STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – CRUSHING LOSS – The Saskatchewan Roughriders are 1-and-2 against legitimate CFL teams after a heartbreaking 33-31 loss to Calgary Saturday night. The big story, though, was the devastating leg injury suffered by Trevor Harris in the fourth quarter.  While the official diagnosis may not be known for a few days, the visual wasn’t pretty and nobody expects Harris to be back anytime soon. It’s truly gut wrenching to see Harris go down.  He’s not only a top quarterback, but also a quality human being. Maybe I’m reaching on this but I’m going to suggest the team may be okay with Mason Fine taking over under center. There’s been a lot of chatter about the drain at quarterback talent around the CFL and because of that drain, I am going to say Fine doesn’t have far to go to become one of the top four pivots in the league. But, the problem appears to be the schedule: BC, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, BC, Winnipeg. Could the Riders be 4-and-7 (2-and-7 against ‘real’ CFL teams) come the end of August regardless of the quarterback?

2 – CRUM – The CFL could use a nice feel good story at quarterback and Dustin Crum is starting to write one. Ottawa’s number four QB led the Redblacks to a surprising 31-28 win over Winnipeg on Saturday afternoon, passing for 261 yards and running for another 103.  Crum was the MAC Most Valuable Player in 2021 with Kent State and spent four months with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022. Crum is going to have to better limit the turnovers while he’s at the helm of the Redblacks, but the makings are here for a cinderella story of sorts.

3 – EDMONTON LOSES AGAIN – Edmonton’s CFL team lost again to fall to 0-and-6 and with two games against Winnipeg and one against BC on the horizon, they will soon be 0-and-9. They’ve lost 20 straight at home, which ties some sort of professional sports record (I’d argue though with the CFL nearly at the halfway point and you still can’t get any game stats, plus the aforementioned talent drain, the league is on the brink of losing true professional status but that’s another topic for another day). Some of you are going to be triggered by this, but here’s Edmonton’s biggest problem – they gave a middle finger to most of their fan base when they caved to people who hate football by changing their name. A lot of those fans decided to stay home and not attend as a form of protest. Winning would have brought most of those people back, but they have lost every single game and the franchise is unrecognizable to what it once was. It’s basically a bad expansion team with no history and no hope and, therefore, nobody cares. They are the Bud Light of professional sports.

4 – RUSH DEAL MATTHEWS – The Saskatchewan Rush made a blockbuster trade this week, sending franchise icon Mark Matthews to the Toronto Rock for Zach Manns, Adam Jay, and a first round pick.  Manns was one of the league’s top scorers as a rookie in 2020 and scored 11-goals and 25-assists in 16-games this past season, which would have placed him 4th on the Rush in scoring. On a brighter note, Manns was second on the Rock in playoff scoring with 9-points in 3-games.  Jay is a 27-year-old defender who is an asset on loose balls and should provide some stability on a group that is, relatively, young. The trading of Matthews signals a new era for the Rush. And, while I’d be lying if I said I like rebuilds, I’m fascinated to see what the ceiling is for the likes of Austin Madronic, Clark Walter, and Manns on a team where the centerpiece isn’t Matthews. My guess is Robert Church can score no matter who’s on the floor with him so that part isn’t changing although it was starting to get to the point where teams were keying on Church and forcing the Rush to beat you with any other scorer and that just wasn’t happening.

5 – DODDS JOINS RUSH – One day after sending Matthews to Toronto, the Rush went out and acquired 2022 NLL Rookie Of The Year runner-up Patrick Dodds from Panther City in a package deal that involves rugged defenseman Matt Beers going the other way. In 2022, Dodds scored 84-points as a first year player.  This past season, Dodds scored 50-points in 18-games and was third on Panther City in scoring and he has real potential to be the face of the franchise going forward. Dodds is reunited with Manns and Madronic, his teammates with the Victoria Shamrocks.  Call me excited for the NLL season. I love seeing the player movement and I love seeing the Rush retooling rather than rebuilding. They just need to find a consistent goaltender and then they will be a shoe-in for getting back to the playoffs. A winning team should also go a long way towards increasing their average game attendance, which was just over 8300 in 2022-23. 

