STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – BETTMAN NHL LOSSES – NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says his league is doing us all a favour by playing the season and giving us something to watch while we stay home. “It would be cheaper for us to shut the door and not play. The magnitude of the loss starts with a B (billion). We are out of the M (million) range and into the B range. It’s just what we have to deal with and what clubs have decided they have to do.  Everyone thought it was important to play our game and deliver what people expect from us, and that’s what everyone signed on to do.”  My query is what will this do to the salary cap, which is directly tied to hockey related revenue? If Patrik Laine wants a raise, he’s going to have to score 40 goals in 56 games and hope the Jets trade him to a team like Ottawa that is at the cap floor. On a bit of a positive note – the Jets have sent out emails to fans asking if they’d be comfortable returning to the arena in smaller numbers should the government give some form of an approval. 

2 – CANCELLATIONS – I’m already a bit disappointed in how the NHL has handled positive virus cases and the season hasn’t even started. You can criticize the NFL all you want, but I loved how they didn’t let teams off the hook when they had the virus run through the locker rooms. I think if players know the league will just postpone games to a later date without penalty there isn’t as much pressure to follow the rules outside of ‘work’.  All NHL teams have taxi squads and affiliated minor league players. So in the case of the Dallas Stars, where there are half a dozen guys on the sidelines—play anyway with whatever you can put together for a team. This puts responsibility back on the players to behave themselves or else it could cost your team dearly.

3 – JUNIOR HOCKEY BEING PLAYED – While Canada still can’t figure out a safe way to put minor hockey players on the ice even with no parents in the building, it’s worth noting how close to normal the sport is in other places. Minot announced last week they will play this weekend and permit 1000 fans to watch their university team. Here are some other recent attendance figures: Tri-City Storm (Kearney, Nebraska) – 2312, Green Bay 1587 (but the football team has no fans???), Des Moines 1542, Omaha 1223, Youngstown (Ohio) 568.

4 – WHL SEASON – For fans, 24 games is hardly a season but this isn’t about fans at all. It’s about getting players on the ice and I hope the WHL finds a way to make it happen. I don’t know how they are going to do it but crossing the US-Canada border is assuredly a non-starter. So those 5 teams will play against each other.  I wonder if they don’t move one of the Canadian teams down there too to give them 6. You could play the rest of the WHL teams in some sort of a bubble. Maybe you do two bubbles of 8 teams each and play without fans.  I think bubbles will be the best solution and fans should be prepared to find out they won’t be allowed in attendance.

5 – HANDLED DIFFERENTLY – It’s my understanding that in the minor pro ranks, hockey teams are handling virus positive situations a bit differently than if it were the NHL where there is a lot of public scrutiny. I’m told one player on a minor pro team in the States got a positive test but isn’t sick. He was told that if he doesn’t show symptoms within four days to come back to the team. If he chooses not to come back to the team, he’s cut. 

6 – NORTH DAKOTA – North Dakota is a state to watch closely as vaccines are more widely distributed. If you believe the numbers, 12% of the entire state’s population has had the virus already so how many people need to be vaccinated before you start to see rapid declines in their case numbers? In mid-November they were, routinely, up over 1000 cases per day and they did enact some restrictive measures but they’d still be considered light when compared to what we are doing in Canada. For the last few days, they’ve been well under 200 cases per day. As of Tuesday morning, 0.7% of the population has received both vaccine doses while 4.4% has received one shot. If you want to compare that to Saskatchewan, we have 1.6% of the province that has been virus positive and 0.7% have received one vaccine shot (a very select few have got both). This tells me a couple of things: 1-Saskatchewan isn’t nearly on virus fire like media and politicians are leading us to believe. 2-We suck at vaccinating. Blame Trudeau. Blame Moe. Doesn’t matter to me. But we aren’t getting it done fast enough so far and our priorities are mixed up when we focus on inmates and school teachers. It’s these kinds of dumb decisions that make me further question how well we’ve tackled this virus as a whole. 

7 – NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP – Justin Fields had an average performance and Alabama was simply too much as they cruised to an easy win on Monday night. It appears as though Urban Meyer is still the frontrunner to coach Jacksonville. He’s familiar with Fields but he also knows Trevor Lawrence and my guess is Lawrence will be the number one pick, but how about Mac Jones, the Alabama QB who threw for 464 yards on Monday night? Or what about Heisman winner Devonta Smith, who caught three TDs and racked up over 200 yards in receiving? If I’m the Chicago Bears, I’m making some trades to get both of these guys to help re-establish skill positions.

8 – GUARANTEED DEATHS – Most won’t remember this, but back when Fields was rallying to have the NCAA stage a football season (August), CBS Sports reporters predicted between three and seven players would die from Covid if the season went ahead. I’m not sure if seven college students, forget athletes, have even been confirmed as Covid deaths. Illinois’ Sheldon Jacobson said, “I guarantee someone is going to die.  The virus does not discriminate.” Actually, the virus does pick on the elderly and others who are very unhealthy. While some football linemen would be considered overweight, the majority of elite college athletes are in impeccable physical condition and are, therefore, at no risk.

9 – NFL QBs – There could be some significant quarterback changes in the NFL this offseason, especially if Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger retire. It’s possible the Detroit Lions move on from Matthew Stafford.  Russell Wilson is being criticized in Seattle. The Rams are possibly moving on from Jared Goff. There’s unrest in Houston with Deshaun Watson. San Francisco needs to find a new quarterback.  Washington is likely looking. Chicago, New England, and Denver are also potentially eyeing a change in addition to the rookies Jacksonville and the Jets are expected to draft. 

10 – BLUE JAYS FREE AGENCY – It appears as though the Toronto Blue Jays are going to come up empty in their free agent pursuit this offseason but I’m not going to blame Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins (or Shatkins as they are affectionately known). If you were an MLB free agent, why would you pick Toronto for a future home when you can’t even go there and visit? Who knows how long it will be before you can live there?  For this season, at least, you’ll be playing out of a suitcase. No thanks.  

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