MIKE STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – BOMBERS VS RIDERS – How typically Riders would it be for the always-injured Zach Collaros to come back to Saskatchewan and defeat the Riders because their new face of the franchise, Cody Fajardo, wasn’t healthy enough to be effective in the West Division final?  

2 – RIDERS HEAVY FAVORITES – The reality is this: a healthy Cody Fajardo who is playing at a level, whereby he can execute everything he has been able to do all year, means the Roughriders will win this in a blowout.  The last time these two clubs met, Saskatchewan beat Winnipeg at their own game; by playing better defense. I know there exists a legion of Rider faithful who are always hesitant to give their club full praise because they don’t want their heart broken, but I think they are the favorites to win this week and then the favorites to win in Calgary against either Hamilton or Edmonton.

3 – DURON CARTER RELEASED – The BC Lions are the latest team to find out Duron Carter isn’t as good as a lot of people suggest.  I’m not sure there has been a more overrated player in professional sports in my lifetime. That’s nothing against him personally, he just has never been that good.  When the Riders cut bait, fans were up in arms and there was an underlying suggestion Rider coaches were guilty of sabotaging their team just to try and make Carter look bad.  What nonsense. Even now, I am hearing chatter from fans who want the Riders to bring this disruptor back. Of course. Every other team in the league has figured out he can’t play, so let’s bring him back to Saskatchewan a second time.  Who else would you say was overrated? Keep in mind, being overrated and being a bust aren’t the same thing.

4 – PELLE LINDBERGH – This week marks the 34th anniversary of Pelle Lindbergh’s tragic death after a drinking and driving crash.  Lindbergh, for those of you unaware, was an all-star goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers and he almost stole the 1985 Stanley Cup finals against the mighty Edmonton Oilers.  He was, quite likely, the best goaltender in the NHL at the time of his death. Since his death, the Flyers (minus one year of Ron Hextall) have gone on to use a roll call of netminders that have actually held them back from success.  I’m not going to go through all of them, but the Flyers were my favorite team until Jets 2.0 so I happen to recall a large number: Tommy Soderstrom, Garth Snow, Dominic Roussel, Robert Esche, Roman Cechmanek, John Vanbiesbrouck, Brian Boucher, Sean Burke, Jeff Hackett, Antero Niitymaki, Martin Biron, Michael Leighton, Ray Emery, Ilya Bryzgalov, Steve Mason, Michael Neuvirth, Brian Elliott, and Petr Mrazek.  Then you have draft flops Jean-Marc Pelletier and Maxime Ouellet. They chased away Sergei Bobrovsky after two seasons and now they finally feel like they have their man in Carter Hart. Call me skeptical. Goalies are finicky. Hart looked great last season when Elliott was injured and there was no option to back him up. He hasn’t been nearly as good when forced to share the crease. I know why the Flyers are doing it, but I’m betting they’d have better luck with Hart if they just played him 7-8 games in a row no matter what.

5 – PULJUJARVI STAYING – Jesse Puljujarvi says he’s focused on finishing his season in Finland as opposed to waiting for the Edmonton Oilers to trade him to another NHL team.  Puljujarvi has 20-points in 18-games playing for Karpat, but how that would translate into the NHL is impossible to know. The Oilers, for their part, appear to be on the right track now under Ken Holland and Dave Tippett.  I suspect they are in no hurry to do Puljujarvi any favours. So, it’s a good thing his focus is on Finland. Conversely, if you were running an NHL team, what’s Puljujarvi worth in a trade? Not much.

6 – STRASCHNITZKI – Former Humboldt Bronco Ryan Straschnitzki has undergone surgery in Thailand and has begun moving his legs.  The surgery has only been performed on about 30 people worldwide. Dr. Aaron Phillips, of the University of Calgary, says Straschnitzki will be able to start moving limbs below his injury site better and better.  The ceiling is unknown although it’s not typically a therapy that leads to walking again. “Bladder, bowel, sexual, cardiovascular function can all improve with this type of therapy.” When I see the millions and millions of dollars made by athletes and actors, I can’t help but think no matter what doctors and other medical professionals are paid, it’s just not enough.

7 – DON CHERRY – Social justice warriors were out in full force Saturday night and all day Sunday after Don Cherry made an observation that in Mississauga and Toronto, and some of the other bigger cities in Canada, he doesn’t see people wearing poppies like they do in smaller cities.  Now, the bigger cities are more of a melting pot of cultures than, say, Yorkton. I can’t back up or refute Cherry’s claims because I don’t spend appreciable time during early November in major centres. But, if that’s Cherry’s observation then let’s actually see if he’s right or not.  Cherry then went on to say that people who come to Canada and like our way of life should spend a couple of bucks and buy a poppy. What do you think? Should they? I’ve always felt everyone (immigrants and non-immigrants) should buy a poppy since our federal governments (both Liberal and Conservative) do a poor job looking after the veterans.  There is plenty of outrage on Twitter from media (which can’t be trusted) and other left wing disciples saying Cherry needs to be banished once and for all. Maybe he will be. I don’t know anymore. There is no consistency. You can dress up in racist black face, mock First Nations people, go to court to fight veterans, and be a hypocritical feminist and we will let you run our country.  What you can’t do is take a stand and defend the brave men and women who have given us the freedom we’ve enjoyed our entire lives. Especially when the word choice is less than sensitive. Freedom which is very much vulnerable as we get set to turn the calendar to 2020, I may add. But, this is what we want. We voted for it. We hate Cherry for his patriotism. I have no choice but to go along with it all because, for now, we are a democratic country and those are the choices we’ve made as Canadians.  For that reason, I am guessing Cherry is off the air next Saturday and we’ve seen the last of him. But, by all means, let’s continue to get behind our Prime Minister. I feel with what we did in the election, all Canadians have surrendered their rights to lecture on racism.

8 – CHERRY UPDATE – I wrote the above paragraph on Sunday.  Monday afternoon, as I expected, he was removed from Coach’s Corner.  Perhaps Liberals will be able to watch hockey now. I mean since they’ve been successful at eliminating fighting and a lot of the physical play from hockey, we haven’t seen Liberal people flock to the arenas or register their children for hockey.  Enrollment numbers are down, attendance is down, and yet the sport has conformed to be exactly what Liberal people have been screaming for. It’s safer. Yet, it doesn’t appear as though it’s enough to get them to watch and participate. Maybe Cherry is the final straw to get them to be more involved in the game.

9 – FINAL CHERRY THOUGHT – The comments he’s made about Europeans and French people over the years, repeatedly, should have been offensive enough to have him removed from Coach’s Corner.  They weren’t. So I guess some groups of people are fair game to make rude comments about? Or, is it more like we are learning that some people are allowed to be rude and some people aren’t.  It just depends who you cast your ballot for. Look, Cherry needed to be done. I won’t argue he didn’t. But, let’s not pretend we are a virtuous country. We just elected a person who mocked black people in full costume so many times, he doesn’t actually know how many times he did it.

10 – GRAIN DRYERS – I’m seeking an answer to a question I’ve posed to various people over the last couple of weeks and haven’t been able to get one.  If you are penalizing farmers (carbon tax) for using grain dryers, what would be the alternative to avoid the carbon tax? Follow up question – should we ban grain?

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