10 WEEKEND THINGS

TAKING SHOTS …

1 – DUB HUB WRAP: The Western Hockey League and host Regina Pats can stick their chests out that the just-completed East Hub Centre was the only Division which featured no positive Covid tests for the 2020-21 season. It’s a source of pride for a job well done, and perhaps a template for leagues in the months ahead because if you haven’t noticed, events and seasons continue to be cancelled left and right as we hit the Summer of 2021. Regardless, the hockey was tremendous and accomplished everything the leaders had hoped: development, marketing (staying in the public eye), and getting their players playing and workers working.

Meanwhile, my preseason rankings were pretty close:

RANKINGS:
1 – Prince Albert
2 – Winnipeg
3 – Saskatoon
4 – Regina
5 – Moose Jaw
6 – Brandon
7 – Swift Current

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
1 – Brandon
2 – Winnipeg
3 – Saskatoon
4 – Prince Albert
5 – Regina
6 – Moose Jaw
7 – Swift Current

2 – NEXT FALL: The Regina Pats sent out a survey to season ticket holders (of which I’m one) last week regarding next season. The survey asked if you’d be prepared to attend games if physical distancing and masks were required, and limited to cohorts. Of course the answers to all were “yes”, “yes”, “yes”. Whatever it takes to get in the building and sit with my friends. But the questions caused a deflating feeling. That’s five months from now which means we may be nowhere near over the pandemic by even post-summer. Is this a case of “hope for the best but plan for the worst?” Likely. But still, the survey gave a glimpse of what sports people are looking at for the future.

3 – PATS TV: A viewer of the RP Show asked last week in the popular Viewer Takeover segment, “What’s it like to be TV Voice of the Pats?” Well, I’ll tell ya! The Western Hockey League is high enough level hockey that you get to eat steak, wear nice suits and visit beautiful arenas and big cities but low enough that you don’t get accosted on the street every two feet for a team update. (Connor Bedard seems to be changing that however). As for the TV portion, calling every game this season was a dream because every road trip was 5-minutes from my house but whenever we get back to “normal”, we’ll have a 27-“ish” game schedule with selected home and road games where we’ll be responsible for our own travel (i.e. “no bus”). In short, it’s PERFECT. As a commenter wrote here a few weeks back, the universe has corrected itself and I’m back with the Pats.

4 – CFL MUSINGS: From the outside, the Dub Hub seemed easy enough to pull off but you could tell by the increased gray hairs and exhausted faces that the “Dubble” took its toll on the leaders. HOWEVER they got it done which was important for all the reasons noted in Point 1. A WHL GM asked me before a game, “Why can’t the CFL do this? House the players at the U of R and bus them back and forth from the stadium?” That’s not a question for me, but my guess is if it were that easy, the CFL would’ve done it already. Their logistics include bringing all the Americans in, quarantining them somewhere, their rosters are huge, you need to feed and pay them, yada, yada, yada. Plus the cost of testing would be astronomical.

I favour the adage, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” but in the CFL’s case the past two years, that comes with an immense pricetag that unfortunately isn’t worth it for the owners. So … here we sit with no guaranteed season with a targeted start date three months away.

5 – THE UNDERCURRENT: There’s what you see going on in the CFL through media coverage, and then there’s what’s really going on. 3DownNation’s John Hodge has his wonderful circle of insiders in which he posts a column containing their anonymous quotes every Wednesday, and I have my own circle. Let’s not forget that in February I reported that the CFL wouldn’t play in June or July and that report was scoffed at, and discredited. Then last week I was proven correct when the League announced an August kickoff. When will they learn? Keep scoffing or start paying attention.

My insiders this week offered these insightful quotes: “When are they announcing the merger; during this season or after this season?”, “Edmonton has chosen their new team name and have the design. It’s beautiful. They’ll be announcing it when the time is right.”, “Our biggest problem is that we have owners who think they’re rich”, and “On that letter the Canadian football organizations sent to the CFL, the league never responded.”

6 – THE DRAFT: Over recent years there were some rumblings from CFL agents that the league was considering glitzing up the Draft and making it more of “an event” rather than just a telephone derby like it’s been for years. The pandemic has obviously kiboshed that but here’s hoping the CFL/XFL can put something together in the years ahead. The 2020 Draft had some excitement when Calgary traded the #1 pick to B.C. and the Lions chose mercurial East Carolina linebacker Jordan Williams. In Round 2 the Lions chose QB Nathan Rourke from Ohio. Both players are exciting both on and off the field and if the public got to see that, they’d buy into the Draft and the CFL’s future in a big way.

