Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – RUSH GAMES LEFT – The Rush have home dates remaining against Colorado and Toronto to end the season.  All three teams are sitting at five losses, along with Georgia so the Rush, who have held down top spot almost all year, are in danger of dropping down to the middle of the pack.  Hopefully they didn’t peak too early.  Meanwhile, the Bandits have won five straight and are now 9-and-6 after some predicted their demise but it now looks like they are in the mix for a fourth straight championship. 

3 – McDAVID SCRUTINY – It’s been well over a week since Connor McDavid referred to the Pacific Division as ‘a pillow fight’, but he’s still taking flak for it and people wonder why players don’t want to play in Canadian markets.  McDavid was also criticized for heaping praise on his Olympic coach, Jon Cooper, after Tampa took the Oilers to school the other night.  McDavid remarked as to how organized and prepared they were and then they also have the benefit of a top goalie.  Rather than ask him to clarify what he meant, the local media just ran with it and framed it as McDavid trashing his own team.  But, yeah Edmonton is a great place to play.  

4 – FULL RINKS IN RURAL SASK – Senior hockey was busy crowning league champions this week across the province.  Langenburg won the Saskeast Hockey League title on Friday night with nearly 750 jammed into the arena.  Meanwhile, Raymore had upwards of 800 for their Provincial ‘A’ final game against Lumsden and I’m told the 50/50 reached nearly $11,000 in money collected.  You are doing yourself a disservice if you are a sports fan and don’t pay much attention to the senior ranks.  It’s tremendous hockey and the barns are full at playoff time all over rural Saskatchewan.

5 – NO MORE TRANSGENDER – I guess the IOC would rather not have another Games where men beat the living tar out of women so they have, essentially, banned transgender females from participating in any more Olympic events.  It’s an acknowledgement that the outrageous boxing that took place last year was an awful stain on sports and society.  Former NHLer Marc Methot took to X and threatened to release names of media people (as well as other pro athletes) who supported men breaking women’s noses for sport but opted not to, saying all these people know who they are.  I would say ‘yes’ they do but that doesn’t mean anything.  All of them will just pretend they never supported it.

6 – ABS & BOHM – Major League Baseball is back and the biggest news is a toss up between the new Automated Ball-Strike challenge system and the fact that Philadelphia Phillie infielder Alec Bohm is suing his parents.  In the case of ABS, we are quickly seeing who the bad umpires are.  CB Bucknor had 8 calls challenged in the Boston-Cincinnati game on Saturday with 6 of them resulting in overturned decisions.  Meanwhile, the Bohm story is fascinating.  Apparently, Bohm’s parents have been managing his finances and when Bohm asked for some documents in January of this year, he was hit with a $50 an hour invoice.  Thanks Mom.  Meanwhile, the bulk of the allegations stem from Mom and Dad funneling their son’s money into limited liability companies so they could use the funds themselves. Sad when you can’t trust the people you shouldn’t have to even wonder about whether you can trust them or not.

7 – KODIAKS MISSING $$$ – The Prince George Kodiaks junior football team held an AGM earlier this week in the wake of the unpopular firing of coach and former Rider Jamie Boreham.  It would seem there are hundreds of thousands of dollars missing and the President, Regina product Craig Briere, has abandoned ship.  If you go through the posts on social media, there may be upwards of $1.2-million missing. Officially, they are well over $400,000 in the hole.  I had my own interests in the team back in 2023 when Briere doubled as the Defensive Co-ordinator, which I found odd seeing as how he’s also the head coach’s boss.  Needless to say, I’m not surprised to see any of this unfold after witnessing what I did for the year I was exposed to the team’s operations.  It’s also worth noting Briere had two sons on the team (I’m not saying either of them weren’t good players but they sure enjoyed very prominent positions and playing time on a team that got worse by the end of the year compared to the start).  The BCFC has warned the Kodiaks may go into non-playing status for the upcoming season and I don’t know how they avoid that at this point with no money and a shortage of players.  It’s too bad the local folks didn’t take an interest into what was happening in 2023, but the pitchforks are definitely out now, particularly for Briere while support for Boreham remains high.

8 – UFL WEEK ONE – This was week one of the UFL season and former Chicago Bears practice roster QB Austin Reed turned some heads by setting a single game league record with 376 yards passing.  He also connected for three majors in a Dallas Renegades 36-17 win over the Houston Gamblers.  Reed got the nod to start over Luis Perez, who had started the previous 25 games.  Attendance wasn’t great, to say the least as just 8800 were on hand to see Reed’s performance but one has to wonder what the UFL is going for here as far as bums in the seats as their stadium is only equipped for 11,000 anyway so maybe 8800 isn’t bad.

9 – BAD NEWS INTO THE HALL – Professional wrestler Bad News Brown/Allen is going into the 2026 WWE Hall of Fame.  Known as Bad News Allen in Stampede Wrestling, I look back at his career and I can’t help but think he was Stone Cold Steve Austin before there was such a thing as Stone Cold Steve Austin.  For the most part, throughout his career, Brown/Allen was a lone wolf who took on both the baby face and the heel.  He was no Austin on the mic, but he was no slouch either.  He seemed to have an affection for Calgary as he lived there in retirement and was working as a mall security officer in Airdrie.  He died of a heart attack in 2007 at the age of 63.

10 – TIGER UNDER INFLUENCE – Tiger Woods was arrested and booked for DUI this weekend after he was involved in a one vehicle rollover.  I get that everyone is entitled to a trial but Woods’ mugshot isn’t going to win him any benefit of the doubt.  Who would have thought Tiger Woods would be ahead of John Daly in DUI offenses 2-0?  On a serious note, the fall of Woods may be the most spectacular collapse of any professional athlete in my lifetime.

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