Scruffy’s This N That

1 – AND SO IT BEGINS:  The time to praise/criticize your Saskatchewan Roughriders begins this weekend as main camp gets underway in Saskatoon. There is optimism in Riderville and there should be after what Corey Mace and company did in year one, but once again it will be a very competitive Western Conference. I still think it will be a three-team race for first with BC, Winnipeg and Saskatchewan fighting it out. Edmonton is better, but they aren’t quite there yet and Calgary is still rebuilding but won’t be the pushover they were last year.

As the Riders break camp, I think Mace and GM Jeremy O’Day have a pretty good idea as to who is and who isn’t going to make the roster. Some guys will obviously turn heads and earn at worst a practice roster spot but one has to think that at least 80 percent of the roster is already known. Some of the questions going in is who will be RB2 behind AJ Ouellette? Who fills the spot left vacant by Ajou Ajou? And who will take over for Adam Korsak as punter?

The continuity that the team has going into this season should pay huge dividends down the road.  As I have said before, this season depends on keeping Trevor Harris on the field.  If he does, things will go well. If he doesn’t, the torches and pitchforks will come out as I am not sold on Jake Maier.  

2 – THE COLLAROS SITUATION: I don’t know how you live your life and how you do it is completely up to you. For me, I am never far away from my phone so if I can get an e-mail, text or phone call I know about it pretty quickly. Whether or not I choose to respond is up to me. That being said, I am guessing Zach Collaros knew that the Canadian Centre for Ethics and Sport was trying to get a hold of him and he should have responded and made plans for a drug test to be performed instead of dismissing it,

When the CCES did not get a response, did they contact the organization? Are they allowed to? Did they contact his agent? I am guessing Collaros was not on one of those Aaron Rodgers isolation things and that someone knew where he was. If unavailable, the organization or agent could have let them know.

Both sides are wrong here and I guess that is why the suspension is just one game and not two. Collaros is upset over how this has played itself out and he should be. At worse, he should have been allowed to have the test performed once he found out about it. At the end of the day, it’s a bizarre story that rightly or wrongly gives a bad look to the Winnipeg quarterback but is one that should not tarnish his image although with some I am guessing it already has.

3 – BRAYDEN LENIUS: Former Riders receiver Brayden Lenius announced his retirement this week. Lenius was never the same after attending an NFL training camp. He’s not the first one to be like that. I’d love to know why because at the end of the day, it is still football. As a Riders fan, it has to make you wonder if Ajou Ajou will be the same player he was if he returns from the Indianapolis Colts.

4 – THE TIME IS NOW: Despite the recent struggles of the Regina Pats, I have constantly said in this space that I like what Pats GM Al Millar is doing with the club. Winning the draft lottery certainly accelerated the plan as you knew it meant Maddox Schultz would stay in Regina. Millar saw a chance to make it even better as he swung a trade with Kelowna to get Liam Pue with the 3^rd overall pick meaning Regina got the two best forwards in the draft and two players who were thought by many to go 1-2.

As one hockey mind told me this week, if Pats fans thought the combination of Adam Brooks and Sam Steel were lethal, they ain’t seen nothing yet. The game has changed tremendously but the best duo I ever saw was Jock Callender and Wally Schreiber. You can add Dave Michayluk to that list too. 

Both can play 34 games with the club next year, but they apparently can’t play at the same time for whatever reason. I don’t know how the Pats are going to manage that. I don’t know how strong the Pat Canadians will be after winning the Telus Cup but if they have a team capable of repeating because of Schultz, I think you let him play as much as he can with the Pat C’s. That’s not my decision to make. The Pats never really got the chance to build around Connor Bedard because of the pandemic and it showed. There are no excuses now. Millar has some great building blocks as he looks to get this team back to contending for the Ed Chynoweth Cup and beyond. I just hope for Regina hockey fans that the higher-ups don’t make it a mortgage payment to see them play. Do it right and the Brandt Centre should be full or close to it on many nights for the next few years. For what it’s worth, I’ve also heard that defenceman Charley Leonard, taken 46^th overall, is also a guy you will want to keep your eye on moving forward.in

5 – STANLEY CUP THOUGHTS: We are well into Round 2 of the playoffs. I still can’t believe how Winnipeg managed to fight back to move on. A friend of mine and his wife went to Game 7 and with four minutes to go she asked him if he wanted to leave to which he said nope, I want to sit here until it’s over and applaud them for a great season. Little did they know. He joked that he had taken his wife’s advice and left that the ride back to Regina would have been somewhat frosty.No kidding HAHA! Here are some 2^nd round thoughts. 

