The Monday Morning Goalie For SUDS

Truth & Rumours …

1 – HAIL THE BERRIES: The Harry Hallis Trophy is headed to Saskatoon. The Berries, in their third year of existence, captured the Western Canadian Baseball League championship Sunday night with a sweep of the Sylvan Lake Gulls in the Best-of-3 series. The Berries were able to do it at home, at a sold out NexGen Patch in the Bridge City (also known as Cairns Field). Congrats to skipper Joe Carnahan, pitching coach Dustin Molleken and the whole outfit! It puts a cap on a great season of summer collegiate baseball in Western Canada. If my Moose Jaw Miller Express had to lose out after an historic season of our own, it’s good to have been to the eventual champions. See you next year …

2 – TIGER TALES: Sometimes the numbers lie. Or at least, they don’t mean anything going into a game. The Saskatchewan Roughriders had won five in a row against Hamilton heading into Saturday’s CFL game in The Hammer and everything pointed to a big Green & White victory. But the Ticats won the turnover battle 2-1, never allowed a sack, and stunned the Green Giants 26-19 to snap a 3-game losing streak of their own. The Riders fell to 6-3. Tabbies QBs Tre Ford and Harrison Frost – aka Frosty The Throwman – combined for the victory while Sask QB Trevor Harris had a woeful QBR of 67.2. The 40-year old threw two picks and it was one of his dimmest performances as a Rider, however he’d been playing at the highest level of his life. Any dip, coupled with a loss, is going to bring criticism. The Rider Nation is steaming today but in a place where they expect you to go 18-0, that’s predictable. Can’t win em all…

ELSEWHERE IN WEEK 11: BC upended Calgary 30-26 for their third win in a row, Winnipeg downed Ottawa 33-21 to drop the RedBlacks to 0-9 prompting fans to wonder if the RedBlacks are the worst CFL team ever, and Edmonton righted their ship with a 42-12 home victory over Toronto. At 7-3, the Elkimos lead the West and we’re starting to wonder if it’ll be an Edmonton-Montreal Grey Cup in Calgary in November. Stay tuned…

3 – WEEK 12: Fans who love the Thursday-thru-Sunday summer CFL schedule – like me – will like this week. Ottawa visits Montreal (8-1) on Thursday. Winnipeg (5-4) visits Edmonton on Friday, Hamilton (4-6) travels to Toronto (4-5) on Saturday and the week closes with Saskatchewan at BC (4-5) on Sunday and yours truly will be in attendance at BC Place. Fans were quick to write off Hamilton & BC in the first half of the season but not so fast my friends! Lo and behold they’re in position to host home playoff games with the correct victories over the second half. It feels like the stretch run has begun already. … As for Ottawa, so many people are wondering how they can be fixed. Hall of Famer Henry Burris said on The RP Show this week that the RedBlacks are “culturally supressed” and said he witnessed that first hand when he was there a few weeks ago. Methinks Henry will be on the sidelines, probably in Ottawa, long before he’s in front of a TV camera even though he recently completed the NFL Media Bootcamp in LA and has been appearing on NFL Radio. Talented guy…

4 – NFL PRESEASON: I broke down and bought the DAZN streaming service to catch Thursday’s Cardinals-Raiders game in Las Vegas (a no-brainer since the RP Show airs in Vegas nightly in prime time) and it was immediately worth the $$$$. Not only that, I get every other NFL game every week plus the CFL in 2027 and a variety of shows. What took me so long?? … The media in South Florida is imploring Dolphins fans to calm down after the Phins dropped a 20-7 exhibition decision at Washington Friday. Good grief. … Oh, on that Raiders game, QB Fernando Mendoza looked exactly as he did when he walked off the field in January in Miami Gardens after leading Indiana to the NCAA national championship; clean & composed. … They’re saying Canadian 49ers QB Kurtis Rourke broke a rib in Thursday’s 19-13 loss to Tennessee. The younger Rourke is not coming to the CFL anytime soon, if ever. … The Colts and Patriots played to a 13-13 tie on Thursday in Foxborough. Ties suck, and it screwed the bettors. Glad I’m not one. … The Cowboys beat the Seahawks 17-7 on Saturday but Dak didn’t play. Pundits have the Cowboys winning the NFC East. How bout that!

5 – HOCKEY TALK: Two weeks ago we gave you Fanduel’s Stanley Cup favourites. Last week we gave you Fanduel’s Canadian rankings. This week, here’s the division-by-division forecast from Fanduel: ATLANTIC: Florida, Tampa Bay, Montreal, Buffalo, Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, Detroit, METROPOLITAN: Carolina, Washington, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Columbus, NY Rangers, NY Islanders, PACIFIC: Edmonton, Vegas, LA, Anaheim, San Jose, Seattle, Calgary, Vancouver, CENTRAL: Colorado, Minnesota, Dallas, Utah, Winnipeg, Detroit, Nashville, St.Louis, Chicago. … A Stanley Cup Final prediction for 2026-27? It’s still too early.

