from Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province,

Batchelor was thrilled as Robson, who was the long-standing voice of the Vancouver Canucks, remains a benchmark for excellence in his industry.

There was one issue — Batchelor wasn’t actually in Edmonton. He called the Canucks games and other select playoff matchups after that off two big-screen monitors in a studio in Vancouver, most often teamed with analyst Corey Hirsch — Sportsnet 650’s usual play-by-play tandem for Canucks games.

It’s still not clear yet what access the NHL will allow to the media for this coming season and what outlets will have the appetite to do.

We’re looking past that, though, focusing on when we’re all through this COVID-19 pandemic and things start to open up. Will a company like Sportsnet 650 look at how well it’s gone calling road games from a studio and consider continuing it moving forward in a bid to cut costs?We in the ever-dwindling sports media have wondered about travel for events being curtailed long before “social distancing” and “14-day quarantine” became a part of our regular vernacular.

If someone like Robson didn’t automatically pick up on Batchelor not being in Edmonton it’s easy to suggest that the masses didn’t either.

Broadcasters routinely have had a seat on the team charter flight. It’s generally built into the rights-holder deals. There are still expenses for accommodations and meals for away games and the Canucks spent more than 75 nights on the road in 2018-19. Those bills for your play-by-play team add up.

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