• Wayyyyyy too much attention has been given on the Sam Bennett “brush” against Anthony Stolarz. Other goalies have been hit much harder than Stolarz in this playoffs (see Calvin Pickard in Game 6 vs LA) and they haven’t been blown up the way this one has. Tell me again the Toronto/national media doesn’t want the Leafs to win.  
• The p x p isn’t the same, but the ESPN/TNT broadcasts are far superior to what Rogers is giving us pre/postgame and intermissions.  
• The latest Stanley Cup odds have Winnipeg and Washington at the bottom of the ladder. Weren’t the Jets and Capitals the two best regular-season teams in the NHL? Would I be surprised to see that as a Stanley Cup Final matchup? No!  If the truth be known, an argument could be made for several SCF matchups with all eight remaining teams.

6 – WEARING THE MAPLE LEAF: Were you surprised to hear Sidney Crosby say he would play for Team Canada at the Worlds? I was, but good on Sid.  Good on Nathan McKinnon and Marc-Andre Fleury as well. 

We know the 37-year-old loves hockey and this is a chance for him to keep playing and show some younger guys what it takes to become the player he has been. You’re not going to tell me that someone like Macklin Celebrini will learn a lot from seeing how Crosby handles himself. This might be part of the reason as well as Sid starts to pass the torch to the next generation.

The Four Nations Cup showed us Sid can still play with the elite in high-calibre hockey. This tournament won’t give him the same challenge, but we saw how much he was energized wearing Canada colours and I am guessing he will be a member of Canada’s squad at the Olympics. 

As for McKinnon, he gets a chance to play with his fellow Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia native and we know what Fleury did when he played with Crosby. It brings some interest to the Worlds which for obvious reasons doesn’t provide Canadians with the same interest that other international events do. 

By the way was Connor Bedard asked to play for Canada? If he was, why did he say no? If he wasn’t, why? He didn’t have the greatest year, but he still deserves an opportunity.

7 – THE FUTURE OF THE AVALANCHE: It’s funny how a fanbase can turn with just one game. Going into the Dallas-Colorado series, Avalanche fans weren’t bemoaning the fact that their team was going up against Mikko Rantanen in the first round of the playoffs. As they should, they were confident that Nathan McKinnon, Cale Makar, Marty Necas and Mackenzie Blackwood could take out a Dallas team that didn’t have Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen and move into Round 2.

Rantanen’s Game 7 heroics changed the narrative with those fans. Some have even gone as far as saying coach Jared Bednar should be dismissed. That is laughable. The Saskatchewan product is one of the best head coaches in the NHL and if he were let go, he would be employed again very soon. It’s not like he called for a stupid challenge that cost his team the series unlike Jim Hiller.

That being said, I wonder if we have seen the best of the Avs for a while. There isn’t a lot when it comes to prospects. The Avalanche don’t have a 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd round pick in the upcoming draft and the 2026 draft.  Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle are UFA’s and Necas is a UFA at the end of next season. 

The team with the most interesting off-season might very well be Colorado. They need to make some moves to stay relevant in a Central Division which is extremely competitive.  

8 – C’MON TSN: I appreciate the fact TSN is allowing junior hockey fans to see the WHL Final as Spokane meets Medicine Hat. I had no idea who would be doing p x p for the series. When David Foot came on screen, I had to find out who he was and was disappointed to see that he works for the Belleville Senators of the American Hockey League. Nothing against David who was fine with the broadcast, but if you are going to parachute someone into the series bring in a WHL guy that knows the league. There are so many good p x p guys in the WHL who would have loved the opportunity. I even wonder about guys like Peter Loubardias, Brian Munz and Dustin Nielson. At the end of the day, it’s not a huge thing but I question the thought-making process.

9 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• I wonder what team will sign RFA Matthew Knies to an offer sheet. It is going to happen and even though the salary cap is going up, it will be tough for Toronto to keep him.
• Congratulations to Randy Bryden and his Regina rink for winning the World Senior Curling Championship last weekend.  It’s been a pretty good 12 months for Randy and his son Josh who is starting to become a fixture on the Saskatchewan curling scene.
• Good luck to the Melfort Mustangs as they try to bring the Centennial Cup back to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. Trevor Blevins’ crew was oh so close to doing it last year.
• If there has been a better junior hockey franchise over the last 20 years than the London Knights, please tell me who it is. 

That’s all I got! Have a great week!