STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – JUNIORS AXED – Unfortunately, my belief that the World Juniors wouldn’t reach a conclusion was realized after just two days of games.  Some blame the IIHF, some blame a wedding that took place in a hotel that housed the players, some blame the Alberta government for its quarantine rules, and some blame a virus that spreads regardless of human behaviour or restrictions put in place by our overlords.  My suggestion is one that would never be considered in a million years – let them play regardless of whether or not they are positive and don’t even worry about testing anybody unless there is a situation where an individual presents himself as truly sick.  If vaccines work at preventing serious illness, then there is nobody at risk.  These are physically fit teenagers who aren’t at risk even if they are not vaccinated and yet they have that extra layer of protection.  I’m just not sure who was kept safe, at the end of the day, by doing this.  

2 – DIFFERENT RULES LAST YEAR – Remember when Germany was forced to play Canada last year with 9 players on the Covid list?  This year’s event was called off with less than 9 on the Covid list tournament wide.  Makes you wonder if they scrapped the World Juniors as a means to relax some of the criticism received for cancelling next month’s U18 Women’s event.

3 – RUSSIANS – You know we’ve gone full-on crazy when the focus of why the Russian junior players were kicked off the airplane that left Calgary on the weekend was because they weren’t wearing a mask.  They were also smoking.  Hello.  Smoking!  Coaches too!  We freak out over healthy people who don’t wear a mask, yet we’d also freak out if a Covid positive person was out and about with a mask on.  That, alone, tells you about the true confidence in masks.  But, again, they were smoking!  Also, they were kicked off one plane and, I would assume, put on another.  What’s the difference?  Was the other plane a ‘rule free’ one?

4 – LOST MONEY FOR TSN – TSN lost their shirt in advertising revenue over having the World Juniors cancelled and I hate to see people lose their jobs but in the event Bell decides to do another round of cutting (they usually do this after their mental health day in late January) and it costs some of the pro-lockdown broadcasters their position, I won’t be summoning a lot of sympathy.  These people have spent the majority of the last two years advocating for stoppages and closures without realizing that they need sports to move forward in order to remain gainfully employed.  There’s a reason why TSN doesn’t have a panel of experts analyzing dodgeball.  They don’t need one and, eventually, they won’t need (to the same extent) one for hockey either if things don’t soon turn around.

5 – NHL ROLLS OVER – The longer the NHL goes without mounting a defense for having games with fans in Canada, the more apathetic I become over the whole thing. My assumption is Canadian teams with no fans is a revenue killer for a league that sets salaries for players based on said revenue.  So either stick up for yourself or don’t whine when salaries go down.  NHL Second-In-Command Bill Daly said the league isn’t likely to postpone any more Canadian games because they are out of time on the schedule to fit them in down the road.

6 – CURLING EVENTS – The Grand Slam of Curling event that was planned for January 12th week in Camrose has also gone by the wayside.  It’s not sports related, but Dierks Bentley has cancelled their Canadian tour and Joe Rogan has already said he’s not coming to Vancouver despite a sold out show in April.  You have to wonder if the World Juniors were being held in North Dakota if they’d still be going on and would the curling be cancelled if it was going to be held in Wisconsin.  It’s a bad look for Canada with regards to hosting major events. My guess is, for now, we don’t care and when the time comes to care it will be too late and we won’t understand the hesitancy of organizers and promoters.  Meanwhile, I just learned the men’s and women’s provincials in Alberta will, in fact, be played in Grande Prairie next week.  Go figure.

7 – RUSH PLAYING? – I was disappointed that the National Lacrosse League chose to take a baseball bat to its own knees this past week and cancelled their full lot of games ‘out of an abundance of caution’.  So far, only the NBA and NFL are taking the position of ‘The Show Must Go On’.  It will be interesting to see what the NLL does in centres where fans aren’t allowed to be in attendance.  Ontario is at 0 and I’m not sure they should even be playing based on their most recent set of rules.  The same would be true in Halifax but not only do the rules not make sense but you can’t even figure out what they are anymore. Plus each province has different science.  For now, the Rush would be the only Canadian team not impacted by health orders aside from the vax pass and masks (which have been in place for months).  

8 – BAKER MAYFIELD – The Cleveland Browns, its media, and their fans are just about finished chasing Baker Mayfield out of the organization.  Mayfield is set to undergo shoulder surgery this week after trying to play through a serious injury, which clearly didn’t go well.  I’m not saying Mayfield is elite but he would be a very capable quarterback for the right team.  It’ll be interesting to see who the Browns decide they can get who’s better.  I’m going to suggest the team he played Monday night as a potential landing spot for Baker.  Washington would also be an interesting fit.

9 – ANTONIO BROWN – Sorry if this comes off insensitive but that was the funniest ‘retirement’ ceremony I’ve ever seen from a professional athlete.  The reality is that Brown had way too many chances and, hopefully, he’s burned his last one and we never see him on an NFL football field again.  There are players much more deserving.  I’ve seen the many comments about him being mentally unstable and in need of help (do you think?) as well as speculation that a dirty hit by Vontaze Berfict a number of years ago may have scrambled things upstairs.  I think it’s very easy to blame anything that isn’t normal behaviour from a football player on CTE so I won’t go there until it’s proven.  I just think what we have here is a very selfish and self-centred human being.  

10 – MEDICAL SCHOOL – Nadia Popovici isn’t a name most sports fans will recognize, but she is a hero after it was revealed what she did while seated behind the Vancouver Canucks players’ bench during a game in Seattle earlier this season.  Nadia is a medical school student and she noticed a mole on the back of Canuck Trainer Brian Hamilton’s neck.  She managed to get his attention and crafted a message on her cell phone to let him know in the event he wanted to get it checked out.  Originally, Brian brushed it off but then thought he should get it looked at just in case and turns out it was, in fact, cancerous.  Not knowing who this woman was, Brian used the Canucks Twitter account to get the word out that she, possibly, saved his life and within a couple hours Nadia was identified and by the end of the day, both the Kraken and the Canucks contributed $10,000 in education money to her.  Herein lies the ‘good’ power of social media.  I don’t think this campaign on a local radio station finds Nadia, certainly not as quick.  Meanwhile, in case you weren’t aware – this is what being a good person, truly, looks like.

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