Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – EDMONTON ATTENDANCE – The announced crowd of just over 14,000 for Edmonton’s CFL game on Thursday against Montreal should be alarming.  The announced crowd is one thing.  Actual people in the seats are another and social media is saying less than 10,000 were there.  You can see ownership is dipping their toe into whether or not bringing back the Eskimos will make any difference as there really isn’t much reference to the Elks anymore other than in name. A lot of the other things that the Eskimos did during games are either back or coming back.  Most people believe the name change and going ‘woke’ has been what’s done them in.  I believe it was this singular comment from their former Board Chair:  “Our demographics are brutal.  They’re disproportionately old, male, and white, which isn’t representative of our community.”  That simple statement alienated a lot of people who have long memories.  As far as the name change goes, don’t worry about the media and other far left radicals who just want to cause trouble.  Sit down with indigenous organizations, seek their permission, and if they are willing to give blessing on the name—Use it.  If not, then you can’t.  It doesn’t get any more simple than that and those are the only opinions that matter.  

3 – LEAGUE WIDE ATTENDANCE – Fan attendance in Calgary on Saturday was even worse, but it’s easy to give the Stamps’ fans a pass as the city endured torrential downpour of rain and heavy wind.  It was so bad even watching on television, you couldn’t really make out what was going on as the camera lens had water on it.  Regardless, I am left wondering if the in-game crowds league-wide are as low as they’ve ever been in the history of the league.  If so, could this mean the entire CFL is in trouble?  Not if every team subscribes to the philosophy that the Roughriders go by, which is to say they aren’t reliant on bums in the seats.  The team is expected to announce a hefty profit later this week despite diminished crowds.  I wrote in this column a couple weeks ago about fans who want to see a regime change but that has to be the furthest thing from the minds of those on the Board when you can still make a couple million dollars a year with about ten thousand less fans per game than what was the norm ten years ago.

4 – FOOTBALL SOUVENIRS – A short video clip made the rounds on social media yesterday over a confrontation between a fan and what looked to be a police officer over whether or not a fan could keep a CFL game ball that had been kicked into the crowd.  League rules forbid fans from keeping these balls and the reason for that is because of the technology that is in the ball which is then used for all sorts of advanced metrics and statistics (which doesn’t work half the time but that’s not the point).  The CFL doesn’t want to lose these balls so they will attempt to retrieve one that ends up in the stands at all costs.  It’s a bad look but the CFL does say it will replace the ball with a non-game ball in order to make peace with the fan who wants to keep the souvenir.

5 – OILERS McDAVID – The Edmonton Oilers are at a crossroads with superstar Connor McDavid, who gave fairly standard and neutral answers about his future in Edmonton during his season ending press conference earlier this week.  If McDavid is in no hurry to sign a new deal (current one ends after next season), the Oilers are left with either trading him now and maximizing the return, trading him at the deadline if they don’t feel they are Stanley Cup contenders, or allowing him to leave for nothing next Summer.  To me, there is an opportunity to make a Gretzky like trade and set the team up for an even better chance to win the Cup without McDavid but it would take some guts.  The Oilers can absolutely win a Cup if they built a team around Leon Draisaitl and then used a McDavid trade return package to improve overall depth up front and add a bonafide goaltender.  One team that would surely make a play for McDavid would be the Rangers and I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect a return of Alex Lafreniere, Will Cuyle, and Gabe Perreault.  Something like this would keep the Oilers a contender as well as setting them up for the future quite nicely.

6 – McDAVID TO AMERICAN TEAM – A lot of Canadian hockey fans would be fairly ticked if McDavid were to be traded to an American team and then went on to win a Cup, especially if it’s in a tax friendly state like Florida, Texas, or North Carolina.  It’s amazing to me that Canadians feel a solution to this problem isn’t to lobby to pay less but rather force the more citizen friendly states to be more authoritarian.  There’s a certain percentage of people who, no matter what happens, believe that governments can do no wrong regardless of how much money they turn over to political tyrants without seeing one iota of positive change.  I don’t think there is a single one of us that would work for free for our boss from January 1-June 8 every year but that’s exactly what all of us are doing in the form of turning over our wages to the government and hardly anyone seems to care. 

