STACKHOUSE’S 10 MONDAY THOUGHTS

1 – CFL PLAY – The CFL is going to play on August 5th. I have a lot of confidence in this and I think in some places it’s going to be played in front of large numbers of people. There is no reason for it not to be. Frankly, I’m looking forward to discussing the teams and how good we expect them to be instead of whether or not the league can survive or what is the right name for Edmonton. Let’s just play and enjoy watching. The last game I attended was Saskatchewan losing to Winnipeg in the 2019 playoffs but I left that contest under the belief Cody Fajardo has a chance to be the most decorated Roughrider ever. Yes, that’s a bold and lofty statement to make and I’d much rather debate that particular issue with all of you than the other non-sports CFL issues that we’ve been weighted down with for 18 months.

2 – NBA PLAYOFFS – I’ve always been a fan of Chris Paul and his chance of winning a title has never been better than it is today. At the time of this writing, Paul’s Phoenix Suns are up on the Denver Nuggets 3-0 in the best of seven Western Conference semi-finals. They say basketball is the one sport where if you have the best player that gives you the best chance to win, but I would submit Denver’s Nikola Jokic has been the best player in the league this season and it’s not going to be nearly enough. My only concern about the Suns is that they don’t appear to have a deep line-up. When Paul is on the bench, there is a very noticeable drop-off.

3 – SCHEIFELE HIT – It’s still being talked about in many circles, which should tell you that in addition to the length of the suspension being wrong, the fact he was suspended at all remains controversial. Naturally, Kevin Cheveldayoff is going to defend his player but he correctly points out that Jake Evans is allowed to be hit and only 0.8 seconds elapses from when Evans makes the turn to attempt the wrap around to when Scheifele hits him. You try making a decision on anything in 0.8 seconds and see if you still have enough time to change your mind. Cheveldayoff also, rightly, points out that Scheifele slowed down before hitting Evans because he was concerned Evans may pivot and try and put the puck in from the other side and he wanted to be ready for that.

4 – RULE CHANGE – The NHL can avoid all of this by making one simple change to the rules: if the person on the receiving end of a hard physical play ends up being injured then it’s an automatic suspension. Ryan Reaves can throw people into the goalpost and push his knee on to the neck and pull hair of another player and get away with a two game suspension despite having a history of being in the principal’s office. But, the reality is that Ryan Suter and Ryan Graves were not injured in either of those plays whereas Scheifele’s hit came in the midst of game play and there are serious questions about whether it was illegal or not. What there is no question on is that Evans suffered an injury. So if you do something and the other player gets hurt, it’s automatic suspension. There’s your rule change. Call it whatever you want, but the layman term would be ‘hitting too hard’. 

5 – NHL SUPERSTARS – The NHL may be the one sport where you can win without having the best player as long as you have a balanced team. Montreal, the Islanders, and Vegas probably don’t have a top ten player in the league but here they are in the final four. Tampa does boast Nikita Kucherov, who’s a bonafide Art Ross Trophy candidate most years but when you look at players the league wants to promote: Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Artemi Panarin, etc. They are all long gone.

6 – MEDIA QUESTIONS – It’s to the point where you can talk about, at least, one boneheaded sports media member-athlete interaction a week. I don’t even like naming these people because it gives them the attention they are seeking but what went on with MacKinnon in the press conference after the series with Vegas was over is, simply, unacceptable and shouldn’t be tolerated. I keep coming back to Naomi Osaka’s decision to skip media and she was fined $15,000 for not wanting to subject herself to these people who are proving by the day that they have no business being in the same room as people like her. If you are a young journalist cutting your teeth, then you get a lot more slack from me for sure. But these are well-seasoned media people covering the pinnacle of their sport and they are an embarrassment on top of the obvious: they are also unprepared.

7 – CHRIS GITTENS – The power hitting first baseman was selected in the 2014 draft by the New York Yankees and his dad told him he would not attend any games played by his son until he reached the Majors.  Well that happened earlier this month. While some will admire the motivational stance taken by the parent, I can’t help but think about how many other great moments in the minor leagues that Chris’ dad missed. It’s okay to be proud of your kids no matter what they do as long as they do it to their utmost ability and are doing it because they want to do it.

8 – WHAT YOU CAN’T GET BACK – The point above brings me to what makes me most furious about what has gone on since March 2020. While some businesses will close and never reopen, the owners have the ability to try and pick themselves back up off the mat in some form or fashion. We have all been affected in different ways but the one thing that can never be returned to us: time. Gittens was in the minors for seven years and his dad never bothered to go. I think he will, perhaps, regret that choice and he can never make up for it. Governments have canceled two years of a lot of lives (especially our youth who have/had futures in sports) in people who can’t ever get them back. It’s heartbreaking and I have not and will not change my opinion that it has also been unnecessary.  

9 – VACCINES – If you are one of the people, like me, who have felt that we never ever should have shut down society and badly want it reopened then why would it make sense to refuse the one thing that paves the way back? If you can answer that, then maybe we can have a discussion but I will say this to people who are disappointed in me: I do not align myself with political parties or ideologies. I believe in what’s right and I don’t care what side of the political center that happens to fall on.

10 – CIRCLE THE DATE – Monday, July 12th the Saskatchewan Rattlers are slated to play host to the Edmonton Stingers. If we reach our vaccine target, I am taking the day off work and heading to Saskatoon to watch this game and hopefully you will too as a means to celebrate the return of normal life. July 11th is the date in which everything goes back to normal, even masks can be removed….IF….enough of you get your shot. If we all do our part but we get double crossed by the government, all bets are off for any amount of future co-operation from the general public. You can see there is already plenty of skepticism as we limp toward the vaccine finish line. Just imagine if the rug gets pulled out should we actually reach it.  However, I think they’ll follow through. Scott Moe’s approval is back over 60% and the reason for it is because of the hope he’s provided to get things back to the way they should be.

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