STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – CLARK GILLIES – If I was about five years older and had I grown up in Saskatchewan instead of the Maritimes, there is no doubt that Clark Gillies would have been my favorite NHLer of all-time. As a child, my first Stanley Cup final that I can clearly remember was 1982 when the Isles swept Richard Brodeur and the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks had caught the imagination of the country and so I just, naturally, cheered for them at the time. Then as Gretzky became popular, I cheered for the Oilers so I was never a fan of the 1980s Islanders even though I look back and see that Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin, Billy Smith, Gillies, Brent Sutter, etc are all players I would have adored had I known better. I do recall thinking this bearded guy on the Islanders was super cool and then later in life as I became older and learned more about the game, Cam Neely and Rick Tocchet were the players I liked the most based on their style of play. Those that are old enough know that Gillies was Neely and Tocchet before Neely and Tocchet were Neely and Tocchet. I can only imagine what that was like for young kids in Saskatchewan to have an idol like Gillies to watch whenever he was on tv. Even though I never met the man, I watched his interviews with Rod and several other media outlets over the years and he had a natural charisma that only a few are gifted with. I couldn’t help but feel an extra bit of sadness on Friday night when I got the notification on my phone that he had passed away. Rest In Peace Mr. Gillies.

2 – GEOGRAPHIC IDENTITY – I do love the sense of pride most of us feel to our local communities when it comes to professional athletes. As a New Brunswicker, Matt Stairs (I’ve mentioned this a lot) was someone the entire province got behind once he started to make it big but I can recall following the every move of Mike Eagles as well. Eagles was born in the same town as me (Sussex NB) and in this small hockey world, he also played a year of junior in Melville for the SJHL Millionaires, which is 25 minutes away from where I currently live. Jake Allen’s dad was a teacher intern when I was in grade seven and taught me math so I have a soft spot for him too and always hope he excels. Jake’s dad, by the way, was a big time power hitter in senior baseball. My first real media job was in Cape Breton and the local hero of the day was Dennis Bonvie, a tough guy from Antigonish, who ended up playing 92 games and compiled 300-penalty minutes with five NHL teams. Al MacInnis was from nearby Inverness County (Port Hood) and once butted in front of me in a beer line at a summer festival (he won’t remember lol).  

3 – FAMOUS TOWNS – This summer I was fortunate to drive through much of Ontario a couple of times and got to see just where it was that other famous people grew up. I passed the exit to Timmins (Shania Twain) but my son (who’s 20) has never heard of her. Parry Sound (Bobby Orr) was a town I wish I had gone into. London, which is where Matthew played football this year, is home to the likes of Joe Thornton and Eric Lindros. Actually, Thornton grew up in nearby St. Thomas. In Ontario, St. Thomas is considered a small town (38 thousand people) and if you want to do anything, you drive to London. Hamilton’s junior football team played this year out of nearby Brantford and so I got to spend a day in that community and got to see how proud they are of the Gretzky family. Any fan of Gretzky should put this on their bucket list. I even drove by Wayne’s childhood home and then spent a few minutes in a parking lot at the nearby grocery store, which I’m sure is the exact place Walter once told me he would sometimes lose track of where he parked when shopping. That day Matthew and the London Beefeaters played their game at the Wayne Gretzky Sports Complex and while that may not mean much to some, I can’t believe I have a son who played at a facility named after the greatest Canadian athlete of all-time.  

4 – MEDIA EGO – Last week, a 72-year-old Edmonton sports writer asked Leon Draisaitl, “Why are you so pissy?”.  It was peak level disrespectful but the old man who posed the question gets a pass because he’s in the Hockey Hall Of Fame.   had a hard time believing this, but apparently grumpy old men like me can be mentioned in the same breath as Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux if you are a media person who is popular amongst your peers. What a pathetic state of affairs. I don’t understand what could make a writer the best at his position to the degree that he requires a place amongst the very elite of the sport. I’m not mentioning this old guy by name but I am openly asking what makes him a Hall Of Famer? Does he use more advanced language therefore creating a quality of work that far surpasses that of other writers? I see he also called Kailer Yamamoto a ‘smurf’. Real classy. The only media person I can think of that should be in the HHOF is Foster Hewitt for coining the phrase, “He shoots, he scores.”

