Puck the Media’s NHL Studio Host of the Decade… James Duthie
December 29, 2009 1 Comment
(Today, Puck the Media features my picks for various decade-ending awards. I hope you enjoy them.)
There came a point during the 2000′s where Ron MacLean stopped being the probing, newsmaking, challenging reporter he started out as (You know, like every interview with Gary Bettman?) and began resigning to being just a foil to Don Cherry or Mike Milbury or… gasp, PJ Stock. That’s when the most entertaining thing that you’d hear from MacLean each week became the puns at the end of Coach’s Corner, and it’s when we began to get bored of him and the HNIC broadcast as a whole.
Let’s instead use this as a chance to reward the TSN studio gang for it’s great work this decade, and no one deserves kudos more than James Duthie. He’s funny, intelligent, hockey-savvy and controls the sometimes outsized personalities that come through the revolving doors of TSN quite well. ”The Quiz” is often more entertaining than Hotstove, and the show is as close as Canada gets to TNT’s NBA studio show.
Duthie does fantastic work, and does what’s asked of his job description. Buccigross didn’t host enough hockey this decade to deserve it, nor did Clement. MacLean became merely ordinary. That’s why this one went the way it did.
Honorable Mention: Ron MacLean (CBC), John Buccigross (ESPN), Bill Clement (VERSUS/OLN/NBC)
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“‘The Quiz’ is often more entertaining than Hotstove, and the show is as close as Canada gets to TNT’s NBA studio show.”
Not to take anything away from Duthie & Co., but I think you’d be surprised by the quality of TSN’s CFL studio show, too.
That said, I like Duthie and agree with this choice, but I wish he was a little tougher, and that there was a little more of an edge to his broadcasts. That’s a matter of taste though, and I know many people are just looking for a light-hearted distraction when they watch hockey.