Scruffy’s That N That

1 – HOME OF THE TOUGH GUYS: Bryan Hayes, Jamie McLennan and Jeff O’Neill make me laugh hard most days on Overdrive especially as they moan about the Leafs season. During Wednesday’s show, the topic of enforcers came up and what province has produced the most. The three said Saskatchewan has to lead the way.  How can they not? I know I am forgetting guys but instantly the names of Joey Kocur, Wendel Clark, Derek Boogaard and Kelly Chase came up. Add Tiger Williams, Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, Dave Brown and Dave Manson to that list. I’m sure because of size that Ontario might have more, but safe to say that while the 306 sends many players to the NHL—a lot of those players are tough sob’s which I’m more than OK with.

2 – THE LEAFS HAVE FALLEN: If it wasn’t known just after the Olympic break, it is certainly official now. The Leafs are a mess and they have no one to blame but themselves. Will Brad Treliving and Craig Berube be a part of the organization within 48 hours of the final horn sounding? 

This week’s game against Anaheim told you all you need to know about the dysfunction in that room. Auston Matthews suffers what we find out is a season-ending injury after a cheap shot by Radko Gudas and not one player stuck up for their captain. Morgan Rielly admitted after he should have done something and William Nylander said he didn’t see the play, but on video you could see him raising his hand to the ref to call for a penalty. Meanwhile in Dallas, Connor McDavid decided to throw punches after Leon Draisaitl had a puck shot at him. In one instance, the captain gets no protection and in the other, the captain is doing the protecting.

The last couple of seasons have not been good ones for Matthews, and there is a large part of me (and last time I checked I was large), that thinks Toronto fans that saw him helped off the ice have seen the last of Matthews in a Leafs uniform. If he doesn’t want to be a part of the rebuild, and who would blame him after the Gudas incident, he will ask to leave. A lot was made about players playing in Toronto and the massive expectations on their shoulders because of the media that dissects every move they make. Matthews would probably be better off being a guy in a place like Utah, Columbus or Carolina where the team isn’t under the microscope the way they are in Toronto. The Leafs may very well have the most interesting off-season out of all the 32 teams as they try and decide their immediate future.

3 – RASMUS DAHLIN: When did this guy become the NHL’s main agitator? The Sabres defenceman is certainly getting under the skin of opponents. I thought his antics with Auston Matthews that resulted in AM34 getting suspended after an incident at an outdoor game was a one-time thing, but now you see Evgeni Malkin get suspended five games for slashing Dahlin in the face earlier this month and Brandon Hagel got fined, but not suspended for punching Dahlin’s lights out in that wild game between Tampa and Buffalo.

Many think Dahlin is one of the best defencemen in the league, but was he known as an agitator or we just seeing more of his play because Buffalo is playing so well. Whatever it is, he’s certainly doing it well. 

4 – GOOD LUCK: Steve Kerr would like to see the NBA season reduced by 10 games and I am sure there are many that would like to see that happen too, but it’s not happening. Kerr believes the quality of play would improve if the season was cut down to 72 games from 82. In making the statement, Kerr admits it would be tough to convince the many affected about the loss of revenue that you would see and that is why this won’t happen. 

Players, who are amongst the softest in pro sports, would probably love to cut 10 games off the schedule but they aren’t giving up the obscene amount of money they are getting. Owners aren’t giving up 5 home games revenue, the league probably doesn’t want to reduce the advertising money they get from the networks and so on and so on.  An 82-game regular season is no different than the NHL regular season and it is far less than MLB’s 162-game season. There have been calls in the past for the MLB to go to a severely reduced schedule and it’s not happening. We all know about the desire within the NHL to have the Stanley Cup handed out around the May long weekend and we would like to see the World Series handed out shortly after Canadian Thanksgiving but there are too many variables and too much $$$$ being left on the table for it to happen — at least in the immediate future. 

5 – MARK DEROSA: Thanks Mexico! You had one job! All you had to do is beat Italy by scoring 4 or less runs and you couldn’t do it. Having done that to see Team USA eliminated at the World Baseball Classic before the playoffs would have been unbelievable and would have been one of the all-time thuds in sports history. What would have made it better was manager Mark Derosa, who is an analyst on the MLB Network, mistakenly telling his co-hosts on the morning of what was a loss to Italy, that they were in only to later admit he misread the calculations and then backtracking to say he knew what was up going into the game.

