STACKHOUSE’S 10 MONDAY THOUGHTS

1 – COST OF BEERS – The hole keeps getting deeper for the Saskatchewan Rush, who fell to 1-and-4 after a 12-11 loss to the San Diego Seals on Friday night.  More on the game in the next paragraph but for me, this was the most physical game I’ve witnessed in my young NLL watching career and Matt Beers was worth the price of admission all by himself.  The 32-year-old former captain of the Vancouver Warriors is in his first season with the Rush after playing in the Vancouver/Washington organization since 2010.  One of the league’s top defenders, Beers scored a goal and delivered countless thundering hits and was even involved in a fight, which I gave him a unanimous win on.  

2 – RECAP – Mark Matthews (2-4-6) and Robert Church (3-2-5) once again led the offense and it was Dan Lintner’s best game as a member of the Rush, as he scored twice and finished with three points.  The Rush, after scoring just five in Albany last week, scored nine in the second half of this one after getting off to a very slow start that produced just two goals against Justin Geddie, who was making his NLL debut in the San Diego net.  The Rush have lost three of their four games by one goal but it should be noted one-goal games are very common.  What it comes down to, from my rather novice vantage point, is they aren’t always getting big saves at the most opportune times and they do seem to run into hot goaltending at the other end.

3 – GREAT GAME, NO FANS – The announced crowd was 6999 but it felt like there was even less than that in attendance.  Rather than continue with the same theme as I always do about government killing sports in Canada, I will simply say that anyone who missed Friday’s encounter missed a highly exciting and intense game.  The league, itself, is winning me over and I am a Rush season ticket holder.  I can’t wait for Friday and Saturday nights.  If the Rush aren’t playing, I look at the standings and go with my own choice for a ‘Game Of The Night’ and am watching religiously.  It’s just one viewer, but I haven’t tuned in to Hockey Night In Canada since the lacrosse season began.  

4 – STAATS GUY – Austin Staats had three goals and three assists for San Diego but he was Public Enemy Number 1 for whoever it is that does public address for the Rush.  That’s another aspect about the games that I love.  The announcer has a bit of fun at the expense of the opposing team.  On opening night, he took a pot shot at Calgary’s rather boring looking uniforms and on Friday, he told Staats to sit down while he was in the penalty box.  Also, I’m not even sure if this was on purpose or not but on one of Staats’ goals, he was simply referred to as ‘number 83’ and his name wasn’t even mentioned.  It was great.  Sports should be entertaining and I think we forget that all too often but my hat goes off to whoever that is behind the mic at Rush games.

5 – INTERMISSIONS – As far as intermissions go, apparently I’m not the only one who has found other ways to pass the time when I do watch the NHL.  According to torontosportsmedia.com, the head of sports and media at Rogers has been replaced and employees have been told that current performance of sports radio and the NHL audience, as a whole, are concerning.  Intermission numbers, in particular, are not good and angst was expressed at losing in both areas to TSN.  It’s expected Rogers will start to push OTT (Over The Top) media options, which means internet based.  

6 – RADIO/INTERNET RIGHTS – To that end, both the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames have radio rights up for grabs at the end of the year and it will be interesting to see what happens as Rogers currently has the contract.  In baseball, the Oakland Athletics are going to an internet ‘stream your own’ model and you have to wonder if there isn’t some sort of partnership with the teams and Rogers to go that route or if the teams cut these mainstream media companies out entirely.

7 – NO VIEWERS – I wrote last week about two different groups of people.  Ones who issue empty threats to withhold their support (even though they aren’t supporting as it is) if you don’t do as they say and ones who say nothing but decide to support other things when they get turned off.  Obviously, I complain about it in these writings but I don’t send my beefs to Sportsnet itself.  They can do whatever they want for whatever they think is best for their business but I haven’t watched more than 5 minutes (outside of actual game play) in total since the return of the NHL in the summer of 2020.  Clearly they think that constantly promoting social justice with vanilla announcers who offer no real opinion is the way to go and I wish them luck as they double down on that.

8 – McDAVID WASTING TIME – When is Connor McDavid going to demand a trade?  The 25-year-old has been an Oiler for seven years and they are no closer to a Cup today than they were the first day he put on their sweater.  You never want to appear to be selfish and I know many of you would accuse him of exactly that, but if they miss the playoffs or go out in round one yet again, I think he’s well within his right to go home to Richmond Hill and not come back until a trade to a team that is serious about winning is completed.  The Oilers have had sub-par netminding since Cam Talbot’s rookie year in 2017.  Figure out a way to get Carey Price.  Just a guess but I’m thinking Price is, probably, ready to go but is done with the Habs.  There are other options, you would think.  Namely, Marc-Andre Fleury, Braden Holtby, Semeon Varlamov, and Elvis Merzlikins just to name a few.  If the Oilers send a good enough young player back, there’s no reason why you can’t make the money work.  I’m not a capologist and I don’t know if Oscar Klefbom’s money counts or not but if there is a will, there is a way.

9 – FAJARDO FUTURE – The Rider Prider Fan Page on Facebook had an interesting topic over the weekend where it was posted that Glen Suitor views Trevor Harris as a potential alternative to Cody Fajardo.  This is always what kills me when it comes to Rider fans.  They love to eat their own.  Fajardo wasn’t the best QB in the league this season, I will agree.  But he had a real good first month and then was inconsistent the rest of the way.  I am not judging anyone’s career in the CFL based on 2021.  Fajardo was also faced with an inexperienced offensive line that left him scrambling more often than not as well as a depleted receiving corps that didn’t have Shaq Evans and Duke Williams for most of the schedule.  Quarterback would be the least of my worries as a Rider fan going into 2022.  If the Riders are, at all, uncomfortable with Fajardo they should make it a priority to recruit someone from outside the league and develop one.  At worst, I see Fajardo as a league average QB this season.

10 – BENGALS – As a kid, I was a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals.  I loved the unis.  I loved the name ‘Boomer Esiason’ and I loved the name ‘Ickey Woods’ as well as the Ickey Shuffle.  Later in life, I was a big fan of Chad Johnson because, as I mentioned a few paragraphs above, I’m a big fan of entertainment.  But one thing I learned early was never to trust the Bengals as a bonafide Super Bowl contender no matter the record.  Here I am at age 46 and I am suckered in again by the Bengals.  If the same players wore Baltimore Ravens helmets I would pick them to win it all.  But, they don’t.  So, I won’t. 

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