MIKE STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – BIGGEST CFL GAME OF THE SEASON – The Saskatchewan Roughriders are at the Calgary Stampeders this Friday night in what has to be the biggest game in the league this year for any two teams.  Rider naysayers are hoping Calgary wipes the mat with them so that they can say the Rider record is a mirage and built on luck. But, to me, all a loss is going to do is show the Riders how much better they need to be in order to dethrone the Stamps.  For what it’s worth, the Riders are due for a loss no matter who they play and they are on the road against a very tough team. At this point there are only three contenders for the Grey Cup. Saskatchewan. Calgary. Hamilton. I’ll let you decide if they should be in that order or not.

2 – PINBALL BACK IN TORONTO – Pinball Clemons is back in Toronto to try and right the ship that is the Argonauts, accepting the position of General Manager.  I think it’s possible he brings over Khari Jones to coach as Khari is still an interim with Montreal and the Als don’t have an owner. Apparently, Clemons and Jones also share the same agent.  Khari is, hands down, the CFL Coach Of The Year. That’s with all due respect to Craig Dickenson.

3 – OFFSIDE RULE – Is there a more obvious abuse of video replay in sports than the NHL offside challenge?  What’s the intent of offside anyway? Was it instituted years ago to guard against cherry pickers? I like that the blueline forces you to come, organized, on the attack.  But, I think the intent of the rule was that there was recourse on a blatant miss from the linesmen, not a chance for a coach to erase a goal after someone’s skate is an inch over the line too soon as they enter the offensive zone.  I can’t understand why they don’t fix it. It be like allowing CFL coaches to challenge offside on receivers. Aren’t they offside on almost every play but the officials just call the obvious infractions? And, if you want to get the letter of the law correct, why not open it up and allow challenges for hooking, holding, slashing, etc.

4 – HELLEBUYCK – I’m not a sports psychiatrist and this could be a coincidence, but Connor Hellebuyck has always played well when his job security wasn’t exactly all that secure.  When he came up as a rookie, he was spectacular but was returned to the minors. His first full year was when the Jets sent Ondrej Pavelec to the minors and he was paired with Michael Hutchinson.  I still think that Jets team makes the playoffs and does damage if they had any kind of goaltending that year. Hellebuyck (and Hutchinson) were below average (that’s being kind) although Hellebuyck got better after Pavelec was called back up, except Pavelec then got injured and the threat to Hellebuyck’s playing time went away.  The Jets traded for Steve Mason in the offseason and while Mason didn’t end up challenging Hellebuyck (Mason started the first two games of the season), the message was sent that the Jets weren’t happy and Hellebuyck was also coming up on a new contract. This past season, Hellebuyck went back to being average as Laurent Brossoit was not highly regarded.  Having said that, Brossoit has played well and the Jets used him in two of the first three games this season. I’ve just finished watching Hellebuyck play a great game behind a green defense corps that has Neal Pionk as its number one. As long as the Jets keep Hellebuyck uncomfortable, I think he will be fine.

5 – NEAL FOR LUCIC – James Neal has six goals in four games with his new team, while Milan Lucic scored seventeen in three years while he was with the Oilers.  It’s already a good trade for Edmonton. Meanwhile, Jesse Puljujarvi sits at home in Finland and refuses to give Ken Holland and Dave Tippett a chance. I get that he was misused and almost wrecked by the Oilers under their previous regime, but he should give Holland and Tippett the benefit of the doubt.  As long as the Oilers are playing well, they don’t need to make a trade with Puljujarvi at all. If they aren’t playing well, they also don’t need to trade him because the return isn’t worth it. Puljujarvi would best be served to return to Edmonton and give it his best shot, at which time the Oilers should trade him out of town after a month anyways because I’m a firm believer in chemistry and there is no point in keeping guys around who don’t want to be there.

