STACKHOUSE’S 10 HOLIDAY THOUGHTS

1 – Canadian hockey fans may not have liked the five minute match penalty handed out to Zach Dean in the WJHC opening game against Czechia, but it’s Canada that has led the charge towards changing the sport of hockey to make it more safe for the participants. It’s also worth noting that Czechia didn’t embarrass the officials by sending Ales Cech back out to kill the penalty. In fact, Cech was kept out of the game the rest of the way.

2 – Canada tried two lacrosse style goals in the first period of their game against the Czechs and on one of them, Connor Bedard ended up slashing the goalie across the face on his unsuccessful attempt. There was no penalty on the play. The justification for not calling a penalty is because it’s considered a follow-through on the shot. Uh huh. Also, goal or not, I find these moves have an element of unsportsmanlike to them. But, that’s just me and you are free to disagree. Also, how come we allow these as goals but don’t allow you to kick the puck in?  

3 – A quick search of Ticketmaster on Monday night indicates WJHC games involving Canada are sold out, but many others are not. Prices are based on what you’d assume would be the most attractive to attend. For instance, the New Year’s Eve game featuring the United States against Finland has tickets listed at $240-$295 per seat. It will be interesting to see if they are all scooped up. There are other games this week that are listed at $40 per ticket. Just me, but I’m not paying $240-$295 for junior hockey. I like it, but not that much.

4 – Czech defenseman David Jiricek was a victim to the disaster that are Canadian airlines during the Christmas season as his hockey equipment and specially fitted skates ended up with tens of thousands of other people’s luggage as it got lost in transit. Unlike other Canadians, Jiricek has an agent and that agent threw a fit on Twitter and within hours, Jiricek had his fitted skates and was able to suit up in the tournament’s opening game. Meanwhile, less important people are going on two weeks not knowing if they will ever see things more important to them than fitted skates. Actually, never mind that. They can’t even get a person on the other end of the phone to attempt to get some answers.

5 – The disorganization and chaos within Canada’s travel industry is bringing to light a problem I figured was coming sooner or later: we have too many unserious people in serious jobs and other jobs that are, simply, unfilled because we’ve rewarded and encouraged people not to work. Imagine if we took a stance with the unemployed the way we did with the unvaxxed, where would be as far as having labour shortages? Work or get no government services. More people would be working, I assure you. What I didn’t see coming through all of this was a general public that doesn’t care. I see comments like ‘if you don’t like it, don’t travel’, which is really quite a smug way to show how dumb you are. There are also people out there who like to compare what’s going on here to some of the worst countries on the planet and they use that to rationalize the acceptance of the deterioration of society. 

6 – Tua Tagovailoa has another concussion, believed to be his third of the season. Ultimately, after being presented with expert medical advice, the decision to keep playing should be up to Tua but I already found myself wincing every time he took a hit and I’m not sure I even want to watch games with him playing anymore. I hope for his own well-being, he decides to take an extended leave from the game. I always felt the CFL’s canceled year of 2020 was a blessing in disguise of sorts for Zac Collaros as it allowed his body even more time to heal and he hasn’t been injured since. Tua is still young. If he sat for the next 18 months or so, I don’t think it would hurt his chances as far as excelling on the field. 

7 – A fairly popular Saskatchewan Roughriders’ fan page on Facebook appears to have drawn out Cody Fajardo’s father over the Christmas season and the exchange didn’t reflect positively on the Fajardo family. Having said that, we’ve all been there. You read a bunch of crap on social media and you’ve finally had enough and you stick up for yourself with all guns blazing. While I can understand the frustration, Cody’s dad should have just stopped after his first comment. He made some very valid points but then his language and tone in subsequent messages undid it all. This is a bridge that is burnt as far as I’m concerned and I look forward to seeing what Fajardo’s value is on the open market and what the Riders have up their sleeve to replace him. My guess is both parties are going to find out they should have figured out a way to make it work.  

8 – Maybe the Chicago Blackhawks know what they are doing and will win the lottery and get Connor Bedard.  Or maybe they have no clue. Remember last year when they traded Brandon Hagel to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Taylor Raddysh and Boris Katchouk? Hagel is playing on a top line with good players on Tampa and close to a point per game at the near over-the-hill age of 24. The Hawks, building for the future, have 14-points in 33-games from Raddysh while Katchouk is in and out of the line-up as a spare part. This is typical of most trades where teams proclaim to be looking to the future. If Hagel isn’t part of it, just how long are you thinking it’s going to take before you are competitive?  

9 – Which brings me to the Vancouver Canucks, who don’t have a great team and they’ve, supposedly, put everyone on the trade block. Should they decide to move on from captain Bo Horvat, shouldn’t they require a similar player in return from wherever they move him to? I keep hearing Colorado as a potential landing spot for him. Sure, but the mere suggestion that the Avs parting with Alex Newhook is too rich makes no sense to me. With all due respect, Newhook is not ever going to be Bo Horvat. Whatever happened to the days of Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson, and Grant Jennings for John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski, and Jeff Parker? That’s a trade. Or, how about Adam Oates, Bill Ranford, and Rick Tocchet for Jim Carey, Jason Allison, and Anson Carter? That was a deal where the Bruins dealt established talent for prospective talent but the prospective talent had reached the point where it was fairly easy to determine what direction their careers were headed.  Now, all it takes to make a trade is a willingness to pay the veteran player on the move. You really don’t have to give up anything tangible. Different topic for another day, but the knock on Allison was that he couldn’t skate. Even as he was leading the Bruins in scoring. “But he can’t skate.” Baffles me.

10 – The Winnipeg Jets are in a minor slide, losers of three straight as of this writing. They are also dealing with injuries to some really good players (Ehlers, Wheeler, Perfetti, Appleton to name a few). This is where the General Manager should come to the rescue and make a move for some reinforcements but, to this point, they are relying on the ever popular ‘next man up’. If the ‘next man up’ was so effective, why bother paying superstar players when you just have a ‘next man up’? The Jets are in danger of watching all the headway they made in the first half go bye-bye if the GM doesn’t throw them a life raft. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time the Jets squandered an entire season. Sigh.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)