DAYTONA HOMES MONDAY MORNING GOALIE

RANDOMS:

FREE AGENT FRENZY – It’s unlikely TSN will convene the panel of Jock Climie, Matt Dunigan, Chris Schultz, et al, for wall-to-wall coverage of the opening of the CFL’s 2015 Free Agent period on Tuesday like Canada’s Sports Leader does for the NHL FA derby in July.  However that hasn’t stopped hardcore CFL fans from getting excited like kids on Christmas Eve.

The CFL’s official website really got fans going with its list of the Top 20 available free agents late last week and we spent the entire SportsCage on 620 CKRM on Friday going through the list with analyst Luc Mullinder.  CFL.ca lists Edmonton REC/KR Kendial Lawrence as the most-prized free agent of the bunch and before you scoff, remember that Lawrence torched the Riders for 195 combined yards and a punt return touchdown in the 2014 CFL Western Semifinal.

None of the Roughriders’ eight remaining free agents cracked the CFL’s Top 10, in fact linebacker Brian Peters was the highest-rated at #12.  But hands are wringing across the Wheat Province in regards to Peters’ status and he’s keeping his cards close to his vest, not returning messages as the deadline nears.

However this Tweet from Peters following the Riders’ signing of Canadian tailback Jerome Messam on Friday leads the MMG to believe he’s not going anywhere: “Congrats to @JMessam on signing today.  The RB stable remains stacked! @Ant_Allen #thoroughbreds #RiderNation #Riders #CFL”

Does that sound like a guy who doesn’t want to remain a part of this?  I think not.

Calgary Stampeders centre Brett Jones of Weyburn, SK is listed as the #3 most-coveted free agent but the whispers persist he’s headed to the NFL.  His camp has been eerily quiet on this subject.  Perhaps we will know his final destination soon.

Unfortunately the whole free agent process is tad bit of a farce.  Some details on that may emerge in the coming days.  Maybe even on this blog.  Stay tuned.

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THE ELITE EIGHT:  The Roughriders’ remaining free agents who are set to hit free agency are – in alphabetical order – : Dan Clark, Dan DePalma, Neal Hughes, Sam Hurl, Tristan Jackson, Scott McHenry, Brian Peters and Tino Sunseri.  As we noted in this column one week ago, the Roughriders have tabled an offer to Sunseri, however have not yet received a counter proposal (the last we heard).  Regarding LB Sam Hurl, many in the CFL feel he’s poised to jump ship to his hometown Calgary Stampeders.

Who’s the most valuable free agent?  That all depends on your perspective but of the whole bunch, I’d hate to lose Tristan Jackson who was a jack-of-all-trades for the Riders in 2014 and was a tireless team guy.  We’ll start to get some answers soon.

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RECEIVERS COACH:  As of Thursday, Roughriders head coach Corey Chamblin said the search for a replacement for Jason Tucker as Receivers Coach was “wide open”.  Some legimate names started to circulate over the weekend including Jamie Stoddard, the former Winnipeg Blue Bomber receiver who was a guest coach at Roughrider training camp a few years back.  The last I heard he was Receivers Coach at the university level in BC, and a high school Phys Ed teacher in Richmond, BC.  The other candidate I heard was “Jacques Chadpelaine’s son”, who I can only guess is Jacques’ eldest son Matt, who was a wide receiver at the University of Alberta before transferring to SFU.

Meanwhile Richie Hall has yet to announce his defensive staff with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers however Gary Lawless of the Winnipeg Fress Press tells me this morning the staff will include McMaster Marauders Defensive Coordinator Greg Knox.  Barron Miles has to fall in there as a secondary coach, doesn’t he?  There doesn’t appear to be too many jobs left open.

And what about Kelly Bates in Vancouver?

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A FINE MESS:  Friday’s signing of non-import tailback Jerome Messam to a new contract got a round of applause from the Rider Nation.  He promptly appeared on the SportsCage later in the day and gave a thoughtful response when asked about his “under-utilization” by the football club in 2014.  After all, in his breakout game in Week 7 at Winnipeg, Messam rushed for over 100 yards in the second half alone on the way to becoming the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian Player of the Week.

“We all want to be the guy,” Messam admitted.  “It’s frustrating as far as me, the player, and my competitive side, but me the person understands that the four of us were all going through the same struggle.  We all wanted to be the best.  We were all fighting for the spot and I could never really let myself get too down or get too selfish.  I can only control the things I can control and that’s playing hard and knowing my stuff.”

