Scruffy’s This N That

1 – SEAHAWKS OR PATRIOTS: Will I be a happy camper Sunday night at 10 p.m or a sad panda? The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots meet in Super Bowl 60 in a game that hasn’t had the hype other Super Bowls have had. I know I am extremely biased on this one, but I just don’t see Drake Maye and the New England offence being able to move the ball on that very good Seahawks D. Maye had his problems moving the ball against good defences in Houston and Denver but the weather had a lot to do with that and it won’t be raining or snowing in San Francisco. I’ve got Seattle taking it 26-20 with a defensive or special teams TD in there. Let’s just hope if the game is close and they can run the ball in from the one that they do it. Watch them get stuffed on 4^th and goal from the 1 in the final two minutes to preserve a NE victory. That would be the definition of irony my friends. 

2 – SUPER BOWL TIDBITS:  Here is some information for you going into Sunday’s game:

• This is the Seahawks’ first time being favored in a Super Bowl in what is their 4^th appearance, but they are 13-1 SU in their last 14 playoff games as favorites.
• There has been a defensive or special teams TD in 27 of the 59 Super Bowls all-time.
• Quarterbacks have been named MVP in 34 of 59 Super Bowls, including 14 of the last 19 title games
• Teams wearing the white jerseys have won 16 of the last 20 Super Bowls. New England has the whites this year.

3 – LET THE GAMES BEGIN: The torch has been lit and the Milan Winter Olympics are underway. We will be riveted to our televisions or phones or laptops as we take more interest in events like skiing and speedskating than we normally do while concentrating our attention on what is happening on the hockey and curling ice. Of course, things did not start well when it comes to Mark McMorris, but it sounds like he will still be able to compete for a medal which is a good thing.

Canada is projected to finish 4^th in the medal standings with 28—10 of them gold. If one of those 10 isn’t a gold in men’s hockey, many will categorize the games as a failure and you can bet the attack on Hockey Canada that we saw after another year where our teenagers did not won gold will only intensify. One only wonders what Curling Canada will do if Rachel Homan and Brad Jacobs come home emptyhanded.

There will be highs and there will be lows. Canadians that we don’t know a lot about today will be household names by the time the event is over.  Enjoy!

4 – LEON’S NOT WRONG: The NHL is on its Olympic break. For teams like Columbus and Buffalo, the break comes at the wrong time while for the Edmonton Oilers, the break comes at the right time. I am guessing there will be a lot of conversations had in Edmonton about what the plan is moving forward after Leon Draisaitl delivered a scathing and somewhat honest review of the hockey team after a loss to Calgary in a game where Edmonton just seemed disinterested yet again. Draisaitl said they have got to be better, and it starts with the coaches and that they collectively are just not good enough to get to the Stanley Cup final for a 3^rd straight year. He is right! 

You can say what you want about the goaltending, and yes Tristan Jarry has admitted he can be better, but this defence is once again as porous as can be. Darnell Nurse continues to be an albatross for this team and while Evan Bouchard makes a lot of great plays offensively, he is a liability most nights defensively. You have McDavid, Leon, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent Hopkins and Bouchard carrying the load offensively with other guys seemingly just being passengers. The defence is bad, the penalty kill is bad, and it is showing. There is some chatter that Kris Knoblauch could be replaced during the Olympic break, but I can’t see that happening when you are still paying Jay Woodcroft. It is obvious there is a rift between Knoblauch and Paul Coffey which is why the former defenceman isn’t behind the bench anymore as he was the last two years. That defensive effort wouldn’t be as bad if Coffey was still there. Is it the fact that Coffey was holding Knoblauch accountable for decisions being made and the head coach didn’t like that. I dunno, but some fences need to be mended. 

To me, this falls on GM Stan Bowman and perhaps goes as far back as Ken Holland who as we see now completely whiffed on the offer sheets to Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. What has Bowman done to improve this team? Yes, I think his hand was forced on the Stuart Skinner trade, but the Trent Frederic contract is so far a disaster and the Andrew Mangiapane signing has been somewhat less than desired. Bowman needs to find a way to improve this team on the back end. Convincing Nurse that his time in Edmonton is over and finding a buyer would be great, but that isn’t probably going to happen. As the break comes, I think it gives everyone a chance to sit back and breathe for a few days to determine the next steps. I think Edmonton makes the playoffs, but I don’t think they even come close to the Stanley Cup Final this year. It won’t be any solace to them that the team that beat them in those two finals won’t even get a chance to go for a 3^rd. 

5 – HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: It was 50 years ago that Darryl Sittler had the night of nights. On a Saturday night with the country watching on Hockey Night in Canada, the Maple Leafs were home to a Boston team that was much better than them. Sittler had a night that has never been duplicated as he scored 10 points (six goals, four assists) in an 11-4 win. The record is one that hasn’t been broken and may never be. 

Sam Gagner of the Oilers had an eight-point game—-but that was 14 years ago and was the last time someone had eight. No one has ever scored nine! McDavid, Crosby, Lemieux, Sakic, McKinnon —- none of them have had eight!  That’s unbelievable and makes one wonder if the Sittler record is one that will ever be broken.  I don’t know if Joe Dimaggio’s 56-game hit streak will ever be eclipsed and I don’t know if Wayne Gretzky’s 212 point regular season will ever be matched. However, I don’t think in my lifetime I will ever see an NHL’er break that record.  I remember a 10-year-old Mitch watching that game at my grandparent’s farm just outside Indian Head and everyone just going crazy as everything Sittler touched found its way inside the net. I obviously didn’t realize the magnitude of what had happened at that time. 

