Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – RIDERS FREE FALL – I have to admit I was surprised to see the Riders just roll over, at home, on Friday to the Calgary Stampeders as the 37-31 score flattered the Riders as it really wasn’t that close a game.  The defeat, probably, eliminates any chance of a home playoff game and they may have to use the crossover come playoff time and no team has ever won a Grey Cup from the crossover spot but I believe the Toronto Argos would be the easiest team for them to face right off the hop.

2 – BOMBERS HELPING RIDERS – Winnipeg got schooled by Montreal on Saturday night and they are the likely team in the West to miss the playoffs so this talk about the Riders falling all the way to the basement is rather premature and dramatic.  They have a home and home with the Als and a home date with Edmonton left on the slate and it’s possible the Rider opponents in all three games will have nothing on the line and they’ll get the B Team in all three instances.  Winnipeg has games against Calgary, Edmonton, and BC and they’ll be hard pressed to do better than 1-and-2 in those games so the Riders are still in the driver’s seat just not for a home playoff date.

3 – NO POST GAME RADIO FOR LEAFS – Rogers has decided to ditch the Maple Leafs postgame radio show in what wreaks of a move designed to offer nothing above the bare minimum to its fan base.  Compare that to the Roughriders where you can get two different options of postgame shows on the radio and it’s really quite telling when you factor in the Leafs are Canada’s most widely-followed NHL team and the flagship doesn’t offer a post game show.  I get that radio may be a dying property but there is something to be said about listening to a call-in show while driving home.  My guess is that with Canadian radio being, predominantly, owned by only two companies (which is gross but also a topic for another day) it wouldn’t surprise me to see both Rogers and Bell move towards closing all their stations and Canada (in its progressive way) may be the first ‘developed’ nation to make radio extinct.  Both companies have shuttered numerous stations, as it is, so why not just make them all go dark?

4 – PODCAST OPTIONS – Leaf fans aren’t without options for a post-game show.  Numerous personalities, who have found themselves unemployed for various reasons, have emerged with their own versions of postgame and analysis type of shows so it’s merely a glimpse into the future.  The Winnipeg Jets are already doing this with Illegal Curve but they still do offer the post game call-in for fans who are looking for recaps and press conferences as they head home.  Being someone who drives a lot, I can say the advantage radio has is that it’s very easy to find the programs.  Maybe it is easy to find the on-line podcasts too but unless it’s on YouTube, I haven’t had much success with the live podcasts.

5 – HUGHES/MLECZKO – I’m going to be in the minority on this one but the interview from opening night where AJ Mleczko closed her chat with Jack Hughes by saying he should be put in bubble wrap and use plastic cutlery is hardly an off-side comment.  Hughes has missed 20+ games for each of the last three years so to suggest he’s injury prone is an understatement and his injury last year stemmed from a team dinner where he sliced his finger and needed surgery, causing him to miss 6-weeks.  I know the widespread criticism was on Mleczko and I don’t usually side with media people but Hughes has to lighten up here.  If that type of remark by Mleczko is enough to disrupt Hughes’ focus for the remainder of the game then he needs even more than plastic cutlery and bubble wrap.  It just seemed snobby to me and he could have, easily, deflected it by simply agreeing he needs to be healthy this year.

6 – HUGHES BROTHERS – Through two games the Devils are 1-and-1 but they have scored only three goals and are coming off a bad 6-0 loss to the Islanders on Saturday.  The Devils also missed the playoffs last year and there is no guarantee they return to the postseason this year.  So why is all the chatter surrounding the Hughes brothers reuniting so that all three can play for the Devils?  Wouldn’t it make more sense for Jack and Luke to force their way out of New Jersey and request to play for Minnesota, with Quinn?  If the trio truly want to win (and this is a fraudulent claim players make all the time to justify moving) this would seem to make more sense to me.  I’d also say this: if Quinn and Luke are on the same team, that’s not a benefit for Luke as Quinn will command a lot more ice time.  

7 – BABCOCK MEDIA – It’s going to be a long season for Mike Babcock as the media tries to dial in and be extra critical whenever the team loses or whenever they win but don’t play a complete game.  Through the first three games, Babcock has been masterful.  He was, justifiably, critical after game one and was equally justified after game two by saying he was, overall, quite happy with the effort despite giving up 7 goals.  I also felt he did a good job defending Devon Levi and then he went right back to Levi on Saturday and he was much better in a 3-1 victory over Seattle.  Babcock began the presser by pumping his fist and saying they didn’t give up a touchdown and nobody in the media scrum laughed but that’s not because he wasn’t funny, it’s because these dweebs all have it out for him.  I’m not usually an Oiler fan, but I’ll be rooting for them all season.

8 – NHL TV RATINGS – You won’t see much publicity on this but the NHL’s opening night tripleheader on ESPN registered a 3% drop from the previous year’s opening night broadcast and both years are down, noticeably, from the 2023 peak of 907,000.  To put this in comparison to other sports, the UFL’s championship game this season drew 988,000 so the NHL still has a ways to go before it can be considered a major American sports entity.  I’d love to share the Canadian viewership numbers from opening night, but those are a secret…because…well, it’s none of our business.  Trust us, everybody watched.

9 – NBA BROADCASTER CANCELLED – The Portland Trailblazers hired and fired their television broadcaster on the same day this week after some loser dug into Braiden Bell’s social media posts from 2012 when Bell was just 15-years-old and found some offensive comments.  Bell responded to the firing by apologizing and saying his comments as a 15-year-old don’t reflect who he is today as a 29-year-old and I think that’s fair and firing him is rather over the top.  If all of us were held to standards that we displayed as teenagers, none of us would be working but, of course, that’s not how the world goes.  Some people can, literally, get away with murder (Ray Lewis) or dress up in black face (Justin Trudeau) and go untouched while others are done for and cancelled as soon as the keyboard mob can find a transgression.  It’s a double standard and it’s hypocritical but that doesn’t matter.

10 – UFC – UFC332 was broadcast on CBS last night, which is not the norm for a numbered event (or PPV from previous TV deals) to be shown on mainstream television.  The card itself was quite weak but during the prelims, heavyweight Anthony Wint knocked out Lucas Armand in 22-seconds and then called out Sean Sharaf in his post-fight interview.  Sharaf has earned world wide fame with his 12-second knockout of the highly touted Gable Steveson from UFC331.  Wint is the fighter who signed a CFL contract with Hamilton but never got to play because of Covid and if there is a new heavyweight that should be promoted and pushed, it’s Wint and not Steveson.  It’ll be interesting to see if Sharaf takes the bait.  He was a biggest underdog ever against Steveson and my guess is he’d be a similarly sized underdog (or should be) against Wint.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on X/Twitter at @Stack175)