STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – HOCKEY FUNDING – The announcement on Friday that the Saskatchewan Government is providing $4-million in funding to help keep junior hockey afloat in this province is great news as far as the business side of these teams is concerned. For the SJHL, it works out to, approximately, $83-thousand per team while in the WHL, it’s $600,000 per team. I won’t proclaim to know the yearly budgets of major junior clubs but Junior ‘A’ ones will, typically, go between $600,000-$750,000 a year. What their budgets are for this season would only be a wild guess so I’m not going to make one. Nevertheless, any amount of money is welcome but it should also be noted that the SJHL did play earlier this season without issue and followed the rules to a T. So this damage inflicted upon them has been entirely the government’s fault and without evidence behind it.

2 – MONEY HAS ITS LIMITS – While the money is great to keep these junior hockey businesses alive into the future, this money does absolutely nothing to salvage the damage being done to current players. In Yorkton, I think of Keenan and Kaeden Taphorn. Two young men who were robbed of their 19-year-old years last spring and who were supposed to be leaders on this year’s Terrier squad but are, essentially, seeing their last two competitive seasons go up in smoke and their dreams stolen from them by a government determined to appease those few in society who are politically correct. Keenan and Kaeden come from a really good family. Their parents are excellent people and if two young men can land on their feet after all of this, it’s these two. But there are a lot who won’t. Life/intangible skills learned, applied, and excelled through team sports are qualities not taught in the education system (which is also broken but that’s a story for another day) but they are invaluable in various other careers that aren’t necessarily sports.  

3 – OVERALL HANDLING – I saw a Twitter video from Friday night of Cole Sillinger scoring a goal in Sioux City (USHL) and there were plenty of fans in attendance. Sure, you can say South Dakota has a lot of cases, more people have died from the virus, and they haven’t handled the virus as well as other places. But, I bet they don’t have the societal wreckage amongst those who don’t have the virus like we have. I bet their older people in long term care homes aren’t dying from loneliness either. I also bet when you look at the number of people who died that weren’t supposed to (excess deaths), there will be almost no difference between South Dakota and Saskatchewan. For interest sake, I went to the Star-Phoenix website on Friday and counted 10 obituaries. That’s just Saskatoon and area. It doesn’t take into account anywhere else in the province, yet we wring our hands over 2 Covid fatalities, which may or may not even be Covid.

4 – RELEASES – I don’t know if it’s too late now or not but I heard of numerous situations where WHL players sought their release from Hockey Canada so they could continue their hockey dreams in the United States, where they’ve found ways to play the game in a safe manner. Yet, these releases were refused and development continues to be stunted. I understand the need to protect your business but at some point, you have to let them go. I hate hearing stories from kids who were offered a chance to play but couldn’t because of the red tape up here. 

5 – SENIOR HOCKEY – Governments have to draw a line when they hand out money, I totally understand that but the Saskatchewan Party would not have become the government had it not been for rural communities. A lot of these small towns have senior hockey teams and their futures are very much in jeopardy. In Theodore, they are already announcing they are finished with the year regardless of what happens in the weeks ahead. It’s too bad the government has forgotten where the roots of this Party started and they’ve left them out in the cold. It’s hard enough for these small towns to stay viable when you take away their schools, hospitals, etc. In many cases, their senior hockey teams is what puts them on the map. I’ve never been to Redvers or Leroy or Drake, but I can tell you a fair bit about their senior hockey teams and I could find them on a map blindfolded.

6 – OTHER BUSINESSES – It was also pointed out to me yesterday that in a few of these junior hockey situations, the businesses are privately owned. What makes them more entitled to money than other privately owned businesses that have been, needlessly, destroyed because of government orders? I can’t answer that.  Add it to the very long list of things that are unfair and inconsistent. In particular, I think of SIGA and more specifically, the Painted Hand Casino in Yorkton. There wasn’t one single case of the virus come from there, yet they are locked up tight and with that millions upon millions of dollars that help our economy are just flushed down the toilet. And for what? They followed the rules successfully and were rewarded with closure notices backed up with no evidence whatsoever that their demise is somehow saving lives.

