STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – RUSH WIN HOME FINALE – The Saskatchewan Rush overcame blowing a three goal lead with 4:22 left in the fourth as they defeated the Colorado Mammoth 12-11 in overtime on Saturday night to close out their home schedule for 2023. Eli McLaughlin scored 7 goals for the Mammoth, but he was really the only player to have Laine Hruska’s number as the Warman product made his first start and looked like he belonged on the team. He was certainly no worse than the two veterans that have manned the net all year.  My guess is that he gets the tap again next weekend as the Rush hit the road to wrap up their season. Robert Church scored the winner and finished with four goals and six points. Mark Matthews also had six points and Ryan Keenan added a five point night as he continues to play through a nagging injury. Overall, the Rush are 7-and-10.

2 – LEAFS ARE OVER THE HUMP – I mentioned before the playoffs started that the supposed advantage Tampa Bay held over Toronto in goal was maybe based solely on reputation and not on actual game play, especially over the last two months. That speculation has proven to be true as Ilya Samsonov has completely outplayed Andrei Vasilevskiy and I expect the series to come to a rather rapid end now that the Leafs don’t even have to be the better team in order to win. The Lightning’s weak spot is between the pipes.

3 – OILERS OVERTIME LOSS – Yes, the Edmonton Oilers need to worry about other things than the officiating but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t add officiating to the list of things to worry about. I like how the XFL sends the television viewer into the video replay room so that we can see and listen to what those folks are breaking down and what the interpretation is. Why can’t the NHL do that? This is the one league that when you go to video replay, you may as well flip a coin as far as the final outcome and ‘getting the call right’ often results in even more controversy than before video replay was introduced. 

4 – LEAFS REVIEW – To me, video reviews are more of a trick than they are designed to get calls right. I was watching Toronto-Tampa Bay game one when a goal went for review to determine whether or not the puck crossed the line. Many minutes passed. I think in baseball terms, an entire half inning could have been played. Once the referee made his announcement that the puck did cross the line resulting in a Tampa Bay goal, the Leafs challenged for goaltender interference. If the spirit of the rule is to get the play right, can’t the officials look at their tablets and analyze everything rather than that one single entity? Imagine if there was goalie interference on the play and the Leafs did not challenge. The officials spend agonizing minutes dissecting the play and then emerge to announce the puck did cross the line but make no mention of the interference because that’s up to the teams to challenge rather than an official to simply notice it. Bizarre. By the way, the Leafs had just as long to look at the play and their challenge was dumb, to say the least.  

5 – HARTMAN/BUNTING – I can only imagine the confusion, inconsistency, and incompetency that goes on within the walls of the Department of NHL Player Safety boardroom. Ryan Hartman gives up the puck for what appears to be the sole purpose of taking Nikolaj Ehlers’ head off and puts him out of action. He gets a one game suspension. Michael Bunting goes into the corner with Erik Cernak and throws up an elbow that dazed Cernak (also putting him out of action) and receives a three game suspension. To me, both the Hartman and Bunting crimes warrant the same suspension. I don’t care if it’s 1 or 3 but can someone tell me why Bunting’s was 3x more egregious than Hartman’s?  

6 – ESPN PANEL – Fortunately, I’ve had access to ESPN’s broadcast through the early going of the first round. Captions are not needed to figure out who the panel is: PK Subban, Mark Messier, and Chris Chelios are three of the most recognizable figures in the NHL. All three have been great to listen to and it’s attracted me back to watching some non-game content. Meanwhile, Sportsnet has people on whom I have no idea who they are. I’m told Keith Yandle, Frank Corrado, Jennifer Botterill, and Anthony Stewart are some of the folks invited to sit on the panel but I wouldn’t recognize them if I passed any of them on the street. I’m also told Brian Burke has been brought back. True?

7 – CHELIOS/DARRYL SUTTER – Speaking of Chelios, he tells a story of playing for now-Flames coach Darryl Sutter while both were with the Chicago Blackhawks in the early 1990s. Sutter pulled Ed Belfour from the net during a blowout and Belfour went to the end of the bench seething over the decision. Sutter turned to Belfour and said, “Don’t worry about it, it’s not your fault. Go to the dressing room and make sure we have hot pizza and cold beer for after the game. Chelly, you aren’t doing anything either, so you may as well join him.”

8 – NORTH STARS DOMINATE – I’m not superstitious, but I admit to feeling a little bit bad when I talked to Battlefords North Stars coach Brayden Klimosko on the same day as the first game of the SJHL Playoffs and I joked to him, “Congratulations on winning the league championship in a month, you probably won’t lose a game.” That night, the Weyburn Red Wings stunned the North Stars to take a 1-0 series lead. From there, the Stars won the next four. They then won four more to sweep the Melfort Mustangs and on Saturday night, they completed a four game sweep of the Flin Flon Bombers to win the SJHL title. The Stars did win 12 straight to do it, they just happened to lose Game 1.

9 – RATTLERS BRING BACK ANOTHER – Admittedly, I’m not sure of the ins and outs of the CEBL so it’s somewhat confusing for me to see the Saskatchewan Rattlers use their first round U Sports draft selection on Anthony Tsegakele (pronounced Tee-ga-keelee). Tsegakele played for the team last year and was their 6th man of the year award winner so I’m not sure why they have to draft him again in order to keep him in the fold. Nevertheless, he’s a good player who improved as the season went on. He joins Malik Benlevi, Mike Nuga, and D’Andre Bernard as official roster players for 2023 that also played in 2022. One newcomer you can expect to see is 7’ forward Julian Roche, who played last year with Guelph. I scoured the other rosters and it doesn’t appear as though the Rattlers have lost anyone to any of the other teams in the league.  

10 – JETS FANS LAST WORD, FOR NOW – Last week’s column that was loaded with Winnipeg Jets relocation and diminished attendance content set off a firestorm in the comments section. I don’t wish to rehash what has gone on and why over the last three years, but it’s clear many people are still very passionate about it. One thing that is also clear is that minds cannot be changed no matter how much one wants to write or however much one may think they have that smoking gun piece of evidence to prove he/she is correct in their line of thinking. Here’s what I can tell you – there are a significant number of people who (by force or by choice) have moved on from attending live sporting events and if teams that are suffering want these people back, they need to figure out ‘new’ ways to win them over. Threatening them and asking for sympathy isn’t going to work. My suggestion is eating a bit of humble pie and showing appreciation, but I don’t see any sports organization taking me up on that advice anytime soon.

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