The buzz continues about Cassie Campbell’s debut as a colour commentator on Hockey Night in Canada.

Campbell had been hired as a sideline reporter this season, but was pressed into the role of colour analyst for Saturdays Leafs-Flames game when Harry Neale was snowed in at home in Buffalo.

She became the first woman to work as a game analyst for HNIC (on The Hour, Strombo said she was the first female game analyst in any major league sport, but I couldn’t confirm this. Several women have worked as sideline hockey analysts, including Brenda Irving on HNIC and Cammi Granato on NBC.)

How’d she do? By most accounts, very well.

The Globe’s William Houston had panned her work as a sideline reporter a week earlier, citing the weak questions she asked players. But he praised her colour work in a piece titled Campbell shines as TV analyst (subhead: “Former national star impressive in historic debut.”)

The headline in the Ottawa Citizen was Campbell rises to occasion on telecast and the Toronto Sun headline read Cassie knows her hockey. “At this early stage of her TV career, she’s more poised and polished than most ex-athletes,” said Ken Fidlin, noting that her coverage was “full of insight.”

The National Post, on the other hand, called Campbell’s work “a disservice to many people – perhaps herself most of all.” Mark Spector blamed the CBC for putting her on the air when she wasn’t ready. “It was the CBC, with typical arrogance, putting the best interests of the viewers behind its own agenda,” Spector wrote of Campbell’s lack of pro hockey experience. “Compared to males, women play at about a midget AAA level.”

Campbell returns rinkside for now, but HNIC executive director Joel Darling has hinted that she’ll return to the booth eventually.

So, what do you think? Was this a historic moment and a feather in CBC’s cap, or just an interesting sidebar?

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Personalities