MIKE STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 . HARRIS SUSPENDED – The Saskatchewan Roughriders can keep their streak of beating CFL teams who aren’t good when they face the Winnipeg Blue Bombers this week and next as the Bombers will be without injured quarterback Matt Nichols and now suspended running back Andrew Harris.  A no win situation for the Riders now because if they lose, there will all sorts of ‘I told you so’ fans who will claim the Riders are a fraud. And, if they win, it will be because the Bombers are a wounded animal, or so to speak.

2. FAJARDO EXCELLENT AGAIN – The Riders won their fifth straight game and it wasn’t always pretty for Cody Fajardo, but he led the team to victory once again and he was fantastic in the second half when the team needed him to step up.  With the Harris suspension, Fajardo is moving into contention for the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player.

3. MY CFL POWER RANKINGS – I’ve seen a few analysts rank the teams today and there doesn’t seem to be a consensus.  Here are mine: 1-Saskatchewan, 2-Edmonton, 3-Winnipeg, 4-Montreal, 5-Calgary, 6-Hamilton, 7-Ottawa, 8-Toronto, 9-BC.  I debated not counting the Lions at all. Calgary will win the Grey Cup just because they always do when it looks like they aren’t very good.

4. KUZNETSOV SUSPENDED BY IIHF – So, Evgeny Kuznetsov has been suspended from playing for his country for the next four years for using illegal drugs (cocaine), yet the NHL doesn’t have illegal drugs like cocaine on its banned substance list so there is no penalty for him as far as his involvement with the Capitals is concerned.  Let me get this straight. Ryan Getzlaf can call a referee a name (we can argue the merits of how damaging this name call is another time) and he gets a hefty fine. Kuznetsov can do cocaine and it’s all good despite the fact it’s illegal because it’s not on the NHL’s banned substance list?

5. LUCK RETIRES – 29-year-old quarterback Andrew Luck announced his retirement this weekend, citing injuries and the long term effects on his life the sport of football is having.  He’s getting widespread praise for doing the right thing but I’m looking at this a different way. Once again we have a sports team in love with its future and so they dealt away a perfectly good quarterback for the present (Peyton Manning) because Luck was going to be their saviour for the next 10-15 years.  Manning goes on and wins a Super Bowl with Denver. Luck missed an entire season due to injury and now he’s finished. The Colts have no championships since dealing Manning but they sure had a bright future. Someone give them an award for ‘Bright Future’.

6. HABS BRIGHT FUTURE – Sportsnet wrote an article about how exciting it will be in Montreal to watch the Canadiens over the next three to eight years.  Apparently, Cole Caulfield and Ryan Poehling are guarantees to lead this team to the promised land. So much so, that it doesn’t make sense to add to a present day team of Carey Price, Shea Weber, Max Domi, Jonathan Drouin, etc.  As bright as that future is today, I could show you a number of stories from, exactly, one year ago where GM Marc Bergevin was taken to task by talking heads everywhere for having the Habs on the path towards long term failure. Play for the present.

7. NO NO HITTERS – Chicago White Sox pitcher Reynaldo Lopez left his start on Sunday after five innings of no-hit ball because he was dehydrated and had the flu.  Milwaukee’s Jordan Lyles had a no hitter through six but was taken out for no reason that makes any sense. I suppose they were preserving his arm from injury, but San Francisco third baseman Pablo Sandoval just underwent Tommy John Surgery this past week, so there goes that silly theory.

8. FLAW In WAR – In 1999, the top four hitters in Major League Baseball were Larry Walker (.379), Nomar Garciaparra (.357), Derek Jeter (.349), and Bernie Williams (.342).  This year, the top hitter is Michael Brantley at .337. I bet you didn’t even know who the top hitter is. We will never see a batter approach .400 ever again. Not that anyone cares because the big stat today is WAR (wins above replacement).  The best pitcher is Jacob deGrom, not a surprise. The second best pitcher is Lance Lynn. But, if you watched the games and trusted your eyeball, you’d know this just isn’t the case. The top second baseman is Ketel Marte of Arizona. He’s quite a bit better than Jose Altuve, apparently.  As a ball fan, you decide if you’d rather start your team with Marte and Lynn as opposed to Altuve and Justin Verlander (I’m talking present day only).

9. AMERICAN GOALIE EXODUS – I will be running SJHL team capsules on the league website in the next week to ten days and I’m in the process of compiling potential roster information from each team as I write this particular article. One thing that has struck me early on is the loss of American goalies Grant Boldt (Estevan), Patrick Pugliese (Nipawin), and Ryan Ouellette (Yorkton).  It’s conceivable that all three would have been the three best puckstoppers in the league this year and yet all three have opted to play back home in the United States. I guess that’s the pitfall of having Americans on the roster. You can lose them back to their home country without compensation so it’s difficult to make long term plans and involve them. Having said that, all three were pivotal in their team’s successes last year. 

10. KEYBOARD WARRIORS – I’ve never understood the rationale of hiding behind a fake name when commenting on message boards, social media, or blogs.  If you feel a certain way about an issue, put your name behind it. It seems very cowardly to use anonymous handles, although most of us are guilty of it.  I think it’s also, potentially, embarrassing for someone to find out you are two-faced once you’re discovered.

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