Scruffy’s This N That

1 – O’DAY HATERS CAN ZIP IT: Safe to say there are some in Rider Nation who have not given Jeremy O’Day a fair shake.  The Riders GM has been and still is being scrutinized despite the fact he built a Grey Cup champion last year.  Many were flabbergasted when it was decided Craig Dickenson had to go as head coach after back-to-back six-win seasons, but O’Day and President Craig Reynolds were given a vote of confidence. 

Those six-win seasons are so far in the rearview mirror now as O’Day successfully built a championship team with his best acquisition arguably being Head Coach Corey Mace while Reynolds has overseen the operation while trying to draw people inside Mosaic Stadium.  While there is still a lot of anger with some over those two, it was shown this week that perhaps it is time to find someone new to bitch about. 

O’Day and company won the inaugural Ted Goveia Football Operations award this week in Edmonton. That award goes to the team that demonstrated the best scouting, roster building and leadership.  

J-O did what the fanbase wanted. He brought them home a Grey Cup and that doesn’t happen very often around here.  Is he perfect? Absolutely he’s not, but this just in—-either are you! Concerns about the team going into 2026 are valid, but you knew going into free agency that the team wouldn’t be able to keep everyone and while the defence has taken a hit, O’Day has found guys like Josh Woods and James Vaughters that he hopes can be suitable replacements and we need to see what the replacement plan is at quarterback.  Getting Jack Coan back is a sign that perhaps the coaching staff sees that he can be Trevor Harris’ replacement when that time comes.  There is tremendous optimism going into training camp that the team can repeat because of what O’Day and his crew have done.

The bottom line is the O’Day haters need to dial it back a little because its obvious he is getting the job done as the Goveia award indicates.

2 – TREVOR HARRIS:  Some including me wondered aloud if the Grey Cup game might have been Trevor Harris’s last. Would anyone have blamed the soon to be 40-year-old quarterback if he rode off into the sunset having claimed a Grey Cup championship while cementing himself into the lore of Saskatchewan Roughrider history?  The Leader-Post’s Taylor Shire had a great interview with Harris this week who says he might just continue on after this season. 

Harris says having that Grey Cup (his 3rd overall, but first as a starter) on his resume has fueled his desire to get another one.  If he can do that, he may go down as the best QB in Rider history seeing the others to get the /=S=/ to the promised land have only done so once while he will have done it twice. 

No one knows what type of season Harris will have, but if he is anywhere close to where he was last season, the Riders have a great chance to repeat.  As I said last year, if he gets hurt all bets are off as the team will only go as far as his health.  He stayed healthy last year and you saw what happened.  The same sentence can be uttered this year.

3 – OVIE:  The NHL season is winding down, and the Washington Capitals will be on the outside looking in come playoff time.  It has a lot of people asking if we are seeing the last of Alex Ovechkin.  Ovie hit the 1000 career regular season and playoff goals milestone last week and now he is focussed on trying to get to 1016 goals to beat yet another record by Wayne Gretzky. He is coming off his 34^th career hat-trick against Utah on Thursday. He won’t get there this year, but is there any reason to think this is it for the Great 8?  He is still producing at the age of 40 as Thursday proved and while he isn’t getting the minutes in Washington that he has had, he can still put the puck in the net. Unless he wants to truly finish his career off in Russia, I think he will continue to be an NHL’er until he has every goal scoring record he can get and he will do it wearing the jersey he has worn for so many years. 

4 – THE OILERS: I think the Edmonton Oilers will make the playoffs, and they might very well win the pillow-soft Pacific. I think we all know that team has been a disaster this year and after Leon Draisaitl took some pointed shots just before the Olympics, Connor McDavid did the same after their loss to Tampa last weekend.  Who’s kidding who, this team is not as good as the one that lost Game 7 to Florida last year and that team may not have been as good as the team that lost to the Panthers two years ago.  Blame Stan Bowman! The Oilers GM, who admittedly can’t trade a guy like Darnell Nurse as much as he would probably like, has made some terrible moves.  The return in year one of the Trent Frederic contract has been a disaster, the decision not to try and sign Corey Perry to a new contract was a mistake as he is a guy you want in the room because of his leadership which is a big reason Tampa picked him up at the trade deadline and do we even have to talk about the goaltending? 

We have seen the frustration boil over a few times this year and it probably will again before the season is over.  Systematically, the Oilers are broken. You can see it.  They have only won three games in a row once this year.  ONCE! They haven’t had a four-game win streak or win four out of five.  Is Bowman the guy to get them out of this? One might have to ask that question to McDavid who is now officially on the clock wanting to see significant progress if not a Stanley Cup in the next two years.  You can talk about the Leafs off-season all you want, but to me it is Edmonton that will have the most interesting off-season as they need to do a lot to even get close to where they were two years ago.

5 – CLOSER TO HOME:  Still with the Oilers, I don’t see it happening anytime soon, but I wonder if they are considering or have ever considered their American Hockey League affiliate closer to home. The Flames have the Wranglers, the Jets have the Moose, Vancouver’s team is in Abbotsford while Edmonton’s resides in Bakersfield, California which as you know is not close to the Alberta capital. The NHL is not coming to Saskatoon anytime soon, but would the AHL? Could the Blades and an AHL team work in the Bridge City. For that matter, would the Pats and an AHL team work in Regina? I have no idea if any discussions have ever been had, but I have to think the Oilers would like to see their AHL team be a little more accessible to them.  If not, Saskatoon or Regina where do you put it.  I guess you could be like the Jets and have both them and the Moose play out of Rogers Place but what does that do to the Oil Kings? 

