NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE RINKS

By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds/DUBNetwork.ca MJ Warriors Beat Writer

1. Back to 2020…: Here in mid-January in the Saskatchewan junior hockey landscape feels like we’re back to where we were in late 2020…on again, off again, pauses, Covid outbreaks, etc. As a result of a lot fewer hospitalizations from Omicron, I do believe we’ll get through the season, even if it needs to be pushed back, but in the meantime, I am stressed and feel a lot of stress for the young men and women playing the game. It does seem a real challenge for them to perform their best not knowing whether the next game will be cancelled, and I wonder if in this climate college scouts are paying a little less attention up here. I don’t know that for a fact, but more than any championship I want to see kids get their spots in colleges and Universities and at whatever level they truly hope for. Premier Moe is doing his best to consider mental health, I believe it (as well as the economy, of course, which comes first in this capitalist society we live in), but there are just a billion cases in our province right now (and the world I guess). Anyways, as I said, I would bet on a Canalta Cup (SJ) championship being crowned at some point between now and May, but beyond that…
2. Will it happen?: Beyond that, things like the Anavet Cup (the prairie Junior A champ between us and Manitoba), and the Centennial Cup (the Junior A National Championship), I am less sure. With all these cancellations, how much will schedules need to be pushed back? How much more will it all be pushed back in other provinces? I do see a world wherein the SJHL there is just an end date for the regular season, and the playoffs are determined by win percentage, but can you really have a June Centennial Cup? When does it start to affect the 2022-23 season? I don’t have the answer, and the pattern is that Covid does seem to get better in the warmer weather, so who knows. For the community of Estevan, and others who have a legitimate chance of getting there, I obviously hope desperately that it happens, but it’s getting tough.
3. SJ trade deadline: The biggest moves were actually made in November – especially the Melfort Mustangs – but there were a couple interesting deals. La Ronge grabbing Mkyllan Couture, Matt Smith and Parker Fofonoff is a great haul as they make a run to get in and climb deeper into the playoffs, while Humboldt did some tidy business by adding the excellent James Form (who could and maybe should still be in the WHL) and Jared Kaplowitz to their already deep and formidable squad. We’ll find out who won the deadline when the dust settles, but La Ronge and Humboldt were the teams that definitely made their rosters better.
4. A real rebuild: A lot of talk was about the great Weyburn sell-off, and whether they ‘won the deadline’ as a result of the solid rebuild work their GM Cody Mapes did – and we’ll only find out I guess in a year or two how it all went. I do like the great young haul he got for the likes of local hero Braden Birnie, Nik Sombrowski, Troy Hamilton, Drew Kuzma, etc., so he did what he was supposed to and did it well. I hope the Wings board gives him the time to cultivate the seeds he’s planted. I also like a few of the kids he brought in: Mi-Kwan Tallman from Wayway and Blake Norris from Steinbach both look like real players especially. They sure were good Sunday in Wilcox!
5. The Missing Link: The Kindersley Klippers were dealt at least a temporary blow when their star Logan Linklater’s WHL rights were moved at the deadline from Prince Albert to Regina, and the skilled 2003-birth year promptly got in a car to report to the Queen City. I really like Logan, I think he can definitely play at that level, and really hope he gets the ice time. In the meantime, the Klippers already don’t score a ton, so it’ll be interesting to see how they cope without him. It’s been a trying year for a lot of clubs in the SJ!
6. Canada West: On the bright side, at the time of writing anyway, it does look like CanadaWest will go forward in USports. UofR and UofS will do battle this weekend in their home-and-homes, while the SJHL-alumni full Trinity Western Spartans will head to Calgary and battle the Dinos on the men’s side. I look forward to hopefully calling a UofR women’s game or two the rest of the year, but we’ll see what happens!
7. It was cold, but it was good: Rory and I enjoyed shooting our SJ at Noon SJHL talk show live on location in Radville this past week, although it was absolutely frozen in that barn. The people there were so friendly, and Rory even bought a couple of knickknacks from the second-hand store there!
8. Hockey Day in Sask…Week: The reason why it was in Radville is that this week is Hockey Day in Saskatchewan…week in Saskatchewan? I dunno. My buddy Tanner’s HomeTeam company is filming all the action, and I’ll be calling two or three games on Saturday! I don’t own any long underwear, but I will be wearing a few layers and a couple pairs of socks at least. The plan for Saturday is a U18 female game at 1 PM, a U18 male game at 4, and an SJHL game at 7:30…so we’ll see! Check out HomeTeam online for all the details!
9. Real help for Kane: In NHL news the word is that the Edmonton Oilers are in talks with Evander Kane about bringing the troubled forward into the fold. Absolutely Kane is still a good player, but I just hope people are taking into consideration what he needs as a human being first, and not just heartlessly looking for a bargain (like Montreal and Logan Mailloux, for example). I don’t know all his issues, but there you have it.
10. Zim, Spielman out: Finally, my Minnesota Vikings have moved from Coach Mike Zimmer and GM Rick Spielman, and after two failed seasons, that’s how it goes in the NFL. This team will still never, ever win as long as Kirk Cousins is in there at QB1, and before you go on about how Cousins had a better year statistically, I can’t imagine a starter who has better numbers but is less clutch when it all really matters. I know it’s easier to fire Zimmer and Spielman than Cousins, but I don’t think anything is going to change until they fix the QB problem. But what do I know!

(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)