STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – RUSH COMEBACK FALLS SHORT – Despite a valiant fourth quarter comeback attempt, the Saskatchewan Rush dropped their fourth game in their last five, 12-11 to the visiting San Diego Seals and now they have to play the Calgary Roughnecks twice in a row.  When the Rush were 4-and-2, they were only two shots away from being 6-and-0.  That’s a distant memory now as they look more like the worst team in the league than one that is going to make the playoffs.  Perhaps they can build on what we saw in the fourth quarter Saturday but it won’t be easy as the Roughnecks are 8-and-4 and boast a top goaltender in Christian Del Bianco.  For the most part, the Rush have made just about every goaltender they’ve faced look like an all-star.  Del Bianco will pose a major challenge.

2 – CLARK WALTER BREAKS OUT – One player who has been in and out of the lineup for the last two seasons but shouldn’t be leaving again anytime soon is Clark Walter, who scored five goals on Saturday.  Walter dressed for one game last year and has been in for three this year.  My guess is that it will be hard to remove him going forward, especially when you look at the void on offense from everyone not named Robert Church, who scored four.  Granted, Ryan Keenan had six assists on Saturday, but no goals for the second straight game and he has only one in his last three.  Marty Dinsdale has missed the last two due to injury, thus opening the door for Walter, but rookie Austin Madronic has seen his offense dry up, same for Marshall Powless (who is also battling injury) and Mark Matthews is collecting assists but not many goals.  The transition game, which looked promising a few weeks ago, has disappeared.

3 – DIVIDING THE FANS – For the first time this season, I did not attend a Rush home game.  The online broadcast indicated the crowd was sparse and for the first time since the team relocated to Saskatoon in 2016, the organization has dealt with a bit of negativity with its fans due to some marketing tactics and promotions used at the last home game.  It’ll be interesting to see how they come back from that.  I’m always intrigued how sports organizations, despite their capitalist greed, always seem to succumb to the social media mob and are willing to self-inflict economic pain to appease those who don’t spend a dime on them.  In the NHL right now, you have the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild fending off what appears to be some bad publicity from mainstream media and social media keyboard warriors, but the bottom line is that their fan base isn’t divided and they haven’t lost any financial support all the while maintaining a positive image to those that matter the most – their customers.  

4 – MOOSE JAW SITUATION – Here’s my two bits on the situation surrounding the Moose Jaw Warriors:  let everyone know what it is they are being suspended for.  The shroud of secrecy just feeds the rumor mill and makes it worse.  If the Coach and General Manager are responsible for something that is worthy of a five game suspension, either get it out there so we can all know what it is or start hiding ALL reasons for suspensions.  Obviously, in a lot of cases, fans can see on video a check from behind or a vicious slash or some other on-ice infraction so we can draw our own conclusions when it comes to most suspensions.  I just don’t understand how you can suspend people and expect fans to stay interested if you are just going to keep certain things a secret.  If the players, coach, and manager are all guilty of an infraction, they don’t deserve to be protected by keeping it secret.  The flipside is that maybe what they are all being suspended for is something the public would find ridiculous and not suspension worthy at all but to satisfy the vicious social media mob, they get suspended anyway.

5 – NAME CALLING – I’ve spent the last number of weeks asking players if they’d rather be called a hateful name or get whacked across the wrist with a slash.  100% of them have opted for the name.  But, a flaw in how Hockey Canada is dealing with maltreatment indicates that hurling a verbal insult will get you 5 games as a minimum, however a five minute major for slashing that breaks someone’s wrist, is almost always going to result in a suspension of less than 5 games for a first time offender.  I understand the rationale for the harshness of penalizing bad words.  Hockey officials don’t want it in the game.  So what, then, is the message that’s being sent if you are only going to hand out 1-2 game suspensions for 5-minute majors?  If you are going to bring the hammer down on one, why stop there?  Do it on everything.  Instead of a 1-game suspension for fighting in the last 10-minutes of the game, give the players 10-games for it instead.  The second time they do it, ban them for a year.  Let’s get all bad things that aren’t part of hockey out of the game.

