Scruffy’s This ‘N That

1 – VOTE WOLSELEY: Stop reading this right now! What you need to do is start voting for the town of Wolseley in the Kraft Hockeyville contest. As I said a few years ago, I am very skeptical of this contest considering the fact Kraft doesn’t give us the final vote when all is said and done which makes me wonder if the outcome is pre-determined. I can be proven wrong on that if Wolseley can beat out Cochrane, Alberta, Enderby B.C, and Elliot Lake, Ontario to win the title and become the first Saskatchewan community to win the honour.

As I said in a column a couple of weeks ago, it is inexplicable that the birth province of Mr. Hockey has not had a Hockeyville distinction to it. I know how hard communities like Pense, Lumsden, Lafleche and others worked to try and win the contest and get the first place of $250,000 for rink repairs. If Wolseley can win, a new ice plant will become a reality

If you are from Saskatchewan, I don’t need to tell you what the rink means in rural Saskatchewan. In the winter, that is the place to be as you watch your kids play and discuss the latest news both in town and out of it while chowing down on a rinkburger that to you is the best damn rinkburger out there because it is from your community.

The 250 grand will be great and the icing on the cake is Wolseley gets to host an NHL pre-season game. Organizers have already said they want that game to happen at the Brandt Centre and they have also said they would like to see Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks be a part of it as Connor could come home.  Would he play Connor McDavid and the Oilers or Connor Hellebuyck and the Jets—maybe its Connor Zary and the Calgary Flames. 

We can make this happen! If Wolseley can’t do it after what they have done over the past few weeks, I don’t know if a Saskatchewan community will ever do it and my thought process on this contest being pre-determined will continue.

VISIT NOW: KraftHockeyville.ca

2 – SHOHEI ME THE MONEY: Has Shohei Ohtani turned into a modern-day Pete Rose? That is for you to decide, but the story about his interpreter stealing money from him to payoff a bookmaker has a lot of holes in it. Yeah, I realize Ohtani has more money than any of us will ever see, but how did he not see that money was missing? If it is proven that Ohtani bet on baseball, he has to be removed from the game as should any other pro athlete. One who should already be told to pack up his sneakers and get out is Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter who is under investigation by the NBA due to “irregularities on prop betting involving him.” When the “under” is being bet big and you leave two games early citing medical conditions meaning the under wins, you start asking questions.

One can’t be surprised that this is happening considering the fact that all league have hopped into bed with sportsbooks. The integrity of the game is brought into question, and it is that integrity that leagues need. I will be honest.  I’ve written articles for sportsbooks, and I have accounts with several of them. I buy Pro-Line tickets all the time. Would I be doing that if I knew games had an element of being fixed? Nope, and neither would you.

The rise of sports betting and its increased acceptance in the sports world has surely created more problem gamblers. You see leagues and books promoting that while encouraging you to make some investments. It would be naive to think athletes, coaches, referees and the people around them are immune, meaning basically it is not  a question of if there’s another Ohtani or Porter-like scandal coming, but when and what gets done about it.

3 – DISRESPECTED? The WHL regular season is over, but the rivalry between the Pats and Warriors is boiling over after Moose Jaw beat Regina 11-1 in the last game of the year in a game that really meant nothing.  Should Warriors coach Mark O’Leary have been playing his best players in a game that meant zero in the standings and a game that was obviously over long before the final buzzer went? Absolutely! Was Pats head coach Brad Herauf right to stand on the boards between the benches and yell at O’Leary because his team was being disrespected? Probably not, but it was entertaining. Was the crowd engaged in what was a doozy of a goalie fight between Jackson Ungar and Kelton Pyne? Yup! Was Pats GM Al Millar right in saying some of this may have been directed at him because of his past with Moose Jaw? Only the Warriors brass can answer that.  Is Millar right when he says this won’t be forgotten? You can bet your last dollar on that!  The rosters of the two teams won’t look the same when they meet again, but the seeds of discontent have been planted which should just fuel this rivalry.

Speaking of that rivalry, the great Mark Johnston (Regina’s best media personality right now) from PLAY92 went on the air the other day to talk about the night when before Game 1 of a playoff series between the two at the Brandt Centre, Sean O’Connor “won” the ceremonial opening faceoff much to the disgust of Regina fans and delight of Moose Jaw fans. Pat Fiacco dropped the puck that night. He wanted to drop O’Connor right there with a right! The building and the country would have exploded had that happened.

