STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – CHRIS JONES – I have one complaint and one complaint only when it comes to Chris Jones: He didn’t care one iota about the last-ever game at the old Mosaic Stadium. He, purposely, didn’t field the best team possible that day and it was an atrocious contest and a terrible final memory. However, aside from that, I don’t understand the dislike for him. Jones is a winner and if anyone hates losing more than Jones, please point him out to me. My first choice as a fan is to win with class but if my team can’t win with class I will still rank winning without class over losing with class. Jones built a powerhouse in Saskatchewan except for the fact he couldn’t find a quarterback. Unfortunately, that just happens to be the most important position on a football team.  

2 – FURTHER ON JONES – Well-documented stories about Jones not really setting his roots down in Saskatchewan as far as having a place to live or chaos on the coaching staff with regards to fights and such or employing players who weren’t angels while living in Regina also don’t bother me as long as the team is winning. Once you start losing, however, they can quickly become gas on a fire for  those who dislike Jones. Here’s what I would say to that end: If you have a personal code of conduct or some other rules with regards to community involvement/appearances/etc., it’s up to the people above Jones to enforce it and if they don’t, you can’t be blaming Jones for it.

3 – RIDERS COMMUNITY – I suppose another beef I have about the Jones era – although I don’t blame him personally for it – was the lack of public relations work amongst the coaches and players. In Yorkton, we got visits from Kent Austin, Ken Miller, Weston Dressler, Matt Dominguez, Scott Schultz, Darian Durant, Paul Woldu, and many, many others and I really shouldn’t mention some of them because I know I’m leaving others out and that’s not fair. But, my point is that during the Jones era we still got visits from the likes of Schultz, Paul LaPolice, Richie Hall, Dressler, and Dominguez even though they were no longer actively part of the current team. There does seem to be positive change once again under Craig Dickenson but because of Covid there hasn’t been an opportunity for the team to mingle with its non-Regina fans.

4 – SUPER BOWL – It’s only right to me that the two teams playing in the Super Bowl are two of the first teams to allow fans to watch this season. Kansas City had 15,000 fans in Week 1 and Tampa started welcoming people in Week 2. Throughout the league, as games became more important the science of the virus changed to allow for people to begin to attend, including in Green Bay where they had zero fans all year but somehow made Lambeau Field safe enough to have between 7,000-10,000 for their final two home dates. Buffalo, which is in a state that was locked down quite heavily, admitted 7,000 to its first playoff game in 25 years and I’m sure the fact that the Governor really wanted to go had no bearing on it. It’s science. Follow it. It works.

5 – CHIEFS/BUCS – For the first time ever, a team that is also hosting the Super Bowl will play in the Super Bowl. You should never bet against Tom Brady at the worst of times but you certainly shouldn’t bet against him playing at home in the biggest game of the year. Other reasons to not vote against him include the fact he has the perfect roster around him on both offense and defense, the team is peaking at just the right time, and Brady also seems to get a big break in games when he needs it the most. Against the Packers in the NFC Championship it was officiating that allowed all sorts of pass interference infractions go by without a whistle until late in the fourth quarter that resulted in a game ending play on third down that ensured Aaron Rodgers wouldn’t get the ball back.

6 – PACKERS PLAY CALLING – Okay I’m going to put myself out there and let you all call me stupid but I do that on a weekly basis anyway so this is hardly new. I actually agreed with Matt LaFleur kicking the field goal. The Packers needed, essentially, two scores just to tie the game. A major and a two point convert.  Kicking the FG reduces it to one major and if you get it, you win the game. Pundits will say ‘but you have the league MVP fairly close to the goal line so let him take a crack at it on fourth down’. You also have Tom Brady getting the ball back so it’s possible Rodgers doesn’t get back on the field to win it. I understand all of that. I’m just of the belief that you never turn down the opportunity to get points. Where LaFleur loses me is that he didn’t communicate with Rodgers that they weren’t going to go for it on fourth down, so Rodgers didn’t treat third down like a last ditch attempt. While unlikely Brady throws a pick, the Green Bay D did intercept him three times in the second half and if they were able to get a turnover for a fourth time then the game is over. Lots of scenarios. I have no idea what the analytics say but I always feel you should take the points. It didn’t work out, the Packers lost and LaFleur looks like a moron and so do I for saying I’d have done the same thing. I just would have done it with better communication with Rodgers.

