Darren DuPont’s 10 Things
Hello and welcome back, let’s get right into it.
1. The Buzz – I spent Tuesday night in Kitchener watching the Kitchener Rangers beat the Guelph Storm in a little midweek OHL action. The buzz around the hockey people was still the 4 Nations Face-Off and what’s ahead. There’s a thought that things could be even more heated at the Olympics in February if you can imagine! One thing most agreed on is that while most expect a lot of continuity, there will absolutely be roster changes between now and February.
2. Canada’s Goalie – The other thing that came up when it comes to Canada and the Olympics is goaltending. How can you not go back to Jordan Binnington as Canada’s goalie in Italy? He’s the guy now. It’s simply a question of who are the other two. There will be plenty of time coming back in the fall to dissect the roster so let’s move on for now.
3. Scotties – Congratulations To Rachel Homan on winning another Scotties championship. Her team was perfect in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and in the championship final she was perfect. Homan became the first skip to throw a perfect game (curled 100%) in the championship final. Truly impressive stuff. Is she the greatest of all time? She certainly has a case of being the most dominant, but I don’t know that I’m quite ready to have that conversation yet. An Olympic gold could go a long way however.
4. Team Sask – Congratulations are also in order to Nancy, Martin and Team Saskatchewan. Martin went through the round robin with a nice five and three record, but unfortunately just fell short of the playoff. It was a great showing, and she enjoyed a ton of TV time because of it. Every time it turned on the TV Nancy was smiling, and her team was curling well. Her high level of play plus the attitude and sportsmanship shown earned her the Marj Mitchell award, which is voted on by the players and Martin was this year’s recipient. Congratulations!
5. Kelowna – Now we shift our focus to the Brier in Kelowna which begins on Friday. Saskatchewan will be represented by both Mike McEwen and Rylan Kleiter. McEwen, as you know, made it all the way to last year’s championship final in Regina before falling to Brad Gushue. If there is an unfortunate part, it’s that both Saskatchewan rinks are in the same pool. But, I like our chances. Look, I live in the GTA now and travel and work all across this country and even North America but, I’ll always be from Saskatchewan and be rooting for Saskatchewan.
6. Jr Hockey – Back to hockey for a second. The conversation around Junior A came up at the rink Tuesday night with some hockey people wondering what the future will be. I asked the question if we could see a day where the Junior A franchises operated almost like farm teams for major junior teams, and the idea perked up some ears. The London Knights operate that way in partnership with the London Nationals and it works out pretty well. There are junior leagues in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC so it could work. At this point, what we can’t do is shut down ideas. But, they’ll figure out the way forward I’m sure of that.
7. The Buzz Pt 2 – Midway through the game, someone looked up from their phone and proceeded to tell the group Ovi scored again. This is Sammy Sosa/Mark McGuire stuff now. Every night hockey fans are waiting to see how much closer Alex Ovechkin gets to Wayne Gretzky’s goals record. It’s just a matter of time now and will likely happen before the season is over. Then, on Monday night, Matthew Tkachuk appeared on late night TV with Jimmy Fallon and knocked it out of the park. Maybe my biggest takeaway was that he said the 4 Nations was bigger than the Stanley Cup. Wow! Between all of this, a trade deadline next week, and another upcoming best on best in February, hockey is in a great place.
8. NFL Combine – Chuck me up as somebody who’s about a 5/10 on the NFL combine. I’d say that’s pretty high. It’s not something that I’ll be running to my TV to watch, but I will have it on. For me, it’s more about the draft talk than it is about watching the actual results of the testing. The combine runs Thursday through Sunday unless you want to watch kickers and punters on Wednesday as Pat McAfee made sure to point out. At this point, I still don’t know what the Titans should do with number one. I’d be listening to phone calls. NFL network insider Ian Rappoport is all over the combine and reporting that it’s unlikely neither Cam Ward nor Shedeur Sanders will throw this week. Both will likely shift their focus to the interview portion which may be more important anyway. I don’t have a problem with it and even understand when you’re at the top of the list.
9. Rams – I wanted to add this here because it’s important but also didn’t feel I wanted to lead with this. By now you’ve heard of the two Regina Rams football players who were charged in a drug bust this week. We talked about it on the RP Show and you can go back and listen to the podcast if you’d like. Obviously, this is very unfortunate. The two players have been suspended from the team while the investigation continues. These are players who played and are expected to continue to play a big role with the team. The Rams had a wonderful run to the national semifinal before dropping a tough one to the eventual national champions from Laval. Even more unfortunate is Regina is set to host the Vanier cup this fall and the Rams have a real shot to be in the game. It’s important that we don’t take this situation lately, but it’s also important that we’re not quick to jump to conclusions.
10. Randoms – Kitchener has the best media room food I’ve seen so far in the OHL. Consistently well thought out and great options… I spent a good chunk of Tuesday night with Rogers TV host Sean Furfaro. Now there’s a guy who loves his craft. He’s talented, passionate and an outstanding human being, an amazing combination… With RP and I “sportbetting” on NHL games I can’t stop checking the scores to see how I’ve done. We bet on every game (a Golden Coral buffet is on the line) but don’t lose any money. It’s great!… If Chris Tanev is out any length of time it will be a big blow to the Leafs blue line…
I’m thinking about trade deadline already so let’s meet back here and have some fun ahead of it next week shall we? Until then,
DD
Give your head a shake they were caught red-handed basically, they have zero place on any roster anywhere.
Curling .. If curling wants to be recognized as a legitimate sport it needs to immediately mandate all players both men and woman start wearing protective head gear (helmets) like all other major sport leagues for the safety of all it’s participants.