DAYTONA HOMES FRIDAY RODSERVATIONS

TAKING NOTES

1 – BACK TO THE FUTURE:  Take a minute, close your eyes, and think of the best times of your life.  Then imagine, for one magical night, to have the opportunity to go back to that time in your life.  For me, that’s the case tonight when the Regina Pats host the Moose Jaw Warriors at a sold out Brandt Centre in Regina.  With the regular Voice of the Pats Phil Andrews away at a wedding in Jamaica, I’ve been called up to broadcast the action on 620 CKRM and will be reunited with my old radio partner of 15 seasons, Al Dumba.  This is Slapshot meets Hot Tub Time Machine!  You can add to the excitement the fact the Pats’ new state-of-the-art digital video scoreboard will be unveiled in a special pregame ceremony and you come to realize this is one of the biggest nights in the franchise’s 98-year history.  Thanks again to the Pats for the opportunity.  Like Richie Hall said about being hired in Winnipeg this week, “This has rejuvenated me”.   Same here.

2 – CAN WE DO IT AGAIN?:  It’s not that hard to realize this is the Regina Pats’ first sellout of the season.  They struggle under the shadow of the Roughriders in the fall and then get forgotten during December and the Holiday Season.  But now they’re front and centre and the team hopes to make the most of it.  Still, empty seats have dominated the Brandt Centre for most of Regina’s home games this year and everyone’s still puzzled as to why.  However tonight, that won’t be an issue.

“This is something we’ve looked for all year,” Pats assistant coach Dave Struch said this week.  “I mean we’ve got a real young and exciting team.  Even when the older guys were here, they were fun to watch.  It’s something that we wish the Regina fans would understand; if they could just get out here and see what kind of product is on the ice.  We’re such a relentless, tenacious, hard-working team.  And then when you add the speed, the physicality and the offensive side of things, these kids deserve to have this kind of crowd more often just because of their effort.”

3 – JUNIOR HOCKEY ATTENDANCE:  We’ll probably continue to pick at this wound for the rest of the winter because it’s something that’s on my mind everyday.   But Ottawa 67’s owner Jeff Hunt (also a part owner of the CFL’s RedBlacks) likely should give a cross-country tour of CHL teams to explain how he took that OHL team in the 1990s from 1500 average fans per game to 9000 within a few short years.  He’s a marketing whiz and I know precisely how he did it.  The current voice of the 67’s, A.J. Jakubec, tells me the club is averaging 3600 this season but there are a few reasons for that which we can get into later in the comments section.  Also, their 3600 is a legitimate number of bodies in the seats unlike the inflated totals the WHL likes to announce.

4 – AND THE WINNER IS … SASKATCHEWAN!:  At the CFL’s annual winter meetings in Winnipeg this week the Saskatchewan Roughriders won the marketing award for “Best Game Day Experience” for another season.  Since we’re lucky enough to be able to travel to all CFL venues during the year, I can easily say the correct winner was chosen.  And to think the Roughriders play out of the CFL’s oldest stadium, it’s mind-boggling to think of the obstacles the Rider staff has overcome to habitually win this award.  They truly know what they’re doing over there and here’s a hat’s off for bringing home that trophy again.  What an honour it is to be associated with them.

The Calgary Stampeders won one of the ticketing awards, but I only know this from following their Twitter feed.  Wouldn’t it be nice for the CFL to send this information out in a news release, or to let media and fans know these meetings were going on at all.

5 – SPEAKING OF….:  Last week in this space we wrote about the fact the Minnesota Wild was voted to have the NHL’s top game day experience while the Winnipeg Jets were voted third-best, but number one in Canada.  It got me to thinking about rating the CFL’s game day experiences, and then later in the week the Riders won the award for that very same thing.  So here’s my list of the top venues/atmospheres in the CFL

* Saskatchewan
* Winnipeg
* Ottawa
* BC
* Montreal
* Edmonton
* Hamilton
* Calgary
* Toronto

If you’ve been to all of these stadiums in the past few years, I don’t think you can argue with this assessment.

6 – IN A HUFF:  Congratulations to Calgary Stampeders Coach/GM John Hufnagel for winning the Annis Stukus Trophy as CFL Coach of the Year for a second time on Wednesday.  After the awards luncheon in Winnipeg, John was featured on a conference call which featured, I think, only three reporters.  However that was great because I got to ask Hufnagel a bunch of my own questions and one of them was about moving assistant coach Marc Mueller of Regina from defense to offense for the 2015 season.

