Sunday, April 30, 2006

Ron Maclean: Passive-aggressive.

Ron Maclean has a reputation as a nice guy, but I’m having none of it. He’s on a mission to make Kelly Hrudey look bad. This cannot pass unchallenged.

Yesterday’s first incident was an untrue comment about goalie J.-S, Giguere that was a set-up (ha ha) and caught Kelly in a full open-mouth breather mode: "Huh?", he asked. And that gave sadistic Ron an opportunity to chuckle and say "just kidding". Nice, Ron. Kelly, to his credit, took it well.

Ron is used to making nasty comments to Don Cherry and I have no problem with that. Cherry is a provocateur who deserves everything that is flung his way. But this shtick is non-transferable.

Later, Ron was into full embarrass-Kelly attack mode by displaying a magazine article that focused on Kelly’s pretty-boy appeal. No jealousy there. Kelly admitted that this whole episode made him uncomfortable, but did Ron stop? No.

I’ve always suspected that Kelly was hired by a female exec, but I have no facts to back that up. He’s easy on the eyes, and not the brightest bulb. But he’s self-deprecating, modest and inoffensive, so why attack him? I assume he knows his hockey, at least from a goal-tending angle. So why the abuse?

Is there a power hierarchy at CBC Sports that allows Ron to do this? Has Kelly been told if he wants this gig, he has to put up with Ron’s rot? I am annoyed.

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