MONDAY COMMENTARY – SLUMPBUSTERS

(Listen daily for the RP Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 FM & LTD Radio)

The Monday Commentary is your weekend wrap in 90 seconds …

#1 – The Calgary Flames seemed to be the perfect tonic for the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL’s 20^th Anniversary Heritage Classic.

Connor McDavid returned from an upper body injury and notched an assist in a 5-2 Oilers win before over 55,000 fans at Commonwealth Stadium. It extended the Flames’ losing streak to five games, and in my opinion they looked uninterested for much of it.

Are the Oilers this good? Or are the Flames this bad? The answer is probably somewhere in the middle.

But a word to the wise: when the players and coaches are changed like a revolving door yet the problems continue, the problem is not the players and coaches.

#2 – Which brings us to the Roughriders coaching search. The CFL Playoffs are at hand but all anyone in my circle wants to discuss is who will replace Craig Dickenson in the Wheat Province.

You can forget about Kent Austin. I spent Sunday with Kent’s agent at the Dolphins game and when I asked what the chances are of the Rider great leaving Auburn to return to Saskatchewan, the answer was …

“Zero.”

But it’s not what you may think. Austin would want complete control of the Riders (a la a Head Coach/G.M. combo role) and couldn’t do that with Jeremy O’Day currently in the GM chair for the next three years.

So I’d guess there’s a better chance of Henry Burris taking over in Riderville, especially if Scott Milanovich gets a promotion in Hamilton, which is the current rumour.

And #3 – There were few surprises on the eighth Sunday of the NFL season. The Dolphins routed the Patriots here in Miami, the Cowboys clobbered the Rams for a sweep of L.A., the Packers lost their fourth in a row and the New York Giants lost again.

Take a moment and savour it! Very rarely do things go as planned.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm & 5 pm ET on Game+TV, WQEE Radio, Podcast & YouTube Live)