STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – RUSH SNAP LOSING SKID – The Saskatchewan Rush snapped a five-game losing skid on Saturday in dramatic fashion, blowing a five-goal fourth quarter lead, defeating the Vancouver Warriors 12-11 at SaskTel Centre. Predictably, Mark Matthews (3-5-8) and Robert Church (4-3-7) led the way with Matthews setting up Church for the OT winner. Newcomer Rhys Duch looked much more comfortable in game two, contributing 1-2-3. Saskatchewan led 11-6 until Kyle Killen scored with 11:39 left in the fourth. Riley Loewen made it 11-8 with 5:54 to go and then Killen scored again with 3:17 left and then less than two minutes later it was 11-11.  Vancouver pulled former Rush goalie Aaron Bold for an extra attacker with approximately 3:30 to go and scored their final three goals with the extra man on the field.

2 – RUSH NOTES – Backup goaltender Eric Penney, who played the bulk of last week’s embarrassing loss to Calgary, got hurt in warm-up Saturday night and that allowed Warman’s Laine Hruska to dress as Alex Buque’s back-up. Personally, I didn’t feel as though Buque instilled much confidence that his early season form has returned. Offensively, the Rush still struggled at times, especially in the first quarter. It’s maybe worth noting that the San Diego Seals put 14 behind Christian Del Bianco (Calgary goaltender) on Friday.  The Rush mustered only 6 in each of their two games against Del Bianco last week and the week before. It may be fair to question if the coaching staff is getting maximum potential from the players on the roster.  Marshall Powless, who was traded to Albany last month, has produced 4-goals and 9-assists in 3-games with his new team. Powless had 19-points in 10-games with the Rush.

3 – JET CRASH – For the sake of the quality of the NHL playoffs, one can only hope the Winnipeg Jets don’t somehow find a way to get into the postseason. They will be done in four straight games anyway based on their play over the last two months. Heck, one of their better players (Pierre Luc Dubois) is already planning his exit to Montreal (an even worse team than the Jets). When things were going well earlier in the season, the Jets should have traded Dubois (to Montreal or some other team) and brought in a player or two that appreciates his surroundings. The way it stands now, they will get nothing for Dubois and they’ll get almost as little for Mark Scheifele as I don’t expect teams to be lined up for a tinman centre. The Jets are headed for rock bottom and it’s going to be a very long climb out. For as good as Dubois is supposed to be, do you know how many 30 goal seasons he’s had? 0. The fact he’s also, essentially, quit on each of the last two NHL teams he’s been on and I have to deem him as one of the more overrated players in the league.

4 – PREMATURE BULLPENS – It’s not discussed nearly enough, but this eagerness baseball managers have to remove their top starting pitchers from games as soon as possible in favor of a lesser reliever is mind boggling to me.  Often, it results in a loss. Three days into the regular season, three very good examples to share: Thursday, the Anaheim Angels took out Shohei Ohtani after he struck out 10 over 6 shutout innings.  The Angels had a 1-0 lead. They’d go on to lose 2-1. That same night, Framber Valdez of Houston was taken out after 5 shutout innings and a 0-0 game with the White Sox. They’d go on to lose 3-2. On Saturday, the Chicago Cubs removed starter Justin Steele from a 1-0 lead over Milwaukee after 6 innings and 83 pitches.  The Cubs lost the game 3-1. It’s one thing to take out a pitcher early, but especially when you are in a tight game where the result is very much up for grabs, it doesn’t seem to make much sense to me to remove a top end player and replace him with someone who isn’t as good.

5 – A QB ON PITCH COUNTS – To put the baseball pitcher madness into perspective, imagine the Kansas City Chiefs putting Patrick Mahomes on the bench in the fourth quarter of a 25-22 game because he reached 30 pass attempts. Baseball nerds love to point to various analytical data charts as to why you should always take a pitcher out early, but I maintain none of those charts take into account the actual pitcher. I’ll take my chances with Framber Valdez into the 6th and 7th inning and facing hitters for the third time rather than a no-name reliever who is likely to be unpredictable. If that was a number five starter and you have a well rested bullpen, perhaps you’d think differently. Or, if the Astros were leading the game 5-0, I have no issue with Valdez coming out.

6 – SCARED OF INJURY – We are to the point where teams feel fortunate if their pitcher makes it through a game and doesn’t get hurt. The best way to deter injury seems to be to remove the pitcher from the game ASAP. This, despite nearly 100 years of data for the analytical nerds that show as long as the pitcher stays away from 100% max effort on every single pitch thrown, he is more than likely to be fine and can even pitch a full 9 innings. Hitters can be kept off balance with frequent change of speed but you just don’t see that anymore.  

7 – WINS/RBI – Find a baseball fan who is a disciple of the ‘new’ stats and let him (or her) explain why pitcher wins aren’t important or why the RBI stat isn’t important and then ask them if the name of the game is to win by bringing in runs, why wouldn’t those two stats be important? I always go back to Jack Morris, who had a relatively high ERA despite winning close to 20 games every year. He was his own bullpen and pitched to the score of the game. I shouldn’t have to explain what that means.

8 – XFL – The previously winless Orlando Guardians defeated the previously unbeaten DC Defenders 38-37 in an exciting XFL game Saturday. QB Quinten Dormady threw for 328 and 3 majors. He also ran for 3 scores.  Dormady has been at the center of some weird drama this year. He was released in early March for leaking offensive plays to other teams in the league, but the XFL head office reversed the roster move and placed him on the team’s reserve list while they conducted an investigation that, ultimately, cleared him of any wrongdoing, saying the allegations were unsubstantiated. CFL fans can poopoo the XFL all day long and point to some low attendance numbers in certain cities, but the reality is this – the league is going nowhere anytime soon. It has a lot of financial backing and they’ve been nearly perfect as far as executing a credible season. It’s been captivating with emerging stars. I’ll remind you that the importance of fan attendance is overstated. We saw during the pandemic these leagues don’t need anyone to go. They are still making money.  The XFL can afford to wait this out and the fans will, eventually, start to show in greater numbers if they continue to produce the entertainment that the league has produced to this point.

9 – CFL COMBINE – Meanwhile, the CFL held its combine earlier this month in Edmonton and hardly anyone was aware of it. There was no livestream because Edmonton poses logistical problems for its Toronto based staff. You have to laugh. Edmonton isn’t Uranium City. Although other concerns were the venue wasn’t big enough to have cameras and the cost of putting on a video production was deemed prohibitive. Ask yourself if this was the XFL or the USFL, would they figure out a way to get this out to the masses? We all know the answer to that.

10 – POWER LIFTING – In Lethbridge last weekend, a bearded powerlifter shattered the national women’s bench press record. Avi Silverberg, the head coach of Team Canada Powerlifting, has competed three times in World Bench Press and won a bronze in 2010, as a male. Silverberg broke the record held by Anne Andres, a transgender powerlifter who identifies as female. After breaking the record, Silverberg re-identified as a male.  I have nothing to add to this. You draw your own conclusions.

NICE PEOPLE MENTIONS – Phil Decker, Miranda Wenc, Brendan Jaworski, and TJ Chase.

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