AT THE END OF TODAY'S ITEM DETAILING LOW RATINGS FOR CBC'S BUFFALO VS. OTTAWA SERIES, WILLIAM HOUSTON (GLOBE & MAIL) OFFERS THESE NOTES:


Hockey Night in Canada play-by-play voice Bob Cole has made a couple of gaffes in the Ottawa-Buffalo series. In one, he substituted Harold Druken for Buffalo's Chris Drury. Druken, who never played for the Sabres, has been out of the NHL for three years.
Then, on Wednesday, with less than three minutes remaining in the fourth game and Buffalo clinging to a one-goal lead, Cole announced the Sabres had taken a penalty.
The camera alertly went to Buffalo head coach Lindy Ruff to catch one of his typical reactions, which would be anything from screaming to drooling spittle to gnawing on the boards. But Ruff was remarkably composed. The CBC went to a commercial.
Back to the game, and the first words we heard were from Cole. "Surprise, surprise," he said. "It wasn't a Buffalo penalty. Ottawa's Dany Heatley is in the box for highsticking."

Quoted from ronrob

Then, on Wednesday, with less than three minutes remaining in the fourth game and Buffalo clinging to a one-goal lead, Cole announced the Sabres had taken a penalty.
The camera alertly went to Buffalo head coach Lindy Ruff to catch one of his typical reactions, which would be anything from screaming to drooling spittle to gnawing on the boards. But Ruff was remarkably composed. The CBC went to a commercial.
Back to the game, and the first words we heard were from Cole. "Surprise, surprise," he said. "It wasn't a Buffalo penalty. Ottawa's Dany Heatley is in the box for highsticking."

I don't believe for a minute that anyone working a hockey broadcast would cut to any shot based on what senile Bobby says he saw.

I actualy heard the same call on FAN 960 with Sam Rosen making the exact mistake on NHL radio

It was a confusing call...Heatley high-sticked Chris Drury as he cut across the blue line - then a Senator actually touched the puck - no whistle - shooting it into the corner.  Ray Emery saw this and headed for the bench, thinking, that with the back referee's arm in the air, it was a Sabres penalty.   The whistle finally blew when a  Sabre and a Senator reached the puck in the corner.  

As for the cameraman showing Ruff -  I can pretty much guarantee CBC has enough cameras to show both coaches and the offending player on every penalty - its up to the director to chose the right one.  In this case, he was, like everyone else, fooled by the refs.  

In horseracing, they put the useless horses into jobs like carriage rides for the kids.