STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS
1 – HOCKEY CANCELLED FOR NOW – This is where I’d usually offer my thoughts on the government orders, but I feel like if you really want to enact some form of change it needs to come from people with real skin in the game. I could be wrong, but I feel like your lives are being controlled by politicians and social justice warriors who will never darken the doors of a hockey arena and don’t care in the least if a puck drops in any rink ever again. Nor can they or want to relate to those this is affecting. I love the game, but I don’t have any family members currently involved in it. A lot of you, however, do. You are going to, eventually, be forced to speak out and stick up for yourselves or this is never going to end.
2 – TROUBLE MAKERS FOR MOOSE JAW HOCKEY – Moose Jaw Minor Hockey announced they were going to soldier on during the added restrictions announced by the provincial government. A number of triggered people who won’t go anywhere near a hockey rink freaked out and it caused some short-term grief for the hockey association but all they were trying to say is that they’ll move forward and continue with training sessions set forth within the guidelines rather than shut their season down until more clearance is given.
3 – BUTTING IN – It’s incredible how people butt their noses into business they have no interest in being a part of whatsoever and then we allow them to dictate the rules with which the participants and those with vested interest will follow. Why is it so important to appease these people? If you look at hockey enrollment, registration numbers don’t appear to be down so parents clearly feel it’s safe or maybe thousands and thousands of parents have suddenly decided they don’t love their kids as much as they love hockey? If you look at the junior hockey ranks, not a single player/family that I’m aware of has opted out of playing due to safety or health concerns. There has been no shortage of billets and some teams have told me they have more billets than other years stepping up because people want to help. They aren’t scared. No coaches have opted out. No trainers have opted out. The busses are still going with no shortage of drivers. Referees and linesmen are in good supply. I believe all games were sold out with 150 attending. If that many people think it’s safe and aren’t worried about dying, infecting their grandmothers, or suffering long term effects….then what is it we are doing?
4 – CANADA PRO SPORTS FUTURE – I don’t think it’s a bright one to be honest. The Toronto Raptors are headed to Tampa Bay for the upcoming season and I don’t know that they’ll ever be back at Air Canada Centre. It will all come down to dollars and cents, but if the economic value of having them in Tampa ends up being similar to what it is in Canada, why would you want to deal with the hassle of the border and the Canadian government if you don’t have to? The same holds true for the MLB Blue Jays although let’s not kid ourselves; Buffalo isn’t a viable market for them. What happens with the Jays remains to be seen, but if they end up in a city that shows strong support what reasons would there be to bring them back to Toronto and all the federal red tape, not to mention they appear now to have an unsuitable home and there’s talk of demolishing it?
5 – ANOTHER HURDLE – Another big obstacle for the Raptors and Blue Jays is the speed at which Canada comes out of the pandemic compared to the United States. In the US, vaccinations are going to start in a couple of weeks and while it remains to be seen how quickly that country decides it’s going to go back to normal, the messaging in Canada is quite clear. A vaccine will not allow social distancing measures to be eased and you will still have to wear a mask everywhere you go even if that’s not the case anywhere else on the planet. The vaccine is a layer, just like hand sanitizer. That’s it. The pandemic isn’t over until we hit 0. While recent vaccine announcements give reason for optimism in a lot of countries, Canada isn’t one of them as there does not appear to be a structure in place to administer the vaccine nor is there a concrete plan as to when vaccine doses end up in our country. It wouldn’t be surprising to see ‘normal’ in the United States with Canada still under various forms of lockdown and not a single needle given. Hopefully I’m wrong, but if you can look past the Liberal corruption, what you are left with are a bunch of politicians in positions they are grossly unqualified to be holding. Like Trudeau or not, the man isn’t known for a strong work ethic and doesn’t have experience in anything really and yet he’s in charge of leading us out of the worst time of our lives?
6 – NHL CANADA – Because the National Hockey League has seven Canadian teams, I think the situation with the NHL in Canada is a bit different and also most of the television money is from Rogers, which is Canadian, so I feel like teams here are safe for now. But economies in Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa aren’t great even in a pre-Covid world so what will it be like post-Covid? Can they support NHL hockey? If Canada is part of a great reset that Trudeau has talked about, it will be a tall order for people to afford tickets.
7 – SPRING – To say I’m ‘disappointed’ would be somewhat of an understatement but why isn’t there more of a push from some of our sports organizers/leaders to play? If there truly is a light at the end of the virus tunnel as far as a vaccine goes, why isn’t university or junior football trying to find an avenue to a Spring season so that those who would have graduated in 2020 can play out their careers? 2021 could still happen on a regular calendar. I could make the same argument for university basketball and even, potentially, hockey. To me, it would be a shame if we reach March and we find ourselves in a situation where we could salvage some of our lost seasons and our sports leaders just don’t have us ready to go. I’d much rather plan to play and cancel if needed as opposed to just throwing up our hands and giving up.
8 – WARRANT FOR MARTINEZ – St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez is in hot water and it’s expected he will be facing charges and the Cards acknowledged they too are looking into ‘gathering details’ where it’s alleged Martinez rode a motorcycle with a passenger through a crowd on a seaside street in the Dominican Republic. The way governments are punishing those who defy virus restriction orders, we may never see Martinez again for committing this egregious offense.
9 – NFL CLOSURES – The NFL is closing all team facilities on Monday and Tuesday next week in response to reports many players and staff celebrated Thanksgiving with ‘out of town guests’. The ban doesn’t affect the teams playing on those two days. I’ve felt all along that a significant number of professional athletes haven’t taken the virus all that seriously right from the get go and the Thanksgiving parties tend to back that assertion up. Perhaps the bigger debate should be centered around are they justified in brushing off the seriousness of the Covid 19?
10 – NBA SPOTLIGHT – The NBA is on track to open its season on December 22nd and they may be the only week night game on television for the foreseeable future. Time is running out for the NHL to begin January 1st. Even if they solved their labour tiff this weekend, players are going to need to travel across international borders and isolate for two weeks, so that means no training of any kind until December 15th or so. For the teams that didn’t get invited into the summer bubble, they’ve been off the ice since March 10thish. They are going to need more than 2 weeks before the start of the regular season. The World Juniors are now facing hurdles too as Canada is in a 2-week pause due to an outbreak of cases. Are the other countries already here or how is that working as far as their isolation requirements are concerned?
(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)
