STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – TIGER WOODS – Off the top of my head from what I can remember, Tiger Woods is the only professional athlete in my lifetime that was impactful to the point that I’d watch a sport on TV that I otherwise would not. Doug Flutie would probably be second (growing up in the Maritimes, the CFL was not on the sports radar at all). Watching Tiger’s fall from grace has been nothing short of sad. There is no doubt he is the most talented golfer to ever walk the planet but he couldn’t keep his act together long enough to break the necessary records to be acknowledged as such. He’s had almost half a dozen back surgeries, numerous knee surgeries, and now he’s lucky to be alive after crashing his vehicle this week. I don’t think he plays competitive golf ever again but it is fitting that the last memory we have on Tiger on the golf course is one with his son.

2 – NO JAYS THIS SPRING – By the sounds of things, there are no plans for Sportsnet TV or Sportsnet Radio to broadcast Spring Training games for the Toronto Blue Jays and the company hasn’t even announced a hiring for Ben Wagner’s sidekick on the radio side. I’m not a fan of preseason baseball as far as watching and listening are concerned, but in years past these sports broadcast outfits have made it a point to provide extensive coverage because they need content. The fact that Rogers owns the Jays as well as the two flagship broadcast entities and aren’t going to do games should be telling.

3 – NHL COSTS – There are stories out there that as many as six NHL teams have already accessed funds from a league wide loan that was taken out to help all clubs get through this very strange season. Who those teams are isn’t known and because the league is very secretive on the information that gets out from inside their circle, this could also be a total fabrication started by a media person who has ‘unnamed sources’. But, think about it for a minute. There are no fans, we know that. So that’s ticket revenue gone. Parking revenue gone. Concessions and alcohol sales gone. Merchandise sales gone. We already know there are added expenses with regards to meeting Covid protocols, but let’s look at the travel. Take Ottawa, for example.  Ordinarily, they’d play the bulk of their games not only against Toronto and Montreal but against nearby US teams as well. Instead, they are flying to Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg all year. I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of money some of these teams are bleeding. Nobody is talking about it because we are all happy to have NHL on TV, but this can’t be good at all.

4 – CANADIENS COACH – Marc Bergevin doesn’t get a lot of love from Habs fans, but I think he’s done a great job assembling the talent and I’d rank him as one of the top handful of GMs in the league. Trades for Nick Suzuki, Josh Anderson, Joel Armia, Jake Allen, and Shea Weber have all been home runs. They’ve developed Jeff Petry into a stud after Edmonton gave up on him. Tyler Toffoli has been a great free agent pick up, and I could go on and on. It’s clear they needed to make a move behind the bench. Claude Julien struggled to get maximum return from this group last year and now they’ve hit a skid again this year and Bergevin was wise to spot it early and make the change. His challenge now will be to ensure he gets the right coach all the while keeping in mind he has to satisfy the local fan base by hiring either a French coach or a bilingual one and sometimes bilingual isn’t good enough either. I’ve seen the calls for Patrick Roy but even if time has healed the wounds I think the ego is too big to pair him with Bergevin. Bruce Boudreau or Gerard Gallant would be my top choices but I don’t think either satisfies the language requirement. Manitoba Moose bench boss Pascal Vincent could be high on the radar and it’s also possible they go outside the box and look at someone such as Daniele Sauvageau, becoming the first NHL team to hire a female head coach.  

5 – PANARIN – The superstar winger has taken a leave from the New York Rangers and it’s assumed he’s headed home to Russia to try and get his family out of there in an effort to keep them safe from political persecution. Panarin is an outspoken supporter of Alexei Navalny, the main opponent to Vladimir Putin.  Panarin is accused by his former KHL coach (Andrei Nazarov) of assaulting a woman ten years ago but the Rangers, Panarin, and even the KHL are denying this ever took place. Yet, there are some of you on social media who are adamant this woman (who we don’t even know exists let alone has a name) should be believed because that’s just what we are to do unless the person accused is Justin Trudeau or Andrew Cuomo.