CKRM analyst Luc Mullinder offered that Messam’s former teammates in B.C., Edmonton and Montreal wouldn’t believe those unselfish words came out of his mouth because he got a knock for not being “a team player”.  However Messam said he plans to step up his leadership role with Saskatchewan in 2015 because he has a lot of wisdom to hand down.

“I try to tell young players not to take what they’re doing for granted,” Messam continued.  “There’s a million people that want to be in our position, playing professional sports.  We’re still living a dream, not in real life, playing a kid’s game and we’re being compensated for that.  I also say that starting out in your career, it’s going to be tough coming out of college where you were ‘the man’, to coming to the pro system where you may have to take a back seat.

“You can’t let football dictate your life.  Earlier on in my career if football was going bad, my life was going bad.  You have to learn to separate the two and be a professional. This is your job, it’s a business, and the people that are paying you treat it like a business.  You can’t take things personal.  You always have to be at your best and control what you can control.”

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WHO SHOT J.R.?:  Regina’s Jon Ryan of the Seattle Seahawks literally felt like he was shot eight days ago in Super Bowl XLIX.  Jon was one of the keynote speakers at Friday’s Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner and his addresses keep getting better and better.

Of course Seahawks coach Pete Carroll blew the ending of the NFL championship game last Sunday by electing to throw on 2nd-and-goal from New England’s one yard line, rather than hand the ball off to the league’s best back in Marshawn Lynch.  We all know by now the ill-advised pass was intercepted to end the threat and Patriots won their fourth Super Bowl.

However Jon said the entire Seahawks team knew they were going to throw the ball in that situation and had their own reasons why.  However he declined to reveal them on Friday before 700 patrons.  As we all know the play didn’t work out and the last week was nothing but pure hell for Ryan and the Seahawks.

Jon actually said he didn’t even want to come home to Regina to face friends and family however once he did, he couldn’t have imagined not coming home because of the support he received.

That drew a huge round of applause as did Jon’s assertion, “We won’t let that call define us as men or as a football team.”

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GO PATS GO:  The Regina Pats enter a brand new week on a four-game winning streak after downing the Saskatoon Blades 5-2 and the Spokane Chiefs 4-2 at home over the weekend.  On both nights the crowds in the Brandt Centre were well over 4000.

I got down to the Brandt Centre early on Saturday to kibitz with the WHL and NHL personnel in the media/scouts room long before the game.  One of the nicest things anyone said came from San Jose Sharks scout Brian Gross who advised, “You belong here”.   That was nice to hear from Grossy, the former Regina Pats head scout.

The hockey people generally concurred that the Pats have a playoff spot locked down for the spring of 2015, with a solid hold on second place.  As Spokane GM Tim Speltz blurted, “They’re looking at home ice in the first round!”

It’s hard not to get excited about that prospect but the last I looked, with 19 games remaining, there’s no “X” beside the Pats’ name in the standings and therefore no playoff spot has been clinched, let alone home ice.  Junior hockey is the craziest, most unpredictable level of sport and we’ve seen anything happen down the homestretch over the years.

However fans are giddy watching this team play right now, and they reached the 30-win plateau with a fine up-and-down effort Saturday night.  Jesse Gabrielle’s pair of goals were of the plugger variety but rookie Sam Steel notched a beauty game-winner against the Chiefs.  It appears the club has stabilized after the turbulence around the trade deadline and they’re rounding back into form.

For Pats fans, by request, Senior V.P. of Hockey Operations and Head Coach John Paddock will spend an hour with us in studio in the SportsCage on Thursday at 5:00 pm on 620 CKRM.

Also, thanks to Mike Lee of Midale Petroleum for allowing us to use his private box for games in which he cannot attend.  Thanks Mike!

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NHL NOTES:  Four things: 1) I’ve been in contact with the group trying to bring an NHL team to Las Vegas, NV.  That was part of our trip to Sin City last month.  Of course no expansion franchise has been granted yet however Bill Foley’s group is launching a season ticket blitz on Tuesday with the goal of achieving 10,000 seat subscriptions for the new facility which is being built behind the hotel resort New York, New York.  I thought a pair of season tickets would be a good investment (likely much more than the Winnipeg Jets) however the team has informed me they won’t be selling any season tickets to Canadians.

Why?  As I was told, “At this time, as part of our push for local support, we are only able to accept deposits from fans within a 30-mile radius of Las Vegas”.

