Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – RIDERS WIN AT WINNIPEG – If there is a game the Riders are expected to lose, it’s usually the back end of the Labour Day home and home with Winnipeg.  But, for the first time since 2018, the Riders have won that game too and are now 10-and-2 overall.  It’s conceivable the Riders don’t lose again for the rest of the season.  I think their toughest game remaining is next week, at home, against Montreal.  With Calgary losing against Edmonton last night, the Riders are virtually guaranteed to finish first in the West and will host the division final.  The only real question is whether or not all remaining home games will be sellouts or not.  Historians can help me with this, but has there ever been a season where the Riders have dominated from opening week to the very end and enjoyed a season long crowning?

2 – BOMBERS NOT A CONTENDER – The window for Winnipeg is closed.  Even before the Zach Collaros injury, the Bombers looked like they were going to lose this game.  Without Collaros, the Bombers don’t even look like a playoff team.  Following the game, former Bomber Milt Stegall said that if Collaros was suffering from a concussion, he should not play again.  The Winnipeg radio announcers took issue saying Collaros hasn’t had a concussion for a long time.  He’s had a sequence of ‘neck’ injuries.  It’s conceivable Collaros left the game for the same reason Trevor Harris did a couple of weeks ago when he got pile drived into the turf:  leg cramps.  

3 – WINNIPEG RADIO – Speaking of Winnipeg radio announcers, I am not sure who those two guys are (I think one is former Bomber Doug Brown) but they are an insufferable combination of cry babies and butt kissers.  I totally get that they are supposed to be homers to a certain extent but there is a certain skill to that.  Jack Edwards (Boston Bruins) did it the best.  Hawk Harrelson (Chicago White Sox) was also great.  Long after the game was over, there was whining about the pass interference call near the end of the fourth, which Mike O’Shea said during his interview was a legit call.  There was whining about the hit on Collaros and said it should have been a 25-yard major even though O’Shea said it doesn’t meet the requirements for spearing.  In the interviews with O’Shea and the players, the announcers basically apologized for asking certain questions.  It was embarrassing.  

4 – HUSKIES FOOTBALL – I took in my first Saskatchewan Huskies football game on Friday night and I was stunned at the size of the crowd, nearly 10,000 for the Homecoming game in which the Huskies destroyed the UBC Thunderbirds 51-14 behind the air attack of Anton Amundrud.  Daniel Wiebe finished with 190-yards receiving and 2-touchdowns and looks like he could be a Weston Dressler type of CFL player down the road.  I’m told Huskies’ games will get in the range of 6000 fans per game aside from the Homecoming game and that’s nothing to sneeze at.  It’s still mind boggling to me how U-Sports doesn’t treat Canadian university athletics like a more professional entity or why Canadian media doesn’t pour more resources into it.  Basically, I have felt for a long time and still do that Canadian university sports are a secret.

5 – COMPARING FOOTBALL LEAGUES  – It’s week one of the NFL season and the usual smattering of social media comments from CFL fans proclaiming the Canadian version of pro football is superior to the American version are present.  You don’t have to look very hard to find them.  You can’t argue with people like this.  They are incapable of critical thought.  Here’s what I would say, though:  You can prefer the CFL over the NFL as a viewer and fan but to suggest it is somehow ‘better’ shows how ignorant you really are.  I liken it to the CEBL.  I watch a lot of games over the summer and really enjoy it.  I hardly watch any NBA.  I prefer the CEBL over the NBA by a wide margin but there is no way I would try to convince someone that the CEBL is a better product.  That’s insane.

6 – NFL SPITTING INCIDENT – Philadelphia Eagle defensive tackle Jalen Carter spit on Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott before the first play of the season on Thursday night.  I come from a perspective on spitting in so much that I would rather be sucker punched.  Spitting, to me, is the ultimate form of disrespect.  It’s why when Brad Marchand was licking people, I felt he should have received a 40 game suspension.  I recall when Roberto Alomar did it and got 5 games.  He should have received 80.  There have been other incidents involving spitting and saliva and the leniency shown is rather shocking to me.  For Carter to do this before the game even started tells me all I need to know about him and I don’t care about any apology.  I’d make him sit for a full year and, frankly, the Eagles should handle the matter in-house if they have real integrity as an organization and just release him outright. 