4 – CFL KICKOFF RULES: There is nothing wrong with CFL kickoffs. Leave it alone! There are other issues you can try to fix, but kickoffs and kick returns should not be tampered with. It’s as plain and simple as that.  The talk of having a team scrimmage at their 40 after the other team scores a touchdown is just dumb in my mind. Put the ball at the 25 or 30 and maybe we can talk, but the 40? No thanks! The NFL has also tweaked its kickoff rule. I am not crazy about it either, but this should result in more returns which is what is needed so OK.

5 – HIP-DROP TACKLES: Why exactly is this type of tackle no longer allowed in the NFL? How is a 200-pound safety supposed to bring down a 275-pound tight end? How is a player supposed to tackle another player from behind.  I fully understand not wanting to have players suffering from concussions, but injuries are a part of football. If this tackle is being outlawed because of injuries then one has to ask what is next.  You know there is going to be controversy on this every week. When players hate it, you know something is wrong.  Hopefully this issue can be revisited before training camps begin. By the way, go back to the Super Bowl between the Rams and Titans when the game ended with a tackle at the 1 yard line. That tackle would now be considered a penalty.

6 – BUCKLE UP! The 2024 baseball season is underway. Sorry Jays fans, the team may have won its 5^th straight season opener on Thursday, but I think the playoff run the team has had is over. In fact, I don’t know if this team will be .500 at season’s end in what will be a very tough American League East. I think Baltimore wins the division followed by the Yankees with Toronto battling Tampa for 3^rd. The team is not as strong as the one that walked off the field in Minneapolis last year after a first-round playoff loss. Kevin Gausman isn’t 100 percent, Alex Manoah isn’t 100 percent and is still not the pitcher he once was and questions still have to be asked about the consistency Yusei Kikuchi and Jose Berrios will give you some quality starts and they will be knocked around and Hyun-Jim Ryu is no longer a part of the organization.

That team will miss guys like Matt Chapman and Whit Merrifield and the fact that Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro failed to get free-agent after free-agent means Toronto’s window has seemingly closed. The reasons for that are the two mentioned above. I don’t know what their vision is and they may not either. If Toronto is going to make noise, Vladimir Guerrero Junior will have to have an MVP type year and while he started off with a mammoth homer in the win over Tampa, the numbers show he has declined over the past couple of seasons.

For what it is worth, I have the Atlanta Braves beating the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.

7 – HART/ADAMS TALK: With the final month of the NHL season upon us, people are debating year-end awards and who the finalists will be. When it comes to the Most Valuable Player, you can only take three of Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov, Nathan McKinnon (my choice) and Auston Matthews. With all apologies to Leafs fans, Matthews won’t be one of those final three. One could argue that players like Brayden Point, David Pastrnak and Sam Reinhart should also be in the equation.

When it comes to coach of the year, where do you go? Rick Toccher would seem to have the inside track after the year the Canucks have had, but what about Kris Knoblauch, Rick Bowness (my choice), Paul Maurice and Andrew Brunette?

8 – MARTY’S NOT WRONG: NHL Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur told “The Athletic’s” Pierre Lebrun this week that “we baby our goalies/” He’s not wrong!  We know how many games a season that guys like Brodeur, Roy, Fuhr and Belfour played in their heyday, but now many teams have a 1 and 1A goalie. Hello Boston! Coaches and organizations might want to listen to what arguably the greatest at his position has to say.

9 – REMEMBERING “DUKE”: Thursday was the one-year anniversary of what was a very tough day for many Regina media members past and present. It was on that day one year ago that we lost Derek “Duke” Meyers to cancer. Those that knew Derek knew what type of guy he was and a lot of people had a chance to know Derek both during his years at Global Regina and his time as a politician serving as an MLA for the Saskatchewan Party. Many also know that he had some tough times and I am sure he would have been someone the SaskParty could have counted on to champion mental health issues.

“Duke” did many a Sportscage with RP and myself and there were a lot of laughs shared in that studio and outside that studio.  He was a beaut! If you had the chance to know him, you would agree!  F### Cancer!

That’s all I got.  Have a great weekend!