TUESDAY COMMENTARY: UGLY IS AS UGLY DOES
(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 FM & LTD Radio)
It’s Tuesday and that means it’s time for the Good, the Great & the Ugly!
First the good: It’s CFL Draft Day! It annually comes on the heels of the NFL Draft and while the two couldn’t be more different, it’s still one of the most key dates on the calendar.
Ottawa has the #1 overall pick and Saskatchewan picks at #3. It’s always fun to follow and these players lives will be changed forever.
A fun side topic is who’s the best players ever not to have been drafted? Topping that list is Rob Bagg and Neal Hughes.
Next, the great: No rest for the wicked, they say. Less than 48 hours after upsetting Boston, the Florida Panthers find themselves in Toronto tonight for Game 1 of Round 2 against the Leafs.
I’ll take the Leafs to win in six, primarily because every time I count the Cats out, they shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.
A real humorous angle to this series is the fact the Panthers are only allowing ticket sales to U.S. residents (i.e. not Canadians, nor Leafs fans). Predictably it’s caused an uproar among the Leafs Nation – it seems everything does – and those people have been ringing my phone trying to get tickets.
Sorry! Those calls are going to voicemail.
And lastly, the ugly: Like anything, it’s a matter of perspective and in Calgary, you can say Monday’s firing of coach Darryl Sutter and the situation around it is ugly, or you can be like the many who say it’s a fresh new era for the franchise with the Coach & GM jobs open, and a new arena on the horizon!
But the inside is this: This was the dynamite story I was referring to in this commentary almost two weeks ago. On Monday, the Flames pulled the pin in that grenade. The shrapnel is everywhere.
It’s true, Sutter won a power struggle with GM Brad Treliving two weeks ago but Flames ownership didn’t see the type of backlash coming that they received from the fans, media and even their own players. In fact a prominent Calgary media member advised me to stop sticking up for Darryl because he was on borrowed time.
Then on Monday Sutter got his pink slip.
So that’s all pretty ugly.
But not as ugly as what the Winnipeg Jets have going on!
That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary
(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV, WQEE & Streaming)
Winnipeg Jets ownership need to WAKE UP and smell the coffee, NOW! Their NHL hockey franchise is nowhere near a Stanley Cup Championship with the overdue Kevin Cheveldayoff as the team gm. The NHL Winnipeg Jets will never achieve the coveted goal of winning Lord Stanley as long as Kevin Cheveldayoff is in their employ. How Cheveldayoff remains in the NHL is beyond being a head scratcher, he needs to be gone immediately.
All good stuff: #1 – The Saskatchewan Roughriders need to draft a local product that anywhere else would be highly touted. I told him when he was 12 this day would arrive. Jaxon Ford needs to go #3 to the Roughriders. Hopefully these morons don’t pass on him like they did with Jason Clermont. My guess is they’ll take someone else who elects to use their U of C or whatever degree to stay in a big city and go sell insurance. #3 – Has Brian Burke every put people in place, exited an organization under suspect circumstances only to… Read more »