from Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star,

The final numbers on the season’s ratings are still being tallied, but as the playoff schedule is announced, Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet and NHL properties at Rogers, had a chat about the year that was and what changes might come.

(This Q &A has been condensed and edited for clarity.)

Q: What is the impact of having no Canadian teams in the NHL playoffs?

A: First, let's look at it as if the glass is half full. This is an opportunity for us to take a slightly different approach to the NHL playoffs. I think viewers will notice us taking a broader view of the tournament. There are no shortages of storylines, and some of them will catch fire.

Will it be the same as having Canadian teams in the playoffs? No, it's never the same when you don't have home rooting interests. The last time there were no Canadian teams was in 1970, and there weren't seven Canadian NHL teams then, so this has really never happened.

I don't expect it happening again during the course of this (12-year) deal. At least I certainly hope not. It's something that we couldn't have expected and it's difficult to explain to our corporate bosses who are not as familiar with hockey and sports as we are.

Q: There are rumours that the poor performance might lead to more job cuts.

A: We announced in January that we were looking at a number of job cuts across all the media divisions. That was due to a number of factors, including the same challenges that other media companies are facing. We have not completed that and there still are some adjustments to be made. We don't know what those are, but those will be completed sometime early in the summer.

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