Scruffy’s This ‘N That

1 – OHHHH BABY: To the younger generation of today, guys like Chris Cuthbert and Jim Hughson have been behind the mic for your hockey moments. To many of us though, the soundtrack to our greatest hockey memories was silenced this week as we lost the great Bob Cole.  From “They’re going home!” when the Red Army left the ice in Philadelphia in the 70’s to him being on the mic for the many Oilers Stanley Cup victories to Mario Lemieux’s goal in the Stanley Cup against Minnesota to telling a nation “surely that’s gotta be it” when Joe Sakic scored in Salt Lake City to ensure a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, Bob Cole was the man that brought us the memories and let’s not forget the numerous times we heard “Ohhhhhh baby”

Wayne Gretzky described him as the Gordie Howe of commentating.  What a great line!

As many an NHL’er has said, you knew you had made it when Bob Cole was doing the p x p of one of your games.

If you didn’t get a chance to hear Jon Cooper eulogize Cole after his team’s Game 3 loss to Florida on Thursday night, find it and watch.

2 – THE NHL ISN’T STRUGGLING: Every year it seems as if we hear how one of the NHL’s franchises is in trouble. This year it was Winnipeg as the team said more butts are needed in the seats. We know how the Arizona Coyotes finally ran out of rope and moved to Utah. When we watch games, we wonder how buildings can be as full as they are when teams are seemingly charging exorbitant prices to watch the product. This just in. The NHL is doing quite fine.

The league sent out some information on the regular season just before the playoffs started citing a lot of big-time positives. An all-time total record for attendance at games was set with almost 23 million people taking in a game and rinks being at 97 percent capacity.

Almost 59 million watched games on TV and both the US consortium of ESPN, ABC and TNT along with Hockey Night in Canada are reporting increased audiences. While Sportsnet and TSN regionals were not mentioned, one has to guess many eyes are on the Canadian teams.

Yes, one can say numbers get inflated when you count the outdoor games that were played with 150 thousand fans taking in two games at MetLife Stadium in New York but remember that Arizona games only had an attendance of 4600 at the Mullett Arena.

Oh yeah, it’s not just the NHL. MLB says this past weekend’s attendance total of 1,46 million across 46 games was the largest April weekend attendance (non-Opening Weekend) since April 2017.

Bottom line is say what you will about the NHL, but more eyes are on the game than ever before and that is good news moving forward in a variety of areas.

3 – PIPE PLAY: This column is being written before Friday’s Stanley Cup playoffs action begins. A week into the chase of hockey’s holy grail and many questions are being asked in all of the series and a lot of questions revolve around the goaltending. The Winnipeg Jets can’t be happy with the fact that the likely Vezina trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck has given up 11 goals in the first two games against Colorado. Oilers fans think the play of Stuart Skinner has been a little stinky especially in Game 2 (I am one of those by the way). Thatcher Demko is out for the playoffs in a 2006 Edmonton Oilers scenario leaving the Canucks future looking murky in their series versus Nashville as they put their hopes on Casey DeSmith and Boston needs to figure out and pick an established starter instead of switching Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman. Swayman has arguably been the best goalie in the first few games of the playoffs, yet he wasn’t the starter in Game 2 versus Toronto.  Goaltending is always magnified in the playoffs and this year isn’t any different with some teams needing more to be successful.

4 – DON’T SCREW THIS UP: The Utah Whatevers have generated some excitement in Salt Lake City as over 12,000 people have signed up for season-tickets since the official announcement was made that the Arizona Coyotes were relocating. During his first availability, owner Ryan Smith (not the former Oilers forward as someone suggested this week in a manner that I’m not sure was facetitious) said the team may not have a logo or name in its first season. WHAT?????  You can’t screw this up! This is something that should have already been worked on. There are many good names you can use and chances are merchandise sales will be high both in and out of the market. You can’t let that marinate. It’s not like the season is a month away. A name, a logo and colours need to be high on the priority list. I just hope the person put in charge of the jerseys isn’t the same person who designed the Philadelphia Phillies City Connect jerseys or the uniforms the San Diego Padres trotted out for their game against the Blue Jays last week. Those were atrocious. Not as atrocious as the Seahawks lime green uniforms which are unquestionably to this guy the worst in pro sports but they were close. I would love the Padres to go back to the look they had in the 80’s.  Check that look out if you don’t know what it is.

