Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – NOTHING REALLY HAS CHANGED – A new name with new uniforms and a new localized focus on Saskatoon, and not so much on Saskatchewan, but it has been the same old results for that city’s CEBL team so far as they got blasted in their home opener Thursday morning and really weren’t ever in their first away game last night either in losing by twelve to the Winnipeg Sea Bears. The decision to play their season opening game at 10:30 in the morning was a curious one but I get it. They want to attract the youth and hope that it can carry over into new fans for the season but losing by 29 isn’t going to endear many. Further to that, there are reports of 2500 school kids attending the game and the total crowd was just over 2600. Playing at 10:30 in the morning, basically, killed any chance of having regular fans in the building.

2 – MAMBA LOSSES – Thursday morning, the Mamba lost, predominantly, because they were a turnover factory and on Saturday night they lost 108-97 in Winnipeg because defense was little more than a rumour to this group. Having said that, they can shoot and they may have the odd game where they entertain whoever shows up to watch but it appears as though it’s going to be another long summer for Saskatoon basketball fans. The Mamba have given up 100+ in both games with their bright spot on Saturday being the shooting of Tavian Dunn-Martin, who hit 6 three-pointers and ended up with 30 on the evening. Jamir Chaplin added 15 in limited minutes and they did shoot 49% from the field as a team which is a marked improvement from the tire fire of last year. The Mamba stay on the road and will play at Montreal Tuesday and Scarborough on Thursday.

3 – LEAFS – The Toronto Maple Leafs bid farewell to Craig Berube because he’s too tough on superstars Auston Matthews and Willy ‘Styles’ Nylander but he may be exactly what the Edmonton Oilers need in a head coach. Wouldn’t it be something if the Oilers hired him and then Berube took them to hockey’s promised land. Mitch Marner is enjoying a Conn Smythe-level playoff with Vegas in his first year away from Toronto and if he goes on to hoist a Cup followed by Berube one year later, that may be detrimental enough for the Leafs to just pack it in as a franchise.

4 – VEGAS – Meanwhile, Vegas has been fined and stripped of a second round draft pick after refusing to do media after their series clinching win against Anaheim. First of all, Kelly McCrimmon doesn’t like anyone to tell him what to do so it was just a matter of time before he ran afoul of the NHL office. Secondly, John Tortorella sure doesn’t mind working in media in-between coaching jobs so I find it hypocritical for him to shun them after a series win. But…society doesn’t really acknowledge hypocrisy so there’s that. On an unrelated note, this has been the worst NHL playoff season in recent memory because of their goofy format. Vegas, Colorado, and Carolina have ended up in the conference finals with barely a challenge and it would be a major stunner if we don’t see an Avs-Hurricanes final with the Avs walking to a Cup win.

5 – NHL RATINGS – The fining of Vegas for not doing media interviews, we are told, is a reflection on the booming popularity of the NHL in American markets and the league is sensitive to losing this surging momentum. The 2026 opening round drew an average of 1.2-million viewers south of the border and while that may seem like a lot, MLB playoffs drew 6.3-million and the 2025 UFL title game drew just over 1.1-million. Up here in Canada, where we are smarter than everyone else, we shun the UFL as a joke football league but it would appear as though it runs, essentially, on par with the NHL.

6 – CASSIDY SHELVED – The Golden Knights made headlines a couple of times this week as the team also blocked the Edmonton Oilers from talking to Bruce Cassidy about becoming their next head coach. Cassidy still has a year remaining on his contract with Vegas and even though he was fired they can dictate whether or not he gets a job for next season. It would appear as though they are going to stick it to him. Call the Knights ruthless all you want, but is there a team in the NHL that tries harder to win than they do? If Carter Hart keeps playing as well as he is and if the Knights win the Cup, nobody will care about the trouble he was in for two years. How many other teams are there that suffer from bad goaltending but didn’t want to touch Hart because of the optics? Answer – plenty of them and none of them are truly trying their damnedest to win or else they’d have sucked up the bad publicity and inked Hart as soon as he was cleared.

7 – ROUSEY V CARANO – The much anticipated MMA Netflix main event between Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano failed to live up to the hype as Rousey submitted the 45-year-old Carano just 17-seconds into their fight with an arm bar. It was Carano’s first appearance in the octagon since 2009 so the result shouldn’t have been a surprise. Four of the five main bouts ended in first round knockouts with only a bloodied and battered Nate Diaz making it through round two before the referee stopped the fight against Mike Perry because both of Diaz’s eyes were swollen shut. Heavyweight Francis Ngannou made short work of his opponent and if MVP/Netflix can convince Jon Jones to come out of retirement for a fight against Ngannou, that would make the build-up for Rousey vs. Carano look like child’s play.

8 – McGREGOR RETURNING – UFC staged Fight Night last night to compete with the Netflix special but the card wasn’t an interesting one. What was interesting was as Ngannou was making his way to the octagon, Dana White announced Conor McGregor’s return for UFC 329 on July 11th against Max Holloway. Speculation is already rampant this is, merely, a PR stunt and this fight will never actually happen. If it does, McGregor faces long odds against Holloway as he hasn’t competed in five years and hasn’t won a fight in 6 ½ years and has lost three of his last four overall. Still, he has tremendous drawing power and people are going to tune in.

9 – GUSHUE HEADS SOUTH – Canadian curling legend Brad Gushue has been named High Performance Director of USA Curling. If you go by what the mainstream media tells you, Gushue is taking a major risk here by relocating to a dangerous country where his safety could be in peril. Yes, I’m aware he will still move back and forth between countries but if the US is a dangerous place to visit, wouldn’t it be double dangerous to work there? Will Canadian curling fans turn on Gushue the way they have on Wayne Gretzky or is this merely another form of hypocrisy that will go unrecognized that I should pay no attention to? It’s too bad Canadian curling didn’t have a job for Gushue as I’m sure he’d much rather have that position and fork over 50% of his earnings to a government that provides him with free, stellar healthcare and clean air to breathe in a city with no crime, homelessness, or drug abuse.

10 – DIAZ ROOSTER FIGHTS – Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Edwin Diaz has been implicated in an illegal cockfighting ring and a further investigation by USA Today would indicate Diaz didn’t even try to hide it based on videos he posted on his Facebook page. Diaz is, currently, on the injured list because he’s a pitcher and most pitchers spend more time injured than they do actually pitching. It’ll be interesting to see if MLB does anything here. They couldn’t wait to get rid of Trevor Bauer (who also pitched for the Dodgers) when he ran into legal trouble (later found not guilty of anything criminal) but they’ve stayed silent so far on this disgusting accusation against Diaz. Oh right, there’s that hypocrisy that doesn’t exist again. By the way, the Dodgers spend a gazillion dollars on player salaries, are guys like Diaz and Bauer the best they can do as far as character qualities go? Let’s not forget Blake Snell, who once boasted he wouldn’t dream of a pay-cut in order to play during the Covid year. Snell is on the IL too because he’s….well…a pitcher. He also doesn’t want to play.

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