THURSDAY RUNDOWN: GUS FREROTTE, LAZARUK AND VANSTONE!

Things were sizzling on Episode #378 of The RP Show – Canada’s Daytime Sports Talk Show – on Thursday! Read on for the rundown:

• Rod and Dupes opened with The Warmup for Four Seasons Sports Palace covering these Quick Six show topics: 1) An All-Canadian Division in the NHL? What are the possibilities?, 2) Edmonton was the #1 Canadian team in the NHL last year, 3) Thursday Night Football has New England at L.A. Rams, 4) The Leader Post’s Rob Vanstone gets roasted by eastern media for voting for Denver Nuggets star Jamal Murray for the Lou Marsh Award, 5) Dr. Anthony Fauci hopes North America will be “back to normal” by 2021. RP asks ‘What does that even mean?’, and 6) CHL/Hockey culture is under attack again. Rod said we need to express what hockey means to us.
• The daily Capital Auto Mall/Universal Collision Centre poll question was: Should the NHL’s Canadian Division be permanent? Over 60% of respondents said no.
• CJWW Saskatoon’s Voice of the Blades Les Lazaruk joined the show and said YES, the Canadian Division should be here to stay. He feels it would enhance Canada’s chances of winning a Stanley Cup, but hopes it isn’t Ottawa, Montreal or Toronto. Les grew up in Winnipeg and was the colour commentator for the Jets. Les also said Saskatoon is very intune with Canada’s World Juniors given the Blades flavour of Kirby Dach and Mitch Love. Regarding the CFL, Les said there are too many problems to mention and can’t make a prediction on the CFL for 2021.
• Rob Vanstone joined the show to defend his decision to identify himself as the lone voter who DIDN’T vote for Alphonso Davies or Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. He feels transparency and accountability are important. R.V. explained his reasons for voting for Jamal Murray and also said he appreciated the TSN announcers for having a reasoned debate on the matter, after ripping him on Overdrive on Wednesday. He also expressed his desire for the CFL to return in 2021.
• Hour 2 was simulcast on Game+ TV and Facebook Live. After re-upping the Quick Six, we went into the Viewer Takeover segment early due to scheduling. Somehow or another Moose jokes became very popular with the viewers, and we also updated the Edmonton CFL team name bracket. (It’s down to Empire, Eagles, Energy, Edge, Elk, Elite, Express and Evolution).
• 16-year NFL veteran and Pro Bowl QB Gus Frerotte joined us from Pittsburgh to discuss all of his relations in Western Canada (his father has 12 siblings and half came to Saskatchewan while the other half went to Pennsylvania). Rod noted that Frerotte has taken to Twitter to correct local sports talk hosts on their NFL analysis and asked if that’s become his mission. Gus answered, “No because then I’d be on Twitter 24/7.” Frerotte talked about the plight of the Dallas Cowboys (Dak Prescott isn’t the problem), the Steelers (he called their Week 13 loss before kickoff), and many other NFL topics. He promoted his podcast Huddle Up With Gus at www.huddleupwithgus.com, and its store. 
• Thursday’s show is available now on our Facebook page, you can catch the replay at 4:00 pm ET on Game+, listen to the podcast by clicking not the CONTENT tab at the top of this page or listen anytime to our 24-hour live audio feed at RodPedersen.com/ListenLive presented by SUDS Full Service Car Wash.
• See you at 10:00 am CT Friday on Facebook Live and 12:00 pm ET on Game+ for a Flame Tech Football Friday! Our guest includes BC Lions Co-GM Neil McEvoy, NFL Insider Tori Gurley and John Frenzy.