STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – RUSH RECAPS – The much maligned goaltending had, perhaps, its best showing of the season on Saturday night in a 9-6 Rush victory over Rochester.  The Rush stormed out to an early 5-0 lead and then the offense sputtered for the second half but Eric Penney was solid, outstanding even during a 5-on-3 Knighthawks powerplay in the third quarter.  Penney finished with 38-saves, which works out to a save percentage of just over 86%.  I’m told that in the NLL, you want your goalie to be at around 80%, which is a figure both Penney and Adam Shute have consistently failed to hit this season, including on Thursday when the offensively challenged Calgary Roughnecks put up a season high goal count in a 14-12 win.  In that game, Penney made 32-saves for a SPCT of just over 69%.  I actually figured it would be Shute in goal Saturday but full marks to Jeff McComb for sticking with Penney, who even looked much more confident than he has at any point since joining the team a month ago.  On Saturday, Ryan Keenan turned in his best performance of the year with a 5-goal game and Chris Corbeil provided exciting fisticuffs.  I love this sport and, in particular, this league.  It’s everything and more that I want as a fan.  Speed, offense, excellent pace of play, intensity, hard hits, and fights.  With an 18-game schedule, there is a sense of urgency to every game.

2 – SHOTS ON GOAL – Mathematically, the Rush are still alive for a playoff spot but they are going to need a bit of a miracle at this point to get in.  At 4-and-9, the Rush are a couple of games behind Albany (6-and-8) and Vancouver (5-and-7) with five games to go.  The Rush would need to be better than both of those clubs to make it.  Meanwhile, the Rush outshot Rochester 53-44 on Saturday night and it marked the 11th time in 13 games that the Rush have had the upper hand in shots on goal.  Shots don’t tell the whole story but if they had won even half of those games, they are sitting in the final playoff spot today.  Blaming the goaltending would be a bit unfair as well.  The offense has gone to sleep at key times and the fourth quarter, in particular, has been an issue.  The Rush had just one goal in the fourth on Saturday, one on Thursday against Calgary, and none against San Diego last week in blowing a 9-4 lead and they’ve been outscored 10-2 in the fourth quarter over the last three games combined. 

3 – CONFUSION – February 1st, there was a story on the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the local media where President/CEO Craig Reynolds proclaimed that ‘the arrow is pointing up’ for the team.  “The 2021 campaign was by all accounts a successful season and financially, the Riders, we’re seeing that.  Areas of our business have bounced back quite nicely.”  Fast forward to March 1st and we learn the Riders lost $7.5-million in 2020-21 and are also projecting multi-million dollar losses for 2021-22.  “Rider Nation has been there to lift us up through so many difficult times, and right now we need another boost,” said Reynolds.  “There is a lot of optimism in our future with the 2022 season and a stadium full of fans, but unfortunately it won’t be enough to make up our shortfall.”  With all due respect the stadium was not full.  There are several theories as to why and the focus needs to be on getting those fans back.

4 – TRADES – At first glance, the Chicago Blackhawks got a huge package for 23-year-old Brandon Hagel in the form of two 1st round picks as well as Taylor Raddysh and Boris Katchouk from Tampa.  The Hawks also surrender a couple of 4ths.  Hagel, himself, was a 6th rounder in 2016.  Let’s look at who was picked 20-30 in round one (which is where this traded pick will end up for Chicago next year) the year Hagel was drafted and you tell me if you’d rather have Hagel or a first rounder:  Dennis Cholowski, Julien Gauthier, German Rubtsov, Henrik Borgstrom, Max Jones, Riley Tufte, Tage Thompson, Brett Howden, Lucas Johansen, Trent Frederic, and Sam Steel.  Good luck to the Hawks finding a player better than Hagel.  Thompson is the best of those listed and he’s probably better than Hagel so the Hawks have a 10% chance of finding a Hagel equivalent.  

5 – OSAKA UPSET – Tennis player Naomi Osaka was heckled during her second round loss at the Indian Wells event last week and she asked to address the crowd afterwards to explain why it made her so upset.  Jason Whitlock, who used to be a mainstream sports personality but has moved into the realm of podcasts, opined the real news in all of this is not that she was heckled but rather we have established a society that celebrates weakness and victimhood.  He’s right. Try saying the ‘sticks and stones’ nursery rhyme to someone on the receiving end of hurtful words and see how that goes over.  My guess is that if you are under 30, you don’t even know what the ‘sticks and stones’ nursery rhyme even is.