7 – THANKFUL – I won’t proclaim to know what’s inside the heads of our politicians and medical ‘experts’ in Saskatchewan, but an answer from the Manitoba Premier and his top health ‘expert’ yesterday may shed a bit of light on the fact they are not on the same planet as the rest of us when it comes to this. Both Brent Roussin and Brian Pallister were asked about the mental distress inflicted on people and Roussin gave a long answer and pointed out all the medical health options for people who are suffering, but he didn’t acknowledge the fact that he, himself, is adding to the strain on the system by destroying society with his unscientific orders. I guess it’s okay to strain the system, just not with Covid. Pallister was even worse when he told mental health sufferers that it should be ‘hard to feel depressed when you are thankful’. He has not a foggy clue what he’s done to people that has caused them to lose everything. After all, he gets to quit as Premier in the near future and head off to his second home in Costa Rica and enjoy retirement. Funny how wealthy politicians become when their career is politics. Really makes you wonder.

8 – CLUB SPORTS – A great many people and organizations have used the virus to angle their pre-virus agendas. To that end, I would say one good thing that could come of this would be to alleviate extra-curricular sports from teachers, seeing as how they don’t want to do it anyway (if you listen to their union).  Look at the formula for hockey, which works extremely well. You have Midget AAA (sorry to be non politically correct and call it by its old name), and Junior in a club situation with post-secondary opportunities based on how they play with their ‘clubs’ within the league. I think it would be better for overall athlete development if we did the same thing with soccer, basketball, football, and volleyball. Let’s have a league like the SJHL where players report to various communities and are put in billet homes for the season.  Football already has this with the CJFL, but I think there is plenty of room to grow. There is no reason why Brandon, in particular, couldn’t be added to the existing league and there is some evidence to suggest Yorkton could support a team as well as a couple of other Alberta cities. If soccer, basketball, and volleyball were run more like hockey with full-time programs I think it would benefit everyone a lot better. It also would allow for these athletes to play their sports for a couple more years after high school. If you can do it in hockey, why can’t you do it in other sports?

9 – EARLY NHL TAKES – I am in a keeper fantasy hockey league and I have a less than 0% chance of doing well in it this year as two of my off-season keepers are down for the year (Kirby Dach, Jonathan Toews). I focused my draft strategy on youth and hoping to hit major breakthroughs on a couple of them to help me for 2021-22.  To that end, I liked what I saw from Nick Suzuki on opening night. I have had him pegged as a guy who could jump into point per game status after watching him in the playoffs. Chicago is my pick to be the worst team in the league. I’m not even sure they’ll have much competition for that dubious honour.  Pittsburgh, I know it’s just two games, is my pick to be the biggest disappointment of the year. As far as Stanley Cup goes, I think Philadelphia has a good a chance as they’ve ever had and they finally have a goalie.  Colorado would be my other choice. The Canadian division is going to be great, but whoever comes out of it will be exhausted when we reach the semis.

10 – CHESTERMERE ICE – In Chestermere, just outside of Calgary, city officials have poured sand on the outdoor pond hockey rinks so kids can’t skate on them. But they are not doing it because they feel our youth are going to pass away from playing hockey. They are doing it because they are saying the ice isn’t thick enough and they don’t want young people falling through. I think we can all be forgiven if we think this reason is a crock of dandelions. One daily adult user says, “I’m a little mad. I don’t see how this ice is hurting anyone. It’s 18 inches thick in December and January and not a lot of water flow. To say it’s dangerous…”.  This is what governments have done to themselves. They’ve lied so much over the last year that nobody in their right mind would believe them even if they are telling the truth and I’m also of the mindset this could be a situation where they are saying it’s due to ice thickness safety and not Covid, simply to avoid the backlash.

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