6 – BABCOCK INTERVIEW – I watched, with great interest, the Mike Babcock interview on Rod’s show and I have to say I was very impressed with how Babs acknowledged he’s not perfect and also defended himself as being a good person (which he is). As he rhetorically asked, if Babcock was such a bully and such a terrible human being, then why did both Brendan Shanahan and Steve Yzerman hitch their wagon to him by hiring him when both were players under his watch and both have impeccable reputations themselves? Your Honour, the Defense rests. Mic drop. 

7 – MORE COMMON – With cancel culture being more prevalent and with mainstream media taking a leadership role in this despicable behaviour, platforms such as the one Rod has are going to, eventually, become the avenue of choice for people to get their message out and as more and more people in the general public start to wake up, they will continue to turn, in greater numbers, to these types of shows that are not driven by radical political ideology. Hockey Night In Canada (for example) has been destroyed beyond repair to the point that pregame, intermission, and post game coverage isn’t watchable. It gets muted in my house every night and any business buying ads is just wasting their money as far as reaching me is concerned. If you look hard enough, you will find really good entertainment that is timed to air with the intermissions but available on Instagram, Facebook Live, YouTube, and other various outlets. Search for yourself, but Paul Bissonnette would be a good one to start with.

8 – RACIST MATH – The other thing with mainstream media that is really damaging to our society is outlets like Fox and CNN give crazy people air time to enrage us all. I don’t watch either of those channels, but catch short clips on social media from time to time. Someone sent me a video that caused me to delve deeper and apparently there is a radical outfit that just received $1 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the basic premise is that math is racist in a white supremacy kind of way because it says there is no such thing as an objective reality, which is to say not being open to the fact that 2 plus 2 may not actually be 4 is, in itself, racist. “The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so. Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity well as fear of open conflict.” This was a story that I found on Newsweek, long considered a reliable news source. These ‘news’ sources need to just ignore Flat Earth types of groups that, frankly, have a degree of mental illness that we are too politically correct to confront.

9 – COMPARING THE SCIENCE – I noticed in Jamie Neugebauer’s most recent column, he made mention of those of us who have said, ‘the science must be different down there’ when referring to hockey being played in the United States but not Canada. Because I’m one of those people saying that, I feel the need to rebut his opinion to some degree. First of all, I’m not advocating for hockey to be played with the same lack of restrictions as there are down there. I’m, merely, advocating for it to be played with ‘some’ fans. Second of all, Joe Biden is not going to dial back what’s already happening there. Good luck trying that at this point.  Americans value their freedoms. Thirdly and this is most important because Canadian politicians and many of its citizens seem incapable of grasping this: while places like South and North Dakota have had many more Covid deaths than Saskatchewan, what is the condition of the people in those states who never got Covid or were never at risk of getting Covid? How is their health today? My guess is that it’s way better than the health of Canadians who are in the same category. So to further narrow it down, North Dakota has had about 1500 deaths, while Saskatchewan sits at nearly 400. You could say Saskatchewan saved 1100 lives (or maybe even a few more because we are bigger than North Dakota) by destroying society when North Dakota didn’t destroy society. But, let’s look at those in Saskatchewan who ARE destroyed (starting with 12 SJHL teams x 25 players x 12 coaches and then you can throw in U18 AAA as well and all of a sudden we get a lot closer to 1500 very, very quickly). I’m not even going into those who aren’t affiliated with sports who have suffered (employment/loneliness/drugs/mental health/domestic assault/child abuse). Nobody is officially counting but I will go out on a limb and say North Dakota overall, is in much better shape than Saskatchewan. I’ll save you the effort to counter my argument and just put it out there – It’s true SJHL players, U18 players, musicians, small business owners and those they employee as well as many of the others who are destroyed are still breathing and aren’t dead. Fair enough if the goal is to merely exist over actual living then I guess you win the argument.

10 – IDEA SHOT DOWN – One idea that has come up over the last little while to get young people playing the game of hockey again is to see if governments will approve a Spring league of sorts where you could play 4 on 4 within your own communities provided the kids involved all go to the same school and are already within their own social bubble. Apparently, I’m told there is science at the government level that says this is dangerous. So much for that.

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