6 – SILLY SPORTS STORIES – I admit to being an epic troll on Sportsnet’s Facebook page.  I can’t stand the mindless stories that are written (some over a dozen times in a dozen different ways) about the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Only a fool, with nothing but time on his hands, would read all this meaningless dribble. I prefer sports journalism myself, and watching a video feature with some female reporter acting giddy while cutting a tomato with Morgan Rielly at Rielly’s condo is of no interest to me.  Having said that, TSN had a piece on Keith Kinkaid the other night that was terrific. Apparently, Kinkaid used a bunch of emoticons or emojis (I don’t even know the correct term) while tweeting and the TSN reporter went around to Kinkaid’s Montreal teammates to see if they could decipher what he meant.  It was great tv.

7 – PRAIRIE FOOTBALL CONFERENCE – The Saskatoon Hilltops are, once again, the team to beat as the PFC wraps up the regular season this weekend.  Ben Abrook, with all due respect to Regina’s Brayden Long and Edmonton Huskies’ Brandt Burzuk, is the best running back in the league and he’s the catalyst of the offense.  I do feel as though the Thunder can beat the Hilltops, but they’ll need to play the perfect game. No turnovers, stellar play from the offensive line so Blake Scherle can find his talented receivers, and I also think the Thunder have the edge with the kicking game.  The thing with the Hilltops is that they won’t ever beat themselves with mistakes. So you have to be flawless and your best players have to play their best games. Having said that, I think Regina is capable. The Huskies are going to be a tough test for the Thunder as well so the semi-final is no gimme.  Edmonton QB Declan O’Flaherty has only thrown 4 interceptions all season. To put that into perspective, Hilltops pivot Tyler Herman has thrown 7 (which is still an acceptable number) despite throwing seven fewer passes than O’Flaherty.

8 – NOD TO LAMB – Gregory Lamb deserves a special mention for his work on Sunday.  The Thunder running back got the start with Long injured. He also was the punter and placekicker in light of Eric Maximuik getting injured at practice.  He also served as the returner on special teams. That’s a lot of hats for one guy to wear. By the way, if you are football fan and aren’t attending the junior games, you are missing out big time.  Reginans are spoiled to have the Riders, Rams, and Thunder all in the same city. Is there a weekend ever during football season when you don’t have a game you can watch?

9 – ALBERTA TRUCKER RULES – The Globe and Mail posted a story on Tuesday about Alberta easing safety requirements for newly licensed semi-truck and bus drivers, allowing hundreds to bypass rigorous training and testing standards implemented after the Humboldt Broncos crash.  The change applies to farm employees who recently acquired a Class 1 to drive transport trucks for agricultural purposes as well as new Class 2 drivers exclusively operating school buses. It also applies to anyone who received either category of license in the six months before new, stricter rules took effect in March.  It’s insane to me that we’d not put all operators through the most stringent of tests. I put on over 40,000 km a year and I cross paths with a lot of semis. About ten years ago, I used to be thankful to have them in front of me as I considered them the most skilled drivers on the highway. Now, I’m petrified most of the time because I have no idea what the person behind the wheel of this lethal weapon is thinking.  I’ve seen many appalling offenses, the most egregious of which would be a driver using both of his hands to operate his smart phone and his bare feet to steer the wheel while on a four lane highway. If I was a semi-driver, I would WANT and WELCOME the most thorough test imaginable as I would never want to be responsible for someone else’s life due to the fact I could have been trained better than I was.

10 – CLIMATE EMERGENCY – Don’t listen to any of this nonsense you see and hear on the media and from left wing politicians.  Really think about what the word ‘emergency’ means. If we were in the midst of a real climate emergency, all political parties would band together and get on their hands and knees and beg China, India, and United States to smarten up.  But, they don’t do that because this is a fake issue. I’m not a climate denier. I believe the weather is always changing but this is nowhere near an emergency. Besides, we could go the other way and be more irresponsible than ever before and increase emissions many times over and no other country would notice a thing.  We are irrelevant when it comes to the world’s climate. All we are doing is putting good Canadian people into the poor house.  

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)