MIKE STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – RIDERS WIN ANOTHER CLOSE ONE – There’s no denying how impressive it is when you have a team that just figures out a way to win the close games and the Saskatchewan Roughriders, led by standout quarterback Cody Fajardo, have been very good in this area all season.  The Riders also finish the 2nd 3rd of the season with a 5-and-1 mark after going 3-and-3 in the first 3rd. They will play three straight road games near the end of the year (the last one is at home), so their work is cut out as far as securing a home playoff game.  

2 – PENALTIES – I wasn’t keen on mentioning this during the early part of the season because Craig Dickenson seems like a great guy and I feel, by and large, he’s done a good job with this team because the record is much better than what most of us figured it would be.  Having said that, the fact they’ve taken the second most penalties in the league is a reflection on the coaching staff and it’s something coaches can have some control over and there hasn’t been any improvement as far as discipline goes throughout the season. Looking back at the Bomber game last weekend (I don’t call it that Hick Bowl that Westwood coined years ago), first quarter penalties took the Riders out of the game early.

3 – HOW DOES JWL FIT IN? – Unpopular opinion, but I’d be in no great rush to put Jordan Williams-Lambert back in the line-up.  Fajardo has great chemistry with his current cast of receivers and there’s only one football; which means someone else is going to be seeing the ball less when he comes back.  Shaq Evans and Naaman Roosevelt present a very solid 1-2 option for Fajardo and then you mix in Kyran Moore, Manny Arceneaux, a couple of rookies, and the occasional toss to a running back and I just don’t think there is room for Williams-Lambert.  It’s not that I don’t think he’s a great player, but I’m not a fan of upsetting the apple cart or trying to fix something that isn’t broken just because this guy has returned from the NFL.  

4 – UNRELATED NOTE – Either Stephen McAdoo remembered how to coach or most of the Saskatchewan Roughrider fans owe him an apology.  It’s comical looking back at comments last year about McAdoo and how he was supposed to turn two (perhaps three) QBs who aren’t playing anywhere anymore into top notch starters.  If anything, McAdoo deserves immense praise for squeezing what he did out of that group of offensive players last year.

5 – SAFE HIGHWAYS – I was traveling the Trans-Canada from Moose Jaw on Saturday afternoon at about the same time as many fans were headed into Regina for the Rider game and I couldn’t help but notice increased police presence.  Is this normal during Rider games?

6 – NEW PHILOSOPHY – Watching Major League Baseball teams remove pitchers after 4 and 5 innings in order to preserve their health got me to wondering if maybe we shouldn’t consider taking a look at NHL players, such as Connor McDavid, and having them go at full speed for a period and a half and then send them to the dressing room for the rest of the night in order to preserve their health and get maximum performance from them during the 30 minutes in which they are in the game.  If that sounds ridiculous to you, show it to a new age baseball person and see if reading it is akin to getting hit upside the head with a brick.

7 – OPENERS – Aside from James Paxton, the New York Yankees are set to go through the baseball playoffs with openers in every other game.  The best team in baseball doesn’t have a starting pitcher they trust in the first inning aside from Paxton. This is a good thing for viewership?  If eight pitchers strike out 15 batters is it the same as watching Paxton do it all by himself?

8 – NHL CBA – As I write this, it’s possible the NHLPA will opt to re-open negotiations on the collective bargaining agreement with the owners.  Many feel the CBA works for both sides, but if you look at it without your fan hat on, it’s actually terrible for the players. Bought and paid for media don’t ever discuss Escrow, but the fringe guys who get sent to the AHL on 1-way deals love getting demoted because they don’t have to pay Escrow.  It’s, apparently, quite a hit to the pocket books. I’m also not sure a system that penalizes a player for being a free agent after two other stars needed contracts is a good one for players either. Let’s pretend Auston Matthews and John Tavares weren’t signed last year. What does Mitch Marner get for a deal?  It, likely, ended up costing him $2-million per season just because those other two guys signed first. If it was the other way around, you can bet it’s Matthews that signs for $11m per year because Marner is already locked up for what Matthews got. A system that forces older players to end their careers ‘hurt’ as opposed to leaving with dignity isn’t ideal either.  I’m thinking of Marian Hossa, in particular, but there are others. Being injured while still under contract allows teams to not count the salary against the cap, where as if he retired, it counts. There’s also the issue of expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle being exempt from revenue sharing with the players when they paid their fees to the league office.

9 – NFL WEEKEND – New Orleans has lost quarterback Drew Brees for two months after he injured his thumb on Sunday and Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is done for the season, requiring elbow surgery.  With both quarterbacks in the twilight of their career, you have to wonder if we haven’t seen the last of, at least, one of these two future Hall of Famers. Meanwhile, the performance of Pat Mahomes on Sunday only reinforces my thought that we are looking at the next Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky level of superstar in professional sports. 

10- SJHL WEEKEND – There was some great action but the biggest story everyone is talking about is the hit by Yorkton’s Greg Mulhall on Melville goalie Berk Berkeliev, resulting in a serious head injury for the Mils goalie.  Mulhall has been suspended for 25 games and a number of people have asked my thoughts on it and I guess the only thing I have to say is that this is the longest suspension I can recall for a player in the SJHL so it would be difficult for me to suggest he should have received more.  I also remember having a talk with Bob Beatty years ago when Bob was coaching La Ronge and he felt his player had been suspended for too many games. I asked Bob if the offense committed was something we’d be okay with seeing every once in awhile when we attend games and he said, ‘no’.  To which, I answered a harsh suspension isn’t a bad thing because a steep penalty will always act as a better deterrent from future bad behaviour than a soft suspension. To contrast how we’ve learned from such behaviour, I remember in 2009, Melville captain Daniel Hope getting cheap shotted in the playoffs and it was a bad enough injury that Hope never recovered enough to contribute and I always thought his absence was what tipped the scales in favor of Humboldt in the league final.  The player who took Hope out received a 1 game suspension.

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