Strachan is perfectly suited, as Duhatschek suggested in his blog, to play the man wearing the black hat on the Hotstove panel—there are some flights of fancy, but he usually has actual substantiation behind his sometimes outlandish claims—and that made a brilliant counterpoint to Duhatschek’s logic and the fact that the rest of the panelists would become so taken with their ideas at times that they’d lend credence to things equally outlandish.

It was Strachan, on Saturday, anyway, who brought Morrison and MacLean out of a reverie about the thought of Scotty Bowman un-retiring to become the GM of the Maple Leafs, which has been thoroughly debunked, but intrigued them enough that they started making it sound realistic until Strachan smacked about Bowman enjoying his semi-retired lifestyle, which prompted Duhatschek to correct him with a comment that Scotty’s still active in hockey with the Wings.  Sometimes even Strachan can be the straight man…

Seeing Duhatschek, MacLean, Morrison, and Strachan back at it sure sold the concept of bringing back the Hotstove to HNIC viewers, and while Strachan’s said some crazy, stupid things that have been proven to be totally ridiculous, if not offensive, at times…He’s the Hotstove’s Don Cherry, and without the Hotstove, frankly, Grapes doesn’t have a proper counterweight, having a controversial voice crying out in the three-man logical wilderness to offset Cherry’s bombastic ranting.  That balance is gone from HNIC, and I miss it. 

I had a rule for almost ten years that I would not go out on Saturday nights until after I’d seen both Coach’s Corner and the Hotstove, and it feels weird to be able to leave HNIC without guilt after the first intermission.

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 11/13/07 at 12:37 AM ET

Watching the Hotstove on Saturday night proved once again that Al Strachan is the most enigmatic figure in hockey circle. He is either a loon, the man with the most inside sources, is compeletly gullible and will believe any rumor floated his way or is the best sounding board GMs have for floating their craziest ideas in public. I’ve always believed he wears an aluminum foil helmet to prevent us from reading his thoughts, but he can be both lucid and crazy on the same issue.

Posted by Hockey1919 from Montreal on 11/13/07 at 12:52 PM ET

For those who don’t know, Al Strachan has probably been best-known in recent years for his on-air feuding with ex-Vancouver Canucks general manager Brian Burke on Hockey Night in Canada’s Satellite Hot Stove panel.

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Backgammon

Posted by andreea360 on 02/26/08 at 04:21 PM ET