Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – GAME 2 TONIGHT – The Bandits have long had the two most fearful offensive players in the league (Dhane Smith and Josh Byrne) but now they’ve moved Ian MacKay from Transition to Forward to give them three deadly players who can score and MacKay has been the most dangerous of them all in the playoffs with 13-goals in 4-games and that’s saying something when you have Byrne and Smith coming off identical 135-point regular seasons.  Goaltender Matt Vinc entered the series with a miniscule 5.33-GAA so the Rush beating him for 10 in Buffalo on Friday night is a major accomplishment.  Despite Buffalo appearing to have the edge in most categories, the Rush do have Austin Shanks as the NLL playoff scoring leader (4-13-9-22) and Jake Naso continues to dominate on faceoffs.  Goaltender Of The Year Frank Scigliano was, basically, as good as Vinc on Friday night and if he can match him tonight the Rush have a 50/50 shot at sending the series back for a decisive game three.  Regardless, the Rush are a young team and should be a force for the next few seasons no matter what happens this evening.

3 – SCHEIFELE – There isn’t much more I can add that hasn’t already been said about Mark Scheifele playing in last night’s series elimination game against Dallas despite learning his father had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away the night before suffice to say almost none of us would go to work after hearing such tragic news.  Even when the Jets were trying to sort out their dressing room and Paul Maurice had to walk away from coaching a dysfunctional group, I always got a sense Scheifele’s heart was in the right place and even four years after the fact I still think he got a raw deal on that suspension against Montreal in the playoffs when he tried to stop the Canadiens from scoring an empty net goal. I also think that affected his overall play greatly for a couple of years afterward.  Say what you will about ‘hockey culture’ and there are a lot of people lined up to take a run at it but the handshake line after the game last night was touching. Jamie Benn, who sucker punched Scheifele and should have been suspended in Game 5, spent almost 60 seconds consoling Scheifele when they met to shake hands and the Stars players, to a man, showed utmost respect as each one greeted Scheifele in the line.  

4 – SLASHING A REF – In 2017, Antoine Vermette got a 10-game suspension for slashing a referee. In 2025, Mason Marchment didn’t even get a minor penalty and the NHL head office says it’s because referees can use discretion. Why can a referee use discretion on what would, typically, be a very serious offense such as this and then they can’t use discretion on an offside where a five minute video review uncovers a millimetre of an infraction?  In the Vegas-Minnesota series, the entire series outcome was decided on an offside goal that took away a Wild goal with a minute left in the third period of game five that would have given the Wild a 3-2 series lead.  Nobody stopped trying on the play but the Knights found a technicality to get the call reversed.  Yet, the league is saying a slash on a referee isn’t really a slash if the referee didn’t think it was vicious enough?  Not much difference between Vermette and Marchment.  One gets 10 games, one gets completely ignored.  As much as I hated Scheifele sitting in the box for the winning goal last night, it was incredulous to hear the talking heads around the table during the intermission discuss whether or not it was something to ignore because Scheifele has had a rough day and no penalties had been called the entire game.  Did he haul him down and take away a potentially game deciding scoring chance?  Yes.  It’s a penalty or a penalty shot. Any discussion outside of that is silly.

5 – OVER-REGULATING – There comes a point where games can be over-regulated and I think we are there with the CFL as they have announced a discretionary rule on low hits.  The CFL has proven over and over again that if you give their on-field officials the opportunity to use their best judgment on flags, they will ruin games and that’s never been a good thing but it’s even worse when you have people on social media already questioning the legitimacy of some of the outcomes.  Less can be more and I would say hockey and football would do their sports a favor if they just removed some of the verbiage in their rulebooks.  

6 – PANTHERS OWNER SUSPENDED – The NHL has suspended Florida Panthers minority owner Doug Cifu indefinitely for responding to a Toronto Maple Leafs fan on X where he endorsed Jews and joked about Canada becoming the 51st State.  Apparently, calling for every Hamas rat to be eliminated is an endorsement of starving all Palestinians.  It’s hard for me to understand why a person can’t despise Hamas but also support Palestinian people. Starving innocent people is disgusting, and so is war. I don’t support the Jews for doing it, but I also am sickened by Hamas to let it happen. If they surrender, all of this is over. Most of us are so lost on world issues and I make a lot of people mad because I refuse to take sides and I wish more of us would recognize there is very little going on right now that is straight up black and white. Everything is muddied with shades of grey and people are just ignoring the bad when it’s part of ‘their team’.  The 51st State stuff is funny to me. It’s never happening, never has been a threat to happen, and never will be a threat to happen but Canadians are frightened to the point they re-elected Liberals based on the electorate’s confidence in them to deal with Trump while also allowing for every other problem and scandal that plagues this country to continue to fester. I mean who needs a budget for a country anyway and who cares if you are lied to about tariffs and why is it a big deal if the Liberals overwhelmingly win every single recount weeks after the election?  Meh. Trump! Trump!

