STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – RATTLERS RATTLED – The Edmonton Stingers look like a good bet to repeat as CEBL champions and they took the Rattlers to school by the tune of a 101-58 score on Thursday night. It was my first chance to watch Xavier Moon and I was unimpressed through three quarters as the Stingers really didn’t need him.  But he dominated the fourth quarter with 19 of his game high 23 points. He’s a prolific scorer, no doubt.  Fun to watch. The big difference, aside from the obvious field goal shooting efficiency between the two teams, is depth. The Stingers had six players in double digits, including Adika Peter-McNeilly who was good on four of six from three-point land off the bench. Mathieu Kamba nailed five threes and the Stingers were 15-of-27 from long distance overall, whereas Saskatchewan was just 5-for-21. The Rattlers are 0-and-5 now but I don’t care. I’m looking forward to Monday and I hope there are a few thousand just like me.

2 – RATTLERS STATS – Mambi Diawara led the Rattlers with 21, Davonte Bandoo had 11, and the rest of the team went 8-for-35 from the field. Travis Daniels led Saskatchewan with 8 rebounds and Diawara’s 4 assists were also a team high. One player to watch for the rest of the season is first overall pick in the 2021 U Sports Draft, Nervens Demosthene. Demosthene will be counted on for some stability and production when the starters get a breather and that’s where the Rattlers have been most vulnerable from what I’ve seen. If Bandoo, Diawara, and Daniels are on the bench; it’s trouble. On Thursday, Demosthene scored 5 points and hit one of his two three point attempts.

3 – STINGERS BROADCAST – This is where the CEBL really needs to step things up if they want to be taken seriously as a pro league. While I wasn’t enthralled with the Rattlers production last Sunday, Edmonton’s wasn’t even as good as what came from the in-house team in Saskatoon. The video seemed dark and the quality not quite up to snuff.  I didn’t mind the announcers and the color commentator, Steve Sir (I think is who it was), was very solid.

4 – EDMONTON UNIFORMS – A broadcaster’s nightmare. A viewer’s nightmare. They are half navy, half white (I think) and the yellow number on the back is covered half in white and half in navy. Whomever designed these needs a whack up side of the head. Brutal.

5 – CFL/XFL – Talks of a partnership are, apparently, dead and I couldn’t be happier. I always viewed that chatter as a last ditch effort to save the CFL but things are looking more and more promising for the league in most Canadian provinces (Ontario is still being run by health tyrants and political cowards) and the league should be able to get back to pre-pandemic status as long as we aren’t locked up again because of some newly created variant that threatens to kill us all. That doesn’t mean things are rosy as far as the CFL is concerned.  They still need to do some things to build a better image for themselves but I won’t hold my breath on that happening.

6 – BOMBER GAMES – While it doesn’t appear as though the Saskatchewan Roughriders are going to do it, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are going to require proof of double vaccination status before admitting fans to their games. Manitoba is also issuing vaccine passports, while Saskatchewan has a business card that your nurse or pharmacist has written in pen the dates with which you got your shots. Are those cards going to be good enough if I was to go to Winnipeg and want to watch a game? Will I need to log-in to my eHealth account and produce vaccine evidence that way? Is my verbal word good enough proof? Has this already been clarified and I just missed it? Will there be two lines to get in to the stadium and once you clear the vaccine line, you get in the ticket line? It also sounds like, in an effort to control crowds better, fans will be told when their section is allowed to exit following the game. It will be interesting to see if we all follow the instructions or not should that be the case. Bathroom lines at halftime might be an event all to itself.  Call me intrigued.

7 – TARASENKO TRADE DEMAND – St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko wants a trade. That shouldn’t be hard. I’m sure there are all kinds of teams lined up to take an oft-injured 29-year-old pouter, who has played 34-games in the last two years. He’s slated to make $9.5-million next year and carries a cap hit of $7.5-million for each of the next two. 

8 – MACLEAN CRITICISM – I’ve made good on my promise to shut off the NHL for the season after the ridiculous series ruining suspension that was handed down to Mark Scheifele, but apparently Ron MacLean interviewed Gary Bettman the other night and the criticism on Twitter was strong because MacLean ignored the Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault story. First of all, you can bet MacLean (although he probably didn’t need to be) was warned that the subject was off limits. Second of all, what do you think Bettman is going to say that we already don’t know? It would be a waste of 30 seconds. For what it’s worth, there is some speculation in media circles that MacLean and Rogers are going to, mutually, part ways over the summer.  There is also some speculation James Duthie (TSN) could be his replacement but there is also a sentiment that Duthie could be headed to one of the American networks to anchor NHL broadcasts as well.

9 – PROBLEM WITH PARTNERSHIPS – Rogers pays the NHL a lot of money to broadcast games and the way those contracts work in all the professional sports leagues is that your broadcast partner won’t do anything to disparage the league or report on it in a fashion that could, potentially, decrease viewership. It has resulted in the NHL being very poorly covered in Canada from a true journalism perspective for many years now. I believe what has come to light from 2010 in Chicago would have been public a lot sooner if media outlets were allowed to employ independent arms that are able to investigate ‘real’ stories. Rick Westhead, of TSN, does a super job every now and again when he surfaces with an expose of sorts but those instances are few and far between. I also am guessing he wouldn’t be allowed to do what he does if TSN was partnering with the NHL the way Rogers is.

10 – SASKATOON SPORTS – I don’t live in Saskatoon, but if I did I can tell you that I would copy Rod’s website almost to a tee and focus only on the city of bridges. There seems to be a real void on local sports there and more than enough to keep someone busy. There’s the Rattlers, Rush, Huskies (all of the university sports actually), Hilltops, Blades, Swat, local athletes and sports figures who have gone on to the big time, and then I’m also told there’s a pretty competitive U18 baseball league and car racing is also quite popular. It wouldn’t surprise me if I’ve also missed something in the aforementioned list of teams. Could you make enough money through sponsorships and other various forms of advertising to make it a go? I’ll let you know if I get relocated.

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