10 WEEKEND THINGS

Taking shots …

1 – BRIER BROOHAHA: I wrestled for a good, long time over the lead item for this week’s column. However this is potentially one of the biggest days in Saskatchewan’s sports history as skip Mike McEwen attempts to end the province’s Canadian mens curling championship drought which stretches back to 1980 (Team Rick Folk). Standing in McEwen’s way are Team Brendan Bottcher (of Alberta) in the semifinal at 2:00 pm ET, and then Team Brad Gushue (Canada) in the championship game at 8:00 pm ET. For Curling Canada and the host committee, it’s been a dream scenario for the home province to make it this far. As for McEwen, they’ve made it this far so they might as well finish it off. GO TEAM SASK!

2 – GET WITH IT: There’s an ocean-full of bellyaching going on that McEwen lives in Winnipeg and people think it’s wrong that an out-of-town resident should be another province’s rep in a national championship. To that we say “Get with the times!” The curlers have long felt that Curling Canada’s bylaws were too restrictive and the tweaking has actually worked out beautifully. You can actually have TWO out-of-province members on your team – one import and another who was born in the province – and the curlers are quite happy. And if Saskatchewan wins it all today, nobody’s going to give a rat’s ass about where he gets his mail. Also, it’s been wonderful seeing his family gleefully cheering while wearing green.

3 – FLAMES/PANTHERS: It was a treat seeing the two NHL clubs I follow the most collide in Sunrise, FL on Saturday — the Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers. Unfortunately for fans of the Flaming C, the Cats mauled them 5-1, upping Florida’s league-leading point total to 90. The Panthers are “a wagon”, as they say, but they also benefitted from a listless performance from Calgary goaltender Jacob Markstrom whose heart clearly wasn’t in the game. It feels, and looks, like he got his heart set on a trade to New Jersey and then had the rug yanked from underneath him. Read on …

4 – “C”: All spring and summer we’ll hear from Flames fans wondering why players don’t want to stay in Calgary (Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau, et al) but the answer is right underneath their noses. It’s not because of the taxes, the old arena, the cold weather, nor the rabid fans. No, it’s because players don’t believe they’ll ever be able to win a championship there. It’s been a revolving door of players, coaches and GMs but the result is always the same. Sorry, but it’s from the players’ own mouths. Debate amongst yourselves why that is.

5 – COMEBACK CATS: Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito is being hailed as a genius for landing enigmatic sniper Vladimir Tarasenko prior to Friday’s NHL trade deadline for a couple of mere mid-round draft picks. Many people have asked my thoughts and here they are: Meh, it can’t hurt right? Tarasenko has a reputation of being lazy (even a scout in the press box observed that he looked out of shape in Thursday’s debut vs Philly) but Florida is clearly gambling that Tarasenko can add enough punch in the short-term. Shoot, he had two goals and a helper versus Calgary and basically won them the game. Plus, a good dressing room/culture can force a player to fall in line fast. (See: Kane, Evander)

6 – OTHER DEADLINE NOTES: Pundits are in a rush to designate a “winner” of this week’s deadline moves. But the actual – and only – winner will be the one who claims the Stanley Cup in June. … It’s very quiet in Winnipeg today after the Jets were spanked 5-0 in Vancouver Saturday night. … Detroit GM Steve Yzerman is being criticized for not doing enough at the deadline. Yzerman. Being criticized. You read that right. … You could fill Commonwealth Stadium with the amount of griping about Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon finding a loophole in the NHL’s injury list rules in order to add key pieces Tomas Hertl & Noah Hanifin this week. Our advice to the gripers – get used to it, and get mad at your own GM for not thinking outside the box. Been there, bought the T-shirt, 25 years ago. … The Chicago Blackhawks are the first team officially eliminated from playoff contention. Imagine if they win the lottery again!

7 – COACH RITCHIE: Iconic CFL coach Dave Ritchie passed away this weekend at age 85. The Year 2024 has been filled with the passings of sports legends which can best be described as “They don’t make ’em like that anymore”. The three-time Grey Cup champ was the head coach in BC, Montreal and Winnipeg and is best remembered for coaching the Lions to the 1994 Grey Cup title in Vancouver over the villainous Baltimore Stallions. Winnipeggers remember Ritchie for his stint with the Bombers (1999-2004) as head coach, leading them to the 2001 Grey Cup. Dave’s Massachusetts drawl is playing like a sound track in my mind this morning, recalling how he referred to Charles Roberts as a “youngsta” or Elfred Payton as a “warrior”. We had Ritchie as a guest coach at a Saskatchewan training camp years ago and I loved being around him. He’ll be missed!

8 – HALL OF FAME: Thank goodness Dave Ritchie went into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2022, before he passed. Ray Jauch is still waiting on such an honour, in failing health at age 86 at his Illinois home. At least, that’s according to the Jauch family which is anxiously hoping for a call from the CFHOF this spring. Ray’s more than worthy. Here’s hoping this is the year! … Not sure if it’s a changing-of-the-guard or what but those white-haired, aged 60-something coaches like Ritchie, Jauch and even Ken Miller seem to be a thing of the past in the CFL. Ottawa’s Bob Dyce is the oldest coach in the league at age 58. That’s one year older than the next oldest coach, Edmonton’s Chris Jones. A fad or a trend? You tell me.

9 – CFL DOC: It was an honour to be interviewed here in Florida this week by a crew doing a streaming documentary on a famous CFL story from years gone by. On Friday’s RP Show I asked viewers to guess what the show’s topic is and the guesses included the Flutie Brothers, the Candy/Gretzky/McNall Toronto Argonauts of the early 90’s, the Ronnie & George era in Saskatchewan and many more. Here’s a hint: the director asked, “What made coach Don Matthews so unique and so successful?” I can’t wait for the show to come out! He said the trailer should be released in the summer, and the show will be released in the fall to coincide with the unofficial kickoff to the CFL season.

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: You get what you pay for. … Congrats to Rider legend Don Narcisse for being named to the Texas Southern University Hall of Fame. Narco and Jimmy Johnson are the two most famous products of Port Arthur, Texas. … The wheel is coming back around and it feels better than I imagined it would. … The Melville Millionaires won the SJHL’s Viterra Division! Take a bow Doug Johnson. … Meanwhile the Estevan Bruins have made the playoffs for 13 straight years while the Kindersley Clippers have punched their ticket for the first time since 2018. … Do they still make music videos? … How did we not use Tracy Byrd’s Watermelon Crawl as a Rider anthem back in the day? Shame on us. … When you go to the Golden Corral – America’s finest buffet – you need to have a strategy. If you don’t it’s a waste. … I can’t get you tickets. … How is it my iPhone won’t save/remember a new phone number from last week yet it still has old Regina Pats players’ phone numbers from 20 years ago? When I had a BLACKBERRY! … In Wisconsin’s Kenosha County, a 450-pound pig wandered away from his pen this week before moseying down the road where he was caught hamming it up on the Molgaard family’s security camera. Jake Molgaard said Wednesday that his wife saw an “unusual shaped figure” on their driveway camera. Molgaard said the pig walked along the side of the garage and came up to their back door. The family fed Kevin apples, rice cakes, tomatoes and carrots before luring him a mile back to his pen with sweets. … AND HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen