10 WEEKEND THINGS

Taking shots …

1 – BRING IT ON: I’ve always been a crappy gambler. Which is why I don’t do it a lot. However, fortunately things always work out the way they’re supposed to. This spring I planned for the Calgary Flames to be in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but not the Florida Panthers, and that’s why we set up the spring casino residency in Calgary when we did. OOPS! But lo and behold, here we are in Round 2 and the Panthers are still going, hosting Toronto Sunday night in Game 3, and I’m lucky enough to be here for it. Thank you hockey gods!

2 – TIME TO HUNT: All season long the Florida Panthers were languishing below the playoff cutoff line (look it up) and that’s why I thought there was absolutely no way they’d win 15 of their last 20 games to get in, like Cats colour commentators Randy Moller surmised they would. Then they did. First year Florida coach Paul Maurice is getting tons of credit for the job he’s done but Pomo’s the first to say he walked into a team with tremendous culture and he simply didn’t screw it up. That’s exactly what happened. There’s a tremendous interview with Maurice at NHL.com where he details how the Winnipeg Jets dashed his love for coaching and Panthers GM Bill Zito resuscitated it back to life. There’s something about the Sunshine State!

3 – OIL COUNTRY: Tackling the NHL Game Notes Sunday morning was akin to taking a sip from a firehose. Overwhelming! The past two Stanley Cup Playoffs (2022 & 2023) have been the highest-scoring since 1982 & 1983! … Thanks in large part goes to The German Gretzky, Leon Draisaitl, whose 13 goals are six shy of the all-time single year record of 19 set by Jari Kurri (1985) and Reggie The Rifle Leach (1976). … Saturday night in Game 2, Edmonton defenceman Evan Bouchard recorded his third straight multi-point game and fifth overall in these playoffs joining an Oilers D-man club which includes Paul Coffey, Charlie Huddy and Chris Pronger.

4 – GAME NOTES: Some other interesting tidbits from these playoffs before we move on to other topics: Road teams are 35-23 which has already equaled last year’s total of road wins. … The Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk is on a 6-game point streak which is one shy of the franchise record held by Dave Lowry. … The Leafs’ Auston Matthews has points in eight straight, which has him tied for the club record held by Gary Roberts, Doug Gilmour and Gary Leeman. … Carolina has outscored New Jersey 11-2 combined in Games 1 & 2 of Round 2. … There’s a tripleheader of Stanley Cup Playoff action on Sunday: Carolina at New Jersey (3:30 pm ET), Toronto at Florida (6:30 pm ET) and Dallas at Seattle (9:30 pm ET). … Enjoy!

5 – DUB HUB: Matthew Seminoff and Ryan Hofer each scored twice and Dylan Ernst made 36 saves as the visiting Kamloops Blazers defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-2 on Saturday night to stay alive in their Western Hockey League Western Conference final. The Blazers, who entered the game trailing the best-of-seven series 3-1, allowed the first goal, but stormed back with four of their own and then held on for the victory to force a Game 6 back in Kamloops, B.C., on Monday night. The winner of this series will face the Winnipeg ICE in the WHL Championship series. The ICE won the Eastern Conference final by sweeping the Saskatoon Blades.

6 – KEENER: An oddly entertaining and amusing video is making the rounds filmed by Kamloops Blazers radio broadcaster Jon Keen near the end of Saturday night’s Game 6. It’s of a pair of Seattle fans catcalling Keen just outside the broadcast booth at the arena in Kent, WA. You kinda gotta go view the video for yourself but, trust me, it’s highly entertaining. … Of course it automatically caused me to harken back to my brushes as a WHL broadcaster with fans around Western Canada and thank God there were no cell phone videos back then. Let’s see … there were flare ups in Brandon, P.A., Moose Jaw, the infamous of all in Swift Current, but also Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Prince George, Vancouver, Kelowna, and definitely in Portland. That last one was Taco Bell Night at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum in 1998 where 7,000 fans were given “ring-a-ling” bells and something I said got the fans around the broadcast location upset, and they pelted me with them. Thankfully a few ‘Hawks fans formed a barrier around my booth so I could take cover.

