STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – RUSH OPENER – In what has to be considered nothing short of a stunning result, the Saskatchewan Rush obliterated the 2022 National Lacrosse League champion Colorado Mammoth 18-6 on Saturday night in the season opening game for both clubs.  The Rush, who missed the playoffs last year, got big offensive performances from Mark Matthews (2-10-12), Robert Church (4-6-10), Marty Dinsdale (3-5-8), Ryan Keenan (3-3-6), and Dan Lintner (4-0-4).  The nicest goal of the night went to Marshall Powless (1-4-5), who flipped a behind the back shot behind Dillon Ward, with the runner-up beauty of the game coming from Holden Garlent, as he took a breakaway pass from goalie Alex Buque and beat a helpless Tyler Carlson, who replaced Ward in the third quarter.  Buque finished with a SPCT of .875 and he was, simply, spectacular in the first quarter as the Rush built a 6-0 lead against Ward, who’s arguably, the best goaltender in the NLL (with all due respect to Buffalo’s Matt Vinc).

2 – MAMMOTH EFFORT – The Mammoth played without superstar forward Ryan Lee, who had 119 points last season.  Lee was hurt in the first game of last year’s playoffs and has been out with a knee injury ever since.  He’s expected to make it back at some point but his absence was noticeable.  Having said that, the Mammoth won the league title without him so their pathetic showing on Saturday was shocking.  Eli McLaughlin failed to score and Zed Williams was held to just two goals.  Maybe they took the Rush, who missed the playoffs, lightly and the game got out of hand before they were able to regroup.  Either way, they have to have a bit of concern going into next week.  The Rush go to San Diego, who defeated New York 15-14 in week one, next Friday.

3 – CROWD/PUBLIC ADDRESS – I was disappointed in the size of the crowd Saturday night.  I think the smallest crowd to see the Rush last year was 6,999 on January 14th.  The home opener appeared to be a similar size.  Hopefully the win helps gain some traction but maybe we just have to come to the understanding that Saskatchewan people have moved on from spectator sports and really don’t care all that much about attending these types of events.  The Pats aren’t doing well for crowds (down from 5200 to 3300 since 2019), we’ve discussed the Riders attendance at length, and now the Rush seem to be experiencing a downturn.  At least the WHL Blades have been able to hold steady since 2017 at a game average of 3900.  The only other criticism, for me, on the home opener was the public address announcer.  Whoever that was that used to do the game was FANTASTIC.  He was noticeably absent on Saturday and his shoes to fill are enormous.  

4 – ATTENDANCE STUDY – There’s money to be made for a firm that undertakes a real honest study on sports attendance in Saskatchewan.  I speculate a combination of things – apathy (especially amongst our youth), escalating ticket prices, overall economic inflation, ticked off older fans that felt unappreciated when they were discriminated against for vaccine choices, and lazy marketing and promotion by sports teams who feel as though all they need to do is put on a game and the people will be obligated to show up.  How do sports teams get people back?  Can they get people back?  I commend the Rush for giving away a GMC Terrain on Saturday.  If that doesn’t get your attention, I’m not sure what will.

5 – FINAL RUSH THOUGHTS – Rush head coach Jimmy Quinlan is now 5-and-0 for his career as he led the team to four straight wins at the end of last year after taking over from Jeff McComb.  Frequent performances from Buque like we saw on Saturday should be enough to get this team back into the playoffs and it also appears as though Powless is ready to take a step forward while Lintner looked more comfortable in the offense than he did last year.  As far as the new faces go (I don’t count Dinsdale), Jake Boudreau and Jerrett Smith played a lot and even though it’s only one game, they have the ability to soften the damage felt by Chris Corbeil’s loss in the expansion draft.

6 – RIDERS OC – Just about every single potential Offensive Coordinator, of note, has said ‘no thanks’ to the Saskatchewan Roughriders but we are supposed to believe Bo Levi Mitchell can’t wait for free agency so he can play here?  Alright then.  This is all the warning signs of a dumpster fire 2023 season and the offseason is barely here.  The fixes for the Riders are easy, but they’ve chosen the long, winding road instead.  I wish them well.

7 – FAJARDO – You never want to hope for someone to fail, but those making the decisions for the Roughriders have to be dreading a comeback season from Cody Fajardo in another uniform in 2023.  Fajardo isn’t without blame for his play this season but he got nearly no support from the organization and fans.  Seeing him return to a level of competency with another team while the Riders struggle to find an OC for a unit that may also be void of a starting quarterback would almost be deserved justice.

8 – DeGROM CONTRACT – The Texas Rangers have signed starting pitcher Jacob DeGrom to a five year contract worth a staggering $185-million.  DeGrom, when he pitches, is the best there is.  The problem, at least for me, is how infrequent he’s on the mound.  He’s 34 years old and has been limited to just 26 starts in the last two years.  Incredibly, I listened to a couple of radio hosts debate whether or not he’s worth the money if he can make 20 starts a season (a healthy season would constitute 34).  The obvious answer is NO, but both of them decided that YES, 20 starts a year from DeGrom at a cost of $2-million per start and no more than 6-7 innings per start, is worth it.  Which means, they peg DeGrom’s value at closer to $70-million a year if he was healthy.  If I’m Justin Verlander, I use that debate for my next contract.  Me?  I’m just waiting for a team to sign 15 cheap pitchers to all work one time through the batting order and win a division title by doing so.  

9 – AUDIBLE – I’m late to the party, but just in case someone else is in a similar situation as me and wondering whether or not to jump on the audio books bandwagon, I’m going to highly recommend you get off the fence and pony up a subscription.  I’ve been thinking about it for a year and I don’t know why I was so hesitant to spend $5 a month but I’m glad I did.  I spent part of my drive to Saskatoon on Saturday listening to Steve Young’s autobiography.  Maybe it’s because it’s the first audio book I’ve ‘read’ (is that the proper term?), but I am enjoying it immensely and I can’t wait to find more books to ‘read’ (listen to).

10 – ASSISTED DEATH – Christine Gauthier is a retired Corporal but she’s also a paralympian, so this counts as sports even though it’s just another example of how disgusting the federal government in this country is.  Gauthier testified before a Commons Committee this week that an employee from Veteran Affairs Canada offered her the ‘opportunity’ for a medical assisted death instead of providing her with a home wheelchair ramp, which she’s been fighting for the last five years to have.  I have to admit I’m conflicted as I stand at sports events and our national anthem is played.  I love my country the way any person should, but it’s harder and harder by the day to not also feel so much contempt and disdain for the people we’ve put in charge of it, that I just want to sit down because I barely recognize this place anymore.  What’s even worse is that almost all of us have lost our moral compass.  You are either a right or a left wing person and you are going to, blindly, vote that way and twist yourself into a pretzel defending your political heroes.  

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