6 – WHL PLAYOFFS: It’s the best time of the year in the Western Hockey League.  The playoffs are underway with the Medicine Hat Tigers looking to keep the Ed in their barn. This just in—I like their chances.  As good as what the Tigers were last season, they were better this year in recording 51 wins.  That still wasn’t good enough to win the East which tells you how good of a job Curtis Hunt and company have done in Prince Albert.  Let’s be clear on one thing right now.  I loved the run Swift Current went on to win the league title a few years ago and I loved the run Moose Jaw when they brought home a WHL championship for the first time. I am guessing it will be crazy in Prince Albert for the next few weeks as the Raiders look to bring a title to a small Saskatchewan market.  It just means a little more in those communities as far as I’m concerned.  

The Regina Pats are back in the playoffs and while some say they only got in because Swift Current beat Moose Jaw in the final game of the season, the bottom line is they got in because they had enough points in the bank to get there.  Yes, they didn’t end the season on a great note, but no one is apologizing for that now. Brad Herauf’s squad had a lot of ups and downs over the season, but this was a team that wanted to get into the playoffs at the start of the year, and they were a team that had nine more wins than last year. That’s a big accomplishment no matter what way you look at it. 

Unless I am wrong, Maddox Schultz and Liam Pue won’t be available until the Regina Pat Canadians season is over and I think their season will go longer than the Pats one as they look to try and make it two straight Telus Cups.  Regina has the task of trying to solve the Tigers, who one might remember were a team that won 11 games just a couple of seasons ago. Not many are giving the Pats a chance to extend this series to five which is something I understand especially when you consider the last two results between the two.  At the end of the day though, we know playoffs can be crazy and it will be great to see Regina on home ice for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I think a lot of people in YQR are happy to see that as well and will be in the barn for the two games. No matter the end result, a playoff appearance is what the team was looking for as it begins its rebuild in earnest with Schultz and Pue about to become full-time WHL’ers. 

7 – OFF TO CARNDUFF: I love the fact that the Western Canadian Baseball League is once again taking the game to another locale as part of its “Rural Roots” initiative.  The Weyburn Beavers and Saskatoon Berries are going to play a game in Carnduff.  The only thing that will spoil the day is rain and hopefully that doesn’t happen. Carnduff loves its baseball and they will do a tremendous job in hosting this event.  It will be even better if hometown boy Carter Beck is suiting up for the Berries.  I have heard he will be back for a 3^rd season, and I have heard he won’t be as he pursues his dream of being a major leaguer. Even if he is not suiting up, I am sure he will be there in some role. 

It’s events like this that make the WCBL a great league! 

8 – AND THEY’RE OFF:  There was nothing like looking out the living room window on Thursday afternoon watching it snow while Opening Day festivities were happening across Major League Baseball with the Blue Jays starting its highly-anticipated 2026 season Friday night as they had a walkoff win thanks to the Athletics in a game that Jeff Hoffman once again allowed to get away in the top of the 9^th. Did that not remind Rider fans of the first game of the 2010 season against Montreal when they were called for too many men? 

I touched upon Toronto and what I think of them going into the season. I don’t think they are a team that gets back to the World Series, but they should be good enough to be a playoff team in what will be a very competitive American League East.  My picks, which we can laugh about at a future date, see the Dodgers beating Seattle in the World Series.  I see Boston winning the AL East with Detroit and the Mariners taking the Central and West. The Yankees, KC and Toronto will grab the wild-card spots with the Jays narrowly beating out the soon to be Vegas Athletics to get that final spot. 

In the National League, look for the Phillies, Cubs and Dodgers (DUHHH) to win their respective divisions with the wild card teams being the Mets, Pirates and Reds.  While Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani are the overwhelming choice for MVP again, I would look at guys like Bobby Witt Junior, Vladimir Guerrero and Roman Anthony to challenge Judge with Kyle Schwarber, Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Junior in the race to try and take down Ohtani who could arguably win both a Cy Young and MVP this year. 

9 – REMEMBERING YESTERYEAR: It’s just another sign as to how the times have changed and they’re not going back.  If you are a long-time baseball fan like me, you remember the day that you walked into a store and saw in-depth baseball preview magazines like Street and Smith’s or Petersen’s that you could buy to get yourself ready for the upcoming season and maybe assist with your fantasy drafts.  There used to be so many to choose from.  I was in Indigo this week and there were two magazines and one was so out of date as I think it was published before free agency as questions about where Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette were asked. 

With every website like ESPN, Sportsnet, FOX etc etc now giving you daily information on what teams are doing, fantasy and betting, the days of those magazines being a go-to are over. It would be nice if those publications were still around, but we all understand why they are not.  It’s the same as the old Leader-Post when you could comb through boxscores and everything else and what you were looking at was somewhat relevant unlike now when what you are seeing is at times 48 hours old.  You will never convince me that there was a better sports section in Canada than what the Leader-Post had when Rob Vanstone, Murray McCormick, Ian Hamilton and Craig Slater were churning out story after story after story.  I was so blessed to rub shoulders with that group who are all good friends. SIGHHHHHH!!!!

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• I can’t help but think the Moose Jaw Warriors would have made the playoffs had captain Lynden Lakovic been available for the second half of the series. 
• I saw a guy lick his phone screen before cleaning it this past week. To say I was nauseous would be an understatement 
• Tiger Woods can never get behind the wheel of a vehicle again. End of story! I think he can afford to buy a driver that doesn’t come from Taylor Made.
• Unless he gets injured or the Chicago Blackhawks say no, I would hope Connor Bedard does not turn down an invitation to play for Canada at the Worlds. I still think his refusal to do that last year cost him a spot on the Olympic team.

That’s all I got.  Have a great week!