Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts
2 – HALFTIME SHOW – The next home game for the Rush is Friday, January 2 against these same Halifax Thunderbirds. I’m not sure what the organization has lined up for halftime, but they can do the superdogs every single game if they want to and I think fans would be happy with that. Almost nobody left their seat for the show last weekend and the dogs got wild applause after each relay race.
3 – DISCOUNTED TICKETS – The Riders did this and now the Rush are doing it and it’s bad business, as far as I’m concerned. In the offseason, I get a call from a ticket agent of the Rush asking me if I wanted to renew the same flex pack I had last season, which was ten President’s Club seats at $85 a game. Naturally, I say yes as I have become a big fan. This week I see that they’ve discounted those same seats 40% for the upcoming game on January 2nd so why would I re-up next year at the regular price when I know I can just cherry pick these heavily discounted games? Clearly, the tickets are not in high demand so there is no advantage to me buying in the offseason. I will just buy one game at a time and hope the Rush decide to throw away the odd game like they are doing next week. The message you are sending is that the tickets are worth $50 and so when you try to sell them for $85, nobody is going to bite when you have cheapened the product. Leave the price as it is, work harder to get people through the door and promote the product, not the ‘cheap’ price. For a seat where staff come to you and bring you your refreshments and you get a midfield view of watching the best lacrosse players in the world, $85 is not expensive …. until you realize they are willing to let it go for $50.
4 – WORLD JUNIORS – Canada was a 5.5 goal favorite to beat Latvia on Saturday night and you couldn’t even wager on a Latvia win if playing Sport Select. So a 2-1 overtime victory for Canada can hardly be looked at as some sort of major accomplishment. Yet, that didn’t stop one headline on X from a media outlet that stated ‘Canada upsets Latvia in overtime’. The win on opening night against Czechia wasn’t super impressive either but I still expect Canada to roll to the gold medal when all is said and done.
5 – POOR SPORTSMANSHIP – The Canadians are coached by Dale Hunter, so I don’t expect this group to be known for sportsmanship and discipline. Nevertheless, that still doesn’t make it easy for me to cheer for a smug group of kids who see no issue engaging in pregame warmup shenanigans or tasteless bum tapping after scoring the empty netter or neglecting to shake hands at the conclusion of the win. I realize some of you reading this think I’m making a mountain of a molehill and showing a ‘soft’ side but if the shoe was on the other foot, Canadian fans would be screaming from the tallest rooftop. I think it was just last year where Canadian players and fans complained about the unnecessary physical style of Finland when they played Canada. Once upon a time I never ever pictured a day where Canada would whine about Finland playing too rough.
6 – CROWD SIZE – Attendance at the World Juniors in Minneapolis, so far, hasn’t been great. Canada’s game against Latvia was played in front of a near empty house. There seems to be a tremendous amount of wonder as to why this would be when Minnesota is so close to the Canadian border. Perhaps I can shed a bit of light on the matter. CTV and CBC have been pushing the irrational fear that Canadians could be detained and never returned to their homeland if they cross the border, so I’m going to suggest that’s the main reason. There’s also a matter of cost but the same news outlets have been parroting government talking points about how well Canadians are doing as far as having loads of money to spend so that can’t possibly be it. Could Canada also throw the tournament and not win because should they defeat the US in the gold medal game, Trump may just decide to keep the players in America and charge them with a crime?
7 – BLOCKING SHOTS – This remains one of hockey’s bigger mysteries to me. Why do coaches insist on their players blocking shots? There seems to be this philosophy that players need to perform as though there is no such thing as a goaltender. On Saturday night, Cole Hutson was stretchered off the ice after taking a puck in the back of the head. Earlier this season, Charlie McAvoy missed several weeks after taking a puck in the face. Columbus standout defenseman Zach Werenski is on the shelf for blocking a shot that appeared to injure his leg in a game before Christmas. The upside is that a shot never gets through to a goaltender who is expected to make the save. The downside is you end up with really good players injured or worse. McAvoy is lucky his entire face didn’t cave in. Nothing will change but hockey used to be played with minimal shot blocking and the games were fine. I’d also argue that goalies are more likely to make a save when they don’t have to worry about a defender’s stick in the lane or the puck deflecting off his own teammate’s body part.
8 – SJHLer AT SPENGLER – The Spengler Cup is also taking place this weekend and it’s great to see former Battlefords North Stars goaltender Josh Kotai playing for the US College Selects. Kotai backstopped the Stars to an SJHL title in 2022 and has been excelling at Augustana University ever since. He’s currently 10-6-and-3 with a 2.25-GAA and .929-SPCT. I always have a hard time getting over the billboard advertising on the jerseys and pants, but once I do … I thoroughly enjoy watching the Spengler. It would be a bucket list item for me to, one day, go to Switzerland and take in the event.