After dozens and dozens of hours of C.B.T. (look it up) I can finally, confidently, admit that in fact I was the problem, and not those fans. (So maybe Jon’s at fault in this case?????)

But dear God it was fun!

7 – CFL: CFL rookie camps open on Wednesday and main training camps open a week from today. CFL On TSN’s newest addition Jim Barker joined the RP Show on Friday and predicted a Winnipeg-Toronto Grey Cup in Hamilton this November. He’s the first I’ve seen make a prediction. I’ll go with Calgary-Hamilton, which is probably the Kiss Of Death for both franchises. But wouldn’t that be something???? The Stampeders versus Bo.

8 – CFL STORYLINES: Here are your Top 10 CFL storylines heading into the 2023 season: 10) Will the Hamilton Tiger-Cats appear in the Grey Cup in their own stadium (like they did in 2021) but finally win it all and end the CFL’s longest drought? 9) Will Trevor Harris experience a career renaissance in Sask and revive the ailing franchise? 8) It’s the eighth year under Commissioner Randy Ambrosie. Will the league finally experience growth? 7A) Will the Chris Jones-led Edmonton Elks FINALLY win a home game under the name “Elks”? They never have. And 7B) Is it too late to go back to the name “Eskimos”? 6) At age 57 Bob Dyce has finally gotten the reins to a team, and not on the interim. Can he be the one to turn the Ottawa RedBlacks around? 5) Can the BC Lions win without Nathan Rourke? 4A) Will Cody Fajardo revive his career in Montreal and prove the Riders were the problem, not him? 4B) Will the Roughriders surprise the pundits or is a pre-Labour Day housecleaning in the cards? 3) Did the Calgary Stampeders make the right move in handing the keys to the franchise to 3rd-year QB Jake Maier? 2) Do the Winnipeg Blue Bombers make it to a fourth straight Grey Cup? And do they win it?? And … 1) How will Bo Levi Mitchell avenge being discarded by the Calgary Stampeders, the franchise with whom he won two Grey Cups and became their all-time passing leader?

9 – OTHER FOOTBALL: On this first weekend back in the USA, the TV channels were rife with live broadcasts of the USFL. By name, NBC and Fox Sports 1. Unless my ears deceived me, Cris Collinsworth was at the microphone for the NBC game. I was only casually paying attention, but in that broadcast the announcer said, “Garrett Marino is the guilty party.” I thought, “Fella, you have no idea.” Anyway, Marino was guilty of some major foul on that occasion but also rung up a couple sacks and several more quarterback pressures. Frankly I was waiting to hear the former Roughrider bad boy be named a game star but alas, that honour went to the quarterbacks. … American CFL fans are waiting with bated breath for the full 2023 U.S. broadcast schedule. As was announced 10 days ago, 34 CFL games will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network this season. However these fans are used to every game being available on some ESPN platform or another. If every game isn’t available under this deal, there were be a lot of disappointed people.

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: The NLL topped a million fans in the seats in the 2022-23 season which is the most since 2008, and third-highest all-time. Growth! … For all these people driving electric cars, where do they find extension cords that long?? … I found it odd that Hall of Fame Calgary Flames broadcaster Peter Maher said his favourite all-time Flame was Matthew Tkachuk. Why odd? Because Pete never called Tkachuk’s games! Maher retired in 2014 and Chucky didn’t show up in Cowtown till 2016. … The first person in the hotel gym controls the TV. *Mike Kelly voice* –> Now what don’t we understand about that?? … ESPN NHL play-by-play man Sean McDonough sounds almost exactly like Vegas Golden Knights pbp man Dave Gaucher. … Wayne Gretzky’s intermission analysis during the second intermission of Game 2 between Edmonton and Las Vegas was the best I’ve seen anywhere all spring. It got me to’wondering about the long-accepted criticism of Wayne’s time as head coach of the Arizona Coyotes that, “Wayne wasn’t a good coach because he’s so gifted, he couldn’t relate to the average player.” … How about this? Wayne’s just fine at explaining the game in layman’s terms. Maybe he just had sh*tty players in Arizona??!! … AND HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen