10 THINGS FOR CAPITAL GMC

1 – I DON’T ASK FOR MUCH...: So please strongly consider donating to my fundraising page for the Special Olympics/Regina Police Service Polar Plunge next month during Waskimo! If I can raise $2000 for charity, I’ll jump in frozen Wascana Lake on Family Day in Saskatchewan. Thanks to those who’ve already donated as we’re 29% of the way there! Here’s the link, and thanks again: https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/mobile/mobilePersonalPage.aspx?registrationID=4635591&langPref=en-CA&Referrer=%26Referrer%3dhttps%253a%252f%252fsecure.e2rm.com%252fregistrant%252fCheckResults.aspx%253feventid%253d298796%2526langpref%253den-CA%2526RegistrationID%253d4635591

2 – VIVE LE MONTREAL: The clock ticks on the Montreal Alouettes situation. CFL winter meetings are coming up and one of the league’s marquee franchises is still without an owner and GM. While media and fans are mocking the scenario, it’s not unheard of. The NHL owned the Phoenix Coyotes for several years and that situation turned out okay. However this does seem critical.

3 – INSIDERS SAY: The buzz in the league is that the Alouettes GM salary has been capped at $250,000 by the CFL and that’s caused top candidates to pull their names. That’s well below what many CFL GMs make, but you won’t get much sympathy from the fans since the average salary in Canada is $55,000. Other rumours suggest Alouettes Canadian scout Miles Gorrell – a Hall of Famer with a tremendous track record of personnel – wants the job. Others say Montreal should just give the GM title to head coach Khari Jones since things worked out so well in 2019. Everything is hush hush, which opens the situation up to gossip.

4 – JONES’ING: It’s been a week since the Cleveland Browns fired head coach Freddie Kitchens and, presumably, the rest of his staff. It’s opened up questions of whether Browns Sr. Defensive Assistant Chris Jones will return to the CFL, where he spent 17 illustrious seasons. Jones has a year left on his deal but no one expects him to sit around for 12 months and collect cheques. My bet would be on Jones landing in Edmonton as defensive coordinator on Scott Milanovich’s staff, which would constitute a reunion of the 2012 Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts braintrust.

5 – NO NEWS?: Fans are anxious to hear word on the Roughriders coaching staff for 2020. We say, ‘what’s the rush?’ It wasn’t till February when the Riders named their staff under first-year coach Craig Dickenson last year, and that turned out fine. Until fans brought it up on the RP Show this week, I hadn’t considered it. They’ll do it on their own time, and it’ll be a great staff.

6 – FATTY ON THE MOVE: No one saw Friday’s trade coming, where Nick “Fatty” Arbuckle (Google it) landed in Ottawa via Calgary. Any insider will tell you Arbuckle’s the top QB on the free agent market and with a wave of the wand, the RedBlacks are contenders again. The condition is that they can get the Georgia State signed, but do you ever remember a trade-and-sign deal happening where the player didn’t sign? I don’t.

7 – DOUBLE BLUE: If the Argos hired Ryan Dinwiddie as head coach as a play to land Arbuckle in free agency, it’s backfired. At least it appears headed that way, if Arbuckle signs in Ottawa. This was a popular notion floated in football circles but, to me, it doesn’t hold water. Presumably the Eskimos retained head coach Jason Maas at this time last year as a move to retain free agent QB Mike Reilly. That didn’t work either. We still think Dinwiddie was the Argos’ man all along, and it’ll work out fine. Don’t discount Chris Jones ending up in Toronto either, where he lived on a boat while serving as the Argos defensive coordinator in 2012-13.

8 – CFL/NFL: Through 3 quarters of Saturday’s NFL wildcard playoff game between Buffalo and Houston, it was a snore fest and I Tweeted as much. That triggered an avalanche of vitriol and, on cue, the game turned into a track race. (It still wound up as a 4-hour, comedy-of-errors game). The Tennessee/New England evening game wasn’t much to write home about either. In one-game showdowns, give me the 3-d0wn game anyday.

9 – OIL COUNTRY: It’s been a sports bonanza all week with NFL, NHL, Bowl Games, WJC and other junior hockey. The highlight for me so far was the Edmonton Oilers waxing the Boston Bruins 4-1. There are a ton of Bruins fans around here but they didn’t have much to say Saturday afternoon. After canvassing Oiler fans last weekend in Edmonton, the general assumption is that “attitude” is the problem with that franchise. But they didn’t display that problem at TD Garden. Edmonton’s “had it” with patience, however signs of a turnaround under Tippett and Holland are there. In the meantime, the games are generally thrilling to watch.

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: A movie I never get tired of: Beverly Hills Cop. … Don Cherry is killing it on his podcast. My daughter said, “But people can’t see his suits?” That’s not Grapes’ problem. … An online story circulated this week that Hockey Night In Canada ratings plummeted after Cherry’s firing. I don’t buy it. … It’s Canada versus Russia for World Junior gold on Sunday. It doesn’t get better than that. … Canadians are immersed in this tournament. Here’s hoping that when it’s over, fans continue to watch junior hockey at all levels all across the country. … At the halfway mark, my preseason WHL East predictions have the top three and bottom three teams correct. They’re just jumbled up, with a long ways to go. … The WHL trade deadline is January 10. We’re all watching to see where Regina G Max Paddock goes, if anywhere.

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen