STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS
1 – OHL NO CHECKING – The Ontario Hockey League has been okayed by their provincial government to proceed on a return to play plan however body checking is banned. Why? Science of course. In Manitoba, the MJHL has been playing exhibition games for a couple of weeks in a normal way without issue. The National Hockey League returned and held an entire playoff season without a single case. In Russia, the KHL is going with partial crowds and no major crisis has been reported. Everything is fine. Then you have to look at all the football being played south of the border and cases aren’t erupting. Yet, Ontario’s science department has different information than the rest of the sports world. How interesting.
2 – OTHER SCIENCE – In Saskatchewan, unless the science has changed over the last couple of months, officials prefer if you wait 48 hours from the onset of Covid symptoms before you get a test as it could result in a higher number of false results. In Manitoba, their science says 24 hours. Because we are listening to the experts and following the science, it would be wrong to question this inconsistency between provinces.
3 – QMJHL COVID – There has been a situation in the QMJHL where 18 people from Blainville-Boisbriand have been announced as positive cases and 8 others from Sherbrooke. The two teams played each other twice last weekend. For me, this provides an opportunity to look into a number of things to see how or if things need to be improved. The other aspect that isn’t getting a lot of attention but appears to have some merit is that a small number of Covid infected people seem to have superspreading capabilities. I wonder if that’s the case here. I also wonder if playing two games against the same team wasn’t an aggravating factor as it maybe means prolonged exposure and I hope we learn more in the days ahead.
4 – NHL GOALIE SHUFFLE – Predicting the success or failure of NHL goaltenders is an imperfect science. Who would have predicted Jordan Binnington’s early playoff struggles or Anton Khudobin’s long term success? Connor Hellebuyck won the Vezina but wasn’t exactly on fire in the playoff series against the Flames. Nevertheless, I’m going to go out on a limb and say Calgary did well with the Jacob Markstrom signing, I’m hopeful Braden Holtby has something left in the tank for Vancouver but there are warning signs here, and Matt Murray should bring stability to Ottawa provided he can stay off the injury list.
5 – SJHL RETURN – Saskatchewan Hockey Association released a 65+ page return to play document this week but the SJHL doesn’t quite have the go-ahead from Public Health to begin the preseason. However, there are reasons to be optimistic we are days away from an official announcement (I realize I’ve been saying that for weeks, but I truly feel the finish line for allowing the league to start is near). The one message I want to give to fans is this: whether you agree with the rules set forth or not it’s important that you follow them. As many readers are aware, I’m an advocate of choice. In this case, if you don’t like the rules then don’t go to the games. In my life to this point I have been able to avoid the rules I don’t like by utilizing the other choices still available to me. In the event it’s something where there is no alternative I can either play by the rules or stay home.
6 – SJHL FANS – If you haven’t had a chance to read the Saskatchewan Hockey Association’s return to play document, there is a segment in there on facilities and it says rinks will be allowed 150 or 50% capacity in the event the arena has the ability to assign seats. There are some challenging aspects as far as determining social bubbles that can sit together and how to arrange the seating to accommodate and also maintain social distancing rules. I believe this is the major hold up for the SJHL because how you’d achieve this in Humboldt isn’t how you’d achieve it in Nipawin or Weyburn and so each centre has its own unique challenges.
7 – GLASNOW EARLY EXIT – As I’m watching game five of the ALDS between the Yankees and Rays, Tampa pitcher Tyler Glasnow was removed from the game after 2 1/3 innings because analyst Ron Darling says, “Glasnow was working on very short rest and is far too valuable to the Rays for them to risk pushing him further.” I’m wondering what it is they are saving him for. It’s the deciding game of a series to send your team to the ALCS but it’s not worth the risk?
8 – BRADY LOSES TRACK – Tampa Bay QB Tom Brady lost track of the number of downs during the Bucs’ last drive of the fourth quarter of their loss to the Chicago Bears on Thursday night. Twitter went wild over Brady’s mental mistake, which cost his team the game, and while this can be embarrassing the reality is that I think it happens a lot more than we think. How many times have you seen baseball players forget how many outs there are?
9 – COWBOYS FANS – Texas health expert Dr. Erin Carlson, an associate clincial professor in the college of Nursing and Health Innovation at the University of Texas-Arlington warned back on September 14th that the Cowboys welcoming over 20,000 fans will risk lives of community members. So far, Dallas has had two games and there have been no news reports of a disaster. That’s not to say there won’t be one down the road, but so far so good. You can bet if there were cases traced to a game the media would be all over it. So far, Kansas City has had 1 fan get the virus and it caused a dozen or so others to isolate.
10 – NBA SOCIAL JUSTICE – NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says some of the social justice messaging the league promoted during its bubble playoff in Orlando will not be used in the event of a 2021 season and that would include promoting Black Lives Matter in text on the court for all to see. Silver says, “I think some of the things that we’re doing this summer are unique, for example, the social justice messages on the jerseys, putting Black Lives Matter on the playing floor and my belief is that those are things unique to this moment in time. I think there’s also a recognition that even if we did some of those things all the time, there might be even a certain amount of fatigue around them and they wouldn’t draw the same sort of attention.” In what may or may not be a related fact, NBA television ratings are down upwards of 50%.
(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)
