Back To Normal For Canucks and CBC

It has been a pretty controversial couple of weeks for the Vancouver Canucks starting with the Alex Burrows-Stephane Auger incident on January 8th. On January 16th, Ron Maclean of CBC spent 11-minutes of Hockey Night in Canada siding with Auger and discounting everything Burrows said. The Canucks responded by blackballing CBC last Saturday and declined to do any interviews despite a big 5-1 victory over the Blackhawks.

This ongoing feud has been covered in great lengths in the media but it looks like things have finally been resolved. Canucks GM Mike Gillis and team spokesman T.C. Carling had a conference call with Scott Moore, head of CBC Sports and Sherali Najak, CBC HNIC executive producer, this morning to settle things once and for all.

The Vancouver Canucks and CBC resolved their difference in a conference call today and Canuck players will again be doing interviews on Hockey Night In Canada on Saturday.

“It will be business as usual,” said Canuck spokesman T.C. Carling. “The conversation will remain confidential and there will be no further comment from the club on this matter.”

The conference call involved Canucks president and GM Mike Gillis. HNIC executive producer Sherali Najak, CBC sports head honcho Scott Moore and Carling.

The dispute dates back to the controversy over Hockey Night host Ron MacLean’s Jan. 16 commentary on Canucks winger Alex Burrows’ alleged propensity for diving and playing dirty, in the wake of dispute between Burrows and referee Stephane Auger the previous week. Auger, who had a history with Burrows, penalized the player late in a Jan. 11 game against the visiting Nashville Predators, a game the Canucks would lose while Burrows was in the penalty box.

As a result of MacLean's commentary, Gillis told his players to decline all interview requests during Hockey Night's Jan. 23 telecast of the Canucks-Blackhawks game.

Burrows said that Canuck players had put the incident behind them and that he was more than willing to do interviews with Hockey Night people when the Canucks play Saturday in Toronto.

-Vancouver Sun