STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – JETS ARE DONE – It’s just an opinion but I look at this roster and I see a group of players that are soft and no longer want to play for the current coach. I also see a team that has squandered the prime years of most of its top players. I also wonder how good are their top players really? Do they have anyone other than Connor Hellebuyck that you’d rank in the top 15 in the league at his position? I don’t see one. The other thing for me is that you have a team that is losing, know they are not as good as Edmonton or Toronto and they just want to be finished so they can go home where normal life has been restored. Kyle Connor, Blake Wheeler, Andrew Copp, Hellebuyck, Neal Pionk, Paul Stastny, Mason Appleton, Derek Forbort, Trevor Lewis, Nate Thompson, and Tucker Poolman are all players born and raised in the United States. I think most or all of these guys are homesick. I believe that when faced with adversity, such is the case with the Jets, it’s easy to look at what you could have very, very soon and want that more than a Stanley Cup. Different situation for Toronto and Edmonton. They are winning and hungry for a title. I just think when it comes to the Jets the simple thing is you look at how restricted you still are, you are losing, your best winger is still injured, you don’t like your coach, and you could be living a carefree life back home in ten days so why try and battle through this?

2 – MCDAVID AND MATTHEWS – They’ve had amazing seasons don’t get me wrong. But they are in a division with five fairly bad hockey teams. I wonder how many goals Matthews has if he has to play Pittsburgh, Washington, Boston, and the Islanders on a regular basis. Even the Rangers were decent in that East Division. Or what about the Central with defending champion Tampa, last year’s runner up in Dallas, add in Florida and Carolina who look like top teams plus Nashville that has been red hot for the last half of the year. If I was to rank the worst teams in the league, I may have Winnipeg, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Calgary all in the bottom twelve. Buffalo, New Jersey, Anaheim, Columbus, and Detroit are down there too. For me, the other teams that deserve recognition amongst the dregs of the league are Philadelphia (Winnipeg South basically in that they should be a lot better than they are), maybe San Jose, maybe Los Angeles. I’ve just listed 13 teams so it’s not inconceivable those five Canadian teams are amongst the 10-12 worst teams in the league and McDavid and Matthews feasted on them.

3 – GRETZKY TNT – I’ve been reading about TNT wanting Wayne Gretzky to be part of their on-air personality roster when that network takes over and broadcasts NHL games next year. The courtship has been met with surprising negativity in a number of media circles mainly due to the fact that Gretzky doesn’t really have much of a personality. He is very image conscious and keeps everything fairly vanilla. To that end, I’m wondering why is that a bad thing? In the recent past, networks have done a good job weeding out those who have polarizing opinions so wouldn’t someone who is extremely polished and safe, such as Gretzky who is also the most famous hockey player in the history of peoplekind, be precisely what a TV network wants to put on the air?

4 – TOW THE LINE – After the New York Rangers released a statement criticizing the NHL for its lack of handling the Tom Wilson-Artemi Panarin incident, the club fired President John Davidson and General Manager Jeff Gorton. The Rangers can say it’s performance based all they want but the reality is that after a brutal start, this team has actually been fairly decent and they are going to finish in exactly the same spot most people figured they’d be – fifth or sixth. A week or so ago they were within striking distance of a playoff spot. Davidson and Gorton join referee Tim Peel, who was also fired for telling the truth but was caught on a hot mic saying he needed to call a penalty to better manage the game. Don’t forget announcer Ron MacLean was removed from Hockey Night In Canada for a couple of years when Rogers took over the rights and while there was an excuse that Sportsnet wanted to try a younger and more cool host, the reality is that MacLean engaged Gary Bettman with some tough interviews and to control the message, they either needed MacLean gone or a neutered MacLean. They taught him a lesson by putting him on the sidelines and now that he’s back you haven’t seen a tough interview ever since.  Even Bob McCown toned down his criticism on his talk show once Rogers took over NHL rights. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong but as far as media goes, it’s a clear sign that journalism is pretty much dead and the role of sports media now is to act as a public relations arm.  If you silence criticism I’d argue that it becomes more challenging to improve the product. George Parros can make as many bad decisions as he wants when handing out discipline if nobody is allowed to disagree publicly. 

