NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE ARENAS

By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds/DUBNetwork MJ Warriors Beat Writer

1. Holding firm?: At time of writing on Jan. 4, 2022 (because things can change fast) Scott Moe and his government seems staunchly opposed to any further restrictions as “Omicron rips Saskatchewan apart”, as some media outlets say, or “the live-with-able-as-long-as-you’re-vaxxed variant remains part of our society” as others might. I don’t know what Moe and Dr. Shahab should do, or how the media SHOULD spin this, but all I know is that I have this internal conflict of “maybe they should do something” vs “it would hurt so many people I care about, and I wouldn’t be able to work” if they do. Yes, I know, Omicron is more contagious. I’m not making any judgments at all, other people are a lot smarter than I am, but it does often seem like the people able to work from home that want restrictions, and those with kids and those who have their work shut down during lockdowns that are either unsure or downright don’t want them. Is that too obvious? I am conflicted, I really am. I also really want to keep working, but more than that I think about the kids that need more games to get their college spots and to develop, I saw how last year ripped the heart out of so many young people and it’s a lot harder in real life than on Twitter or in a comfy living room. Apologies for rambling.
2. Sick for my home: I was pretty frustrated with my home province of Ontario this past week when in putting forth new restrictions they did not include Ontario University Athletics under the special “Elite Amateur” rules, which would let them play sooner. How stupid is that? I know a lot, A LOT, of incredible kids playing OUA hockey, and as I said earlier, this ignorant classification of some segments of society and sport drives me up the wall. 
3. Pauses? At the time of writing the understanding for university sport in Canada is that Quebec is paused until Jan. 9, Atlantic sport till Jan. 19, and OUA till sometime in late January. Given that almost all universities have elected to abandon in-person classes until at least the end of January, I’ll be stunned if those dates ring true. Still haven’t heard anything about Canada West sports, but I don’t understand what short pauses are supposed to do? Why are schools unsure about having student-athletes on campus when nobody else is? Does that not make it easier for them socially distance themselves and be safe? Surely there aren’t many USports programmes reliant on gate for sustenance…I don’t get it. I guess better a pause than a cancellation, but it was definitely bizarre to watch college bowl season in the States again with a billion unmasked people at each game. Again, I am not being critical of anybody, I’m just pointing out what I see. People keep saying “we’ll look back and see whether Canada or USA handled the pandemic better”, which I think is not realistic because it’s so subjective. Certainly, the Americans are having more fun than we are, as much as I know life isn’t all about fun…
4. My Olympic wish: I’m so rambly today! Apologies again. I would love the Olympics to turn the hockey tournament this year into a big FISU (University Games) event. Let Canadians playing NCAA or USports go, get those U Michigan Wolverines out there, and let’s have a student-athlete event like it was to some degree back in the day! Don’t put an age on participation as long as you are a student-athlete, I think that would be awesome. Couple of names I’d love to see on my never-going-to-happen NCAA Team Canada: my buddy Drew Worrad ripping it up at Western Michigan, Boston College’s Jack McBain (a Minnesota pick), obviously Kent Johnson, Owen Power, Denver’s Carter Savoie (Matt’s big brother), Owen Sillinger…the list goes on and on. It would be a great squad. 
5. Roster unfrozen: I had someone tell me they wish my column was still all about the SJHL a couple of weeks ago, and I loved it because I clearly love the SJ. Anyways, the league’s rosters were frozen in late December to Jan. 2, with movement disallowed, but it was re-opened this past week, and unsurprisingly a couple deals and signings were made as the coaches were clearly sitting around over Christmas turkey firing each other ideas. The news has been a slow trickle, but the biggest movers and shakers were definitely the Weyburn Red Wings as Coach Cody Mapes looks to recoup a ton of assets for the handful of solid 20-year-olds in his stable, and it looks like he’s done a nice job! He got a whole bunch of draft picks and young players for Nik Sombrowski, Nick Dobson, Beau Larson, and Troy Hamilton, while I do think he had to get some cash for the departed Graham Skinner departed to the NAHL. I’ll get a close look at the new-look Wings this weekend, and a team that just made a couple moves to unload vets before a deadline is very often very dangerous right after.
6. ND adds: One of the partners for Mapes was my ND Hounds, as they sent picks to Weyburn for the speed-demon Sombrowski. The Hounds get a guy who can fly, has grown in leaps and bounds with his puck skills, and looks to be a great fit around the club on and off that big ice at the Dunc. Division I commit Jake Sacratini and AJHL veteran Nolen Coventry also add some much-needed experience to this Hounds crew, and I’m pretty excited to see how they look Thursday night in Kindersley! Tune in on Hounds Hockey Radio! I definitely want to get Rod back down to Wilcox to call games with me whenever he gets back to Sask (if he comes back, I guess!)
7. The old Coach-for-Player: Another move made was that the Humboldt Broncos got another weapon deeper by adding WHL-experienced 20-year-old forward Jerzy Orchard from the Merritt Centennials of the BCHL. The deal prompted me to joke with Broncos’ coach Scott Barney and my colleague Rory McGouran that it was the classic “Player for Coach” deal since former Humboldt assistant Curt Toneff just departed for Merritt to be their head coach/GM. It’s all above board, and I know Curt will look after the interests of Merritt first before anything, but this game of ours is supposed to be fun isn’t it?
8. Flair for the dramatic: A lot of people couldn’t just enjoy Connor Bedard putting four in against Austria at the did-it-actually-happen mini–World Juniors, saying Austria was a joke (sorry, but they were), so he put them in their place by putting four past the Moose Jaw Warriors in his return! I laughed out loud! What a talent. Even that little time away was so good for Connor, as I wrote and said many times, that he could stop focussing on being Regina’s saviour, and just get back to doing his thing on the ice. He’s going to be great the rest of the way I predict.
9. Dub trouble: Of course, with Lethbridge and Swift Current shutdown with Covid trouble, who knows how long “the rest of the way” is. I don’t want to get back down the rabbit trail I was on before, but with a lot more multi-province and national travel in the ‘Dub’, I am worried about how that league will go through this variant. Obviously we’ll keep an eye out.
10. Eichel time?: I don’t talk that much about the NHL on here, as you might know. Not that I don’t love it, and watch it, I just try to provide different hockey content to what you might find elsewhere. That being said, Eichel will probably be in the Vegas lineup in early February, and at that point, it might all be over…Vegas is going to be, really, really loaded and tough to beat. I like Jack Eichel as a player, he’s as complete as anybody, if you can remember, so I think this will all turn out magnificently for the Knights. How do they keep it all together under the cap, I don’t know. 

(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)