Scruffy’s This N That
1 – NHL/US THANKSGIVING: American turkey day has passed. Take a look at the NHL standings. Is your team in or out? Last year, six of the eight teams in a playoff spot at US Thanksgiving made it in the East (Boston, Rangers OUT – Ottawa, Montreal IN) and six out of the eight teams in the West made it (Calgary, Vancouver OUT – Edmonton, St. Louis IN). Do the math and 12 of the 16 teams that compete for the Cup had secured themselves a spot in the first quarter of the season. Look at the standings going into Friday’s games and these would be your playoff teams.
EAST: Tampa, Boston, Ottawa, New Jersey, Carolina, Washington, Islanders, Pittsburgh
WEST: Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Anaheim, Vegas, Seattle, L-A, Utah.
Who stays in and who moves out? Who replaces the teams that move out? The standings are still very tight so there can be a lot of movement especially in the East, but is it concerning to you that the Senators are the only Canadian team that would be competing for the Cup come playoff time as it stands right now? It isn’t to me. In fact, I still think Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton will be there when the hunt for hockey’s holy grail begins.
2 – WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN: We are less than a month away from all TSN programming basically revolving around the World Juniors. The event this year goes in Minnesota with the Americans looking to repeat. As is always the case, the Canadian team will be strong with Gavin McKenna and Keaton Verhoeff likely leading the way, but one can only look at the NHL to see just how good this Canadian team could be. It won’t happen, but they could have arguably had their best team ever. Macklin Celebrini, Matthew Schaefer, Berkly Catton and Ben Kindel could all be wearing Canada’s colours but they won’t. Michael Misa and Sam Dickinson may get returned by San Jose but that’s not a certainty. Let’s just remember this if the Canadians don’t get the gold medal that a country pressures them to every year.
3 – THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT: The ink is just starting to dry on the 2025 CFL season and people in the 306 continue to bask in the Riders 5th Grey Cup championship in history. A long off-season is now underway. As discussed in last week’s column, GM Jeremy O’Day and crew have an extremely tough job in evaluating all of its free agents and deciding who they absolutely must have back, who they want to have back if the price is right and who they don’t want back. As they ponder that, they can also sit back and know the future is bright thanks to their outstanding scouting staff.
Take a look back at the 2025 draft. Ali Saad made an impact on the d-line in his rookie year after being taken with the 4th overall pick. The team’s 2nd round pick was Western Ontario offensive lineman Erik Anderson. The 13th overall pick was named USports top offensive lineman last week. Add to that that they took QB Kurtis Rourke with its 3rd round pick who will likely make his way north of the border and two members of the U of S Huskies – Usports defensive player of the year Seth Hundeby and Daniel Wiebe who was the Canada West player of the year and you see the team is in great shape when it comes to Canadian talent. In fact, if you want to look at how good the scouting staff has been, take a look at recent drafts and the 2025 roster. If you have been paying attention you know the team announced the signings of Hundeby, Wiebe and Andersen this week.
That being said, there are some guys that they may not get a chance to keep because they are heading south. One has to think OL Jacob Brammer and REC Dohnte Meyers to get an NFL look. There are a few out there who think Meyers could be a guy who plays on Sundays.
4 – CFL TV CONTRACT: I have zero idea what the CFL TV contract is going to look like and whether or not Sportsnet or CBC will get involved. I highly doubt Rogers is going to want to be a part of the league seeing they have Blue Jays and the NHL, but after watching the Vanier Cup last week, I wonder if CBC has any interest. It’s just me, but I would be more than happy to see CBC get a Saturday afternoon game. It could be something that once the NHL season starts leads you right into Hockey Night in Canada. This would mean no more Saturday games on CTV as you don’t want games at the same time on separate networks, but could you put Friday night games or Sunday afternoon games at the start of the season on CTV? those are questions for someone in a higher pay grade than me. I just throw it out there. Would the CFL try and use Netflix or Amazon Prime to stream games? That is happening with other leagues. If you don’t have Netflix or Amazon Prime, would you get it to watch Thursday Night Football? With Bell being involved, maybe you would have to have Crave.