How did he not know the rules?! At the start of every beer league slopitch tournament, teams get envelopes with tournament or league rules, so they know what is happening and nothing catches them off guard. Did Derosa and the rest of Team USA not pick up their envelope? Derosa deserves every bit of heat he got for this faux-pas, but he isn’t alone. How did no one connected with USA Baseball know about this?! Sadly, it might just be a footnote depending on how everything ends. 

6 – CANADIAN BASEBALL: Many in Canada know that we have been getting better and better at baseball over the last 20 years and on Wednesday, it was proven to the world when Canada won their group stage at the World Baseball Classic and had a great chance to upset the Americans in the quarter-final only to fall 5-3.

I won’t ever sit here and say that Canada will be able to compete against the Dominican Republic, the U-S or Japan on a consistent basis, but more and more Canadians are playing NCAA Baseball and are in the minor leagues. It’s like the NBA and the amount of Canadians playing in both the pros and NCAA. I’ve already stated that perhaps Saskatoon Berries outfielder and Carnduff native Carter Beck could be a part of this team at the next WBC. He has honed his skills in the WCBL and he’s not alone. It’s a great reason to get out to the ballpark when the season starts to see some of these kids trying to continue the dream. How many more days until opening day? 

7 – WHY NOT? The CFL will never be the NFL. I understand that and so should you, but it doesn’t mean the CFL has to do whatever it can with their main media partner or themselves to promote big off-season events like free agency. On Monday, you could watch the NFL Network or ESPN and get all the latest news surrounding NFL free agency as the two-day tampering period started. Why couldn’t TSN do the same thing with CFL free agency especially the first two days of the tampering window? That brings up a “why does the CFL need seven days when the NFL takes two” question but that’s another topic for another day. 

If you don’t want to put it one of the 5 TSN channels that is fine, but throw it on TSN Plus. Have Kate Beirness with Stegall, Muamba and Lapolice sitting there talking about the big players that could move with updates from Farhan Lalji and Dave Naylor. Get Luke Willson in there to break down some film on guys and spend 3-4 hours on doing something. I just don’t understand why the CFL and TSN can’t come together on this. Yes, I am guessing the almighty dollar has a lot to do with it, but if TSN can give us endless 30 minute shows consisting of greatest games or greatest shots, it could give us two days of CFL content to chew on and reduce the negativism that fans have with the league and its main broadcaster. Yeah, I know I’m beating a dead horse but at some point the league has to start asking questions about why its broadcaster only cares about them when its convenient.

8 – MAGIC MIKE: The Saskatchewan curling community is buzzing after Mike McEwen went to social media to say his team that went to the Brier is dropping him. It leaves many wondering what will happen with McEwen and the team he skipped for the last few years. Seeing teams change things up with a new Olympic cycle isn’t strange as we see it all the time. I can only wonder if we are about to see the return of Kirk Muyres to the four-man game as he has backed away from that in the last couple of years to concentrate on mixed doubles. As for McEwen, it wouldn’t surprise me if he goes back to his Manitoba roots now that Reid Carruthers has decided to retire. It’s not the only change we will hear about in both the men’s and women’s game.

9 – IT’S WHY WE LOVE SPORTS: The game can produce great stories — some that are bigger than the game itself.  We saw it this week with a Division 2 Rhode Island High School hockey game. Colin Dorgan scored on a breakaway in double overtime to put his team in the championship game. A month earlier Dorgan and his team were on the ice when shots rang out from the stands as his father killed his mother, brother and grandfather before taking his own life. Colin said it was the greatest moment of his life. How he could even grab a stick and lace up the skates a month after what happened is beyond me. For all the bad that sports can bring in a variety of areas, it also can bring a great deal of good because of stories like that.

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• Brett Kulak has had an opportunity this year to be teammates with McDavid, Crosby and McKinnon and he wasn’t at the Olympics. Speaking of MacKinnon, he should not have gotten 5 and a game for his hit on Connor Ingram. That’s a two minute penalty, but not a five in my mind.
• If I had 100 attempts to hit the island green at the Players Championship, I would be happy if 15 landed on the green.
• CJME’s Green Zone asked those earlier this week if you could pick one Tkachuk for your team, who would it be? I lean towards Brady. 
• Daniel Jones gets $88 million for two years from the Colts? Daniel Jones???!! 

That’s all I got.  Have a great week and fill those March Madness brackets out!