FRIDAY COMMENTARY – THE THING TO DO
Golden Knights forward Chandler Stephenson
(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 & LTD Radio)
A coupla thoughts headed into the weekend …
First, it’s no surprise Saskatchewan is as geeked up for the playoffs as anywhere else on the planet. Look at all the Sask boys who had a big impact in Thursday night’s Stanley Cup Playoff games!
We need look no further than Toronto where the Leafs’ Luke Schenn of Saskatoon and Tampa Bay’s Tanner Jeannot of Oxbow dropped the gloves in a real tough bout in a game which was out of hand. Honestly, I never knew Schenn could throw the dukes like that; especially the lefts.
Saskatoon’s Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist for Vegas as the Golden Knights tied up their series with the Jets. He was also 81% on faceoffs. And as far boys from the south go, Regina’s Jordan Eberle and Wilcox’s Jaden Schwartz were both in the minus as their Seattle Kraken lost in Colorado to tie up that first round series.
Need I remind you Regina ranks 10th in the world for NHL’ers produced per capita? Amazing.
Secondly, this situation going on in Lloydminster is the kind of thing I live for. They’ve announced plans for a 2,500-seat event centre which – who’s kidding who – will be home to a very lucky junior hockey team. The question is … will it be A-J, S-J, or the Dub?
If we can debate this without getting upset, I submit that this is the ideal spot for a WHL team. Lloyd is as good of hockey town as there is, on that corridor between Saskatoon and Edmonton; both WHL strongholds.
Colour me surprised to learn the population of Lloydminster is 30,000 which is well above Swift Current, and on the heels of P.A. and Moose Jaw. And it says here it’s better for a junior team to be the top dog in town, rather than get washed away in the major cities like Winnipeg, Calgary or Vancouver.
So why limit yourself with only 2,500 seats? If they asked me – which they never will – I’d build it with a capacity of 5,000 in order to attract some bigger events and maybe lure a major junior hockey team.
But at this capacity, they’ll never have that chance and are kneecapping themselves. If worse comes to worst, they can always tarp off the unsold seats.
Apparently that’s the thing to do these days.
That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary
(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV, WQEE and Streaming)
There would be a hell of a curfluffel if it’s for a A-J team. These numbers were taken off your earlier post.
(City of Lloydminster)
No way it’s for the WHL. 1. The balance in the league is already skewed east. 2. 2500 is too small for the W. They’ll put up with it in Winnipeg for a spell to get in the market. Not so for Lloyd. 3. Even lost in the shuffle in Edmonton or Calgary, the OK and Hitmen still draw 5,6, 7000 a lot of nights. Winnipeg and Vancouver/Langley are smaller than that, Winnipeg especially. As mentioned, the AJ will cause questions from the SK side so that leaves either the SJ or some combination of rodeos and monster truck shows.… Read more »
I would love to see the Blades move to Lloyd and The AHL Moose move to Saskatoon.
Its win-win-win and I want to debate how it is not
2 new ‘markets’ for hockey and TN should buy the ice and build a 4,000 seat arena for hockey/basketball/events in southwest Winnipeg
Musings – TSN needs to go! TSNetwork has become redundant while toatally irrelevant to anything current in the sports world. TSN, hardly ever see a NHL game broadcast anymore. TSN needs to go away permanently.
Steinbach Manitoba would be an absolutely great place for a major junior hockey team.
The second rink in this building would be suffice for junior A compared to most places in SK/MB