WEDNESDAY COMMENTARY – TOO MUCH HOCKEY?

(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 FM & LTD Radio)

On Tuesday I had to go all the way to the Rocky Mountains to watch the Saskatchewan kids play Junior hockey!

I kid, sort of.

The Alberta Junior Hockey League playoffs are underway and I was lucky enough to get two invitations to head out to scenic Canmore to watch Game 3 of the first round series between the hometown Eagles and Drumheller Dragons.

Can you believe there are SIX Saskatchewan kids playing for Canmore, including brothers Riley and Rhett Dekowny of Swift Current?

I’m tossing Luke Chase in that bunch too, even though the forward was born in St. Louis. You may have heard of his father Kelly Chase, of Porcupine Plain, SK or maybe even his mother Raelynn, from Milestone, SK. We went to school together but hadn’t seen each other in 30 years so she and I had A LOT of catching up to do at the game.

Drumheller won the game 3-2 to take a 2-1 series lead and the officiating caused some scuffles in the stands. God bless hockey playoffs.

But I was frankly more interested in catching up with the buzz. This is Alberta after all, where they talk hockey 24/7, 365. The talk in the intermissions was of who should be fired if and when the Flames miss the playoffs.

Somebody’s always gotta walk the plank ya know!

The folks out here figure the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers represent Calgary’s best chance for playoff hockey. They’re having a whale of a season in their first since relocating from Stockton, CA.

Trouble is, they’re only drawing around 2,000 fans per game to the Saddledome.

One hockey guy, an original Reginan, said “There’s too much hockey” to watch in Calgary right now.

Excuse me? Is that a thing?

Perhaps. He pointed to the NHL’s Flames, the AHL’s Wranglers, the WHL’s Hitmen, plus the various Junior A and college teams.

Ya, that is a lot but we live in a society these days of “More, more, more!”

If only that was the case with regards to money in peoples’ pockets.

Sports leagues are starting to find out the hard way – there’s only so many entertainment dollars to go around.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily on Game+ TV, YouTube Live, iHeartRadio and WQEE)