5 – SHORT AS POSSIBLE – St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk was asked about his team’s upcoming road trip to Canada and he had a predictable answer. “No, I’m not looking forward to going to Canada one bit. But we will play some hockey games and get it over with and come back.” You can be offended and call Americans stupid (as I’ve heard Canadians do for as long as I’ve been alive) if you wish but I don’t think it will hurt their feelings at all. Sure they may have a bunch more Covid ‘cases’ than Canada but they are living their best life and I assure you the rest of their society is in much better condition than that of Canada.

6 – JETS WELCOME BACK FANS – The Winnipeg Jets are opening up to 250 fans!  Exciting. Meanwhile, the Waywayseecappo Wolverines are also open for 250 fans. How does this make sense? I posted this on Twitter and got quite a few likes from it so I can’t be the only person thinking this way: if vaccines and masks work, how come the Jets (and other Canadian teams) don’t have a full house? You can’t get in without proof of vaccination and you are required to wear a mask while watching the game (just in case the vaccine by itself isn’t working, we’ve added this layer of the mask too). Yet, the building is basically empty. If you want the unvaccinated to get their shots, act like there is a significant difference once you get it. But, as someone said to me last week, “I’m at my child’s indoor soccer game and I’m wearing the same mask as the vaccinated parent next to me.”

7 – DO THEY NEED FANS – I’m sure there is backroom lobbying going on by the Canadian NHL teams to admit fans but I’ve learned from watching two years of this that if you aren’t yelling and screaming for all to see and getting some form of support from the public, you are wasting your time. I’ve seen numbers bandied about that range from $1.4-million per game (Winnipeg) to $3-million per game (Toronto) in losses by playing without fans. Most Canadian teams are trying to postpone their games until later but the Leafs are moving forward and playing. Eventually, the rest of them will have no choice but to play to empty seats as well. It makes me wonder just how much money these NHL teams have. If they can go for most of two years without admitting fans, they have a lot more in the bank than what they’ve let on. I don’t know many businesses who can afford a lofty overhead in wages and expenses and still operate after two years without having any customers.

8 – RUSH MASKS – The Saskatchewan Rush had under 7000 fans at their last game and while I very much enjoyed the first game, the second one was less so even though the game itself was the best I’ve seen. There was a very motivated senior citizen security guard who went from section to section barking at fans not wearing their masks and then holding up a sign to tell them to get their face covering on. In most instances, fans were eating or drinking but it wasn’t easily in view for the mask-police officer.  It’s also distracting for people just trying to enjoy the game. I hope they find some other solution but it’s insane to think we have people walking around lecturing about masks at a Rush game when two days earlier I’m watching the Detroit Red Wings play to a full house with nobody wearing a mask. I understand different places will have different ways of doing things but you can’t even play an NLL game in Halifax right now, while the Rochester Knighthawks played a home game Friday night that required a vaccine passport but masks appeared to be, very much, optional. I don’t know what’s right but if you want people to pay money for entertainment, you should probably leave them alone to have a good time (within reason).

9 – MLB SAYS NO TO RAYS – There was some hope Montreal would get half a season of Major League Baseball and share the Rays with Tampa Bay. This week, MLB put the kibosh on that idea and it’s not hard to see why. Canada is closed for business. If you are a pro-restriction, pro-lockdown radical and still upset by this decision then I would suggest you have an extremely poor understanding of pretty much everything in life as far as what makes the world go around. I’ll leave it at that.  

10 – BASEBALL CHANGES – Speaking of baseball, I’ve been reading some media reports that automated strike zones are an inevitable reality in the near future. I recognize the current state of umpiring may not be the greatest, but I also view pitch framing and pitchers who figure out an umpire’s strike zone for the game and using that to their advantage as being part of the game itself. However, there is a consensus that living in this grey area isn’t where baseball wants to be. Pitching is a huge part of baseball enjoyment for me but an electronic strike zone may be where I have to draw the line. I’m already turned off with Openers, frequent pitching changes, and defensive shifts. It’s just not even close to being the game I grew up playing and watching. Now, they are in the midst of a work stoppage with no sense of urgency to solve their labour issues before the scheduled start of the regular season at the end of March. I’m not sure if they realize this or not, but baseball has been losing fans for years (likely since 1994’s work stoppage) and they aren’t going to get more by making these gimmick changes, succumbing to analytics, and engaging in stalemates between owners and players.

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