This group is approaching the NHL cautiously, and respectfully, unlike would-be Penguins owner Jim Balsillie years ago.  They’re hoping if they can take 10,000 commitments to the NHL’s Board of Governors, it will prove that Las Vegas is starving for a team and they’re doing things the right way.

2)  Does in anyone in Regina personally know Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk?  As in, did you grow up with him? The much-travelled 6’4″ goaltender is getting plenty of plaudits since going the Wild from Arizona, including being named one of the NHL’s 3-Stars of the Week.  Everyone is referring to him as “Regina’s” Devan Dubynk and it’s my belief that although he was born here, he actually grew up in Calgary.  That should make him Calgary’s Devan Dubnyk.  Don’t get me wrong — we want as many NHLer’s from here as possible, that this simply doesn’t seem accurate.

It’s interesting too that Dubnyk plans to stay in Minny for awhile.  He just unveiled a new goalie mask design which is giraffe and lumberjack-themed.  It also honours this mother Barb, a breast cancer survivor.

It’s interesting to see how many NHLer’s careers are flourishing after they left Edmonton.

3)  Much was made last week about the fact NHL ratings are down in Canada for Sportsnet national telecasts.  That includes Hockey Night In Canada on CBC.  There could be many reasons for this but firstly I would surmise that Sportsnet hasn’t done a good enough job of telling us when and where their games will be broadcast.

For instance, Sunday evening I flipped over to CITY-TV to catch the Sunday night telecast but all I saw on that channel was Maranda Lambert and Blake Shelton at the Grammys.   What?  Turns out the Montreal-Boston game was being shown on the Sportsnet main network, or channel 33 (high definition channel 540).  I thought Sunday night hockey on CITY was going to be a staple?  They need to figure out what they’re doing.

And 4)  Someone needs to take today’s junior hockey players by the ear and teach them about the game’s history and the people who paved the way before them.  It’s come to my attention that today’s teenaged hockey players generally have no idea who some of the NHL’s Hall of Famers and legendary characters even are.  Apparently Tiger Williams spoke to the Pats in their dressing room in Swift Current this season and barely anyone knew who he was.

I spent 17 years in the WHL and we used to play NHL or Hockey Hall of Fame Trivia for hours on the bus or in a restaurant while waiting for a meal.  That’s one of the reasons I know the NHL record and history book inside out, plus I studied it as a kid far more than I read my school books.

And now the NHL is considering renaming the names of its trophies.  They already did it with the naming of their divisions.  We as kids looked up the meaning of the names Campbell, Wales, Smythe, Norris, Adams, Patrick, etc. because they were revered by the NHL.  Now, they’re simply fading into the past and forgotten.

It is so, so, so infinitely disappointing.  When I was younger I thought hockey and football historians were wingnuts.  Now I realize they’re angels.

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DOING IT ALL:  Thanks to Weyburn Red Wings diehard Kevin Folk who informed me Saturday night that Nipawin Hawks goaltender Joe O’Brien, a 19-year old from Clayton, Missouri, performed a miraculous feat that night in Weyburn.  O’Brien collected the shutout but also scored a goal in Nipawin’s 6-0 win over the Red Wings!  Apparently O’Brien made a save and was the last Hawk to touch the puck before the Red Wings sent it the length of the ice surface into their own net.  Now that’s an all-around effort!

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BOO TO MASTERCHEF:  Milestone, Saskatchewan’s Deanna Brown created a firestorm around here due to her participation in the 2015 season of MasterChef on CTV.  I was pulling for her because she’s a long time Regina Pats fan, and is married to my cousin Jeff Brown.  However she was forced to turn in her apron on Sunday evening’s second episode.

HOGWASH!  I never really cared for those judges anyways, particularly the one with blue hair.  (And that’s not a shot at senior citizens!  Watch it and you’ll see what I mean).  But Deanna made it down to the final 25 chefs in the nation so she has nothing to be ashamed of.  In fact, she did Milestone and our family proud!

However all is not lost.  We still have a rooting interest in former B.C. Lions lineman Jon Hameister-Ries who survived Sunday’s cut.  Injuries ended his career but he’s trying to reinvent himself as a chef.  Let’s get behind Jon!  We should be able to set our football differences aside for the sake of food.  Unless he played for the Stamps.

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THAT’S GOT IT FOR THIS WEEK.  SEE YOU IN THE CAGE AT 4:00 PM!
RP
@sportscage
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