MIKE STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – FAJARDO IMPRESSES AGAIN – I opted for other avenues of sports entertainment on Saturday night after watching the first half of the Riders-Eskimos game.  Simply put, the Riders looked flat and it was, maybe, the first time I was unimpressed with Cody Fajardo. Two quarters later, he leads his team to its 11th win in 13 games and finishes with well over 400 yards passing.  He’s the best player in the CFL this year and I know Hamilton fans will take exception, but I don’t think it’s close. If Fajardo has a chance at the end of the game, he’s money. Speaking of money, I’m pleased as punch that they’ve locked him up for a couple of years so that we can have some stability at the most important position. 

2 – COLLAROS SHOULD START – I maintain skepticism as to whether Zach Collaros can stay upright for any length of time to lead a team to success, but the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have no choice but to stick with him at this point as they head into their playoff match with the Calgary Stampeders (have faith Rider fans).  The lesson here for Bomber fans is that the grass is always greener on the other side. When they were cruising and the toast of the league in the first half, I was hearing murmurs about Matt Nichols and the fact he was the weak link to the team. If he was, he’s a pretty strong weak link. The Nichols injury sunk their season and I am not taking them seriously no matter who they play in the West semi-final.

3 – HERITAGE CLASSIC – I watched the festivities from the comfort of a warm living room on Saturday night, but hats off to Regina for doing an incredible job hosting the NHL this past week and full marks to the fans for coming out in sell-out numbers for the outdoor game between Winnipeg and Calgary.  Outdoor games aren’t for me. I don’t like being cold and I find the view from the seats to the playing surface to be odd considering the high price tag. Nevertheless, the rest of the entertainment is always top notch. I have seen one and I would suggest every NHL fan should put seeing an outdoor game live on their bucket list.

4 – SCHEIFELE AND WHEELER – For whatever reason, the Winnipeg Jets are offensively challenged.  For an equally puzzling reason, head coach Paul Maurice has refused to break-up Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler.  They are siamese twins on the ice for the last four years. For about 8 minutes of the third period on Saturday when the Flames were ahead 1-0, Maurice did experiment with Scheifele in the middle of Nik Ehlers and Patrik Laine.  But, it didn’t last. During the After Hours interview, Maurice addressed the stubbornness of refusing to separate his two longtime linemates by saying he knows what the lineup would look like if they aren’t together, intimating that it is worse than the offensive production we’ve seen of late:  2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2 (over the last six games). He’s put himself on the spot here with that statement. To me, sometimes you have to go with the hot hand and see what you can spark and should mean Laine with Jack Roslovic and someone else (perhaps Adam Lowry). They’ve been the two best forwards so far this season.  I think, ulimately, the Jets would get more from Bryan Little if he was paired with Wheeler.

5 – BYFUGLIEN – The NHL is the worst league in pro sports as far as keeping things secret.  A couple of weeks ago when I was in Winnipeg to watch the Jets play the Coyotes, it marked the first time in the Jets 2.0 era that the game wasn’t a sellout.  There are a number of reasons for this, but I am going to suggest that the Jets owe their fans an explanation as to what’s going on with Dustin Byfuglien. Does he have a personal issue?  Is he just tired of hockey and contemplating retirement? Is there something else at play? GM Kevin Cheveldayoff doesn’t need to air dirty laundry but he can give a bit more than what he’s been forthcoming with so far.  Fans pay big money to watch NHL players and they deserve to know a bit more information than what is provided to them from their favorite teams. A more open relationship with your fans can’t hurt when you need sellouts and aren’t getting them.

