Scruffy’s This N That

1 – AND AWAYYYYYY WE GO: The Riders are late to the party as they admire their fancy championship rings, but the 2026 CFL season is underway. I guess you can blame it on the upcoming World Cup, but it is a little baffling to see just six of the nine teams playing in Week 1 of the sked with the defending champs not hitting the turf until Week 2. It’s the CFL though right? How about that new website! How about that new fantasy game! SIGHHHHHH! The league says September for the website/app. September? It’s not Jeffrey Orridge changing the logo the day before the Grey Cup, but it’s up there. You can’t launch something once the season is over much less three quarters of the way through. Again, SIGHHHHHHH!! I have been pretty happy with what Stewart Johnston has done since taking over, but he needs to start banging some desks and firing someone over the failure of the website/fantasy and the live scores which was non-existent on Thursday. You just can’t have that.

2 – CAN THE GREEN MACHINE REPEAT: As a new season gets underway, there is understandably optimism in the 306 as many believe the Riders can keep the Grey Cup in Saskatchewan. They certainly have the squad to do it. I will say the same this year as I said last: this team will go as far as Trevor Harris can take them. While this might not be popular with the older crowd, a 2^nd Grey Cup from Harris would catapult him into the greatest QB the green-and-white have ever had. He will move ahead of Ronnie, Darian, KJ and Kent Austin as far as Grey Cups won. Yes, Austin won two—one as a coach and Durant had three appearances as a starter in a Grey Cup game, but Harris will have won two as a player and you can’t take that away from him.

While I think the Riders will be there, I don’t have them winning it all this year. When all is said and done, I think you see the B.C Lions and Nathan Rourke holding the trophy high after beating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on the McMahon Stadium turf and hopefully there are more people in the park than there were last night against the Bombers,

I really like what I see from the Riders, but I think the losses of guys like Micah Johnson, Malik Carney, CJ Reavis and AJ Allen will hurt. Is the pass rush there? If not, it puts a lot of pressure on the back eight to do their thing in a pass-heavy league.

My predictions EAST: Montreal, Hamilton, Ottawa, Toronto

WEST: BC, Saskatchewan, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary

3 – TSN’S TOP 50: You could put 100 people in a room and ask them for their top 50 CFL players and you would get 100 different answers. The TSN top 50 list this week as expected generated debate across the country. I don’t know how anyone can’t say Nathan Rourke is the number 1 player and yes, that puts an expectation on his shoulders to perform. If you had asked me for my Top 10 players it would be Rourke, Oliveira, Lawler, Betts, Beverette, Hatcher, Alexander, Campbell, Emilus and McInnis. I am sure your list differs.

4 – WHO’S NEXT: The Western Canadian Baseball League’s trip to Carnduff for the “Rural Roots Classic” was a huge success despite the fact that the game was a dud as Saskatoon beat Weyburn 18-0. The question for the league now is who’s next as this game is one that has to continue. If the rotation holds true, the game will be in Alberta next year. If their diamond hadn’t been ravaged by a flood after being rebuilt because of a flood, I would highly recommend my old stomping grounds of Peace River, Alberta. Do a Google search of “12 Foot Davis Ballpark” and see a place where I used to call and play some games. Just an amazing venue that sadly no longer exists—at least not to my knowledge.

When it comes to Saskatchewan, the one place that comes to mind is where the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame is and that is North Battleford. If the league was ever looking to expand and someone had the money to do it, would North Battleford be the place seeing it looks like Melville and Yorkton won’t be coming back. Perhaps they could stage the game at the same time that the Baseball Sask Hall of Fame ceremonies are held.

5 – PUT IT IN THE REARVIEW: Some members of the Montreal Canadiens are taking heat for having fun at a Luke Combs concert at the Bell Centre hours after their season came to an end. Nick Suzuki, Brendan Gallagher, Jakub Dobes and Cole Caufield went on stage to wave to the fans and down some beers with the country music star. Because people have to complain, there were some that felt the group shouldn’t have been whooping it up so soon after being dumped by Carolina. These people complaining are why we are at the place we are when it comes to society.

Players and everyone have a right to have fun and enjoy themselves whenever they can and if this provided them with that opportunity so be it. Are they supposed to sit in a corner and sulk for a certain amount of time before moving on with their life? Those thinking these guys should be criticized for being out and having a good time so shortly after being eliminated need to take the stick out of their ass if you ask me. Some say the fans are taking it tougher than the players. That’s not their fault, it’s your fault.

There are so many in Riderville whose weekends are made or ruined by what a group of football players do which is completely ridiculous. You know if the Riders lost the Grey Cup last November there would have been many who would have been pouty until Christmas. When the Oilers lost the Stanley Cup to Florida in the last two years, yeah I was choked, but the sun came up the next morning and life went on. When the Seahawks won the Super Bowl and Michigan won the NCAA mens basketball crown, I was elated but again the sun came up the next morning and life went on with the only difference being my credit card took a hit from buying championship merchandise. You can cheer or moan all you want, but some take it a little too far and this is just another example.