7 – RATTLERS DISASTROUS OPENER – The Saskatchewan Rattlers were ranked 10th out of 10 teams in the CEBL Power Rankings before the first game of the year and they did nothing to suggest the prognosticators are wrong on that after their first game as they were obliterated 105-65 in their home opener by the Vancouver Bandits on Thursday. Granted, the Bandits are expected to contend for top spot but I believe this is a crucial year for the Rattlers as far as their long term survival in the CEBL is concerned and while the returns are extremely early, it’s possible they have put together their worst team yet.  They’ve made the playoffs only once in the last five years and finished last year 6-and-14 after beginning 5-and-2 and then watching their entire starting lineup bolt for other professional opportunities.  If you are counting, they’ve lost 13 of 14 dating back to mid last season.  

8 – I WAS A NO-SHOW – I almost went to Thursday’s game but I’m glad I didn’t.  Typically, I buy a 3-pack for the Rattlers and if I’m happy with the entertainment value I will buy more.  Last year when they got off to a good start, I used my three up right away and bought three more.  One went unused by the end of the season and one game I left at half time.  The onus is on this organization to make the games attractive.  I’ve got my three pack and there’s nothing I can do about it now, but I’m in no hurry to pony up the fuel and time to go watch them lose by 40.  I know Teddy Allen has baggage, but he’s unsigned.  Justin Wright-Foreman hasn’t played a pro game since last August.  Jalen Harris hasn’t played since early April and was, immensely, popular amongst the Rattlers fan base.  Tony Carr, who was the star of the team when the Rattlers were last competitive in 2022, hasn’t played in two seasons so maybe he’s retired but all of those guys are out there.  Another player who’s out there and still playing overseas is Nick Ward, a dominant power forward who played for Vancouver but there may not be room for him at this point.  Regardless, the Rattlers need to find someone who’s worth the price of admission even if they aren’t going to compete for a title.

9 – LONDON SEX ASSAULT CASE – Don’t get me wrong, I believe everyone deserves their day in court but something doesn’t feel right to me when an alleged victim has to be subjected to a week of cross examination from five high priced lawyers, all of which, are asking the same questions over and over again in a skillful way, designed to get the alleged victim to trip up on her words and catch her in a ‘lie’.  In this case where five former NHLers are accused of sexual assault, there has been a lot of ‘suggesting’ by defense lawyers on what the intent of the woman was and there has been testimony the players were there for food although nobody seems to have produced an actual text message as such only that Michael McLeod was inviting players over for a ‘threeway’.  I still come back to the fact McLeod was on a Mississauga team in 2014 where there’s an accusation a lot like this one that’s being investigated. I come back to Taylor Raddysh saying to Boris Katchouk, “Let’s get out of here.”  I come back to the fact there were 13 different players named that were in that room (maybe not all at the same time) and I think who wouldn’t feel intimidated and consider the best option would be to just ‘go along with it’?  And, I also think if she was the one taunting them to have sex with her, the players should have had the decency to just kick her out. I’m all for wild sex amongst consenting adults but maybe you should do it with people you know and trust. I also feel the testimony from several players stating the interest in her was minimal doesn’t match the admitted acts that the players say was consensual. The group chat that was created to ensure everyone was on the same page with their story is also suspicious but because we are talking ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, I don’t think the players will be found guilty and if Rashee Rice can still play football then why can’t these five players resume their NHL careers?

10 – NO SOUL – In light of the Saskatchewan Rush’s overall season success and their surprising nosedive in attendance in the playoffs, I feel it’s maybe worth sharing the point of view of someone I share messages with over the state of our country from time to time. He summed it up better than any way I’ve been able to articulate it and I think it would apply to the struggles of the Roughriders when it comes to fan attendance too as well as overall camaraderie. “The biggest reason why Christmas, birthdays, sports events, etc. don’t feel the same anymore is because the soulfulness is gone. There was never a healing from the atrocities committed, no accountability was ever even pursued and people never got a debrief or resolution from the government or anyone else. No one got to heal, no one got an apology and nobody has ever been called out for wrongdoings. It’s like having a long time best friend that double crosses you. They don’t apologize and don’t even try but one day they just start talking to you again like they did before acting like nothing ever happened. How would that make you feel? So now we live in a society where many harbour pieces of vengeance, hate, distrust, denial, ignorance, etc. and it’s probably going to go on forever.” I know I think of a couple people who, frequently, comment anonymously on my weekly blogs and even though the world seems to be unfolding perfectly for them they still aren’t happy. I know some other people who harbour these negative feelings and an apology would go a long way to allowing them to heal.  So why can’t we just do that and move on? 

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