STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – KORY SHEETS – Grey Cup organizers were promoting CFL alumni and some new snazzy jackets on Twitter earlier this week and it sparked the attention of former Roughriders RB Kory Sheets, who openly Tweeted that he would like to be a part of Grey Cup festivities, or at the very least, get his hands on one of the jackets.  I Tweeted at him asking if he was not invited as it would only make sense to me that the top player of the 2013 Grey Cup champions be here if he wanted to be.  Sheets wasted no time getting back to me, saying he hasn’t heard from the organization at all.  I’m not sure who the Riders have planned to be here from 2013 but Sheets and Darian Durant should be at the top of any list.  

2 – LICKING NO BIG DEAL – I’m not advocating for Mitchell Miller to be allowed to play in the National Hockey League, but I do want to know what is the line for sins committed, what age is too young so that you can be forgiven, and is there ever a path back for people deemed unworthy because of choices made away from the sport?  When Brad Marchand expressed his moral outrage at Miller’s signing, we reached peak level hypocrisy.  Marchand has licked other players during games and before you say licking another player isn’t at all like what Miller did, I would suggest you try licking a coworker and then see if you have a job the next day.

3 – WHAT ABOUT HIDDEN CONCUSSION INFO? – The hypocrisy on this stuff is maddening yet it goes unrecognized.  NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman put the roadblocks up right away so that Miller wouldn’t be allowed into the league after the Bruins signed him, yet if you go back and look at some of Rick Westhead’s reporting a few years ago, it’s clear that people inside Bettman’s office kept medical reports a secret as far as revealing what they knew about concussions and their effect on players.  Concussions are a bit more serious than licking and bullying.  Concussions, as we’ve learned, can cause death.  Some NHL players have died prematurely and CTE has been a factor.  Yet, Bettman is morally outraged over Miller.  Okay then.

4 – ADULTS ABDICATE RESPONSIBILITY – Where in the hell were the adults in all of this?  Miller tormented another boy for years up until he was in grade eight.  Yet, no teacher ever put a stop to it.  You can bet some of them are still working and based on what we know from this situation, they are still enabling current and future bullies.  Kids should never treat each other the way Miller treated Isaiah Meyer-Crothers but, unfortunately, they do.  And, when they do, there are adults in place that should correct the behavior but this never happened here.  Seven long years.  How many teachers and how many bus drivers turned a blind eye?  How many other students and their parents turned blind eyes?  I’ve got nothing good to say about Miller but whoever these other people are that could have stopped this and didn’t, I have even less good to say about all of them.  

5 – HAZING – I don’t talk about this much, but players who have been involved in hazing and are willing to talk openly and honestly about it will tell you that those who are hazed often become the worst offenders later on.  The notion is that the next one is going to get it worse than I did.  I was never hazed, but I was bullied as a youngster.  When I got older, I became a bully myself.  And, I was way worse than my tormentors.  It’s 100% true and it’s why the onus is on the adults to ensure it doesn’t happen, and if it does, put a harsh stop to it immediately. 

6 – MORAL REGARD – Here’s the other thing about Miller: he was 14 and younger when he bullied Isaiah.  Shouldn’t there be some sort of protection for him based on his age?  United States is different than Canada, but Canadian teenagers who commit murder get their identities hidden. Again, I’m not trying to defend him but everyone writing stories or commenting on social media condemning him; I sure wish we could dig into each and every one of your lives and see if you did something that you maybe aren’t as sorry for as you should be and then remove you from work.  I can’t help but think of the Prime Minister who says he was sorry he dressed up in black face so many times he can’t recall the exact number, yet he gets a free pass because he was young (29) and appears to be sorry.  Sorry you are caught and sorry you did it aren’t the same and last I checked 29 is older than 14 but a hockey player is held to one standard, the Prime Minister of Canada I guess isn’t needed to be held in such a high moral regard.  After all, we have voted for him THREE times now.  Talk about upside down.

7 – EVANDER KANE – It was a scary incident involving Evander Kane on Wednesday night, but fortunately it appears as though he is going to be okay but isn’t expected to play again until March.  Speaking of players who may or may not be sorry for various sins committed but has gotten chance after chance after chance to keep his NHL career alive….

8 – NO WORLD CUP – The National Hockey League and the NHL Players Association have jointly announced there will be no World Cup of Hockey in 2024, citing the current environment is not feasible to hold the tournament.  It’s good to know the NHL has a political crystal ball.  I’m wondering if the time hasn’t come to just do away with international competition completely.  As governments move more and more towards a global citizen approach, much to the delight of the citizens of these countries (look no further than how everyone is voting), it really doesn’t make sense to continue to class people based on country anyway.  In all seriousness, the elephant in the room here is Russia.  We don’t want to have a World Cup with Russian hockey players involved but we can let them all play league games.  Very well.  

9 – WHEELER PULLED – The Philadelphia Phillies pay Zack Wheeler $25-million a year.  In a do or die game against Houston in the World Series he was removed after 5 ⅓ and 70 dominating pitches. Why was Wheeler taken out?  He’s not left handed.  Ahead 1-0, Wheeler was substituted for some guy named Jose Alvarado, who throws left.  Houston had Yordan Alvarez at the dish and Alvarez is a left handed hitter so all things being equal (which they never are, but don’t tell a baseball person that) the Phillies will get out of the inning unscathed.  Well, Alvarez actually crushes left handed pitching and Alvarado is no Wheeler so the predictable result of a 3-run homer ensued and the rest is history.  I don’t understand why you’d pay Wheeler $25-million if, at the first sign of trouble, you treat him like he’s Jerad Eickhoff.

10 – SITTLER/SALMING – As most readers know, I’m not a Leafs guy at all but watching the Borje Salming-Darryl Sittler personal connection that still exists all these years after both have long retired is something that gets you right in the feels and if it doesn’t, you have no soul.  Salming, who announced earlier this year that he’s been stricken with ALS, made a pledge to his good friend that he’d be in attendance for Hall of Fame weekend and Sittler said it came right down to the day before but Salming’s toughness won out yet again.  For all the criticism that has been leveled at hockey in recent months, it’s worth noting this sport has a strong history of bonding people from completely different backgrounds in a way no other sport can claim.

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