DuPont’s 10 Things
Welcome to the midweek break. It’s a special day so grab your coffee and let’s go!
1. ROSTER REVEAL DAY – Today is like an early Christmas morning for hockey fans as rosters will be revealed for the teams participating in the Four Nations Face-Off in February. Finland and Sweden will reveal their rosters at 2pm et today while the Canadian and American rosters will be revealed tonight on Sportsnet. Probably the biggest topic of debate has been whether or not Connor Bedard ends up on Canada’s roster. Some are suggesting that San Jose Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini deserves a spot ahead of Bedard based on his strong start to the season and Bedard’s self-admitted struggles. It’s also a question of will Bedard make the team and should he. I say he WILL make the team. Should he?
2. WHY BEDARD? – One reason I think Bedard ends up on this team is his history playing for Canada. It always seems like he’s at his best in the biggest games and if he’s selected I see him thriving. We also have to consider that he’s the future and Canada will want him in red and white for years to come. If you have a guy on a non-playoff team and you want him to play for Canada at World Championships when other guys opt out it wouldn’t hurt to keep him feeling good by adding him to the roster here. Just one angle to consider.
3. WHO’S IN NET? – That’s what I want to know and I imagine it was a long conversation when the Canadian management team finalized their roster on Saturday. TSN insider Pierre LeBrun pointed out the last couple of decisions were “very difficult” and I bet one of those was in goal. I’ve been a fan of the storyline that since there’s no clear-cut choice why not have Marc-Andre Fleury man the crease? Could be a cool story. If I’m predicting though I’ll say it’s Jordan Binnington, Adam Hill and Logan Thompson.
4. CAUFIELD – Monteal Canadiens’ fans are wondering if Cole Caufield has done enough to earn a spot on a very deep USA forward group. I don’t really know what else he could have done. He leads the Canadiens with 16 goals, two back of the league lead. He’d be on my team USA and I hope he’s part of the reveal tonight.
What’s fun about this column, this morning, is that we will be able to find out in just a few hours if I’m right or wrong on any of these!
5. NFL TOP-5 – 1. Detroit 2. Buffalo 3. Philadelphia 4. Kansas City 5. Pittsburgh. Look, Minnesota is very close and some could argue they belong on this list. I probably have them as my 6th or 7th best team in the NFL right now. Baltimore keeps moving up and down in my mind each week and that inconsistency has them on the outside looking in right now.
6. SNOW GAMES – There are two highly controversial football topics to come out of the weekend and we’ll start with Sunday night’s snow game in Orchard Park between the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers. I’ll start by saying that game was fun! The fans had fun, the broadcasters had fun, I had fun (I don’t speak for ALL viewers) and the teams, check that, the Buffalo Bills had fun. If this was happening at multiple venues every week it would be a problem that needs to be fixed but that’s not the case. Heck, the Bills are building a new stadium and I’m pretty sure it won’t have a roof! Clearly they aren’t worried about it.
7. FLAG PLANTING – It was called college football fight night as rivalry weekend across the NCAA was full of drama, excitement, upsets, fisticuffs, and even pepper spray! The most attention is aimed at Michigan/Ohio State and that makes sense. It’s maybe the biggest rivalry in all of college sports (all sports?) and it came in the moments right after a crushing upset.
This won’t surprise anyone who knows me but they were both in the wrong. Look, I understand why you would plant the flag at midfield and I understand that as a Buckeye player you would not want to let that happen. But at the end of the day I don’t have time for post game trash talk. It means nothing. The game is over. Rubbing in a win just makes you look bad and fighting after a loss might be worse.
8. TIE GOES TO THE RUNNER – That all feels like a concept lost in today’s world where we always need to declare a winner and a loser. To that I’ll say Ohio State is to blame for what happened post-game in Columbus. Look, they lost the game. It’s really as simple as that. Do you need to be disrespectful and plant the flag at midfield? No. But is it really that bad? Here’s what I don’t like in any it… Ohio State, get off the field after the loss. Don’t worry about what Michigan is doing after their win. Just swallow your pride and move on. When a team wins they get to celebrate it. Period. But to Michigan… if the Buckeyes are still on the field (close to midfield I might add) don’t rub their noses in it. Let them leave the field and then plant your flag wherever you like as the conquering heroes on the road.
9. CFP – The final bit of bragging in college football will happen in January when the national championship is won. The latest rankings by the the college football playoff committee came out Tuesday night and, as per usual, everyone is up in arms. Alabama is still projected to be in ahead of teams like Miami, Ole Miss, and South Carolina. At the end of the day this is going to be wildly entertaining but it’s also new and the format and specifics will be adjusted as we learn what works and what doesn’t. Just sit back and enjoy it.
10. RANDOMS – I speculated a few weeks ago that despite the early struggles Cincinnati would right the ship and still make the playoffs while at the same time I was selling all my stock in the 49ers. I guess 50% is a passing grade. The Bengals have scored 99 points over the last three weeks but somehow haven’t won a single game while a seventh loss Sunday night in Buffalo might be one loss too many in the NFC. … Pickleball continues to grow like crazy. Big thanks to Game+ for having me out to represent the station and host a charity event in Burlington Tuesday night. The venue was the brand new Blue Zone Courts and MLP star Zane Navratil (of Gary Vee’s New Jersey 5’s) along with Gianni of the band Walk Of The Earth were part of a great night in support of dementia…
That’s all for today, enjoy the roster reveals today!
This is good stuff 7) Flag Planting during rivallry week needs to stop and immediately. “College” is no longer “College” and I’ve been watching NCAA since 1980s. This is now pro-football. Ohio State/Michigan technically could be the biggest rivalry but it wasn’t revelvant for about 25 years and now with roster turnovers it’s more nostalgic. They are not recruiting kids from Ohio and splitting them up where some head north. Michigan post Harbaugh is most likely heading the way of USC. Again, a blue blood program but it’s not sustainable. Ohio State had a $17M roster and has now lost… Read more »