5 – NO HITTERS – There have been four no hitters through the first five weeks of the Major League Baseball season.  Even Wade Miley threw one last Friday night. This game is broken and if they don’t do something to fix it, they’ll have no fans left in about 20-30 years when those who are diehards pass away. I’ve loved the game ever since I can remember so I’m one of those that will watch no matter what and there are still a lot of fans similar to me in that train of thought. But that also means us diehards are also going to watch even if they introduce rules that turn off the traditional fan. I didn’t think I’d be supportive of the runner on second in the tenth inning rule, but I love it. There needs to be a lot more innovation in this regard, starting with making The Shift an illegal defense. There is just too much ‘swing for the fences’ and it’s resulting in pitchers like Miley throwing no hitters. I’m sorry but Miley should never throw a no hitter and neither should Sean Manaea, who almost had one on the same night as Miley.  

6 – PITCHER INJURIES – It’s also incredibly outrageous that baseball hasn’t adopted a new approach to developing pitchers. Dustin May, a prized youngster with the Los Angeles Dodgers, underwent Tommy John surgery this week and won’t be seen again until April 2023. What a waste of talent. May is hardly in the minority. This happens to too many hurlers and there doesn’t seem to be any meaningful studies as to why pitchers are dropping like flies. My observations are very unscientific but there is no disputing the fact that teams used to be able to get 200+ innings a year for a dozen years out of their top pitchers without injury issues. What I see now are guys throwing every pitch as hard as he possibly can and also throwing certain cutters and other nasty breaking pitches that, maybe … just maybe, the human arm really isn’t capable of throwing. Here are some pitchers you’ve maybe heard of but forgot about because we haven’t seen them in almost two years: David Robertson, Noah Syndergaard, Chris Sale, Yonny Chirinos, Justin Verlander, Ken Giles, Mike Clevinger, and Luis Severino. Again. Waste of talent and money. There is a market out there for a pitching guru to develop young talent in a way that puts less stress on the arm and I think if you go back and see how Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Mike Mussina, Tim Hudson, etc. were able to come up through the ranks you may be able to come up with something that works and preserves arms.

7 – RETURN NOT ASSURED – The other thing about Tommy John surgery is that not every pitcher makes it back to previous form. Trevor Rosenthal, Drew Storen, Michael Fulmer, Jordan Hicks, Shelby Miller, Zach Duke, Carson Smith, Brandon McCarthy, Brady Aiken, Bronson Arroyo, AJ Griffin, and Jason Vargas are all examples of pitchers who either were ineffective or didn’t pitch at all after undergoing the procedure.  

8 – CAITLYN JENNER – The former male Olympic champion in the decathlon is taking some heat for her opinion on trans girls/women playing sports with biological girls/women. Again, I’ll save my own opinion expressing as I know how it can trigger some of you but I will just say Jenner has a tremendous amount of credibility here on this issue because A) she’s a trans woman and B) competed at the highest of levels as a biological male before undergoing the change. If you aren’t a trans athlete you are, probably, disqualified from having an educated view on this matter anyway and I think you’d be extremely hard-pressed to find someone more qualified than Jenner to speak on it. 

9 – MACHO MAN – Randy Savage used to appear, regularly, on the Arsenio Hall Show in the 1990s and I recently came across a quote from the late WWF superstar that I think is fitting during these times. “It’s okay for Macho Man to show every emotion available. I’ve cried a thousand times. I’m going to cry some more.  But, I’ve soared with the eagles, and I’ve slithered with the snakes, and I’ve been everywhere in between. I’m going to tell you something right now. There’s one guarantee in life and that’s that there are no guarantees.  And understand this: nobody likes a quitter. Nobody said life was easy. So, if you get knocked down, take the standing eight count, get back up and fight again.”

10 – BE ENCOURAGED – If vaccines are truly effective and there is reason to believe that in Israel, UK, and United States that they are; it’s simply a matter of time before things look very close to normal around here.  Common sense says the virus is soon going to run out of people to infect severely and then there can be no reason to continue with this restrictive lifestyle. Based on what Scott Moe is saying, it appears that by mid-July just about all restrictions will be gone. Saskatchewan has done better than any other province in getting out the doses but if other provinces do what Saskatchewan is doing I have every reason to think CFL football begins in front of good sized crowds in early August. If you want to cross the border by Labour Day I would think that is also an attainable target. Things are getting better and it’s happening quickly.

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