Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Matthew Barnaby won’t be spending any additional time in ESPN’s version of hockey’s sin bin or penalty box.
You may recall that the former Buffalo Sabre was immediately dropped from the cable sports network’s coverage of the NHL playoffs last May after he got into some embarrassing legal problems.
Barnaby (in the center in above picture) was accused of causing an estimated $300 in damages May 13 by kicking the garage door of the Amherst home where his estranged wife and two children live.
Last month, Barnaby, 38, was ordered to complete 500 hours of community service to have multiple charges dropped.
Inquiring minds wanted to know if the unofficial ESPN suspension (the network never talked about the Barnaby incident) would be prolonged this upcoming season or if Barnaby’s job was in jeopardy after he became the network’s latest star to have legal issues.
So I asked ESPN about Barnaby’s status. A spokesperson said this week that he will be back this coming season and generally have the same assignments that he had last year when he joined ESPN’s other hockey expert, Barry Melrose, in covering the league.
On another more gossipy, a website reported in June that Barnaby’s relationship with Michelle Beadle of ESPN’s “Sports Nation” had ended. The relationship had received plenty of buzz on websites.
* I realize sports talk is the toy department so I’m rarely surprised by any topic or conspiracy theory tossed out on WGR-AM. But it was amusing to hear Mike Schopp suggest that Bills Owner Ralph Wilson may have been behind the team’s decision to use three high draft picks on what Schopp called “toys” – first rounders C.J. Spiller and Aaron Maybin and Roscoe Parrish (a second round pick who was the Bills first pick in the 2005 draft) – during the reign of three different general managers.
Wilson justifiably gets blamed for a lot of things but Schopp’s “toy” suggestion is a bit of a reach. There is no evidence that Wilson had anything to do with overruling his personnel people to make those picks. It is unfortunate that no one in the media seems to be close enough to the Bills owner to get his spin or allow him to defend himself against childish criticism.
* If you missed it Thursday, Channel 2 sports director and anchor Ed Kilgore got the forum he wanted in the Buffalo News to give his spin on his recent move off the 11 p.m. news in favor of Adam Benigni.
The remarks made by Kilgore and Channel 2’s general manager, Jim Toellner, suggest that the decision to just do the 6 p.m. sports wasn’t Kilgore’s.
Toellner praised Kilgore’s longevity and community work, but didn’t say anything about his skills as a broadcaster.
Kilgore said he was “ready for a change” before adding he was looking for work elsewhere and has some nice choices.
If Kilgore wanted to work more and it was his decision, he could have just kept the 11 p.m. job.
It isn’t like there are a lot of other broadcasting avenues that Channel 2 would allow Kilgore to pursue for competitive reasons. The station probably would allow him to do radio, but he never has been opinionated so that wouldn’t be a great fit. It also probably would allow him to work for Time Warner Cable and possibly the Buffalo Sabres.
Kilgore told The News that he’ll still cover the Sabres and the Bills for Channel 2, which gives the word “cover” a loose interpretation. Like many anchors, he “covered” those teams by generally just giving the injuries, the scores and the highlights.
pergament@msn.com

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