9 – STEELERS WR SUSPENDED – DK Metcalf has been suspended for two games after he reached up into the stands and got physical with a heckling fan last weekend. The incident sparked a debate on a podcast with Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson and the two of them agreed to disagree. Sharpe said to simply ignore the taunts and call security. Johnson said to ramp up your trash talk game and give it back. Ordinarily, I’d be on the side of Sharpe and, simply, not give any undue attention to scum bag fans like this but if you view yourself as being a very good verbal sparrer then I say give it back. Chances are the fan will end up traumatized and you win. In this case, the fan has come public and pleading with the public to accept his side, which is to say no racial taunt was uttered. Having said that, his explanation that he wanted to get a jersey signed in the middle of a game is stupid, to say the least. Yeah, I’m sure DeKaylin (which if he wanted to be called that, he wouldn’t use DK) has all sorts of time to sign jerseys while he’s catching touchdowns.
10 – HAPPY NEW YEAR – To that end, I enjoy reading the comments people post on my articles, even the hateful ones that are written by cowards who aren’t even brave enough to use their real name. Last week, I noticed I got some ‘negative’ clicks for wishing Merry Christmas to people. It must be wonderful to be that miserable or dislike a person that much. I remember back in the day of hockey message boards, someone was being super critical of me in a derogatory way and using a fake name. By accident, that person was revealed to me as being someone I thought was a ‘friend’ so nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to this stuff being posted by brave anonymous keyboard warriors. During peak Covid times, I would get emails from burner accounts threatening to kill me or wishing me death all because I envisioned econonic and society ruin and I also just wanted citizens to be left alone and live life freely without government interference and lies. My only comeback to the trolls is to shower them with kindness and encourage you to get as many Covid booster shots as you can. I will even drive you to the nearest clinic. Happy New Year.
(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)
Happy New Year Mike I retired from commenting. The reason you, Rod, and Mitch have lasted is because all three of you tell the truth. Glen has a good WHL take and is affable. This remains the best blog. As you are all in your 50s. The kids out there would be wise to follow this and the r.p show. At the end of the day. People are sheep. They have been in Saskatchewan since 1944 and oh believe me it will be getting worse. I renewed my Roughrider season ticket when. It would be cost effective not to and… Read more »
Great to hear from you again. Stay well.
My 50’s have long been in the rear view mirror! LOL!
Merry Christmas Mike and a Happy New Year. I don’t always agree with your take on things, but different points of view are great to hear.
Hockey players now are all rich or upper middle class spoiled entitled brats , it’s no surprise to it displaying on the ice.
4 – WORLD JUNIORS I feel sorry for Gavin McKenna. With the possible exception of Tig Iginla Canada has no one with enough ‘hockey IQ’ to play with him. He’s constantly putting the puck where it needs to be but his teammate zigged when he should have zagged so it looks like a bad pass. I think Iginla/McKenna would be good but I don’t expect Hunter to try it.
I think the top 3 scorers in both the OHL and WHL were left home. I mean they usually win playing these goofy roster games but when they don’t …they have only the suits who decide on the team to blame.
I’m guessing you never played hockey Mike, on the subject of blocking shots. It’s about the same as a pitcher doing an “ole” instead of trying to catch or stop the ball. If it’s in your path do something about it! Merry Christmas ( yes we still say that!) and Happy New Year Mike!
I certainly never played at a level high enough where I’d want launch myself in front of a 100mph puck. I think going back to the 80s, shots were blocked but they were blocked based on angles and the shots go directly into the shinguards rather than playing Russian Roulette with your entire body. I also wouldn’t want $10m per year players like McAvoy and Werenski blocking shots.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR
I think shot-blocking really became en-vogue when players began to don these crazy suits of armour. How many guys were stepping in front of Bobby Hull bombs?
I have to say I agree with you this crew of Canadians are kinda hard to root for. Full props to Porter Matrone for owning his mistake. I also agree with your take about attendance’s but I will also admit I had no idea the tournament was in Minnesota until I started to watch the first Canadian game. I traveled to the states 5 times this year and never once did I encounter any issues. If anything and this is just personal experience I find Americans more how we like to envision Canadians to be, laid back polite, welcoming, engaging,… Read more »
You are 100% correct on the cross border experience. I have much the same opinions on it from when I go across. The worst thing about going to the US is coming back to Canada and encountering some small man syndrome border agent who tries his best to make me feel like a criminal for going down.
I can’t say I have encountered an issue at any borders to or from Canada ( my International travel is limited to the US through) If anything I always think it’s too easy to get into Canada sometimes.
I’ve never had any issues crossing into the USA. I like that the border agents have “power”…don’t bother asking to see thier supervisor. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to make yourself the best interaction they have all day.
“If they played these games in the US, the rinks would be full.”
Games played in the US, blames Canada.
Got it.
I’m not sure what you mean. I will take a bit of a leap and surmise you are talking about how I’ve talked about the level of passion American fans have for their sports compared to Canadian….well this is based on their HOMETOWN teams. The UofS Huskies football team draws 3500 to a game that would bring out 60,000 if it was played in a similar sized American market.
Team Canada Junior Hockey Championship 2025/26; terrible assembly of players who are out of their element to on Ice play. Most of the players can’t read Gavin Mckenna as he’s far and above superior to a intellectual game the other players don’t have. The head coach needs to inject some others onto the roster for a change up if they want to win, Hello Carter Bear. Canada is struggling bad with their game doesn’t bode well.