STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – NHL LABOUR – I warned this would happen way back when MLB owners and players were fighting over money.  I said just wait until the NHL tries to start their 2021 season and it’ll be the exact same fight.  Personally, I side with the players.  The owners signed a CBA and they should honor it.  If you believe the owners, and really how can you, they lose $1.5-million per team per game if they play with no fans?  If Jeremy Jacobs told me the sun was shining, I’d have to stare at it for 5 minutes myself just to confirm it.  But, let’s say they lose even $500-thousand per game.  How many NHL clubs are healthy enough to write off $21-million?  If the $1.5-million is true, that number balloons to over $60-million in losses.  Yet, I find myself looking at the signed CBA and don’t blame the players for drawing a line in the sand.

2 – OWNERS DON’T WANT TO PLAY – Based on the dollar figures in the paragraph above, it’s not surprising to hear as many as 10 NHL owners don’t want to play a season regardless of what is worked out with the players.  Gary Bettman talks a good game and even though he’s still suggesting January 1st as a start date, we know that can’t happen.  Players have to travel to their NHL home cities (and in Canada you need to isolate 14 days before you do anything) and you are looking at training camps starting around December 21st if the stars aligned and everyone agreed to play by this weekend.  You know they aren’t going to run camps over Christmas and it would be pointless to start them that close to the 25th.  So I don’t think you will see camps open at all in December and the earliest (and maybe only) date for the NHL to start game play is February 1.

3 – CANADIAN DIVISION – I guess we will see if/when the schedule comes out, but Canada is a big country and I don’t know how they are going to do this in a way that makes sense.  A flight from Ottawa to Vancouver is almost like going from Regina to Punta Cana.  Personally, I’m not a fan.  The bright side is that you will be assured of a Canadian team in the conference finals but a very big downside is that three of them miss the playoffs.  I wouldn’t want to bet money on it, but if you asked me today which three don’t make the playoffs:  Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Montreal.

4 – ECHL STARTS – If you are desperate for hockey, the East Coast Hockey League will begin on December 11th.  For now, there is nothing officially scheduled beyond January 14th but it’s hoped 13 teams will play a 72-game season.  There will be a handful of names that will be recognizable for major junior enthusiasts and even a couple who played Junior ‘A’ (Tad Kozun and Adam Pleskach were names that jumped off the computer screen for me).  Former Leafs goalie Garret Sparks has signed with Orlando and Flohockey will have a subscription package if you want to watch online.

5 – REMOVAL OF NETS – Are governments playing some sort of sadistic game now?  It’s almost like they are daring us to fight back and know we never will.  Removing hockey nets from outdoor rinks is just one of those things that accomplishes zero as far as virus fighting goes but it gets added to the list of discriminatory measures inflicted on young people.  Make no mistake about it, our youth are at the lowest risk when it comes to the virus, but they have a collective bullseye on their foreheads and they have been the single biggest target of governments everywhere, even more so than the small businesses.

6 – NFL COVID – Personally, I loved how Roger Goodell handled the outbreaks on the Ravens and Broncos.  Yes, it was embarrassing for Denver to have to play with no quarterback and yes Baltimore had no chance to win against Pittsburgh with 20 players out of the line-up, but the message needed to be sent:  follow the rules because if you don’t, you are going to have to play anyway and it will cost you a valuable win in the standings.  You don’t think the Indianapolis Colts, for example, weren’t read the riot act this week by their coaching staff to make sure they follow the rules because if they don’t it could mean making the playoffs or not?

7 – ALEX SMITH – Washington and the New York Giants are tied for first in the NFC East with 4-and-7 records.  Yes, that’s terrible but there is a great story here in that Alex Smith is in position to lead his team to a division title and a playoff appearance.  I’m rooting for him big time.  Obviously, he isn’t going to be the mobile quarterback he once was but if he can be a solid ‘game manager’ for the rest of the way, I think the team’s defense and the two running backs are good enough to pull away from the rest of the sad sack in this division.

8 – ROSARIO NONTENDER – If you’ve read my column frequently, you know I have a lot of issues with how baseball is played in this era but the fact that Eddie Rosario was non-tendered by the Minnesota Twins this week tells me two things. 1-Teams don’t have any money.  2-Analytics has reached a new low.  Rosario is 28-years-old.  He plays a serviceable game in a corner outfield spot as far as defense is concerned.  He doesn’t strike out nearly as much as most hitters do today, and he has good power and produces runs.  Yet, at $9-million per season, he was deemed too pricey and the Twins are letting him walk.  

9 – THE FUTURE – I’m not predicting this to happen, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the United States gets their elderly and higher risk population vaccinated by the end of February and the rest of the country’s citizens just don’t up and decide life should return to normal because what harm is there if a healthy person infects another healthy person?  If that happens, I would expect to see fans at Major League Baseball Spring Training games in Florida in March and then fans in fairly decent numbers for regular season games in April.  It is possible that the US is close to normal before a single Canadian gets poked with a needle.

10 – CHINESE SPIES – Justin Trudeau and his unqualified cabinet are a lot like that weak fantasy sports owner everyone tries to take advantage of and make a lopsided trade.  You know that the owner is in way over his head and you can exploit that to further your own success.  Earlier this week it was revealed that not only did Trudeau and his cronies waste hundreds of millions of dollars partnering with a Chinese company on a failed vaccine collaboration; but now we are learning top executives with CanSino Biologics (the Chinese company) were also spies.  They were part of a government program designed to incentivize people to transfer research and knowledge to China in exchange for salaries, funding, and other benefits.  The only thing worse than corruption is incompetence and Canadians are blessed with both from its federal government.

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