying or thinking, but in splicing together a series of videos that evidenced Burrows as a scrappy player. There were so many pieces missing for this segment to be objective reporting that everyone, including Vigneault, who took issue with MacLean’s segment, saying he supported his player Burrows’ version of events.

“Obviously when Burrows went down, we all thought he was dead,” MacLean told a national audience and National Hockey League vice-president Colin Campbell, who may as well have been a CBC set decoration as the broadcaster pilloried Burrows. “[Roberto] Luongo comes out and says: ‘Are you OK?’ And it looks to us, on TV, like [Burrows is] saying: ‘Don’t worry, I’m just going to get more bang for the buck here.’ And then Mike Burnstein, the trainer, is in and he’s having a look, and you can see Burrows say: ‘Don’t worry, has he signaled five yet?’”

In a post game interview with Hockey Night in Canada, Vigneault took issue with MacLean’s segment, saying he supported his player Burrows’ version of events. Vancouver fans and Hockey fans throughout canada have shared their disgust with the Ron Maclean piece.

Unfortunately, MacLean is not apologising to anyone for his piece. Instead he’s insisting we are all missing the point on and that he was trying to educate CBC watchers on how to handle scrappy players like Burrows. And, as “we all know”, Ron would rather confuse us with his word of the day dictionary than have a clear and solid point to stand by. But this article clearly sums up what Ron was trying to say, and where his intentions are probably a bit more malicious than his back pedaling. And this article discounts all things Ron with one foul swoop.

Last Saturday, Vancouver got it’s pay back as Vancouver played in Toronto, CBC’s darling home team, and it was aired on CBC’s hockey night in Canada. When Vancouver came to win the game quite impressively with Burrows garnering 4 points in the game it was, hands down, sweet retribution on a pathetic cause to bury Burrows – and instead made Vancouver’s pride in their team, their coach and Alex Burrows swell up.

In a follow up piece, the CBC and canucks have quietly agreed that Ron Maclean’s one sided segment was unfair, unobjective, and unprofessional. There are no public terms as to what was said, but after Vancouver’s boycott of Hockey Night in Canada, the toronto based show on CBC took notice.