6 – CALGARY: Heading to YYC and YVR this week for various shows and events and I can’t wait! On Wednesday we’ll be live from longtime RP Show sponsor Overtime Hockey Lanes in Calgary with special guest, Stanley Cup champion Colin Patterson stopping by live. On Thursday we’ll be live from Theoren Fleury’s golf tournament supporting the Breaking Free Foundation; Theo’s charity which provides free counselling for Albertans who’ve suffered abuse & trauma. I also get to host the always popular Hot Stove at that event and the Flames Alumni have already told me they want to talk about legendary voice Peter Maher, who passed away last week. … Then on Friday I’ll be jumping on a jet to Vancouver for the Riders-Lions game and all the fun Canada’s most beautiful city has to offer for the weekend. Blessed!

7 – YA BABY: Speaking of, upon reflection this week, I think Peter Maher is the finest hockey announcer who ever lived. His voice is the soundtrack of the Calgary Flames franchise and people were reminded of that when clips were posted of his play-by-play after Thursday’s announcement of his passing. Hey! We’ve had some good ones. Bob Cole had a great voice and captured the moment better than anyone. The Oilers’ Rod Phillips is in the Hall of Fame too but he wasn’t technically sound, even if he was hella exciting on 630 CHED. No, Pete’s play-by-play never left you wondering where the puck was, or if it was a glove save, a blocker save, a stick save, or a skate save. He passed all that stuff onto me when I was 18 and I’ve in turn passed that on to young hockey announcers across Canada and the US. He came down to our casino shows in Calgary and told many tales, like a tiff he and Wayne Gretzky had in the 1980s over something Maher allegedly said on the air. Turns out, he did not say it, and he straightened it out with the Great One outside the Oilers dressing room. Pete called a Stanley Cup victory in 1989 and one, if not two, Olympic gold medal games for Team Canada. Have I convinced you yet? Forget about Brett Hart. Pete was the greatest there ever was, and ever will be.

8 – HAIL THE SEA BEARS: The Winnipeg Sea Bears are Canadian Elite Basketball League champions for the first time in franchise history. Despite playing without injured star forward Teddy Allen, the Manitoba crew defeated the visiting Brampton Honey Badgers 98-84 on Saturday at Canada Life Centre to claim the 2026 title. The CEBL championship was intended to be a three-game series concluding Sunday, but Wednesday’s first game at Brampton’s CAA Centre was suspended early due to condensation on the court, and then cancelled.

9 – OKAY BLUE JAYS: One thing I’ve loved this summer in Western Canada is how much people are into the Blue Jays. Trust me, as a 38-year Canadian sportscaster, I can tell you people out here weren’t that big on the Blue Jays from about 1996-2016 but they sure are after Toronto’s World Series run last Fall. And after the weekend’s series win over the Yankees, the Jays are just one game out of a wildcard playoff spot. All this after Toronto was sellers at the deadline. Announcer Dan Shulman said during a game this week in the Boston series that “The mood seems much lighter around here!” Of course it is. The pressure’s off because the expectations of a repeat vanished after the trade deadline on August 3. Do you need anymore proof of the mental side of the game? It’s a big reason why the Millers flopped. All year long they did the unexpected, then choked up when the expectations were sky high in the postseason. Anyway, it’s sure fun watching the Jays this summer. The Sportsnet broadcasts are as good as there are in MLB. Nobody ever complains about that!

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: Ginger beef was invented in Calgary. … It’s amazing how many people can’t figure out how to unmute themselves on a Zoom call. … I really want to meet Joyce Meyer. She’s having a conference in Tampa Bay in October but it’s for “women only”. Can you imagine?! … That’s okay. I only work with men in my Recovery practice and while some females took umbrage with that policy, it stands. … Give a part time effort, get part time results. … Calmness is the doorway to intuition. … I miss the days where you needed to have my number to get ahold of me. … The first — and only — person to break the sound barrier in a car hits the track in Utah this week with new wheels and his eye on another record. Twenty years ago, British driver Andy Green set the land speed record for a diesel-powered car, reaching 350.092 mph (563.4 kph) at Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats. Green will return to the track Tuesday and try to beat that mark, this time with a hydrogen-powered car. The retired Royal Air Force fighter pilot hit a new top speed of 368.347 mph (592.797 kph) in practice last week, but to officially earn the hydrogen record, he’ll have to do it Tuesday in front of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the international governing body of motor sports. Green said hydrogen is “fuel of the future” in an interview with the Associated Press in June. … AND HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?

Y’er welcome,