6 – FREEMAN HURT FEELINGS – Newly minted Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman says he was blindsided and his feelings were hurt when the Atlanta Braves went out and traded for first baseman Matt Olson from Oakland, rather than wait for over-sensitive Freddie to make up his mind on a $160-million contract offer.  Olson is going into his age 28 season and hit .271 with 39 homers and 111 RBI last year.  Freeman will be 32 and hit .300 with 31 HR and 83RBI.  Olson signed for 8 years and $168-million.  Basically the Braves get a player who’s four years younger and he’s signed for 2 years beyond what Freeman would have signed for.  Their stats are nearly identical.  Remember Freddie also thought he was going to die because Covid had produced an overnight fever for him.  Luckily, he not only didn’t die, but he won the NL MVP in the shortened 2020 season.  The Braves won’t say it publicly but they got the better player, the younger player, the better contract, and the smarter human being.

7 – BLUE JAYS – Baseball is back and the Blue Jays are considered favorites to win the AL East.  Their player moves certainly indicate they are serious about winning but before we get too carried away, let’s remember they did lose Robbie Ray and Marcus Semien and those were two very important players that created huge holes.  Getting Kevin Gausman to replace Ray should result in a near saw-off in performance but the Semien vacancy isn’t as easily replaced.  Acquiring Matt Chapman from Oakland will help but I’d be a bit cautious on the Jays running away with things.  Still, I would agree they should win the division and their young core of Vladimir Guerrero and Bo Bichette should only improve on last year and that’s a scary thought for the rest of baseball.

8 – FOOTBALL QBs – Deshaun Watson has been traded to Cleveland and he should be an improvement over Baker Mayfield.  It won’t be a smooth transition as Watson still faces nearly two dozen unproven allegations of sexual misconduct in a civil suit.  Criminally, authorities have decided there isn’t enough evidence to prosecute.  However we live in a world now where the media treats allegations as a guilty verdict.  Where does Baker Mayfield end up? Indianapolis would appear to be the front runner.  Seattle has been mentioned too but it also sounds like the Seahawks are looking to reset some of their salary cap issues and will just stick with Drew Lock for one year.  Watson was also courted by Atlanta which could mean Matt Ryan is on his way out but my guess is that Ryan and the Falcons smooth out the differences and he stays.  The move I’m most eager to see play out is Mitch Trubisky to Pittsburgh.  Was Trubisky the victim of bad coaching in Chicago or is he a bust?  We are about to find out.

9 – SCOTT HALL – Kevin Nash says you can’t teach someone to be cool but Scott Hall made being a bad guy good.  I can remember watching AWA wrestling mid-week on TSN in the late 1980s when Hall broke in and became a tag partner with Curt Henning.  He had superstar written all over him and later in his career he basically founded the NWO which may be the single greatest such storyline in professional wrestling history.  Hulk Hogan says Hall ‘saved his career’ with the heel turn.  There’s a documentary that most die hard wrestling fans have watched that centres around Diamond Dallas Page helping Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts and Hall put their damaged lives back together.  In fact, DDP’s initial phone conversation with Hall was recorded for television and a desperate sounding Hall can be heard sobbing that he didn’t want to die.  I couldn’t help but think of that as Hall passed away from a series of heart attacks suffered due to complications from hip replacement surgery this week.  “Bad times don’t last, but bad guys do.”  Sadly, a lot of professional wrestlers have died prematurely but none of them have received the tributes Hall did this week and that should tell you all you need to know about the impact he had.

10 – SENIOR FINALS – The Drake Canucks and Meadow Lake Broncos are in the Senior A Hockey Provincial finals and, by all accounts, attendance has been jam packed and it’s not hard to see why.  The Canucks are led by former WHLer Terrell Draude and the roster is full of ex-SJHLers with a heavy flavour being former Humboldt Broncos.  Meadow Lake boasts local products and former NHLers DJ and Dwight King.  There’s heavy SJHL content on their roster too, in particular, one-time La Ronge players.  Drake is also in the Long Lake Hockey League final against Foam Lake.  The Canucks host game one on Tuesday.  It’s a best of five.  Despite heavy local interest in senior hockey, I still find this brand of entertainment to be big time underrated and it doesn’t get nearly the attention that it should from the media.

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