Mike Milbury doesn’t think he should’ve lost his job at NBC. In fact, the longtime analyst says he was scapegoated.
In an interview Thursday on “The Greg Hill Show,” the former Bruin addressed his dismissal from NBC. Last summer, Milbury remarked it was easy for NHL players to focus while playing in the bubble, because there weren’t any women to “disrupt” their “concentration.”
While Milbury says he regrets his words, he doesn’t regret his point.
“I obviously regret the words chosen,” he said. “I heard Courtney [Cox] mention a few minutes ago that if I had said ‘wives’ or ‘girlfriends’ it may have been received differently. But I don’t think it was intended — I know it wasn’t intended to be offensive or misogynist. At the time, I thought nothing of it.”
Milbury’s comment was shared and clipped on Twitter, where it was viewed at least 2.3 million times over a span of two days. Afterwards, NBC released a statement from Milbury saying he was stepping away from the network’s NHL coverage.
Earlier this year, NBC announced it was parting ways with Milbury after 14 years.
He thinks his departure was about more than what he said.
“I got to feel like there’s something else I did, or there’s some other reason why NBC and the NHL were ready to pounce,” Milbury offered. “I feel like I was made a scapegoat here. It was easy for me as the guy who’s been around for a while nearing the conclusion of a career that they could make a statement that they were so concerned and so woke they could take advantage of the situation. That’s how I feel about it now.”
Milbury made a series of questionable comments over the years at NBC, including when he compared playing in an empty arena to a women’s hockey game. When co-host Courtney Cox brought that up, Milbury begrudgingly acknowledged times have changed.
“The women’s hockey comment, well, we’ve all changed a little bit over the ‘woke period’ here,” he said. “I think I’ve managed to tone down a few things and be a little more careful. In fact, everyone is too careful now, as far as I’m concerned.”
Happily living on the Cape, Milbury said he isn’t in a rush to return to broadcasting. But if a gig were offered, he says he would be uncompromising.
“I’m not going to change the way I approach it,” he said. “The way I approach it is, say what you say, be honest, don’t worry about hurting people’s feelings, and make an opinion so people are entertained. Isn’t that part of the job?”