STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – FOUR LOSSES AND COUNTING – The Saskatchewan Rush lost yet again, this time 11-6 to the Calgary Roughnecks as they continue to watch their playoff chances melt away.  The first half was an embarrassing performance in which they trailed 6-2 as the offense was ice cold.  This was a game in which the Roughnecks tried hard to lose.  They took six straight penalties, including four in the third quarter, but the Rush scored only one time on the powerplay although they did manage to get the game to within one at 6-5.  Goaltender Alex Buque deserves some credit for keeping the Roughnecks off the scoreboard for about 30 minutes but then the floodgates opened in the fourth and Calgary scored 5 in a span of 2:46 and that was all she wrote.

2 – SLUMP MAY NOT END NEXT WEEKEND – The Rush are back home next weekend to continue their home and home set with the Roughnecks, but Saskatchewan has now lost six straight to their Alberta rivals and there is no indication at all of the streak ending.  With the Rush season quickly circling the drain, one has to wonder how the fans are going to react.  When the team was at the top of the league, SaskTel Centre was sold out.  Now, not so much.  Saskatoon isn’t well known for supporting run of the mill sports teams let alone ones in a tailspin.  It’s, perhaps, fair to say the team is now exhibiting signs of being in a situation where they aren’t only losing but it’s hard to figure out the plan.  You can say they need to rebuild but if they trade Robert Church and Mark Matthews, this group may never score.  Church was in on each of the team’s first four goals on Friday night.  With not a lot of depth on offense, they need more from the goaltending and they aren’t getting it.  It’s also no coincidence that Buque was near the top of the league when the Rush got off to their 4-and-2 start.  He’s struggled ever since and the Rush have just one win in their last six.

3 – DIAZ INJURY – We live in such stupid times and, unfortunately, some of the rest of my write-up this week is going to focus on that.  Let’s start with the Edwin Diaz injury at the World Baseball Classic.  Diaz suffered a season ending knee injury during the post-game celebration and it resulted in calls from media and fans to axe the entire tournament because it’s too dangerous for the players.  If you are that worried about the players, why not just cancel the entire baseball season and just start the year in late October with the World Series.  Make it a best of one between the Yankees and Dodgers, play three innings, and hope for the best as far as injuries go.  

4 – TOO CAREFUL – I hear this argument every time a player gets hurt.  Oh we need to stop doing what we are doing because it’s too dangerous.  Years ago, the Columbus Blue Jackets put an end to outdoor practices in front of the fans because their coach caught a rut and hurt himself.  That’s the end of that.  Yet, hockey players get hurt blocking shots every single night and there is no end to that.  In fact, players are sometimes benched for not putting their body on the line.  Isn’t that what you have a goaltender for?  Now, I’m off on a tangent, but one of the funnier comments you will hear in any hockey game is when a goalie gives up a stinker, the announcers will twist themselves into a pretzel defending the goalie and blaming other players for missed assignments or weak defense.  If the non-goalies were perfect and always did their job, you wouldn’t need a goalie.  Goalies are there for when players in front of them screw up.  

5 – BINNINGTON – While on the highway driving this week, I was listening to sports shows on satellite radio.  I couldn’t help but notice the amount of publicity Jordan Binnington was getting for his near goalie fight with Marc-Andre Fleury.  The overall interest was high although people weren’t necessarily agreeing with Binnington’s antics for various reasons, none of which were because people were offended.  What I did find intriguing was how a couple of analysts admired the goalie for trying to fire up his teammates or provide a spark.  On social media, Sportsnet really played up the Binnington Show and promoted it for clicks.  And that’s all fine, except for….