5 – MARNER VS SIMMONS: I have no idea as to what type of relationship Toronto Sun sportswriter Steve Simmons has with Mitch Marner, but one has to think it’s not good after Marner was splashed across the front page of the paper this week with him being referred to as “the invisible Leaf”. Toronto supporters have been coming to Marner’s defence by vilifying Simmons, but I ask, “is he wrong?”. 

Every year that the Leafs lose in the playoffs, the spotlight shines brightly on Toronto’s star players and their ineffectiveness. Auston Matthews was fine in the first three games against Boston, William Nylander hasn’t played and there are times I wonder jf Marner is in uniform. I just don’t think this guy is built for the playoffs and the extra effort that is needed. I thought Simmons might light a fire under Marner after his column, but while he was a little better in Game 3, he still wasn’t a factor.

As I said on “X” after Game 3, Brad Marchand is a guy that you hate if he isn’t on your team, but you love him if he is on yours. Brad Marchand is a guy Toronto hasn’t had since the days of Darcy Tucker and it is a reason why they aren’t successful at this time of year.

Is Steve’s next column on Vladimir Guerrero Junior because he has been hot garbage this season? Tell me I’m wrong Jays fans!

6 – WARRIORS VS BLADES: Yes, I could just subscribe to WHL Live to get it, but with the Moose Jaw Warriors and Saskatoon Blades battling it out in the WHL Eastern Conference championship, it would be great if we were able to see it on free TV like we could a few years ago when we could enjoy the WHL on SHAW on both Shaw and Access. This will be a tremendous matchup with one team that thinks they are good enough to win the Memorial Cup not even getting to the league final. It’s great to hear that both barns are sold out or basically sold out for the first four games. Meanwhile, Flin Flon is hanging on in the SJHL Final after avoiding a four-game sweep by winning Game 4 against Melfort in overtime. I don’t think anyone outside Melfort saw this coming. It’s not over yet though!

7 – CFL DRAFT: The CFL draft goes this week with your Saskatchewan Roughriders having all eight of their picks including the 3^rd overall. As always, you wonder what the green-and-white will do and what position they will look at. Look at the 2023 draft and you will see Lake Korte-Moore and Jaxon Ford were guys that had significant playing time. In 2022, Samuel Emilus and Jayden Dalke were guys that were taken and who made an impact last year and in ’21, you had Nelson Lokombo who unfortunately had his rookie career silenced by an Achilles injury meaning he is still trying to prove himself.

You can’t go wrong in the CFL draft in taking an offensive lineman and there are some good ones out there who can probably come in and compete. You never want that area to suffer and with AJ Ouellette running the rock, you will want some graders to open holes while making sure an aging Trevor Harris remains upright.  

What intrigues me is knowing the Riders like looking at the province’s two universities is could a call be made to Rams receiver D’Sean Mimbs, who is the son of former running back Robert Mimbs? If he is there in the 3^rd round, I wouldn’t be surprised. I don’t know if he will be there though.

8 – NFL DRAFT: The first round of the NFL draft certainly brought some storylines.  I am still trying to figure out why the Atlanta Falcons took Michael Penix at 8 when they already have Kirk Cousins under contract for four years. The Falcons could have given Cousins a weapon by drafting receiver Rome Odunze who was a teammate of Penix’s at Washington, but they elected to surprise everyone.

If the plan is to have Penix start in two years and he can slowly adjust himself to the NFL game like Jordan Love than that is fine, but on the surface, it looks like Atlanta didn’t help themselves immediately.

Then you have a Buffalo team starved for a wide receiver making a trade with Kansas City allowing the already potent Chiefs take receiver Xavier Worthy who is Tyreek Hill like. I wonder what Josh Allen thought about that.

9 – WHAT A NOVEL IDEA: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell joined Pat McAfee Friday. During his chat, he said he envisions an 18-game regular season with a two-game pre-season. There’s another league that does that now isn’t there?

10 – WORST LOGO EVER:  One of the many sportsbooks out there put out a question this week asking if the Cleveland Guardians had the worst logo in professional sports. I didn’t disagree, but I throw it out to you.  Who has the worst logo in pro sports?

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