TSN will televise the front-end of the 2021 CFL Draft Tuesday evening and it’ll be worth watching. They did a tremendous job last year, not far off the NFL’s virtual 2020 Draft.

The door is not closed on the CFL producing a glitzy “Made-for-TV” Draft, but just not this year.

7 – NFL DRAFT: It’s been amazing and as much as it’s been about football, it’s also been an incredible marketing vehicle for the National Football League. Are you telling me you can’t find 500 or so crazed CFL fans whom would travel to a CFL market for a live Draft? I’m sure you could. Mark’s CFL Week proved this.

As for a record-tying amount of Canadians being selected in the 2021 NFL Draft, don’t think for a second that the rise in Canadian pro talent means the ratio should be abolished in whatever the next version of the CFL looks like. There’s still that anti-Canadian bias amongst coaches and the sheer thousands of American prospects available versus the hundreds (at best) of Canadians.

As for the global initiative by the CFL, I’m becoming less of a fan by the day. I believe the Riders signed a guy this week that’s 31. How’s that a prospect?

8 – ALOMAR: When the news came out Friday of the Toronto Blue Jays and MLB severing all ties with Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar due to a sexual misconduct incident back in 2014, my heart sank to my toes. He’s regarded by many as the greatest Toronto Blue Jay ever and when we spoke together at the Regina Red Sox banquet a few years ago, he didn’t let me down as a childhood hero. MLB is adamant this is no cancel culture, virtue-signalling situation and that they have Alomar dead to rights. His name is coming off the Ring of Honour at Rogers Centre and he won’t be welcome at future team events. I’m usually good putting feelings into words but in this situation it’s just one: sad.

9 – TWITCH: You’ll remember the name Don Kollins as a former CJME announcer and Program Director, and also P.D. of Canada’s first all-sports radio station, Fan 590 Toronto. Well Don’s hanging his hat in San Francisco these days and is working with TWITCH, the digital broadcast platform. His channel (which you can simply download as an app on your phone for free) announced these additions this week: Trey Wingo & Mark Schlereth, Adam Caplan, Will Blackmon, Bucky Brooks, Aaron Schatz, and Dr. Jen Walker. These are big NFL names in America and soon will be big names in Canada too, likely. Popular Edmonton broadcaster Bryn “Mighty Mouth” Griffiths recently launched a show on TWITCH Canada. I had some pretty in-depth discussions with Mr. Kollins two years ago, but elected to go on the path we’re on. Meanwhile ESPN great Dan Lebatard announced this week a multimillion dollar deal with DraftKings, who will be underwriting the production of his new digital show (Podcast first, then TWITCH & YouTube, and then hopefully radio & TV).

We’ve passed the tipping point.

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: Happy birthday this weekend to friends Clint Malarchuk, Bryan Marchment, Jerrell Freeman and Sandro Deangelis! … The U of R Rams spring camp which was to have begun on Friday, has been cancelled. Their main training camp is still scheduled for the second week of August. … Shoutout to Corey Nyhagen – former Business Manager of the Moose Jaw Warriors – who was named this week as the Director of Marketing & Business Development with Spectra. It’s an Oil & Gas outfit with multiple offices across Southern Saskatchewan. Corey’s a great guy who always treated me first class! I was happy to see this news … The good news: We have skyrocketing ratings in Winnipeg where the RP Show airs daily on Game+ TV on Bell/MTS Cable. The bad news: Jets fans are identical to Rider fans. Mood swings similar to a yoyo depending on the fortunes of their team. This is going to be a lot of therapy to tackle. … Speaking of, I’ll be off-air May 17-21 as I complete my U.S. Certification as a licensed, certified Recovery Coach to assist those battling Addictions & Mental Health issues continent-wide. After this I’ll have all the paperwork I need. Wish me luck! Moose Dupont will be in charge. … Here are some new hockey terms which have somehow sprung up since the last time I worked in the game full-time: “Activation, zone entry, 3-on-3 at the blue line, Low Event Period, neutral zone regroup, net-front, net-drive, good stick, Top 6, Bottom 4, bumper position, 200-foot game, etc. etc. etc.” I dearly love Kevin Sawyer (we’ve been around the Dub for years) but I need a glossary to understand a Winnipeg Jets broadcast! … The first tee time of the year is Sunday at 11:10 am at Deer Valley Golf & Estates. I’ve become a hockey/golf guy again. How Bout That!?

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen

(Photo: Keith Hershmiller Photography)