STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – PLAY IN GAMES – I love them. The NBA has a great set up with the 7th seed playing the 8th seed and the 9th seed playing the 10th seed in each conference. The winner of 7 v 8 advances to the playoffs while the loser of that game plays the winner of 9 v 10 (the loser of 9 v 10 is simply done) to determine the final playoff spot. I watched two of the games and they were both extremely entertaining. It’s a great way to achieve that game seven atmosphere and intensity without having a game seven. I hope the NHL is watching and adopts the exact same format. Major League Baseball already does this with their wildcard games, which I also really like.

2 – LEBRON – NBA’s most holy player escaped discipline over the weekend when he attended a promotional event for a tequila brand he’s an investor in. Lebron’s actions broke the league’s health and safety protocol provided he hasn’t been vaccinated or produced a negative test. James declined to say whether or not he’s got his two doses saying it’s not anyone else’s business. He’s right on that although he hasn’t minded preaching to the world about how everyone else should be living life. I think Lebron, if more open on the subject, could be highly influential as far as getting more of the general public vaccinated. Because there is a risk of offending the reader, I will not give an opinion on James the man but he’s one of the greatest players of all-time.

3 – TAVARES INJURY – If the injury wasn’t so serious the fallout from it would be ‘fall off your chair funny’. To see pundits try and explain why Corey Perry, perhaps, kicked Tavares in the head on purpose is well past the line of where we call something ridiculous. Think about it. The game happens fast. So, you have to assume that Perry knew Ben Chiarot was going to stand Tavares up pretty good, then you’d have to predetermine how Tavares was going to fall so that you can change your path to ensure that just as he’s about to hit the ice Perry can perfectly time passing through and move his leg just a bit to make it appear as though he’s trying to avoid him but instead kicks him. I mean come on. The subsequent fight involving Perry and Nick Foligno was peak level stupid. Using that logic, next time a player is hurt blocking a shot, there needs to be a fight involving the player who shot the puck and a ‘character’ guy from the team who had the injured player.  

4 – JETS SURPASS EXPECTATIONS – I was 100% wrong on the Winnipeg Jets folding up the tent and wanting to head home to the US. Their late regular season nosedive hasn’t continued in the playoffs as they won the first two games of their series with Edmonton. Connor Hellebuyck is the biggest reason but I have to also give full marks to Paul Maurice for an adjustment he made prior to the third period of game three in which he decided to play Adam Lowry’s line against Connor McDavid instead of Mark Scheifele’s line. It seemed to me that McDavid had difficulty with the physical play of Lowry but also with the keep-away ability of Mason Appleton, who doesn’t easily give up the puck once he has it and it resulted in McDavid spending too much of his ice time in the defensive zone for the third period of game three and most of the entirety of game four.  

5 – HOW TO FIX OILERS – I don’t know where to begin. They’ve got two of the top five players in the league in McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. After that, I’m not sure how many more of their forwards even belong in the league. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, surely, won’t be re-signed nor should he be if he wants the same or more money than what he’s making now. I don’t know if the Oilers can retool without dealing one of McDavid or Draisaitl. Somehow Pittsburgh made it work with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and they’ve even found creative ways to always add to their roster at trade deadline time.  Yet, the Oilers are stuck with a dog’s breakfast of a roster to some degree. Drafting plays a part. If you compare them to Winnipeg, the Jets have managed to carve out solid roles for guys like Appleton and Andrew Copp as well as Tucker Poolman and then goalie Connor Hellebuyck wasn’t exactly a high pick either. Edmonton is, pretty much, batting .000 on all picks aside from their no brainer first rounders. If you are looking for a depth pick who has panned out…Ethan Bear would be the best. John Marino would be next but he’s playing with…you guessed it…Pittsburgh.  