7 – DUBOIS/LAINE FINAL THOUGHT – I never mentioned in last week’s post that I actually believe Winnipeg will be a better overall team with Dubois on the roster than what they were with Laine. That trade forces them to switch up a very stagnant game plan and my guess is that the overall group will be closer knit.  That doesn’t mean they couldn’t have got more for him. Clearly the Jets have no use for Sami Niku, but somebody somewhere surely does. They also have Kristian Vesalainen, who seems to be looking at a similar ‘block’ on the lines that Jack Roslovic had. I just think when you have a generational talent like Laine that there had to have been something you could put together to get a defenseman from the Blue Jackets as well.  Obviously, Seth Jones is what they are sorely lacking but even David Savard would be better than most of the Jets’ blueliners at the moment. Compliment alert – patience with Logan Stanley’s development appears to have paid off. I really like how he’s coming along.

8 – RETURN TO PLAY – I have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes with regards to trying to move forward to get leagues like the SJHL and WHL off the ground again but you have to think that if it happens, a bubble scenario is probably going to be the only way it works. To be clear, I’m not on any return to play committee of any kind but in my head, I feel like if you took the Viterra Division teams (Yorkton, Melville, Estevan, Weyburn) and put them all in Yorkton and played 9 games over 17 days that would give you your regular season. Do you throw out the games already played? I would. Call it the preseason. After those 9 games are played, you have a playoff series of 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd all while still in Yorkton. From there, the winners would play the division final series and then when you have the three division winners, take a break for a quarantine period and then put the three division winners in a bubble and come up with a format to declare a champion. I feel like you could probably do all of this in two months and there should be enough hotels and restaurants needing the business that sponsorship deals could be struck and ice time deals could be consummated with municipal governments. Teams would save a bit with no travel expenses and you pay the hotel instead of the billets. There are some other logistics to work out such as referees and linesmen and whether or not they stay in the bubble or, at least, stay in it for a week at a time and then change crews. And, perhaps this has been done but if you present a plan that is nearly complete and place it in front of the government and get them to tell you what about it is unsafe then you can tweak it and get it to where it’s acceptable. The government rejecting all plans regardless of safety just because they don’t think hockey should be played is not good enough. The sport is being played in a safe manner in many places around the world and it can here too.

9 – BASEBALL HALL – The time is ticking on Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens to be admitted and it is looking like neither will ever get in. Another worthy candidate that won’t get in is known political right winger Curt Schilling. Over the years, baseball writers have ruined the prestige of the Hall of Fame with their sanctimonious voting just to make a statement. Maybe it still is the pinnacle of individual greatness for the players, but as a fan I wouldn’t cross the street to go to the Hall of Fame anymore. If Ty Cobb can be in the Hall of Fame, Curt Schilling can be in the Hall of Fame. And, for what it’s worth, Pete Rose should be in there too. I’m sure if I went through those inducted I could find morally repulsive things about just about everyone. The Hall would be better served as a museum of sorts that talks about eras and honors the top players of each era. Besides, with how the game is changing it will be impossible for a starting pitcher to ever get in because they don’t pitch any more than 4 innings and it’s pretty hard to amass Hall of Fame worthy stats if you pitch for 15 years and average 4 innings an appearance. Yawn.

10 – ELECTION – There is going to be a federal election in April. I’m not about to go into the shopping list of scandals and ineptitude that surround Justin Trudeau other than to say if you are not happy with his handling of the vaccine deliveries to provinces (or the job he’s done as a whole) you have options with which to vote and you do NOT need to vote Conservative to get your point across. There are two other left wing Parties that haven’t had a chance to govern Canada ever (NDP and Green) and while I don’t like any of them I would submit to you that, literally, anybody would be better than what we have now. So if you are driven by ideology (which most are now) and refuse to vote Conservative no matter how much you don’t like Trudeau, remember there are two other Parties out there that maybe deserve a chance. 

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