7 – JETS ADD TOEWS – It sounds like Jonathan Toews is returning to the NHL after a two-year hiatus due to illness.  Toews is 37 and carries a high pedigree from being the captain of three Stanley Cup champion teams.  However, he hasn’t scored more than 18 goals a season since 2019 and while this looks like a nice story, Toews shouldn’t be counted on to be much more than a solid fourth line centre who can offer some leadership in the dressing room.  The bigger need for Winnipeg will be filling the void left by the impending departure of Nikolaj Ehlers through free agency.  Dallas traded Mason Marchment to Seattle this week and he would have been a good fit for the Jets, but Marchment had a modified no-trade list and I’m sure Winnipeg was on it despite Marchment being a Canadian.  Footnote – Washington State doesn’t tax income, much like Texas, but it’s seldom publicized as being a similar friendly state for workers.

8 – JETS FREE AGENT TARGETS – The Jets (and probably all Canadian teams for that matter) will be forced to overpay the leftovers on the free agent market so it remains to be seen who they may target to fill the Ehlers void but if I was a betting man (and I’m not), I’m going to suggest a slight overpay on Mikael Granlund as a possibility.  Granlund is a centre and Ehlers is a winger but depth down the middle is problematic for the Jets and Granlund could fill that 2C role but they’ll, likely, have to approach north of $6-million a season to get him.  I’m not sure if the Jets are interested, but Jack Roslovic could be someone they may want to reunite with who’s unlikely to attract much interest from other teams.  A sneaky get would be Tanner Jeannot, who got overpaid on his last contract but that doesn’t change the fact he brings an element that so few do in today’s hockey world.  My true expectation is that the Jets pretend free agency isn’t a thing and they just graduate players like Brad Lambert and, possibly, even Braden Yager to the NHL roster next season.

9 – RATTLERS SEASON WASTE CONTINUES – The Saskatchewan Rattlers lost 88-86 to the equally low Brampton Honey Badgers on Friday night and now it’s fair to question if they will win another game this season as they fall to 2-and-8 and have fourteen games left to play.  The other teams who struggled out of the gate have made marked improvements, especially Winnipeg who added former Rattler stud Jalen Harris and former Surge forward Simi Shittu has also been a major impact addition.  The Sea Bears actually defeated top ranked Vancouver on Friday.  Bryson Williams, who was a key recruit for the Rattlers last year, has joined the Honey Badgers while Edmonton has also taken some steps to improve, namely adding Chris Smith in recent days.  The Stingers, this week, released Devonte Bandoo and the Rattlers, promptly, signed him.  Bandoo was a real good Rattler for three years but he’s been hampered by injury which has sapped his effectiveness.  With the Rattlers, seemingly, already out of the playoff picture before the halfway point and, quite clearly the worst team in the league, it’s fair to question their long term survival.  Fans aren’t going to come out just to watch them lose all the time and it’s been a lot of losing for most of six straight years and they are 3-and-20 in their last 23 overall.  Throw out the 11-and-9 mediocre 2022 season and they are 18-and-52 since winning the inaugural league championship in 2019.  It’s too bad because I feel like Saskatoon is a basketball market.

10 – TOP ATHLETES – Colin Cowherd did a Mount Justmore show on his show this week, which is defined as which athletes have been the most dominating in their sport.  It’s an interesting debate and Cowherd named several that I have a hard time arguing over:  Michael Phelps, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt, Serena Williams, and Shohei Ohtani. Cowherd recognizes he picked more than four but these are his top athletes and why it’s a Justmore over a Rushmore.  For me, I have to have Michael Jordan and Novak Djokovic in there as well and there are maybe some others that could be considered but those are definitely the top names.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)