STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – RUSH DROP ROAD GAME – The Saskatchewan Rush dug themselves an early 5-1 hole and never dug all the way out as they lost 13-9 to the red hot Georgia Swarm on Saturday night in a game that all but dashed any playoff hopes the team may have had. Robert Church had 4-goals and 4-assists on the 9 Rush goals solidifying any doubt about him being the team’s most valuable player. I have to give the Rush a bit of credit despite them laying an egg early on. The shots were 16-8 Georgia when it was 5-1. From that point on, the Rush held the advantage on the shot clock 45-34 when they, easily, could have just gone into Operation Shutdown. The youngsters also had strong games with Austin Madronic getting a pair, Ryan Barnable contributing two assists, and Jake Boudreau was a factor on defense. Kyle Rubisch always leads the team in loose balls and he had 11 on this night. Barnable was next with 8 and Bobby Kidd III had 7. You can see the changing of the guard on the back end and I think the Rush will be in good hands. Nevertheless, the fact remains they will need better goaltending if they expect to return to contending status. GM Derek Keenan may already regret the Marshall Powless trade. Powless had 6 assists for Albany on Saturday night and is up to 19 points in 4 games with his new team.

2 – BEDARD DRAFT – The Connor Bedard sweepstakes have people talking about tanking and ways to arrange the NHL Draft to prevent tanking and I have my own theory on it that is unlikely to be popular but why not just give the first pick to the top team (17th overall) that misses the playoffs? Reward teams who are trying to do well but fail at it. One argument against it is that teams that are at the bottom of the league won’t ever get the necessary help to be better. We know that’s a false statement. In a salary cap world, eventually you will have the funds available to purchase talent in order to get out of the cellar. We also know that there are teams that when given multiple top five draft picks, they do nothing with them and remain at the bottom.  I’ve never understood rewarding failure or ineptitude by giving a team the absolute best young player available but I guess that’s also why I don’t understand socialism and as we’ve seen in recent weeks, it doesn’t get any more socialist in sports than what the NHL is so I suppose the current arrangement on who gets Bedard is perfect.

3 – ALTERNATIVE DRAFT RACE – Let’s assume 17th overall gets Bedard. Suddenly you have Winnipeg in two races, one for the playoffs and one to get Bedard. You also have Pittsburgh, Calgary, and Nashville all within a point of each other and trying to get into the playoffs with the ‘reward’ of trying but just missing out being the Bedard selection. In this scenario, you’d also have teams like St. Louis, Detroit, Ottawa, and Buffalo who have been, realistically, out of the playoffs for weeks still pulling out all the stops to get as many wins as possible to better position themselves in the draft. My proposal would be to have the draft order start at 17 and go to 32 and then the 17th pick goes to the 16th place team and the remaining picks of each round go 16-1. In Winnipeg’s case, with poor play, they still wouldn’t be assured of Bedard because they could (with 4 games left) drop out of the playoffs and also end up being passed by three other teams in the draft. A failure of epic proportions on both fronts.

4 – STILL GOOD PICKS LATE IN FIRST – For those radical socialist hockey fans who can’t stomach the thought of a horrible NHL team not getting a free 1st overall selection, here’s a look at some recent historical 16th overall draft choices: Kaiden Guhle (2020), Alex Newhook (2019), Jusso Valimaki (2017), Jakob Chychrun (2016), Mathew Barzal (2015), Sonny Milano (2014), Nikita Zadorov (2013), Tom Wilson (2012).  Picking 16th is only a franchise death sentence if you want it to be. True, the ‘franchise’ player may not be there but there is more than one way to build an organization. Ask Kelly McCrimmon and the Vegas Golden Knights. 

5 – COMPETITIVE EDGE – It’s never been easier to win in a competitive landscape than it is today. I’m not going into who and where, you can do that for yourself, but there are teams focused on diversity and equity hires for positions within their organizations that are ordinarily reserved for the ultra-competitive and their on-field/on-ice/on-court results are suffering for it but nobody really seems to care because those teams are ‘doing the right thing’. For teams that want to win a championship and are less concerned about ‘the right thing’ the road to get there has fewer potholes and less traffic than ever before.