5 – CFL IN THE OKANAGAN: We knew the CFL was going to Kelowna for a pair of games because of the World Cup knocking the Lions out of BC Place for a while next summer. We got details this week as both Alberta teams will pay the Lions a visit at the Apple Bowl. I am told there is a lot of interest in the Kelowna market when it comes to the CFL expanding—moreso than Victoria because it won’t take as much as a bite into the Lions fan base. I don’t know how many from the Okanagan make trips into Vancouver for BC home games, but I am guessing there is a good appetite for CFL football in Kamloops, Kelowna, Penticton etc etc and there is some money in that area. The Apple Bowl will be expanded to 20,000 for these games and I am guessing some infrastructure upgrades will be needed as well. If Kelowna can check off the boxes that need to be checked off, I am guessing the league will look at that 10th and maybe 11th team going into Kelowna. I would be all for that.
6 – CFL FREE AGENCY: The CFL has released its list of free agents. It is once again a very long list with all nine teams having a lot. There are a lot of things wrong with the CFL and the amount of free agents is one of them. This is the byproduct of one-year contracts. You have over 250 free agents in a nine-team league. I believe the NFL had just over 500 last year and that is a 32 team league.
There are positives and negatives to one-year contracts. The biggest positive being a bad team can find good value at any position if they are willing to spend. The bad news is you don’t have player continuity meaning it is hard for fans to get attached to players meaning it is buyer beware when you buy that jersey if you get someone’s name on it.
Is that part of the reason why interest in the three-down game is fading with some? It has to be a factor. I don’t know how you fix it, but the league needs to do something to try and correct this a little. That’s tough because players deserve their money and I don’t know if you can eliminate a one-year deal but there has to be a solution out there that benefits all.
7 – THE BEDARD VIDEO: A video surfaced this week of an autograph hunter pestering Connor Bedard as he was taking a walk with what I think was some teammates in Buffalo. The guy wanted Bedard to sign something for him and Connor wasn’t exactly being cooperative. The video tries to paint Bedard in a negative light, but a lot of people aren’t shaming the former Pat at all.
Adult autograph hunters are at the bottom end of the humanity scale for me. Those of us who have had a chance to get to know Connor know that he likely would have been more than willing to sign some items had it been some children stopping him on his walk. I think that could be said for 90 percent of NHL players. However, when you are an adult pestering a player to get an autograph that you are just going to sell to benefit yourself you can pound sand.
I think back to an autograph night the Pats had when Bedard was here. It was only supposed to go until a certain time, but Bedard found out what a huge lineup there was and how many were going to get turned away. He told the Pats to keep the line moving and that he had no problem in sticking around to sign items, talk with fans and get a picture taken with them. That’s the type of individual Bedard is. There are many other stories of him being more than gracious of his time when he was in Regina. Sorry buddy, if you as a grown man wants to get mad because one of the future stars of the NHL didn’t want to sign your magazine, that’s a you problem. Be better!
8 – SHEDDEURMANIA: Sheddeur Sanders is the talk of the NFL. If his daddy wasn’t Deion, he certainly wouldn’t. I just want to make sure I get this straight. A guy who got his number retired at Colorado after just two seasons (thanks Dad) despite the fact he really didn’t do anything of substance bitches and moans because his draft stock tumbled terribly.
He goes to Cleveland and when he finally gets a chance to start a game due to injury he goes 12 of 20 against a Raiders team that is the worst team in the NFL and then instead of showing humility and saying things like he has a lot to learn and he needs to look at the film to get better, he says “I’m what this team has been looking for”. OhhhhhhhK! Let’s see how you do this week against a very good 49ers defence. This guy will be out of football in the next three years, but it will be the NFL’s fault and not his or his daddy’s right?
9 – WEEK 13 NFL NOTES: Four games have already been played. There is worry in Kansas City and Detroit after yesterday and optimism in Cincinnati and Dallas. Here are some things you can look for Sunday.
- Cleveland defensive end Myles Garrett has 14 sacks in his last five games. The most by any player over a five game span in NFL history.
