DAYTONA HOMES MONDAY MORNING GOALIE

5 MONDAY QUICK HITS

1 – A DUCK DYNASTY — The photo above was taken by Larry Mueller and it’s from Saturday night’s 34th Annual Ducks Unlimited Canada fundraising dinner at Queensbury Convention Centre.  I had the pleasure of MC’ing the event and interviewing on stage reps from the four Roughrider Grey Cup championship teams: 1966 (Alan Ford), 1989 (Roger Aldag), 2007 (Jeremy O’Day) and 2013 (Darian Durant).

I had grand plans to recap the entire 35-minute session in today’s column but, as I discovered this morning to my horror, the event didn’t record properly on my device.  So, in the absence of that, here are some notes from memory:

– Alan Ford served 27 years in various capacities with the Roughriders making him one of the longest-serving employees with the organization.  Ivan Gutfriend and Norm Fong would likely be the only others with longer tenures.  Regardless, Al agrees with the Monday Morning Goalie that the 2013 Grey Cup win by Saskatchewan was the biggest victory in franchise history.  Bigger even than the 1966 Grey Cup in which the province waited 56 long years for its first league title!  Al said given the fact this championship game was played at home for the Riders, that gives it an edge over the 1966 championship.  And he said the pressure on the team was exponentially more this time around.

– Regarding an impending work stoppage in the CFL, quarterback Darian Durant said, “It doesn’t look good”.  Darian didn’t elaborate as to why, but basically said the two sides are too far apart.  That was confirmed on Sunday by a CFL source who told me the negotiations between the league and its players association are getting nasty and they’re getting personal.   This is horrible.  I really want to go to Saskatoon for camp and get this season underway!  Not to mention, I’m told, that the Roughriders will not get their Grey Cup rings until a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is in place.  Tick, tick, tick boys.

– Here’s my $0.02 on the labour issue, and keep in mind I am in a union (Association of Canadian Television & Radio Announcers).  The idea of revenue sharing in the CFL is preposterous.  Are we just trying to sound like the NHL?  The revenues are minuscule in the CFL compared to the big leagues and as Alan Ford pointed out Saturday, are extremely difficult to calculate given the variety of ownership structures in the league (community owned in Saskatchewan, Edmonton and Winnipeg compared to privately owned everywhere else).  Give everybody a 5% bump and let’s get on with it.  I understand there are a lot of minute details that are holding things up but do you want to play football or not?

– Roger Aldag was a gem on Saturday night.  Sometimes we forget what these legends accomplished in their career but do you remember Roger was the Riders’ Lineman of the Year for EIGHT consecutive seasons back in the day?  Good Lord!  Why don’t we just name the trophy after him?  Other linemen in the West Division hated Roger because, because of him, they were never going to represent the West for the league’s Most Outstanding Lineman Award.

Anyway Roger cracked the crowd up the most when a lady in the crowd asked him if he routinely had sex the night before games.  Roger responded with, “I’m married.  So … no.”

– There was a sad ending to the evening, which was instigated by Aldag.  We called Bob Poley up on stage because, after 34 Duck dinners, Saturday was the last one for the Rider great.  Poley and his wife Elaine have sold their Buenavista cottage and are moving to Vernon, BC in June.  The announcement, and Poley’s brief address, pretty much sucked the life out of the room.   He’ll be missed.

2 – DRAFT DAY – What do Ben Heenan, Shomari Williams, Keith Shologan, Andy Fantuz, Scott Schultz, Ben Fairbrother, Brad Elberg, Dan Farthing, Jeff Fairholm and Reuben Mayes all have in common?  That’s right, they were were all first round draft choices by the Saskatchewan Roughriders.  Of the group, oddly enough, Elberg and Mayes never played for the Riders but that’s a story for another time.

Coincidentally Ducarmel Augustin (RB, Villanova) and Kevin Smellie (RB, Massachusetts) were both first round picks by the Roughriders but also never suited up once for the Green & White.  It proves what a crapshoot the CFL Canadian College Draft is, or a draft in any league for that matter, and the 2014 edition on Tuesday will likely be no different.

