Craig Simpson signing with CBC confirmed

Hockey Night: out with the old, in with the young
WILLIAM HOUSTON
From Friday's Globe and Mail

Hockey Night in Canada has been given a substantial facelift.

A nip here, a tuck there, some new blood and perhaps a shot of adrenalin have combined to produce the largest number of changes on the show since the 1990s.

The CBC confirmed yesterday that Craig Simpson, who resigned this week as an Edmonton Oilers assistant coach, will join Hockey Night as a game analyst to work primarily with announcer Jim Hughson.

Simpson, 40, and Hughson were a broadcast team for Rogers Sportsnet from 1998 to 2002.

Senior producer Sherali Najak has been promoted to executive producer, replacing Joel Darling, who is now head of production for CBC Sports.

Doug Walton, a senior producer of hockey for TSN, has been hired to replace Najak as the senior producer of Hockey Night.

And more changes are still to come. The pregame and second-intermission shows will be overhauled. Talent will be added and probably subtracted.

Scott Moore, who took over as the head of CBC Sports in March, said it was important to make changes, but also to respect the show's tradition.

"It's a great show in need of updating," Moore said. "You have to be respectful of the tradition, but not frightened of it. I think we can afford to be cutting edge without being disrespectful."

Moore said the show needed to get younger.

"Bob [Cole] and Harry [Neale] and some of the other folks have been there a long time," he said. "It's not that they're not good. It's just age. It catches up to us all."

Cole and Neale, the lead broadcast team since the 1980s, will have their workload reduced.

Neale, 70, signed a one-year contract. Cole was given a two-year transitional deal in which his schedule will be cut back significantly in 2008-09.

Insiders said Cole, 74, was able to contain his enthusiasm for the reduced workload.

"He'd like to do it as long as he's physically capable," Moore said. "But he realizes the brand has to regenerate itself. He's accepting and he's been really good about it. He's a class act."

Over the next several months, Hockey Night will be looking for a play-by-play voice to replace Cole, who won't call many games in his final season.

Najak said a decision on the second-intermission Satellite Hotstove hasn't been made. Najak and Moore agree it needs more energy, opinion and debate. The departure of Al Strachan in 2004 and John Davidson in 2006 took an edge off the commentary and lowered the level of tension.

"We're looking for the right chemistry," Najak said. "If it does come back, it will come back with the right chemistry of people."

Don Cherry's first-intermission Coach's Corner will return.

Moore said: "I told Don: 'You're like a thoroughbred. I'll ride you until something breaks and then I'll put you out of your misery.' "

Simpson, who signed a three-year deal with Hockey Night, said he aspired to be a head coach in the NHL. However, there were no guarantees he would get to that level. To do so would probably require starting over by moving his family from Edmonton to another city to coach a minor professional team.

"You've got to make tough decisions and the Hockey Night job was a great opportunity, too good to pass up," he said."