6 – SENIOR HOCKEY CROWDS – Senior hockey is alive and well in rural Saskatchewan.  In the SaskEast Hockey League (where I live), I’ve attended games recently in Swan River and Langenburg and the barns have been full. The atmosphere has been electric.  I’m told you can find similar full houses in Carlyle and Wadena, two teams vying for the Senior B provincial banner.  In the case of Swan River, the senior Axemen play out of Minitonas and are said to be drawing as many or more fans than the MJHL’s Stampeders despite the Stamps sitting on top of the division as the regular season winds down.  It doesn’t hurt that the Axemen are made up of, mostly former Stamps players.  That includes senior rookies Carter Cockburn and Jackson Betcher.  The roster also features 43-year-old Dallas Anderson, another former Stamp from 25 years ago.

7 – XFL SATURDAY WEEK FOUR – For the second time in four weeks, the Houston Roughnecks blew out the Orlando Guardians.  This shouldn’t be a surprise as the Roughnecks are 4-and-0, the Guardians 0-and-4.  Orlando QB Paxton Lynch, a former Rider, went 18-for-30 with two touchdowns and no interceptions for Orlando.  Brandon Silvers, who I haven’t really talked about in previous columns, is off to a great start as Houston’s starting QB.  He was 24-of-30 for 239 and three majors. He leads the league with 10 passing TDs through four games.  On Sunday, the St. Louis Battlehawks are expecting 35,000 fans for their game against Arlington.  The Battlehawks will be playing with a heavy heart as their athletic trainer, Ben Siegfried (early 20s) passed away at the team hotel over the weekend.  No cause of death was released and regardless of the cause, deaths amongst young people in the sports industry are on the increase although nobody really seems to be talking about it.  

8 – BEARS/PANTHERS TRADE – The NFL Draft is very different from drafts in the NHL and MLB.  Often, a team can find multiple starters in a single draft that are developed enough to step into the line-up one year removed from the NCAA.  Therefore, assuming the Chicago Bears hit on their draft picks next month, it’s entirely possible they’ve become an instant contender in the wide open NFC after acquiring two first rounders, two second rounders, and an alpha-wide receiver in DJ Moore from the Carolina Panthers in exchange for the first overall draft selection, widely expected to be QB Bryce Young.  The big gamble here is that the Bears are hedging on Justin Fields being good enough to take them to the next level.  Even if he isn’t, I think they’ve done the right thing by acquiring Moore and the picks as they have a multitude of holes that need plugging.  Personally, I’m rooting for Fields big time.  I admired how he and his family advocated to play when everyone was quick to just keep the lights turned off in the NCAA back in 2020 and he deserves a ton of credit for there even being a season.

9 – DOOR OPEN FOR THE BEARS – Another possibility that opens the door for Chicago to contend is that Green Bay is bound to remain a non-factor provided they allow Aaron Rodgers to go to the New York Jets as Jordan Love will take over under center for them.  Granted he’s only seen limited action, but when he has been out there, Love has given no signs of being an impact quarterback.  The balance of power in the NFL is definitely in the AFC.  With Rodgers going to the Jets, that should pave the way for a three-horse race in the AFC East with Buffalo and Miami.  The AFC North features Cincinnati and Baltimore as contenders and then you have the Chargers and Chiefs in the West with the Raiders and Broncos probably more improved based on their offseason moves.  The AFC South is Jacksonville’s to lose and while Tennessee is signaling rebuild, the fact remains they still have a formidable roster too.  I’ve just listed 11 teams for 7 playoff spots.  

10 – JENNIFER JONES – I’m not a huge curling fan but I do tend to watch the Scotties and the Brier when those events are on tv and if I have some spare time.  My knowledge of the sport isn’t as such that I can get inside the heads of the players and figure out what their next moves are, I simply admire the skill involved and watch the results of their decisions.  Having said that, my hat is off to Jennifer Jones.  Here’s a woman who had a team that dominated curling for many years.  Her group broke up, she threw together three new teammates and she advanced all the way to the Scotties final, losing to Kerri Einarson, who is the new queen of Canadian ladies curling.  My guess is Jones isn’t done winning national titles and she’s the best bet to knock off Einarson next year.  Some people don’t like her sportsmanship.  To that, I say this:  show me a good loser, I will show you a loser.

NICE PERSON MENTIONS – Derek Serdachny, Bill McDougall, Bert Gilling, and Russ Cone.

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