6 – THANK YOU, BRETT: There had been whispers the Saskatchewan Roughriders were going to release Brett Lauther on the same weekend that the charity hockey game he has been a big part of was taking place. They didn’t do it before the game, but once everyone got back from Saskatoon, the team announced it was parting ways their long-time kicker. 

Lauther is one of the few Riders that were in the room when I was covering the team on a daily basis, and he is a class act. I ran into him during the season and we had a very quick conversation where I told him to keep doing what he does and ignore the haters with a chuckle or two being shared. He will go down 3^rd in history behind Dave Ridgway and Paul McCallum in points and he connected on 82 percent of his three pointers which is tops in team history. I’d like to know how much better those numbers would be if you took away 50+ yard attempts as he had many more of those than Ridgway and McCallum.

Bottom line is Brett was a tremendous Rider. If he doesn’t latch on with anyone else, he will be a tremendous ambassador for the team as they should create a position for him and more importantly, he is a tremendous individual. Thank you Brett! 

7 – WHY? The CFL just can’t help but shoot themselves in the foot. The league’s muckety-mucks need to end the tampering window and just declare free agency. You can’t tell me that 15 minutes after the tampering window opened that deals were being signed. It doesn’t work that way. The league obviously doesn’t care because they don’t seemingly do anything except turn the other way. They also watered down the excitement of free agency by allowing this window as all free agency is now is basically an official statement from the team on developments we already know. I am guessing Riders communication director Arielle Zerr has the press releases already written as do her counterparts across the league and is just waiting for word what time they should be sent off. 

8 – HUH?: Not really sure what is going on with Saskatoon’s team in the Canadian Elite Basketball League, but their rebrand gets a huge thumbs down from this guy. The Saskatoon Mamba? What was wrong with Rattlers? The answer to that is nothing, by the way. What does Mamba have to do with Saskatoon or Saskatchewan—oh wait, they have taken the “Saskatchewan” away from the name which is an insult to those who supported this team outside the Saskatoon area. Yes, I realize the two are completely different but I can just imagine the uproar if the Riders announced they were changing their name to the Regina Roughriders. 

I have wondered for a couple of years if the CEBL would be interested in putting a team in Regina and a few have wondered since this announcement was made if this paves the way for a team to come into the Queen City? I think the Regina/southern Saskatchewan basketball community would support a team with rivals in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatoon. You could start playing at the U of R and if the need arose move to the Brandt Centre. The owners of the Calgary Surge, who are now in charge of the Mamba, said all the right things this week when announcing the rebrand, but the rebrand wasn’t needed and may do more harm than good. Mamba??? That’s terrible!

9 – THE SUPPORT IS THERE: Those who know me know I am a huge supporter of University of Regina Cougar athletics.I have been the in-house announcer for the basketball teams for over 20 years and this is year 3 of doing it for the volleyball teams. One of my biggest pet peeves is that not enough Reginans know about the calibre of play that is delivered and how hard these students work to make their university proud. There are some of Canada’s best that can be in the CKHS on weekends, and no one knows about it. It was that way before the quality and quantity of sports reporting in the city started to fall as well. 

One of my best nights in the business was back in 2018 when the Cougars and U of S Huskies met in a national semi-final where the gym was packed as was the track up top. There were over 2000 people inside and it was incredible.  Fast forward to Tuesday as the teams played a game that was supposed to be played last weekend but cancelled due to highways.  It wasn’t the same as 2018 for atmosphere, but there were 1900 there seeing two of the top four teams in the country going at it.  The support is there—-it just has to be built on week after week after week.  At a time where $$$$ are tight, the price to watch the Cougars play is more than affordable and you will get value for your dollar.  Both are home next weekend with the volleyball team playing Friday and Saturday and the basketball team home Friday in a playoff game.  That game will likely be the last chance you get to see perhaps the best player the women’s basketball team has ever produced and that is Jade Belmore.  Go support a team that has been arguably Regina’s best on a year-over-year basis for the past couple of decades. 

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• Jon Cooper needs to break out the look he had at the Stadium Series on Sunday for Canada’s opener in Milan. He looked like an Italian mobster so if in Italy……
• The Leafs didn’t find a way to replace Mitch Marner’s 100 points and it is showing. The Blue Jays have not found a way to replace Bo Bichette’s 170+ hits and ……..
• So if what I have seen is correct, Gavin McKenna was out with family and friends after Penn State’s outdoor hockey game when some guy started chirping at McKenna and his Mom.  It sounds like this guy wanted to FA and he FO. If McKenna was protecting his Mom, he just did something that I think a lot of us would do. Of course, a lot of us aren’t projected to be the number one draft pick this season. Someone does need to explain though why McKenna was at a bar when he was 18. 
• Chris Drury got nothing for Artemi Panarin who then signed a two-year extension with the Kings. The Rangers GM hasn’t started off his rebuild very well.  

That’s all I got.  Have a great week and GOOOOOO SEAHAWKS!!