Scruffy’s This N That

1 – SORRY NATE: With the emotion still raw in Milan, Nathan McKinnon told reporters “you be the judge of who the better team was”.  The Canadian forward is not wrong, but history will show Jack Hughes scored the golden goal to give the US its first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey since 1980. As NBC’s Ed Olczyk said midway thru the third, “the Americans are hanging on and trying to get this game to overtime where one shot can win it.” How prophetic!

If McKinnon had scored on an empty net instead of hitting the post, if Devon Toews hadn’t been stopped by the paddle of Connor Hellebuyck in a save resembling one Braden Holtby made when Washington beat Vegas for the Stanley Cup, if Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini score on breakaways and if Canada converts on a two-man advantage, they are likely the gold medallists and a lot of the post-game BS we saw wouldn’t have happened but they are not. End of story!

The gold medal game gave us everything except the desired result north of the 49^th parallel. It isn’t the first time the better team on the ice has lost and it won’t be the last. It sucks, but we move on. Even though the best three players in the world were on the ice for Canada at the same time, they all made a mistake and Canada lost. We don’t like it, but we move on. I’m sure with March Madness, Opening Day and the Masters on the horizon, many in the US will have a new flavour of the day. 

2 – 3-on-3: I have said it before in this column before the Olympics started and I will say it again: 3-on-3 overtime is not the way you end a gold medal or a championship game. Hockey fans would have gone through the highs and lows of an overtime the way it should be in the playoffs. 

The NHL scraps 3-on-3’s and shootouts in the playoffs. Major League Baseball scraps the ghost runner on 2^nd once the playoffs hit. The NFL and CFL don’t resort to seven on seven to decide playoff games and the NBA doesn’t hold a three-point competition to decide playoff games. They play the game under the rules of the sport which is exactly what should be happening in international hockey. The IIHF doesn’t think so though. They feel a gimmick is needed to end a game. That’s a philosophy that needs to change. 

3 – CONNOR HELLEBUYCK: Winnipeggers love their goaltender, but they probably didn’t Sunday morning as he stole the gold medal away from Team Canada. While they love last year’s Vezina and Hart Trophy winner, they have to wonder why they can’t get the performance Hellebuyck gave in the Olympics to their team in the playoffs. Safe to say that if Hellebuyck had played like that in the playoffs the last two years, they would have gone a lot further than they did. The Jets probably aren’t making the playoffs this year, but with Hellebuyck, Morrissey, Scheifele, Connor and Vilardi there along with what should be a top 7 draft pick, Winnipeg should be back in the Western Conference hunt next year and beyond. 

While one can’t criticize Jordan Binnington for his performance in Milan, goaltending was the difference. Going into Four Nations and Olympics, talks about Canada’s goaltending being weak were strong. Is this what propels Hockey Canada to doing something to produce goalies like what we used to have knowing the US has good goalies galore?

4 – CONNOR MCDAVID: I and many others have said it before, and we were saying it again this week: Connor McDavid is the Josh Allen of the NHL. The Oilers superstar has done it all on an individual basis, but he can’t get to the top of the mountain. Yes, he has a World Junior title and a Four Nations championship on his resume, but we all know that isn’t what he wants. He also didn’t need Mark Spector asking him a terrible question upon his return — OK, the question wasn’t that bad but the way he framed it was atrocious but that’s another story and this comes from a guy who has been known to ask some dumb questions over the years.

What is known is that the desire and hunger Connor has to be at the top of the mountain hasn’t decreased. While others like Nathan McKinnon, Mitch Marner and Mark Stone did not play for their teams in their first post-break game, McDavid was right back on the ice with his Oilers teammates because he would have it no other way. Will it translate to success this year? I doubt it. While Edmonton found a way to get to the Stanley Cup Final the last two years, they will not do it this year barring some miracles from GM Stan Bowman and I have zero confidence in him to do that. The goaltending is still a mess and while it’s not his fault, Bowman needs to find someone to take Darnell Nurse’s contract off the team’s books.  Good luck with that! There is talk that yet another head coach might be coming in the future, but Edmonton isn’t paying Jay Woodcroft, Knoblauch and another guy—at least not right now. I do wonder how much longer Pete DeBoer stays unemployed as some team will pick him up, but I don’t see Edmonton being that team unless they crash right out of the playoffs. 

5 – 2030: Some can start whining now, but in four years time we will probably be up early on a Sunday morning to watch another Canada-US gold medal game in France and both teams will be unbelievably stacked again. Canada can have the all Mack line of McKinnon, McDavid and McKenna. Macklin Celebrini, Nick Suzuki, Mitch Marner, Cole Makar and Thomas Harley will all likely be back, Connor Bedard will be on the team, Matthew Schaefer will be on the team as will Jacob Chychrun and Wyatt Johnston.