6 – LTIR – There are some crying foul over the Tampa Bay Lightning activating Nikita Kucherov for the playoffs after he sat out the regular season due to a hip injury. There’s not as much whining but Toronto did the same thing with goalie Freddie Andersen, keeping him on the sidelines a little bit longer than necessary so they too could circumvent the salary cap. Here’s the thing when it comes to both teams and both players:  they had serious injuries. It’s not like the Lightning and Leafs could have used them and just opted not to.  Perhaps both players could have got into the final week or so but there are those out there who want you to believe Kucherov just took a 4 month break from hockey and came back for the playoffs. It’s nonsense. Players aren’t paid their salary in the playoffs so the salary cap should not apply to the postseason and if a team wants to win and take advantage of that extra cap space when a player is on long term injured reserve, then I say good for them. Look at it this way – keeping players as good as Kucherov and Andersen out of the lineup could very easily have gone the other way and cost both the Lightning and Leafs spots in the standings too.  

7 – REAL CIRCUMVENTING – Rather than complain about what the Lightning are doing with Kucherov, I’d like to see more focus on things like Marian Hossa being allergic to his equipment or Joffrey Lupul having whatever it was the Leafs said was wrong with him that Lupul, himself, seemed to contradict in a social media post one time. Then there is the matter of Chris Pronger going into the Hall of Fame before he officially retired. Actually, Hossa is in too now that I think of it. There’s also the situation with Pavel Datsyuk, who had to retire from the NHL because of a bad back five years ago but he’s been okay enough to play in the KHL.  

8 – MERCEDES LARUSSA – Impressive Chicago White Sox rookie Yermin Mercedes, who actually wouldn’t even be in the Majors if it weren’t for long term injuries to Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert, was criticized by his own Manager last week when he drove a 3-0 pitch into the bleachers for a homer in the ninth inning of a 16-4 win over the hapless Minnesota Twins. LaRussa felt with the score being what it was and the game being in the ninth inning, you don’t show up a team by crushing a 3-0 cookie. However, the Twins had catcher/infielder Willians Astudillo in at pitcher and were treating the game as a joke anyway. If you are going to bring in someone to pitch who doesn’t really know how to do it, then you are free game to watch 3-0 batting practice type pitches go into the stratosphere. So, I’m going to agree with Mercedes and not LaRussa on this one. The Twins have enough bad pitchers on the team that need to work through their struggles, they didn’t need to bring in Astudillo.

9 – OTA NO SHOWS – Aaron Rodgers failed to appear for Green Bay over the weekend as his dispute with the team continues. If he’s traded, and there is no indication at the moment he will be, don’t look for it to happen until after June 1. Denver is the front runner. Meanwhile, Deshaun Watson also no-showed for the Houston Texans and is also demanding a trade. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Watson is accused of sexual misconduct by over 20 women but a deposition on the matter won’t come until after the upcoming season. Ah, the wheels of justice in the legal system slowly turn when people with money want them to. Even still, who is going to want to give up significant players and/or draft picks for what may end up being just one season of Watson in what is surely to be a distraction anyway?

10 – TEBOW SIGNS – Sorry but comparing Jacksonville signing Tim Tebow to the rest of the NFL not signing Colin Kaepernick is an apples/oranges comparison. Tebow signed for peanuts as far as NFL money is concerned while Kaepernick did get offers but it was, generally, accepted he wouldn’t sign for less than $20-million a year. That’s a fact lost on most as there were places Kaep could have gone had he been willing to bet on himself for a year. You also have to look at the positions. Like it or not, Tebow at tight end doesn’t have the same influence as Kaepernick at quarterback. If Tebow was still hanging on to quarterbacking a team, there is less than a 0% chance he signs anywhere for any amount of money. When teams look at quarterback, they want a man who isn’t divisive and shows an ability to bring unity in addition to being a good player. Neither Tebow nor Kaepernick have those qualities as far as an NFL signal caller is concerned and while that may be unfair to both of them because they are, probably, both good people, it’s also the truth. It’s, precisely, the reason why Ryan Fitzpatrick is still in the league and I, believe, it’s also why Damon Allen was able to play in the CFL for as long as he did.  Good leaders who are as close as you can get to being universally respected by your peers.

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