7 – McDAVID SIGNING – National Hockey League training camps are set to begin and chatter about Connor McDavid not yet signing an extension with Edmonton is starting to pick up.  Apparently, McDavid is still evaluating whether or not the Oilers are going to be a competitive team with a great chance to win the Stanley Cup.  The Oilers have been in the league finals in each of the last two years but that’s, apparently, not good enough for McDavid to rush into an extension.  Personally, I feel McDavid is using this as an excuse and he’s actually on the fence about whether or not he wants to live in Edmonton, the city, for the rest of his career.  Unless he joins the Florida Panthers, there is no other team closer to winning the last two seasons than the Oilers.  Furthermore, if he truly wants to give whatever team signs him the best chance to win, he will leave millions of dollars per season on the table so that whatever team he’s with has the capacity to better surround him with talent.  McDavid is the best player in the NHL today and he, ultimately, increases the chances of winning on whatever team he’s on.  Titles are not assured.  He knows this.  You, as Oiler fans, know this.  This isn’t about ‘winning’.  The Oilers have already proven to be a team that goes for it.

8 – OTHER BIG NAME FAs – There are other big names who could be free agents come June 30 next year but it sounds like it’s a foregone conclusion that Jack Eichel re-ups with the Vegas Golden Knights.  Kiril Kaprizov is close to re-signing with Minnesota, simply because the Wild’s owner has come out and said he will pay Kaprizov the max if it’s the only way they can keep him.  The real interesting one is Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor and I believe this may be similar to the McDavid situation.  You can hate me for saying this if you want, but Canadian markets are at a disadvantage when it comes to trying to sign players simply because of how much we’ve allowed our country to deteriorate.  I’ll leave it at that.

9 – DRYDEN PASSED AWAY – Goaltending legend Ken Dryden passed away earlier this week at the age of 78 after a battle with cancer.  Dryden was cut from a different cloth.  He played only eight seasons with Montreal and often only played home games because he was just as passionate about his law degree as he was a hockey career.  NHL teams would never let a player balance such a life today.  Despite his short career, Dryden is regarded as one of the best netminders to play the position.  I wasn’t a fan of his once he got into politics, but as I try and recall the Liberal version of Dryden I am reminded about what it used to be like to simply have a difference of opinion on how to achieve an end goal that is desired by just about everybody and that’s how politics used to be.  We all want the same finish line, we just disagree on the path to reach it.  Nowadays, it’s about the best way to leverage power and nobody is really served at all.

10 – UGLY FANS – There’s yet another video circulating on social media where a fan is acting like a total scum bag.  This one was from the Phillies-Marlins game on Friday where a home run was hit, a crowd of people scrambled to get the ball, and the man who came away with it took it back to his seat and gave it to his son.  A woman who was involved in the ‘fight for the ball’ took offense and marched over and demanded the ball get turned over to her.  The dad, not wanting a confrontation, reached into his boy’s bag and gave her the ball.  There’s a few things to unpack here, not the least of which is what I have talked about in recent columns where humanity has been exposed and we aren’t nice people.  I also can’t say for sure what I’d do in this situation because I wouldn’t want a confrontation with that battle axe either but if I just gave a home run ball to my young son, I wouldn’t be turning it over to some mouthy ‘lady’ demanding as such.  I, probably, would have just ignored her until she either goes away or security showed up.  Remember the one last week where a man stole a tennis player’s hat from a young kid?  The man has responded and said it’s an ‘every person for himself’ world even if it involves young kids looking for a souvenir.  You know what?  That selfish snob is right.  It is every person for himself, but that’s not something we should be, at all, proud of. 

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