STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – BABCOCK – A stunning revelation on Saturday morning was that Mike Babcock is set to become Head Coach of the Saskatchewan Huskies, assuming Canada allows university hockey to return at some point in the next few years. Huskie Athletics confirmed the hire later in the day. People in love with Mitch Marner don’t like Babcock, but the reality is that Babs loves the game of hockey and loves the people who play it. Without fanfare or wanting anything in return, Babs helped the Humboldt Broncos run some camps shortly after the bus crash in 2018 and was actually upset when Rod reported Babcock was involved because he didn’t want attention. I, personally, had a few interactions with him when he coached in Spokane and he was one of the most pleasant of all WHL coaches I dealt with during that period of time.

2 – THE MARNER THING – Babs had to swallow hard and admit a mistake when he did ‘an exercise’ with Marner and had him list the players based on hardest worker to least hardest worker. But the reality is that these guys are pros and up until a couple of years ago, hurting the feelings of millionaires wasn’t a consideration when trying to win. My guess is that both Marner and Tyler Bozak were having some difficulty on work ethic and so Babcock wanted to see if Marner recognized who was working hard and then he wanted to show Bozak further evidence of the coach’s criticism by producing the list made by the rookie. It does create animosity within the room, though, and for that Babcock was wrong but I don’t think anything else was wrong at all. Perhaps what he should have done was bring Bozak into a meeting with Marner and the three of them could have hashed out poor work habits and maybe both leave the meeting better off for it.

3 – OTHER BABCOCK SINS – We only know one side of the story, but Babcock did sit Mike Modano in the final week of his last regular season and that prevented him from reaching 1500 career games. Babs is also not on the Christmas list for Johan Franzen or Mike Commodore. Conflicts with players happen. I don’t think you will find a coach anywhere at any level who has a perfect record of players liking him. In the case of Commodore, I often felt the guy was lucky to have played when he did as he was very fringe. Overall, I’m thrilled to see Babs back in Saskatchewan. He will, hopefully, bring a much needed spotlight to Canadian university hockey and my guess is that he will have no problem whatsoever recruiting. 

4 – AJHL RETURN TO PLAY – It’s great they are getting a chance but the government is really doing its best to ensure they don’t do this successfully. First of all, no fans are allowed. Secondly, there are constant tests that need to be undertaken as we continue to search for the boogeyman. Thirdly, in the event that a player does get a positive test (not sick) then the entire team goes into isolation for 2 weeks and is prevented from participating. The season, itself, is only slated to be 12 weeks long. I’m just wondering what science the Alberta government used for this because it’s not how things go in any other line of work or even within families. I’ve been told, first hand, the general rule of thumb for someone identified as a close contact is to ‘monitor’ for symptoms. Since AJHL players are testing so frequently, why is it an automatic 2 week shutdown for entire teams?

5 – WHL BUBBLE – Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy the Manitoba and Saskatchewan WHL teams are going to be able to play and the boys are able to get in some development. However, has anyone put any real thought into the hardship of isolation over the course of 2 ½ months for 16-20 year-olds? The level of what they are being asked to do is beyond that of a youth correctional facility. Full marks to these kids for giving it their all in an effort to continue pursuing their dreams, but this is still cruelty in my books. And, don’t kid yourselves. The government isn’t going to make this easy for scouts to evaluate. It wouldn’t shock me to see media banned entirely and perhaps a limit on the number of cameras used (one?) to film the games.

6 – GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT – I think we’ve been through enough false hope on this. Sports organizations should all announce they are no longer negotiating health and safety with governments and are suspending all activity indefinitely. Point out in a professional way that we believe it’s already safe enough to play but are being blocked because of ideology and cowardice. Efforts should be switched to social media and mainstream media promotion via stories, videos, and evidence that show how other jurisdictions are letting these things get back to normal. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis posted photos of himself throwing out ceremonial pitches at Little League Baseball games. Nobody in masks, it looked normal. In Canada, our top doctor says unless we get even tighter on restrictions, the situation is going to be out of control like we’ve never seen before. Meanwhile, in North Dakota they’ve been without government ordered sanctions for over a month and active case numbers continue to drop. Science. Canada style. Follow it.

7 – IS USHL THE BEST OPTION? – 17-year-old Cole Sillinger had 10-goals and 9-assists in his first 13-games with the Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL and even though the WHL is about to play, Sillinger isn’t coming home. I don’t blame his family at all. The situation up here is so fragile and as much as I want to be optimistic, knowing how easily the government will just crush it all at a moment’s notice just isn’t worth risking it for them. In fact, playing hockey at ANY level in the United States right now is better than the best of levels up here and that’s not an indictment on our programs at the Major Junior or Junior ‘A’ level but rather a sad reality of how much control the government up here has over our aspiring professional athletes.  It’s infuriating because we have the best programs. Karter McNarland, who played last year for the Humboldt Broncos, is in Massachusetts with the South Shore Kings (I have no idea what level of hockey this is) and he should stay there. The USHL because of self-inflicted Canadian government measures, has the chance to become the preferred league for players in all of North America. 15-year-old Adam Fantilli of Ontario has 20-points in 26-games with Chicago. Fantilli is a first round draft pick of the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL. My guess is they never see him. Why would he ever leave? 17-year-old Dawson Pasternak of Winnipeg is also on the Steel’s USHL roster and having a good year.  He’s a Portland Winterhawk draft choice and he even signed with them in 2019. 

8 – PIRATED FEEDS – I’m not a subscriber to the NHL Centre Ice package, or whatever it’s called now.  However, I see a long stream of complaints from people who have paid good money for it only to discover there are a lot of blackouts. One way to chase people to underground video piracy is to restrict those who try to do things the right way. I know there are reasons for it, but it’s hard to tell that to someone who pays $100 a month in cable and has a dozen sports channels that they can’t watch 80% of the games on those channels or if you pay $200 for a service yet a good chunk of what you think you should be watching is unavailable .  All I will tell you is that I haven’t missed a game that I wanted to watch this season. Before you jump to conclusions, my favorite team is Winnipeg. There’s a life lesson here too. The more you tax the population, the more likely an underground economy is going to be. When it’s decided the government has their hand too far into our pockets and is stealing from us, it ends up being justified in many people’s minds to circumvent the rules and get a little bit back of what belongs to you anyway.

9 – CARSON WENTZ TO INDY – Wentz had his most success when Frank Reich was his Offensive Coordinator. Now Reich will be Wentz’s Head Coach. My guess is that this goes better than many expect. For whatever reason, the relationship between Wentz and former coach Doug Pederson was fractured beyond repair and that had to contribute somewhat to his poor performance. I would concede Wentz was also somewhat overrated prior to this past season. I think he plays, roughly, to the same level Philip Rivers did for the Colts and that will be plenty good enough to have them relevant.

10 – CURLING SCIENCE – I’m watching a bit of the Scotties and wondering why the actual participants aren’t wearing masks, yet the coaches and spares all wear masks. They also aren’t allowed to touch the other team’s rocks. Almost all of this now is political theatre and the sooner you realize that every single government in Canada is left wing, the sooner you will understand why we are doing what we are doing and why Florida’s Governor is doing what he’s doing. One last point on this – why do NHL players and managers sitting by themselves need to wear masks at the arena but the actual participants don’t? I thought wearing a mask during exercise didn’t impact your ability. Coaches are wearing the N95s now in an effort to stop the rampant spread of the virus that occurs on the players bench.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)