Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – RUSH SCHEDULE/ATTENDANCE – The Rush are home to Oshawa next Saturday and then are off the following week before closing out the month on January 30th at Calgary to face the last place Roughnecks.  The Rush will be back in front of a crowd that has been average around 5500 through three dates, which marks the worst since the team moved to Saskatoon in 2016.  In fact, since the team averaged 14,921 in 2017, the attendance figures have been on a steady decline and they have only broke the 10,000 mark twice since Covid.

3 – ULLMARK RUMOUR – This wild story that’s making its rounds on social media about Linus Ullmark and his Ottawa Senators teammates is really something else.  The fact that GM Steve Staios had to go public and address it doesn’t help the situation.  If it is not true, the onus is on Ullmark or his wife to come out publicly and provide some evidence as such.  I’m sorry that maybe your private life is going to be disrupted and perhaps people are going to be in to your business when they shouldn’t be, but you have a whole bunch of teammates that are affected by, apparent, baseless rumours and putting out this fire can only be done by Ullmark and/or his wife.  It’s not unlike the salacious story about Connor Bedard last year.  Say what you want about that, but the Hawks didn’t do Bedard any favors by how they handled the matter and his season suffered (maybe as a consequence). The team is lucky he didn’t ask out of there.

4 – NHL EVASIVE – The problem I’ve always had with the NHL is how vague they are when it comes to publication of anything that could be of interest to the fans.  We live in a time where social media is going to run rampant with information and some of it will be true and some of it will be 100% untrue.  People will believe what they want and a story doesn’t need to be true in order for it to be disruptive.  The fact this Ottawa story is believable is yet another bullet in the chamber for people who go on about hockey culture and how toxic it can be.  

5 – FOOTBALL – I’m sorry but if you are still one of these people who think the CFL game is superior to the NFL then we can’t even begin to have a conversation.  This NFL season has been one for the ages and the two wildcard playoff games on Saturday were both nailbiters that came down to the final whistle.  The Rams survived a scare at the hands of Carolina while the Bears stunned Green Bay 31-27 after trailing 21-3 at halftime.  Analytics just about wrecked Chicago’s ability to win the game but the Packers choked enough to allow the Bears to come all the way back.  I’m not sure if this is something that will be discussed a great deal but Matt Lafleur’s future in Green Bay, at least, should be reviewed.  He’s been behind some weird second half game plans over the last five years during key games.

6 – HOCKEY JUNIORS – Canada’s World Junior team won the bronze medal last weekend, which normally isn’t enough for a country that is supposed to be on top of the mountain when it comes to hockey supremacy but I’m getting a sense Canadians are resigned to the fact that the rest of the world is catching up and the days of dominating are over.  I’m not so sure that other countries have caught up in so much as we’ve slipped but I don’t imagine I’m going to be in the majority when it comes to that line of thinking.

7 – THE OLD DAYS – Gone are the days of a Wendel Clark skating from sunrise to sunset (and then some) on a small town Saskatchewan rink.  To make it to the NHL now you have to be factory trained through various elite programs and you have to come from a family prepared to spend big dollars to invest in a potential future in the game at the highest level.  I can’t help but wonder how many kids have been left behind because families aren’t willing to let their 13-year-old move away from home or simply don’t have the financial means to support their child playing high level hockey through his teenaged years.

8 – EXPENSIVE – Hockey has always been an expensive sport and I know some of you will say you can still do it at a minimal expense but that’s not true in rural communities for sure where you have to be able to find money for gas, hotels, and a lot of eating out on top of the exorbitant equipment costs.  I was in a debate on social media about checking the occupations of the parents of some of the young players who are either in the NHL or near NHL ready and while I was scoffed at, here are a few and I don’t think you can argue about financial means:  Gavin McKenna’s dad is Vice President of Yukon Energy.  Keaton Verhoeff’s dad is a licensed realtor.  Adam Fantilli’s dad is Vice President of Villa Kitchens and Fine Cabinetry.  Macklin Celebrini’s dad is a former professional soccer player and Vice President of Player Health and Performance for the Golden State Warriors.  Beckett Sennecke’s dad owns Dundene Homes.  It’s a fun exercise.  Try it yourself and let me know when you find someone who comes from a broken home and a modest family income.  Finances are only part of the picture.  You also need to have, at least, one parent who has the job flexibility to come and go with your hockey schedule.

9 – COMPARISONS – The parent occupation exercise can be done with other sports:  Falcons RB Bijan Robinson comes from a broken home and was raised by his grandparents.  Jamar Chase’s dad is a case manager of a district court.  Dak Prescott’s story about his mom passing away from cancer is quite well known but what isn’t as well known is that his mom managed the I-220 Travel Plaza and his dad was a city bus driver.  Justin Jefferson’s mom worked as an administrator at a sheriff’s office while his dad was an industrial supply salesman.  Sadly, Justin’s mom died just a couple of months ago.  

10 – ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY – While hockey has been getting more attention in recent years about the cost to play, the reality is that it’s always been this way.  I came from a home where I had divorced parents and a mom who was on a lower income so my hockey ‘career’ never got off the ground.  But I loved sports and played everything else that I had access to, which included soccer, basketball, baseball, boxing, and track.  I did play a ton of road and floor hockey with my friends who were also in ice hockey.  In fact I played so much of it that I can recall being amongst a group of peers in my early 20s and someone asked me what my ice hockey background was because I had good ‘hockey sense’.  I could only laugh and said my vision was limited to streets and gyms.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)