Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – ALL TRAGEDIES DESERVE OUR GRIEF – I just wonder when politicians race to make these performative statements, how much does it matter in the grand scheme of things?  Perhaps I’m just so damaged and jaded from the last five years but these expressions of grief come off as very inauthentic.  This was a high profile accident because of who was involved but if the politicians are ‘profoundly saddened’ or ‘deeply saddened’ over this, shouldn’t they jump on to Facebook or X whenever there is a fatal accident regardless of who was involved or is it just a situation where they need to make sure a statement is made because Rider fans are also voters and Bhishma’s family are voters too and heaven forbid we risk losing support from either of those blocks. I’m just being honest here, but I have momentary sadness for the families involved and I’m troubled that such an accident can happen but I feel that way about every single tragedy I hear about.  I’m not personally connected to either individual so I would say to suggest I am ‘profoundly saddened’ is a wild exaggeration.  There was also an accident on the Trans-Canada this week where three people died near Piapot.  I barely heard anything about it but those people’s lives aren’t any less important than Jayden Dalke or Bhishma Rajyaguru just because they maybe didn’t have a big public profile.  I saw no acknowledgements from politicians regarding the Piapot accident but I can tell you I have momentary sadness for the Pratt family, who lost three members this week and there is a teenager in the hospital with very serious injuries and a lifetime of mental trauma. I’m also bothered by how this accident is even possible, especially at 3:20 in the afternoon.

3 – REMEMBERING MCKNIGHT – The last time I can recall the Riders having one of their players die at a young age was when Joe McKnight was killed by 54-year-old Ronald Gasser during a road rage incident in 2016.  Gasser ended up being found guilty of manslaughter and served 8 years in jail, getting full release in late 2024.  McKnight ran for 150-yards in his first start with the Riders and played three games for the team and was set to be their starting RB for 2017 when he was gunned down.  

4 – WINNIPEG – Retired NHL agitator Matthew Barnaby has released his list of ‘worst NHL cities for visiting players’ and he put Winnipeg at number one.  I’m not sure if I’ve written about this before but I’ve certainly talked to people about it and the truth is that Winnipeg is a really nice city but has an image problem.  Every major city has their own Selkirk Avenue.  Winnipeg is extremely underrated for what it has to offer and aside from the fact it’s cold in the winter, nobody has ever really been able to explain to me what makes it less of a city than Calgary or Minneapolis or Detroit or Chicago.  Winnipeg could really use a Pat Fiacco as mayor.  Heck, Regina could use Pat Fiacco right about now, but that’s a topic for another day.  When NHL players come to Winnipeg (or any city for that matter) to play a game, how much of the city are they really experiencing to even have an opinion of what is a good city or a bad city?  

5 – TOO MUCH PRESSURE – Mitch Marner’s agent Darren Ferris rehashed his client’s tenure in Toronto this week and criticized the Leafs for ‘not protecting’ Marner and that played a major role in his leaving the team.  Ferris pointed out that Marner was also carjacked in Toronto (this is normal actually in Toronto and not special to Marner) and also received harmful threats on social media (also normal, as I too receive harmful threats and I’m nowhere near as prominent a person as Marner is).  Ferris also basically said Marner wanted out because the scrutiny was too much.  Who can blame him?  Marner also disappeared in the last three games of the Stanley Cup final against the Carolina Hurricanes last month and nobody has noticed.  If that was the Leafs in the final and he pulled that kind of a vanishing act, he’d have heard about it.

6 – MERCY RULE – Mookie Betts says when a baseball team decides to put a position player in to pitch, that’s when the game should be called off and the other team gets the win.  Using position players to pitch does make a mockery of the game and also subjects them to injury.  Jose Canseco once suffered an elbow injury that required Tommy John Surgery because he was brought in to pitch as a joke.  I think having a mercy rule or a forfeit rule is not the answer either.  The simple solution is to just ban position players from pitching.  Yes, I know Shohei Ohtani does both.  If you don’t otherwise take a regular turn as a starter or reliever, you should be deemed ineligible.

7 – MAMBA – The Saskatoon Mamba clinched a playoff spot for just the second time since they won the CEBL championship in the augural season of 2019 by winning back to back home games this week.  In each case, the victory was exciting with the Mamba trailing Edmonton on Tuesday by as many as 11 in the fourth quarter before rallying for the 96-94 win on the strength of a Devonte Bandoo three-pointer followed up by Trey Townsend making his free throws.  On Thursday, the Mamba blew a 15-point halftime lead and trailed by one going into Target Time but Damari Monsanto took over with back to back threes to restore the lead and Bandoo finished it off with a layup after a Jaden Bediako textbook block for a 98-92 win over Brampton. A home playoff game is unlikely but the fact they are even at this point is a huge step forward from where they’ve spent most of their CEBL tenure, which is in the basement.  

8 – TDM HUMAN INTEREST – The Mamba also have a nice human interest story with Tavian Dunn-Martin, who got to play in front of his mother for the first time in two years this week.  The Mamba posted a video piece on social media where TDM was doing an interview and his mom surprised him by walking up from behind.  Dunn-Martin scored 34-points in his first game with mom in the stands and she was able to also watch both home games this week that the team also won with Dunn-Martin playing a significant role in both games.  These are the types of stories we used to be a lot more familiar with but with diminished coverage of local sports through mainstream media channels, you almost never hear of this type of stuff anymore.

9 – SPORTSNET PRICE INCREASE – Despite chopping a bunch of radio stations and losing the rights to UFC come January, Sportsnet put out a release bragging about how they will continue to provide top notch sports content for its subscribers and because of that, they need to jack up your price $5 per month.  So if you are someone who pays streaming services instead of cable tv in order to consume content, you are looking at a hefty bill to watch NHL, Blue Jays (Sportsnet, Prime), CFL (DAZN, TSN), UFC (Paramount + beginning in January), NASCAR (Fubo), etc.  Sportsnet, by far, is the most expensive app with not nearly the same features or quality as similar streaming services but they don’t care.  They are capitalizing on people’s addiction to watching the NHL but I’m telling you if you are tired of these crooks taking advantage of you, keep your money in your pocket and wait for the highlights on YouTube.  Even if you have cable provider access to some of these streaming services, you can bet your cable bill will be on the rise in the near future too as Rogers also charges those companies to carry their content.  Eventually, there will be no escaping it.  You will pay through the nose or you won’t watch.  It’s also just a matter of time before Canada bans VPNs the way North Korea and Iraq have done.

10 – NHL FAN EXPERIENCE – Robert Munnich wrote a really good article for Flames Nation this week where he details how the NHL fan experience is declining.  Calgary, for example, has no TSN reporter, no Athletic reporter, and no radio station to cover their games.  I talked in this space a few weeks ago about the lack of sports content on local mainstream channels has greatly contributed to overall fan disinterest because the casual fan, often, has no idea there are even games being played in his/her community.  Munnich talks about a lot of subjects and he’s right on every single one.  From the lack of player accessibility, to pointing out Rogers has jacked up the price of Sportsnet + by $100 since 2024, to mentioning how expensive life is for young people who just don’t have the disposable income that they used to. Munnich wonders if there will be a breaking point with people who just get fed up with these billionaire corporations always putting their hand out wanting more and more money. 

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