Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown: Wednesday April 29, 2009 (6:00-7:00)

Host: Bob McCown
Co-Host: Jim Kelley
Guests: Ken King, president and CEO of the Calgary Flames; Comcast SportsNet's Al Morganti, and former GM of the New York Rangers, Neil Smith; head golf club designer for Callaway Golf, Roger Cleveland.

It's great to hear Morganti and Smith again and hear the boys talk hockey which has been incredible over the past couple of weeks!

In argument #28 in Bob McCown's book "The 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments", McCown argued that "The Sens have earned the reputation of choking dogs." He goes into detail explaining that in the 11 years the Sens made the playoffs in a row, it translated to the following:

• One Cup Final
• One Eastern Conference Final
• Four series victories in nine years
• Five first round knockouts

On today's show, we heard from Ken King, Prez of the Flames after a disastrous knock out by the Flames the night before from the up and coming Chicago Blackhawks. King is a long time guest of Prime Time Sports and his candor is normally straight up, and if he can't answer a question, he'll say so.

I couldn't believe how easy both McCown and Kelley were on King. I realize Kelley doesn't have any previous connection with the Flames (that I know of) as opposed to the Sens who kicked out a good friend of his, John Muckler. Kelley has enjoyed taking shots at the Sens, including GM Murray and their playoff history.

Bobcat on the other hand seemed like he had no interest dissecting why things went awry nor leveling any criticism the way both he and Kelley did when Sens Management has been on in the past. Understood that I don't remember Murray being on the show, but other Management on the Sens have been.

...and the comparison McCown had of Iginla to Yzerman...wow...for Sens fans, that sounds all together familiar. Only problem is, Yzerman's story is so special that it can't be repeated. Players like Iginla and Alfredsson will never be able to carry their team and make those around them better (with one or two exceptions in their career) like Yzerman did.

Bottom line - 4 straight first round exits by the Flames may not earn them the title of "choking dogs", but they certainly have earned half of that title (I'll let you all choose).

Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown: Friday April 24, 2009 (5:00-7:00)

Host: Bob McCown
Roundtable: Stephen Brunt, James Deacon, Gord Kirke

The name of the book mentioned in the first segment is called "Old City Hall", not "City Hall" (no sponsored links either.)

McCown is working on two books that intrigue the heck out of me:
- one for the fall 2009 (McCown hasn't started yet) - a book regarding the last 20 years of Prime Time Sports. REALLY interested in this, but as the big guy hasn't started anything and the roundtable didn't know anything about it.
- one for the fall 2010 (McCown to write with David Naylor)

I'm a big time fan of McCown's previous book, The 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments. I'm pretty sure that Brunt had some sort of encouragement for Bobcat to do the book in the first place. I also think that McCown was a bit surprised by the reaction of the book. What I wasn't a big fan of was the re-release of the book and the ability to get an autographed copy for the SECOND version of the book. I bought the first version of the book as a die hard Prime Time Sports fan, and would have gladly forked over the cash if an autographed copy was available the first time around. When the second version came out, it seemed like a cheap cash grab to me. Ah well, 'tis the world of publishing and Bob's "got mouths to feed". This definitely won't take away from my thirst for McCown related media including literature.

A week or so ago, a cryptic comment was made here by 'someone' perhaps posing to be Bobcat. I held onto a bit of hope that perhaps it was McCown, but McCown said on the show today, "there's no danger of me reading someone else's blogs on the internet. Unless they are on my site, in which case I read all of them, and they are excellent." *sigh* Ah well, Bobcat will hopefully find this site one day.

Kate Jett - va-va-voom Bobcat?

When it comes to Bettman, both Brunt and McCown have been on the same page. Brunt seemed to divert from this when he disagreed with McCown on bringing another NHL team to Toronto, especially with regards to Bettman's handling of the Balsillie situation. Brunt surprised me (and I'm sure McCown) by taking Bettman's side - "(Bob) I think you make it way to personal. You make it sound like he's (Bettman's) omnipotent, like he's this dictator running the league. He's not. I think he's trying to save the owners butts, legally. I don't think he's sitting there casting lightning bolts at people (like Balsillie)." McCown retorted, "I'm quite comfortable that it was personal (at Balsillie)." There is no question that McCown has inside information from the Ballsille camp, if not the Balsillie himself.