6 – MIKE BABCOCK – I know Mike Babcock is from the Saskatoon area and he’s incredibly popular in our province.  He’s also the head coach of Canada’s team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and that makes him doubly beloved. Maybe that’s why certain things that strike me as being alarming are shrugged off when it comes to Babcock.  I think Babcock is the only coach that could win only three playoff rounds since 2009 and be regarded as one of the best in the business today. Heck, who else would still even have a job with that paltry of a success rate?  But, that’s on his ledger. He has also yet to win a playoff round with the Maple Leafs and he’s also been at the controls for them squandering the formative years of their young stars and now they are all making big money. The benching of Jason Spezza for the home opener brought back memories of when he benched Mike Modano in one of the last three games of his career, preventing him from reaching 1500.  It smacks of an ego trip. Sure, Babcock has won on the international stage but wouldn’t you really have to screw that up royally to not win? As the highest paid bench boss in the NHL, I’ve yet to see an instance where Babcock has squeezed more than what’s expected from this Toronto lineup since he took over prior to 2015-16. This week he tossed GM Kyle Dubas under the bus for not giving him a tough guy on the roster to defend Auston Matthews.  To me, when you are paid like Babcock, you need to be able to work around the imperfections of the roster and it can be argued he’s been outcoached in the playoffs three years in a row.

7 – NHL WATCHING SJHL – A scout from the Buffalo Sabres was in attendance at the game between Humboldt and Melville on Saturday night and I have to believe he was there for Karter McNarland, a 16-year-old who is playing at a point per game clip with the Broncos.  That includes the three points he got on Saturday night, so the scout had to have left fairly impressed even if McNarland wasn’t the specific reason why he was there. Side bar – Melfort Mustangs forward Zack Smith was left the club for the Regina Pats. Smith, a 2001 born forward, would have been a top option for Canada West at the World Junior ‘A’ Challenge and head coach Trevor Blevins has been raving about him for over a year as far as Smith being on a similar path to what Carson Albrecht and Justin Ball were on when they tore up the league last year with 100 point seasons. 

8 – HILLTOPS WIN PFC – As it turns out, the Edmonton Huskies had no answer for Ben Abrook.  The star running back carried the ball an astounding 44 times for 246 yards on Sunday as the Saskatoon Hilltops upended the Huskies 30-14 to win the PFC for the 98th year in a row (it hasn’t quite been that many, but it’s been a lot).  Huskie back Brandt Burzuk carried 19 times for 111 yards and was held out of the end zone by the Hilltops D. Prior to the game, Abrook and Burzuk were named co-RB Of The Year in the PFC. Abrook, perhaps, took exception to that and showed why he is, clearly, the best back in the country.

9 – LEAVE OF ABSENCE – The Yorkton Cardinals and Melville Millionaires have been issued a one year leave of absence from the Western Canadian Baseball League in order to get their finances and baseball operations organized.  The Medicine Hat Mavericks will move to the East Division and the WCBL will be a ten team league in 2020. From Yorkton’s perspective, I think the corporate support has shown the team can be very viable. What it needs are bums in the seats at games (although at 6-50, I can’t blame folks for not showing up) and a strong volunteer base on its Board of Directors.  The next year shouldn’t be an issue as far as raising money goes. The issue will be whether or not there are enough dedicated people to execute. This is the problem, in general, with organizations (sports or otherwise) that rely on volunteers to survive. I’m seeing fewer and fewer people willing to donate their time. The reasons are plentiful but the reality is that if you want things in your community, it requires sweat equity from good folks.  If you don’t have that, you can’t have nice things. It’s really that simple.

10 – EAST PERSPECTIVE ON PRAIRIE FOLKS – I grew up in the Maritimes so I have a fairly good grasp on the way of life and how they think in a lot of respects.  What I don’t know is what do they think of prairie people and what reasons they’d have for voting the way they did last Monday. On social media, a person I went to high school with offered these thoughts:  ‘It’s like watching your neighbor win the lottery and he spends all his money on stupid things like jacked up Ford 250 Diesels and coke and then realizes in the end the money doesn’t last forever and now he’s broke and won’t shut up about it.  So, thank you for the western money that has ‘kept us going’, but we haven’t been spending it on cowboy hats and Confederate flags. We are just trying to keep our heads above water. Also, when a Maritimer lends his buddy a couple of bucks for a double double because he’s short on cash, he doesn’t keep reminding him of it every day for the next thirty years’.  It was a very obvious perspective laced with jealousy and my reply to him didn’t get a response. I said: ‘if you are short on cash and want a double double but your buddy can only get the money by going to an ATM because he doesn’t have much himself, do you slash his F250 Diesel’s tires before he heads to the bank?’

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