Barring a trade the Roughriders hold the eighth overall pick and GM Brendan Taman has been very coy with what they plan to do with it.  With a waiting list to start on the Riders’ offensive line, it’s unlikely the Riders will select at that position.  Their first round pick the past two seasons have been hoggies.  With the off-season departures of LB Craig Butler and DB Graig Newman, it’s likely the Riders will be looking at those positions but they also some openings in the backfield with Graham Bell (retired) and Darryl Stephenson (released) both gone.

620 CKRM will be your best bet for Draft day coverage as we’ll be broadcasting the SportsCage live from the Rider locker room on Tuesday beginning at 4:00 pm.  Round 1 begins at 5:00.  Former Rider Luc Mullinder will join me as our Draft analyst and we’ll have several Rider guests on the air throughout the program including the Riders’ first round pick.

3 – THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG — Cleveland Browns fans lined up outside their stadium’s souvenir store Friday morning eager to be the first ones to buy a Johnny Manziel jersey after “Johnny Football” went 22nd overall to the Browns Thursday evening.  There were reportedly about 50 of them on hand but in a move that seems like the 1990s CFL, the Browns ran out of jerseys and most of the fans went away disappointed.  It didn’t take long for Manziel to adopt #2 with Cleveland, which was his number at Texas A&M, and apparently the store shelves have now all been fully stocked.  But how do you not work through the night to meet customer demand?  I guess that’s just Cleveland.

4 – HOCKEY NOTES — Slewfooting, hits-from-behind, welcome to the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs ladies and gentlemen!  For the most part the hockey this spring has been great and the two most intriguing series of the second round have been Montreal-Boston and LA-Anaheim.  Amazingly the Canadiens once had a lead in this series but now face elimination tonight while the road team has been the winner in each game of the I-5 series in California.  However the Rangers-Penguins series has just gotten downright silly with what went on last night at Madison Square Garden.  Was it Sidney Crosby who kicked the legs out from under a New York defenceman?  We were out for a family supper and it was hard to see on the TV screen.  What’s going on in that series is not hockey.  Just drop the gloves and get on with it.  Oh wait, you can’t.

The most disturbing issue of the NHL Playoffs this year was Matt Cooke’s knee-on-knee hit on Colorado’s Tyson Barrie in Round 1.  Cooke’s Minnesota Wild won the series and he’s back playing while Barrie is rehabbing and the Avalanche are watching on from the sidelines.  That’s disgusting.  Cooke really should have been banned for the rest of the playoffs but, again, this is the new NHL.

On a junior hockey note, is anyone still following the WHL Playoffs?  Edmonton and Portland are going to a Game 7 tonight in Oregon in what’s been a whale of a series.  However no one around here seems to have noticed.  I haven’t heard the term “Memorial Cup” once so far this spring.  By the way it’s in London, ON this year.

Meanwhile the Yorkton Terriers are 0-1 at the Royal Bank Cup in Vernon, BC after being trounced 5-1 by Toronto on Sunday.  That’s another topic I have yet to hear on anyone’s lips.  We’ve got a hockey family but all the talk was about the Riders and NHL during our Mother’s Day get together.  Have people turned their back on junior hockey this spring?  Hopefully not.

5 – #REGINAPROBLEMS — I’ve gotta ask: are the local autobody shops in cahoots with the City of Regina regarding our dreadful roads in the Queen City?  It wasn’t that long ago I got a wheel alignment for the SportsCage Titan Auto cruiser and now it’s due for another one thanks to the crater-sized potholes in this town.  Like really, it’s third world conditions around here.  And of course when the snow melted it once again revealed that motorists used the city as a trash bin during the winter months.  The green spaces along Ring Road and Lewvan Drive are covered with litter from one end to the other.  “Don’t worry, City workers will clean it up,” someone was overheard to say this week.  No, I’m organizing a crew to go pick garbage this weekend (hopefully it’s sunny).  Let’s have some pride in this town!!

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THAT’S ALL — SEE YOU IN THE CAGE AT 4 PM
RP
@sportscage