6 – FIGHTING IS BANNED – Also this week, the QMJHL announced an official and formal ban to fighting.  This has sparked a debate but just about everyone has failed to pick up on the fact fighting is, essentially, already banned in every league already.  The Q just made an announcement on it.  It was a nothing burger to me when I saw the headline.  The bigger headline that nobody talked about came in 2020 when the Q tightened up fighting rules in exchange for government money to the tune of $20-million.  But, it’s all about safety…uh huh.  The Q, in 2019, had an average of 1 fight for every 6 games played.  That’s not a ban, but it’s pretty darn close.  In Quebec, the Q has allowed their government to step in and dictate how the game will be played.  Since the league accepted the bribe in 2020, the Minister of Sport has continued to stick her nose into the game and she’s calling for mandatory suspensions and threatening to take even stricter action if the league itself doesn’t do what she wants.  Oh well, something else for the government to control I guess and I don’t see anyone in the sport opposed to it so why should I care?

7 – HYPOCRISY ON FIGHTING – I have no other alternative than to chuckle when I hear people spend hours on end discussing Binnington and only condemning him for the timing of what he did as opposed to the actual act itself.  The sense I got from listening to the radio shows was that everyone loved this.  Then, in the next breath, the same people are applauding the Q for banning fighting.  Pick a lane.

8 – GOOD BYE FISTICUFFS – Fighting is never coming back to hockey.  Ever.  It’s been on the decline for many years and it will, sooner than we think, be completely eradicated.  I’m not advocating for or against fighting but if the sport wanted to have it, there is a way to do it without games turning into brawls or staged fights during the last few minutes of a game that is out of hand.  I’ve seen the arguments from people who say we need to have the rules in place to protect pugilists from future brain injuries and those injuries are very real.  Having said that, I’ve never bought into the notion from a player who says the only way he can make the NHL (or any league for that matter) is by subjecting himself to fighting every night.  If that’s your only skill, then maybe you need to come to terms with the fact hockey isn’t your thing.  The real crime isn’t that hockey had fighting but that coaches and managers saw the need to employ players who offered nothing to the game except fighting and that parents never ever stepped in to prevent their young adult child from getting pummeled in a junior hockey game.  

9 – EVOLUTION – A lot of what I’m saying doesn’t apply to the game as it was played in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.  As we started to learn about head injuries and the long term effects of those injuries, instead of concealing the information, the powers that be should have been forthright about it and put rules into place that clamped down on the needless fights that occur at the end of games as a sideshow.  Players who engage in frequent fighting can then make up their own mind as to whether or not they want to keep doing it.  If one wants to be in the NHL that badly and is willing to put their brain on the line for it, why should anyone else stop him?  It’s no different than goaltenders who can barely walk by the time they are 50 from the damage done to their knees.  They know the risks and still choose to do it.      

10 – TOO FAR GONE – This will never happen, but if it did I would bet a year’s salary on this:  if hockey decided to be more lenient with its fighting rules and the number of fights during games started to increase, you’d see full rinks all over North America from the junior ranks to the NHL.  While fighting is bad for your health, it’s great for business.  The sport, however, has allowed people who are not involved with the game to dictate what the rules will be and because of that, the popularity of hockey will never be fully realized.  In fact, the sport may eventually die as far as viewership is concerned in some of the smaller junior and minor pro centres.  Nobody will talk about it out loud, but the mere threat of a possible fight is enough to get people to attend.  Knowing you will not see a fight keeps those same people at home.  And, you can say you don’t want that type of fan to go to the game all you want, but numbers don’t lie when you compare crowds of 25 years ago to today.  We allow UFC, boxing, professional wrestling, and other sports where the sole reason for the sport being played is to beat up another person and risk long-term brain injuries…yet hockey is targeted as needing a culture change to get away from fighting.  Again, we will never know but I bet with more lenient rules on rough physical play (never mind actual fighting) you may actually see an increase in player participation levels.  If players want it.  If fans want it.  Why can’t you have it?  Lay out the rules and if you want to play and/or watch, great.  If you don’t, that’s okay too.  For some things that suit a particular group of certain minded people, we tell you, “If you don’t like it then don’t go.”  We can’t do that when it comes to hockey rules.  You figure out for yourself why.  If your answer is ‘health’ or ‘safety’, keep thinking.

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