6 – RENDON ALTERCATION – Anaheim Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon got himself into hot water last weekend for a physical altercation with a jerk fan from Oakland, who was leaning over the railing and screaming at the Angel players (who had just lost 2-1) as they headed for the clubhouse. The fan, apparently, called Rendon a little ‘bitch’ so Rendon stopped, confronted him, grabbed him by the shirt and made a punching like motion (didn’t strike the obnoxious fan). For his trouble, Rendon was suspended 4 games. My guess is the fan got nothing, but he really deserves a lifetime ban. Don’t get me wrong, I love to heckle and was once ‘recognized’ on the train in Chicago for being the loudmouth who was insulting the Yankees during a White Sox game (story for another day) but there is a clear line that shouldn’t be crossed when cheering/jeering.

7 – JUSTEN CLOSE – Quinnipiac defeated Minnesota 3-2, scoring 10 seconds into overtime on Saturday night, to win the NCAA Frozen Four. Of note for us in Saskatchewan is former Kindersley Klipper goalie Justen Close was the number one netminder for the Gophers all season long. Close posted a 1.99-GAA and .928-SPCT. To my knowledge, Close is the first and only former SJHL player ever recruited by Minnesota. In fact, the Gophers don’t often even look to Canada for talent. Close is the only Canadian on the roster currently and at the time of his recruitment in 2018, they only had one Canadian (netminder Mat Robson) on the roster. Before Robson, you have to search back to 2006 to find a Canadian on the team and then before that it was former NHL goalie Frank Pietrangelo in the early 1980s. 

8 – XFL ATTENDANCE – The St. Louis Battlehawks continue to lead the pack by a wide margin, averaging over 35,000 fans a game. Houston, San Antonio, Arlington, and Washington are all hovering around 12,000.  Seattle got as high as 15,000 but dipped under 10,000 for the last home date. The fact of the matter is that as long as the XFL can draw 10,000 or more I think they are fairly happy. Rome wasn’t built in a day and the attendance numbers have been fairly steady without major increases or decreases right across the board (except for Seattle). The fact that there isn’t a dip after the initial curiosity wore off is a good sign for the league. Meanwhile, as far as game play is concerned, I watched the last part of the Battlehawks 21-17 overtime win over Vegas. Starting QB AJ McCarron was on the bench after getting hurt last week. Nick Tiano passed for 199 yards and ran for another 51 in a spotty performance that was good enough to be on the winning side. Tiano attended CFL training camps in 2021 with both Toronto and Montreal but was cut prior to the start of the regular season.

9 – JOE MURPHY – I’m listening to Finding Murph on Audible and I’m about half a dozen chapters into it.  The story details the life of former NHLer Joe Murphy, who is believed to be living homeless in Kenora, Ontario (he’s also known to frequent Regina). Needless to say, I am finding it incredibly interesting and highly recommend it. A lighter moment in the biography mentions Murphy smashing his car and getting a replacement from his junior team in Penticton. The replacement was an old half-ton truck that still had City of Penticton decals on it and Murphy would drive around parking in various places giving the impression to city workers they were being supervised.

10 – COLLEGE ATHLETE – Mission College (Santa Clara CA) had one of their student athletes resurface in the news media this week, in light of the social issues that seem to be dominating the news cycle. Gabby Ludwig graduated from Mission in 2014 and is now an assistant coach on the female basketball team with which she was a player in 2012, 2013, and 2014. There are two aspects about Ludwig’s participation that are of interest today: first of all, Ludwig was 50 years-old when she was a ‘rookie’. Ludwig is also a transgender athlete. She helped Mission win the league title in her senior year and was voted First Team All-Conference scoring 18 ppg and 20 rpg. Again, like last week’s bearded female weightlifter story, I present this without any further comment.

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