from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

Some of the biggest names in the history of hockey broadcasting can’t be considered for Hall of Fame recognition because they don’t do play-by-play or colour analysis of games. They merely host the largest programs in the sport. Hockey Night In Canada. The Hall of Fame inductions. Trade deadline. Free agent frenzy.

They do what others, frankly, cannot do — and have been pushed to the side in almost a piece of unexplainable petty politics, keeping the biggest and most accomplished names in the sport away from the largest acknowledgment.

“It’s a strange thing,” said Joe Bowen, the Leafs broadcaster, who has won the Foster Hewitt Award. “I do know what we’re doing needs to be changed.

“I don’t even know how the Foster Hewitt thing is voted on and I won it. I don’t vote. I don’t know who votes. We’ve never had a meeting and ‘Let’s talk about this.’ It’s not just Duthie or Dave Hodge or Ron MacLean. I think Ralph Mellanby should be in the Hall of Fame, did anyone influence hockey broadcasting more than he did.”

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