Ben McDonald addresses his viral NHL comments: ‘I didn’t even know ESPN had the hockey contract’

Ben McDonald’s disinterest in the NHL caused quite a stir on ESPN airwaves on Wednesday.

Calling the Wild Card Series matchup between the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres, play-by-play man Kevin Brown began to promote ESPN’s upcoming coverage of the NHL’s Opening Night. But as he leaned on McDonald for a testimony, the MLB analyst provided the exact opposite.

“Ben, I know you’ve got an opinion on this: Panthers three-peat this year? What do you think?” Brown asked, referring to the defending two-time Stanley Cup champions?

“If you say so. I mean, good luck to ’em,” McDonald replied. “Are you asking if I’m going to be watching?”

“No, you’ll be watching, of course, because you work for ESPN, and you’ll be watching,” Brown responded, trying to steer his broadcast partner in the right direction.

“There is zero chance I’ll be watching,” McDonald interrupted. “I’m just going to be honest with you.”

McDonald’s uncommon honesty certainly stood out, as it’s not every day you hear an ESPN broadcaster boastfully claiming that he won’t be watching ESPN programming during an ad read. After making the rounds on social media, the comments elicited a reaction from one of ESPN’s most prominent NHL personalities, John Buccigross, who took a dig at the former MLB pitcher over his lack of postseason appearances.

On Thursday, McDonald appeared on FS1’s Wake Up Barstool, where he was asked about his now-viral exchange. And while he insisted he didn’t mean any harm, he also doubled down on his disinterest in hockey.

“When that thing popped up on the screen, I didn’t even know ESPN had the hockey contract to be honest with you,” McDonald said. “I know that they probably paid more than a dollar or two for it, but I just didn’t even know that, to be honest. And then when I looked at the dates and I went, ‘well that’s kind of the same time as playoff baseball.’ And if I’ve got a choice between preseason or beginning of hockey season and October baseball, I’m probably leaning slightly toward playoff baseball to be honest with you.”

That shouldn’t surprise anybody, although such context was certainly lacking from Wednesday’s conversation with Brown. Rather than stating that ESPN’s NHL Opening Night coverage would conflict with his personal preference for baseball, McDonald made it sound like he had no interest in watching hockey, which could very well be true, but was admittedly odd to hear during an ad read intended to promote the product.

It’s also worth noting that McDonald isn’t a full-time ESPN employee, so it’s perhaps not surprising that he wasn’t in any rush to embrace being a company man. And it also might explain why his clarification — if you can even call it that — came on FS1 as opposed to the Worldwide Leader in Sports.