I don't see Melrose being named coach for awhile. The team is getting sold and won't officially announce anything until it is finalized.

Uhhh... Levy's still there.

Only hockey guy at the WWL? You haven't obviously been watching the Don Cherry lovefest going on there lately . . .

I forgot Levy, but Cherry is only there for the Playoffs.

Technically, that ain't a mullet, though, right? He just has long hair and greases it back. But you can still call it fabulous.

I think hockey fans are best served by Barry staying in Bristol. Maybe he's just floating this story himself to get more coin to stay employed by the Evil Empire. There IS a lovefest going on with Cherry, for sure.

Linda Cohn is there too. There have always been four or five anchors on hand who are willing to cover the sport, but ESPN's been really bitchy about the league's deal with Vs. Essentially, ESPN was in the running to broadcast weekly games, but the NHL did a terrible deal with OLN (now Vs.) and now hockey gets such a abysmal ratings over most of the country that the WWL doesn't want to waste time covering it. No money to be made.

Wow AA, you just got owned on this post. Totally wrong. You better check yourself before you wreck yourself son. Just sit down.

He doesn't have a mullet...

Just a reminder for those who have been away the last few days:

The hierarchy of AA commenters:

Fellow Bloggers
Losers with Blogger accounts, but no blog
Anonymous commenters who actually add something
Anonymous commenters who nitpick & tear down
Race baiting anonymous commenters
Gmoney
Joe D

Barry is great at ESPN. However, don't you think he remained with the WWL believing ESPN would rethink its hockey strategy and get back into broadcasting the NHL? This was the year to do it, but both NBC and Versus extended their deals.

Barry is definitely a fixture on ESPN, but he's relegated to a few spots a week and that's probably not fulfilling.

Lastly, while I like Don Cherry, I don't think he meshes well with Barry Melrose. It's tough for two personalities to work side by side. It ususally works best when one guy is the straight guy. Barry isn't that guy. He's engaging, funny and you enjoy listening to what he says. When Don Cherry is with him, Don is the focus of attention and he likes it that way.

Good luck Barry!

I'm so confused...how did I get owned again? The post says "reportedly". You people are nuts this weekend.

Buccigross, John Saunders, Linda Cohn, and Levy are the hockey people really. Mike Greenberg trying to do NHL Tonight I always remember as despicable as hates the sport and openly made fun of aspects of the game.

Certain people a the WWL seem to hate Vs. having hockey, Tirico and van Pelt spent 15 minutes on how the NHL shouldn't be pumping their chests about the ratings but SVP actually got on Tirico about MNF bragging how they beat High School Musical in the ratings.

I find it hilarious that the new Lightning Ownership allegedly are hiring him for the sole purpose of growing hockey in the area. Not to say he's a bad coach but it is unfortunate that the Lightning owners only look at him as good PR.

What his 15 year intra-league blackballing is over. The guy lead a pretty successful LA kings team for several years got fired and has been stuck at ESPN since the end of the George Grande era.....

couple of things:

1) melrose is being offered a three-year, $6 million contract. i doubt bspn can come close to that.

2) let's see, nhl's ratings are up, they are pulling better ratings on versus than bspn, they are getting more money at versus and versus treats them with respect and more coverage.

exactly how was/is the versus deal bad for the nhl?