6 – STANLEY CUP: Some weren’t interested in this Stanley Cup Final. They must be now! I don’t know how this series ends, but if we have five more games like the first two than SIGN ME UP!

What drama and theatre in the first two games. As you know, the series is tied at 1 going into Game 3 Saturday night in Vegas with each team having scored eight goals. If Carolina wins, everyone will remember the furious 3^rd period comeback as they looked dead in the water down 2-0 until Logan Stankoven got them going.

Is Brett Howden making a late run at the Conn Smythe Trophy? One can’t argue the fact he has scored a playoff-leading 13 goals. Carolina has done a good job in shutting Vegas down as the Knights haven’t had many second or third opportunities in the zone when not on the power-play, but the goaltending hasn’t been what it was from Fredrik Andersen in this series as it was against Montreal. How much will the Brayden McNabb injury hurt as that Carolina offence, which I did not know was 2^nd in the NHL in goals scored behind only Colorado, seems to be getting more comfortable. Let’s see what happens as the series changes venues.

7 – NHL AWARDS: I don’t know who came up with the idea of creating videos of players and coaches being surprised with their NHL award, but two thumbs up to them for doing so. Jon Cooper was caught completely off guard when he was presented with the Jack Adams Trophy while visiting a hospital for a ribbon cutting ceremony for a charity he has. Marcus Foligno was given the King Clancy Trophy by his brother at a Minneapolis hospital when he thought he was there for a tour and Zach Werenski thought he was just having a simple family barbecue after a round of golf.

It shows you a different side of the winners and to see the genuine surprise on the face of Cooper, Foligno, Werenski and Matthew Schaefer when he was named rookie of the year is great stuff. The NHL deserves its flowers on this one. If you haven’t seen the videos, go check them out or look for them this week when more winners are named.

8 – WORLD CUP: The biggest sporting event in the world is upon us. The highly anticipated World Cup of Soccer comes to Canada, the U-S and Mexico as we are about to get soccer overload over the next month when every game, as is always the case, being on TSN with many hoping Canada can advance out of the group stage.

I had to chuckle when I saw European soccer fans complaining about the start times of games saying they shouldn’t have to watch at such odd times. It was like North Americans complaining about start times at the Olympics. You just can’t fix stupid, kids.

I don’t watch a lot of soccer, but I will watch the European Championships, Canadian friendlies (exhibition games) and the World Cup. I’m lookin forward to it as it will be a great display of the sport. I understand soccer isn’t everyone’s thing, but that is the way I feel about NASCAR and some other sports. To each their own! GO CANADA, GO SCOTLAND!

9 – MLB: We are two months through the MLB season and everything is going just the way we thought it would right? Who had the Atlanta Braves with the best record in the game? Who had the American League being sad with only five of 15 teams being above .500 going into Friday’s game with all five teams in the NL Central being above .500. We are seeing a lot of young pitchers like Jacob Misiorowski and Parker Messick elevate into star status and we have seen two members of the defending American League champs struggle tremendously as Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero aren’t even close to earning the big money they are with the Mets and Blue Jays. The power shortage that we have seen from Guerrero is baffling. Andres Gimenez, Ernie Clement and Brandon Valenzuela shouldn’t have more homers this year than Vladdy but that is where it stands. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—he takes a childhood approach to the game and he has to grow up a little. The dousing someone with ice after a Tuesday night game in May that had very little drama is something that doesn’t need to be done. It’s gotten to the point where he is catering to the fan. If it is a dramatic walkoff, that’s another story but there is a time and a place. I wonder how much longer management will put up with the production issues.

Baseball is setting itself up for a great summer and a great fall. Sadly, it is also setting up for a great fall of another kind as the first proposals between the league and the players union were met with great resistance. I think it is safe to say with the union not wanting a salary cap which is what the owners are calling for that they were in for a work stoppage which is the last thing the sport needs when it is on a high right now. Hopin the two sides realize that and come to some kind of agreement.

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

Myles Garrett to the Rams? That will make it tough for the Seahawks to stay atop the NFC West.
Is this the last year that we see Trevor Harris, Bo Levi Mitchell and Zach Collaros in a CFL uniform? If it is, would you be surprised to see any one of the three especially BLM or Zach end up with either TSN or DAZN? I can really see Collaros being a part of the DAZN crew in some fashion.
The books have the Riders set at 9.5 wins for the upcoming season. I am hammering the over on that and so should you.
Congrats to Chris Cuthbert for getting into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the broadcasting wing. You will not find a better guy than Chris. I miss having chats with him at Taylor Field or Mosaic Stadium.
If anyone thinks Twitter is a cesspool, go check out Threads! YIKES!!! I think a lot of it is bot driven, but YIKES!!