“Well that was my original intention when I hired first hired Marc,” Hufnagel admitted  “That was in a year or two to move him back to the offense.  I wanted to get him a year of understanding CFL defenses better and to have (Defensive Coordinator Rich Stubler) there to help him through it – because they have a nice personal relationship – I thought it would the right thing to do.

“I wanted to expand as quickly as possible his knowledge of the CFL.  Now he’ll concentrate on the offense.  I hired Marc for a reason.  Not only was he a great Canadian university quarterback, I knew he had a great football mind.  Hopefully that can flourish as a coach with the Calgary Stampeders.”

7 – SILENCE OF THE RAMS:  Everything happens for a reason they say and Marc Mueller was not part of the hiring process for the new head coach of the U of R Rams.  I thought once a new coach was hired (Mike Gibson), a lot of the hard feelings over Frank McCrystal’s departure would be laid to rest.  Unfortunately that’s not the case but in time everything will be smoothed over.  And the parents of players I’ve talked to are very confident in the direction of the team under Gibson.  They feel he’ll instill a great deal of discipline and be a master recruiter as well.  Time will tell but we all hope for the best.

8 – SPEAKING OF RAMS AND RIDERS:  It was a shame to learn that Rider receiver (and former Rams star) Chris Getzlaf was booed by Calgary fans at Sunday’s ceremony honouring Ryan Getzlaf at the Hitmen-Pats game in the Saddledome.  However it’s also typical.  The hatred toward our province and our football team emanating from that city is evident daily but a class act like Chris Getzlaf deserves better.  I’m sure most of it was good-natured, but still.  Having said that, I think Chris is now the only player to be booed in both Calgary and Regina.  And don’t start with the “If Cornish was introduced in Regina the same thing would happen…” b.s.   You KNOW what I’m talking about.

9 – THURSDAY NIGHT RIDER GAMES:  While on the SportsCage on Thursday, football writer Kirk Penton of the Winnipeg Sun noted that the CFL is looking to move games to Thursdays (likely double-headers) in the 2015 season to brand Thursdays as “their night” along with Friday.  I think it’s an absolutely fantastic idea simply because I like to have weekends off in the summertime to take my family to Regina Beach.  Hey, we all have our reasons for our preferences of home game times and that’s mine.  The schedule is supposed to be released very soon but the teams are still going over the final drafts.  Perhaps the Riders would like to see your input in the comments section before they sign off.

 10 – DEFLATED BALLS:  Most of our listeners on Thursday said they were sick and tired of the talk of the New England Patriots and the “deflated ball” scandal which has encompassed the team after their 45-7 win over Indianapolis in Sunday’s AFC title game.  Even CNN has provided wall-to-wall coverage let alone the sports networks.

For the uninitiated, an Indy reporter accused the Patriots of playing with deflated balls in the bad-weather game which gave Patriots quarterback Tom Brady an advantage when it came to gripping the ball.  The investigation is ongoing and the Patriots are denying any wrong-doing.  Surprise.

My take on it is, unfortunately, in pro sports the unspoken adage is “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying”.  There are dozens, if not hundreds, of examples of teams bending or breaking the rules to get an advantage in all sports.  Pine tar, vaseline, breaking into the opposition’s dressing room overnight to measure stick curves, soap in the opponent’s water cooler (real or imagined, the Pats were accused of it), the list goes on forever.

I’ve told this story many times and the Riders have never corrected me so I assume it’s true.  During Grey Cup Week in 2013 the Tiger-Cats brought only 100 Hot Shots hand and foot warmers and went through them all in their first day of practice.  The Riders had hundreds but when the Ticats asked to borrow some, the Riders said “no”.  That’s the way it goes.  The Riders get screwed in cold weather games on the road in Calgary and Edmonton.  You shrug your shoulders and deal with it.  Usually the better team wins anyway.

If the Patriots broke the rules, fine them.  But any talk of Belichick being fined or them being stripped of the win is a fairy tale.

It’s a very sad day when you realize life’s not about teamwork or being fair, even though that’s what we’ve been taught since we were little kids.  It’s about looking out for number one.  The sayings, “Every man for himself”,  “It’s a dog-eat-dog world” or “Nice guys finish last” came about for a reason.

I wish I’d realized this far sooner.  Some people knew that when they were kids and now they’re running the world.

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HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND LISTEN TO US TONIGHT!
RP
@sportscage
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