COMMENTARY: SELLING HOPE

(Listen daily for the RP Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 FM & LTD Radio)

As always Wednesdays are for random thoughts, and today we have a couple:

#1 – We mentioned earlier this week that every game in the CFL is a playoff game right now – for most teams – and we’ve got one Friday night in Ottawa involving the friendly neighbourhood Saskatchewan Roughriders.

I had the good pleasure of being on TSN Radio Ottawa last night previewing the game and let me tell you this: these RedBlacks are no pushovers even though they’ve lost more games in a row than I can count.

At 3-10, they’re not mathematically out of it but they’re in “pride territory” now whereby they don’t want to lose another one at home.

And apparently the rivalry still boils on their side, as they’re still sore that the Saskatchewan Roughriders wouldn’t allow them to use the name “Roughriders” when they came back into the league in 2014 (I wouldn’t have either) and they’re still ticked about last year’s Garrett Marino situation, as their quarterback Jeremiah Masoli has been kept off the field pretty much ever since.

That may not be enough to beat 6-7 Saskatchewan, but just don’t expect a pushover.

#2 – Holy smokes are people fired up about the start of the hockey season! I maintain that the spring – and hockey playoffs – is still the best time of year but you can see why optimism reigns supreme right now.

Everybody’s in first place.

The NHL is a whole other animal and maybe we’ll get into that tomorrow.

There really isn’t a team on God’s green earth that actually affects my mood other than the Regina Pats so I feel the excitement brewing under the orange top.

However after a winless preseason, I don’t expect too much.

But it is the dawn of a new era for the Queen City Kids with Connor Bedard and John Paddock gone and if I was the Pats marketers, that’s what I’d be pushing.

If you’re not selling wins, you’ve gotta be selling hope.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm & 5 pm ET on Game+TV, WQEE Radio, Podcast & YouTube Live)