MIKE STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – RIDERS HIRE MAAS – The Saskatchewan Roughriders have made a change at Offensive Coordinator, hiring Jason Maas to replace Stephen McAdoo.  Maas has a brilliant mind there is no doubting that and as long as he can keep his emotions in check he should do a fine job. Perhaps he’s better suited for more of a coordinator type role.  His players seemed to like him even when it was apparent whatever he had built in Edmonton was falling apart and he was destined to lose his job months ago. I have a minor concern with Cody Fajardo having to work with a new offensive coordinator after just one year on the job, but Maas having been a quarterback in the relative recent past in this league should make the transition a little easier.

2 – SI GIVES SPORTSPERSON AWARD – Just as the National Hockey League is about to announce a code of conduct for its coaches to ensure good behaviour, Sports Illustrated goes and gives the Sportsperson Of The Year Award to Megan Rapinoe, the FIFA Player Of The Year.  She’s a good player. She’s a critic of Donald Trump and she’s a lesbian. So she checks a lot of the boxes that make us feel good as a society. But, she’s also obnoxious and a poor role model if you saw the lewd behaviour exhibited by her and her teammates after they won the World Cup this year.  If you have ever watched her or listened to her, ask yourself if we’d have the same opinion if this was Sidney Crosby or Tom Brady.

3 – MORE RACISM – A Nova Scotia teenager is debating quitting hockey after claiming an opposing player said he looked like a turd and that he shouldn’t play hockey.  The teen says racial slurs were uttered from the fans during the third period and a complaint by the teen’s family was made but the coaches on both teams as well as the referee claim to have heard no such comments.  So what do we do here?

4 – NHL POWER RANKINGS – We are two and a half months into the NHL season so it’s worth taking a stab at ranking the top teams so here goes nothing:  Boston, St. Louis, Washington, Colorado, Pittsburgh, NYIslanders, Edmonton, Philadelphia, Florida, and Winnipeg. I can’t take Phoenix or whatever they are called seriously.  I debated swapping out Florida for Dallas. Hard to take the Oilers seriously too but what the heck.

5 – NFL POWER RANKINGS – After week fourteen, I will go Baltimore at the top and then San Francisco at two.  New Orleans, Seattle, Green Bay, New England, Kansas City, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Houston round out my top ten.  I’ll still give the Patriots the nod over the Chiefs as competent officiating would have meant they win that game on Sunday.  I also don’t discount the notion they will find a way to cheat and re-emerge as a very serious threat to repeat. The San Francisco-New Orleans game was the most exciting I’ve seen in recent memory.  The balance of power is heavily in the NFC.

6 – QUARTERBACKS – If I was starting a franchise today, here’s how I’d rank the best ones (I’m leaving out Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Drew Brees just because of age):   Pat Mahomes, Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson, Jimmy Garoppolo, Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz, and Jacoby Brissett. I think Jared Goff would be next but there is a big drop off after the first five.  Prescott, Wentz, and Brissett would be a step down for sure and Goff would be in a third tier. Drew Lock will be interesting to watch and even though he’s over 30, it looks like Ryan Tannehill has a future with the Titans.

7 – WHO WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE – Mitchell Trubisky or Baker Mayfield?  For all the struggles and much publicized ineptitude of Trubisky, he’s actually had a better season than Mayfield and doesn’t come with the baggage.

8 – RED SOX AND CUBS COST CUTTING – Some of the chatter of the Winter Meetings in Major League Baseball surrounds the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs cutting payroll.  The Red Sox are dangling just about everyone on the roster in the name of rebuilding a farm system that, frankly, doesn’t need to be rebuilt when you consider the fact they really don’t need anyone to be Major League ready for another two or three years if they kept their current team together.  The Cubs just watched Cole Hamels leave on a one-year contract with Atlanta and there is chatter Kris Bryant may have a new home by this time next week.

9 – COLE MEGABUCKS – Meanwhile, Gerrit Cole is looking at a contract north of $300-million and perhaps as long as nine years so this notion that all of MLB is in some sort of financial difficulty looks to be false.  Stephen Strasburg just got $245-million from Washington and Zack Wheeler signed for $118-million with Philadelphia. There’s money to be had and it’s funny to me because pitchers are babied ridiculously. Paying someone $30-million a year to play once a week is absurd on top of absurd.  Then you factor in the kid gloves with which they are removed at the first sign of a jam after the sixth inning and I’d much rather see big money get spent on a hitter who is in the line-up daily. Cole has logged 200 or more innings in four of the last five years so it makes you wonder how much more he has in the tank before he’s hit with an elbow/arm/shoulder injury.  He’s also 29 so a 9-year contract takes him to 38 and you know the last 4-5 years of this deal are going to be painful no matter how much he gets.

10 – PETRUIC – I can’t recall the last time I saw a player dominate the SJHL the way Chantz Petruic has this year with the Yorkton Terriers.  He’s threatening a 60 goal season in a league that only plays 56 games. He’s won the Player Of The Month in each possible month so far and he’s been on a whopping 60% of all Yorkton Terrier goals through 34 games.  Even more remarkable for me is that only 7 of his 35 goals have come on the powerplay. While he leads Cole Rafuse 35-24 in total goals, Rafuse leads Petruic 12-7 in goals with the man advantage.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)