The Americans will have Jack Hughes, Quinn Hughes, the Tkachuks, Jake Sanderson, Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel back and they can add guys like Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson, Cutter Gauthier, Will Smith and Dustin Wolf.  You know the other countries will also be stacked and hopefully Russia returns to the fold so we can look forward to another two weeks of intense, great hockey.

6 – GLOBAL IMPACT: Will the U-S win move the needle? The sport got a lot of interest in 1980 after the Miracle On Ice and the NHL wouldn’t be close to what it is today had it not been for the Wayne Gretzky trade to L.A.  There are areas of the U-S where this victory didn’t move the needle.  The U-S won, we move on. Numbers do show though that more and more young kids are playing the game south of the 49^th thanks to the hard work of teams in non-hockey states like Florida, Carolina, California and Arizona. Will there be an increase in states where you wouldn’t expect it?  If it does, the game is in great shape globally. 

7 – LONGSHOT CUP WINNER: Now that the Olympics are over, the stretch run has started in the NHL.  For some teams like Toronto, Buffalo and Columbus the break came at the wrong time.  For teams like Edmonton, Detroit and Vegas the break came at the right time and for a team like Vancouver, they are just asking why the season just couldn’t have ended at the break. 

While Colorado and Tampa continue to be the favourites amongst places like Bet365, Coolbet and other books to be Stanley Cup champions, I am inclined to post a small investment on the Minnesota Wild who are sitting at +1800 or 19-1.  They have already shown they mean business by getting Quinn Hughes. They have over 10 million in cap space, so I expect them to make another couple of moves before the deadline (Hello Steve Stamkos) and they come out of the break sporting a 16-5-5 record.  GM Bill Guerin has already struck gold this year so don’t bet against him to achieve the daily double.  

8 – ABS SYSTEM:  Baseball is going to a full automated ball-strike system this season and if the first few games of spring training mean anything, there are going to be some embarrassed umps.  In the first week of games, there have been calls challenged where the result of the pitch has been two or four inches off the plate which isn’t bad, but there have been a few where a ball has been a strike basically right down the middle.  That can’t sit well with the ump behind the plate when such a massive error is shown to all. I believe there have been unlimited challenges in the pre-season, but that gets whittled down to three per team in the regular season, but the home plate ump has to be on notice knowing that his performance will be scrutinized if he makes some horrendous calls. Yes, it isn’t fair when an ump calls a strike and ABS shows it to be a ball by three inches or less. One has to think the success rate of challenge per ump will be recorded as well making one wonder what baseball and the umpires union will do to guys in the bottom tier of challenges when the season is over.

Where is Angel Hernandez when you need him?

9 – 4 POINT FIELD GOALS: The United Football League introduced some rule changes for the upcoming season.  One of them is a field goal that is good from 60 or over yards would be worth 4 points.  Kickers have gotten better over the years. A 50 plus yard field goal used to be seen as a gamble, but now a lot of head coaches have no problem in sending their kicker out to try a 50 plus yarder and we are seeing a lot of 60-yard field goals as well.  I’ve often wondered if the NFL would ever try and reward teams for a 60 yarder by giving them four points since a 60-yard kick is as good as a 25 yard one and the UFL is beating them to the punch.  I’m down with it.  I’ll be interested to see if the NFL or CFL consider doing something like this. 

The changes calling for no punts if you have crossed the 50 yard line and three point conversions with the ball placed at the eight yard line are too gimmicky for me—especially the three point PAT. 

At the end of the day, I’m probably not watching the UFL as I am waiting for the CFL season to start and hockey playoffs, the baseball season, March Madness and golf will get me there, but I am sure I will hear about it while seeing highlights.

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• What do you think Nathan McKinnon and the other Canadians did with the stuffy they were given after getting the silver medal?  If Nate has a dog, I’m guessing he got a new chew toy from Milan if the stuffy even got out of the dressing room – or maybe in it if there was a trash can outside the dressing room.
• We are now less than 100 days to the first game of the 2026 CFL season. Have you bought your popcorn yet?
• The New York Mets will be offering a thing called “The Dog Bowl” this year.  For $19.99, you get 15 hot dogs stuffed inside a Mets batting helmet. Can the Pats do this on Wiener Wednesday with a hockey helmet? 😊
• Brad Gushue’s last Brier is in his hometown. We know he is making the final right? 

That’s all I got.  Have a great week and remember Saskatchewan, it is Telemiracle Weekend so “RING THOSE PHONES”!