- The Steelers defence faces Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. Pittsburgh’s D has given up 30 or more points five times this year which is the most since Mike Tomlin became head coach
- Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford leads the NFL with 30 touchdown passes and has just two interceptions entering Week 13 and joined Patrick Mahomes (2020) as the only players with at least 30 touchdown passes and two-or-fewer interceptions (two) in their team’s first 11 games of a season in NFL history.Since Week 4, Stafford has recorded 25 touchdown passes with no interceptions, with multiple touchdown passes in seven of the eight games.On Sunday at Carolina, Stafford can become the third player ever with at least 25 pass attempts and no interceptions in nine consecutive games, joining Jared Goff (10 consecutive games from 2022-23 with Detroit) and Aaron Rodgers (nine in 2018 with Green Bay).
- The Colts, who lead the NFL in scoring offense (31 points per game) and rank second in total offense (384 yards per game) are 5-0 and have scored at least 29 points in each of their five games at Lucas Oil Stadium this year. The Texans, who lead the NFL in total defense (264.3 yards per game allowed) and rank second in scoring defense (16.5 points per game allowed), have won three consecutive games entering Week 13.
10 – BLUE JAYS EXCITED FOR 2026 “CEASON”: It doesn’t matter who you sign in what sport, people are going to search for negatives to say an overpay has been made. Add Dylan Cease to that mix. The Blue Jays improved their starting rotation by inking the free-agent, who was highly sought after, to a seven year 210-million dollar deal. Some say that is too much for a guy with the numbers he has had and the lack of playoff success while others say the deal is too long. Can we wait to see if Cease is the next R.A Dickey or whether or not he can get the Jays to the place where they were oh-so-close to getting in 2025.
I think the Cease signing is a good one and I know the Cubs were interested in bringing him onboard as were other teams. Reports I had read said teams interested were looking at five or six year deals, but Toronto offered 7. He is an extremely durable pitcher and perhaps his arrival means the team can ship Jose Berrios elsewhere so short-term this is a good deal for Toronto if Cease lives up to his end of the bargain. I am sure Jays fans would rather see a 7/210 deal getting signed by Bo Bichette than Cease and maybe that will come, but it is an indication from the Blue Jays that they weren’t content with shocking the baseball world last year and that the noise coming from Canada will continue for a while.
*RANDOM THOUGHTS:
- The over the line of scrimmage penalty that was reversed late in the first half of the Vanier Cup is something that can’t be glossed over. That was a disgrace to Canadian football and the many officials who call games at all levels.
- Just once I would like to win the top prize in the Regina Thunder NFL lottery. Once!! 😊
- As it stands right now, the Leafs are in the NHL draft lottery. Will the hockey world explode if Gavin McKenna ends up in Toronto?
- How many Canadians try to take US Thanksgiving and Black Friday off so they can watch football? I’m thinking there are a quite a few. I know I did when I had the chance.
That’s all I got. Have a great week!
There is a lot of CFL interest in the Okanagan, but the $$$ needed to make Apple Bowl a CFL-ready stadium is a little too much IMO.
The Argos and Als haven’t had CFL facilities for years.
How are organizations supposed to plan for the future when there are so many FA’s. Is it true that the 4 QBs Riders have right now are all FAs? It’s like starting over every year.
CFL can’t go to streaming. They need as many eyes as possible on the game and that means having them on TSN, Sportsnet or CBC. I can’t see people subscribing to a streaming service, especially in Ontario, so they can watch a CFL game.
People in the media trying to get clicks by being a knob to professional athletes at their lowest moments (Jim Matheson ) are about the same level of human garbage as adult autograph seekers who are looking to make profit.
Thank the good Man Above that the Saskatchewan Roughriders have Assistant General Manager Paul Jones in their employ. Mr. Jones is an astute man, he finds great player talent year after year, Riderville give it up to Mr. Jones with a big Thank you from the bottom of your country Bum’kin hearts.
3 Down has interesting take on Rider FA receivers. They say if it means keeping Emilus/Johnson you have to let KSB go free. Not sure if that would be best move.
KSBaker a sporadic player, not consistent.
Fargo plus Grand Forks North Dakota (beautiful indoor football stadiums) plus a team based in Quebec, a very good investment for the Canadian Football League, get it done Commissioner.