Scruffy’s This N That

1 – LET THE RACE TO 16 BEGIN: Buckle up! The Stanley Cup playoffs are about to begin as 16 teams look for 16 wins and the chance to hoist Lord Stanley’s mug high sometime in June. Last year, the Panthers and Oilers went seven with Florida winning as you know. I don’t think either team gets close to that spot this year. Both are more than capable of getting back to the final with the rosters they have and once the playoffs start, the records go back to zero as we all know, but I just think there are too many hurdles for both to get over. If you want a prediction, I will take a Lightning/Jets final with Tampa winning and Brayden Point getting some big goals to earn himself a Connie. Who have you got?

2 – FIRST ROUND THOUGHTS: In no particular order, here ya go —

• I’m obviously picking Edmonton to beat LA being an Oilers fan, but realistically I don’t know how they can because of the injuries Edmonton has had. If the Oilers are to have a long playoff run, it will depend entirely on 97 and 29 with Stuart Skinner having to make some big saves.
• Montreal will give Washington a battle, but they will not win. The experience gained will be monumental though as the Habs are on the right path. With Hutson, Suzuki, Caufield, Slavkovsky and now Demidov, there are better times coming to Bell Centre.
• If Ottawa wins Game 1 in Toronto, they will win the series and the reconstruction of the Leafs will begin.
• Everyone thinks Dallas/Colorado will be the best first round matchup, but I think it will be St. Louis/Winnipeg. The Avalanche will roll over a Dallas team that slid off the cliff after losing that game to Vancouver that they shouldn’t have in the final minute. As for the Blues/Jets, let’s not forget that St. Louis was the best team in the NHL after the Four Nations.

3 – SID VS OVI: The age-old question as to who has had the better career resurfaced Thursday night as Ovi and the Capitals finished the regular season against Sid and the Penguins. Bardown put up a graphic before the game marking each guy’s accomplishments. At the end of the day, I have to go with Sidney Crosby and it shouldn’t be an argument. Both men have had first ballot hall-of-fame careers but when you add Sid’s international resume and what he has done, there should be no argument. Right or wrong on that? 

By the way, why isn’t Ovechkin in the Most Valuable Player talk after the season he and the Capitals had?

4 – PLAY-IN GAMES? The NBA has play-in games for teams seeded 7-10 in each conference. Is this something the NHL needs to adopt? There are so many clamoring for a change to the playoff format so is this the way to go? If the NHL did this, you would have (7) Ottawa play (8) Montreal and 9 (Columbus) take on (10) Detroit in the East and Minnesota/St. Louis and Calgary/Vancouver in the West.  The winner of the 7/8 games move into the playoffs as the seven seed. The winner of the 9/10 game moves on with the loser being eliminated with the loser of the 7/8 game playing the winner of the 9/10 game for that 8^th spot. This would take another week to complete so if the NHL wants to shorten the season by 10 days then I am for it. If not, nope! If the Stanley Cup goes to seven games this year, Game 7 is on June 23 which is about a month too late. The NHL needs to hand out the Cup around the May long weekend if not before. 

5 – THEY’RE LISTENING: I think your Saskatchewan Roughriders knew that on the field they had to get a little bit better to make a serious run at the Grey Cup and that they had to get a lot better to get the casual fan back to Mosaic or keep season-ticket holders. They look to have done both. We know what they have done on the field to get better which should draw fans to games because as we all know the best marketing is wins, but they are also trying to mend fractured relationships. The team has unveiled some perks for season-ticket holders including a yet-to-be announced gift. There are other issues as well from what I have heard including concession prices, merchandise prices and the game-day experience. The concession prices are out of their control, but the merchandise price is under their control. As for the game-day experience, you won’t know about that until the first game of the season.

Craig Reynolds is doing his best to get the interest that was lost to return. At the end of the day, it is up to you as to whether or not you are going to stay at home with your jersey and hat on to cheer on your team or if you will go to watch in-person. If the team is winning, chances are it’s the latter. Reynolds has offered the olive-branch many of you wanted him to so how will you respond?

6 – WRESTLEMANIA WEEKEND: If you are a wrestling nerd like me, this is the biggest weekend of the year as Wrestlemania goes Saturday and Sunday in Vegas. I have loved wrestling for many many years and going to Stampede Wrestling at the old auditorium in Regina and getting a chance to see it at the Corral in Calgary where the promotion became famous were great times.

The WWE decided this year to honor matches as well as performers when it comes to the Hall of Fame. To me, the best Wrestlemania match ever was the Ricky Steamboat-Randy “Macho Man” Savage at Wrestlemania 3.  I’m sure if you are a wrestling nerd, you have thoughts as to the greatest match ever at WM.  Let’s hear em!

7 – THE NFL DRAFT: The NFL draft has become an animal in itself. Thousands will converge on Green Bay for the three-day event that starts Thursday. I don’t think there is any doubt Tennessee will hold on to the first pick and take quarterback Cam Ward (not to be confused with the former Carolina Hurricane/Red Deer Rebel goalie).  Has anyone asked Dupont what he thinks of that pick? After that, it is a crapshoot. The one player I am fascinated in to see where he goes is quarterback Shadeur Sanders. Deion’s kid in mock drafts could go as high as two and could fall as far as 21. I don’t think Sanders is as good as he or his daddy think he is. Time will tell. There are spots where he could be thrown into action sooner than later and there are spots where he can sit and learn. As for my Seahawks, they have the 18^th pick and they could go so many different ways. They need o-lineman, they need to get better at receiver after trading DK Metcalf and they need a quarterback to develop. I am sure if they hold onto the pick and not trade down as GM John Schneider has done, I will elicit a deep sigh with whoever the selection is.  That’s what being a fan is right? I saw video of Bills fans not happy when they traded up to get Josh Allen. How’s that working out? 

8 – THE AUTOMATED STRIKE ZONE: I wasn’t big on this idea when it was first suggested by MLB, but after watching games over the first few weeks of the season, I say bring it on. There are too many missed calls being made by the home plate ump. If they were better, the call wouldn’t be made but there have been too many games I have seen where the performance behind the plate has been atrocious and some of those performances are from long-time umps. They haven’t been Angel Hernandez bad, but they’ve been bad. The only ones to blame are the ones who could prevent it. 

9 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• Good luck to the Regina Pat Canadians as they look to bring the Telus Cup home. One has to think many scouts will be in the rink to watch now Regina Pat Maddox Schultz. Good luck as well to the Saskatoon Stars as they look to bring home a female under 18 Canadian title at the Esso Cup. 
• Good luck to both the Weyburn Red Wings and Melfort Mustangs in the SJHL Canterra Seeds Cup Final. Melfort is heavily favoured for a reason, but the Wings weren’t supposed to beat Flin Flon. 
• The best seven minutes in sports television this year was from the time Rory McIlroy sank his Masters-winning putt to the time he went to sign his scorecard. Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman said 46 words in that time-frame with a majority of the words happening within a minute of McIlroy winning as they just set the picture and then let the moment take over. Too many try to take the moment over, but guys like Nantz, Chris Cuthbert and Kevin Harlan just keep quiet and let you be a part of it. 
• Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer now is part of the Baltimore Orioles TV crew. This week he told viewers during a game he has never eaten a chicken wing. ?????!! Jim Palmer obviously hasn’t enjoyed life! 

That’s all I got! Have a great week!