6 – RATTLERS AREN’T GOING AWAY – A week after writing how bad the Saskatchewan Rattlers are, the team went out and won two very close games against Winnipeg and Edmonton, respectively. As you would expect, Justin Wright-Foreman was the focal point of both but in the second game against Edmonton, Wright-Foreman had what he, himself, called an ‘off night’ despite tying the single game franchise record with 37 points. He may be correct in that assertion as he missed a jumper that he would normally nail, as well as two free throws during the Elam Ending. It was Mike Nuga who hit two frees at the end to seal the 96-95 victory. Nuga ended up with 20 and if the Rattlers can find that secondary scorer to Wright-Foreman they have a shot to win every game, but most nights that second option hasn’t been there. There are five games left in the season (as of Friday night) and the Rattlers need to win and get some help in order to make the playoffs.  

Footnote – As I put the finishing touches on this week’s article, it’s Saturday night and the Rattlers are getting blown out at home at halftime against Edmonton on the same day they announced the return of Davonte Bandoo for the final few games of the season. It may be too little too late, but Bandoo is exactly the secondary scorer this team has lacked. Unfortunately, he’s been unavailable due to injury for the last few months.

7 – BERRIES – Saskatoon’s WCBL baseball team has a name: the Saskatoon Berries. I can only imagine the agony of the committee tasked with choosing a name that doesn’t rile up a group of people trying to make themselves a victim of something. Of course, that’s impossible to do so just pick something that is non-offensive but easy to make fun of to the point that it’s embarrassing and that makes it all better. For those who still write clever headlines, Berries will provide never ending copy that should bring pride to all who wear the logo.

8 – KEVIN CONSTANTINE – From the ‘Where Are They Now’ file, the Wenatchee Wild of the WHL have announced Kevin Constantine as their new head coach. Constantine has a reputation of getting his teams to play some of the most boring hockey you will ever witness. But, he’s also got an impressive resume of taking teams with minimal talent and maximizing it. It was almost 30 years ago, but he led the San Jose Sharks to a 58 point improvement from the previous year when he took over from George Kingston.  That is a record that still stands. He’s also the only coach in NHL history to take two 8th seeded teams and lead them to first round playoff upsets. Constantine worked miracles with Pittsburgh in the late 90s when they were under constant threats of relocation but when Mario Lemieux took over, one of the first things he did was fire Constantine. He also took the expansion Everett Silvertips and guided them to a US Division championship in their first year of existence. He was hired to coach the AHL’s Houston Aeros in 2008 and won 45 games for them one season after they won 27.  Constantine has been coaching in South Korea and Hungary since 2017.  He’s taking over a team that won 57 games as the Winnipeg Ice so I am not quite sure his track record of improving clubs will continue.

9 – NO TRADE CLAUSES – I’ve been seeing some whining from Winnipeg hockey fans about NHL players always putting the Manitoba capital on their ‘no trade’ list. It’s nothing personal against Winnipeg. The reality is simply this – Canada is the last place an NHL player wants to be and if he has to rank the cities from worst to first, Winnipeg and Edmonton are going to be 1-2 on every single list, even if that player happens to be a Winnipeg or Edmonton native. Now, there may be a few select American cities that hit the no-trade list before Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver for various personal reasons but, by and large, I would say just about every player who has a no trade list of 10 teams or more has every single Canadian one on it. If you don’t like it, maybe change who you vote for but with continually rising interest rates, tax hikes, deteriorating public institutions such as Health and Education, authoritarian orders coming from governments across the country, etc. the simple fact is that if someone has the ability to choose where they live, Canada isn’t making the top of anyone’s list that plays professional sports. I’m not complaining, I’m just telling you how it is. 32% of the voting public supported the Liberals in the last election. That number is basically unchanged today, which is a message to those in power that we, as Canadians, love to be controlled and don’t want to keep the money we earn. Professional athletes, clearly, don’t share the same viewpoint. And, don’t even start at me about the weather. It sucks in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Detroit too.  

10 – NO CASH – Winnipeg’s Andrew Paterson posted a YouTube video on the topic of sports stadiums going cashless (as is the case in Winnipeg for the NHL Jets and CEBL Sea Bears) and it generated a healthy response from people-most of whom disagreed with him and want nothing to do with actual money in their pockets. Paterson really wasn’t saying that he minded using his debit card, he was just wondering why do we need to do away with real hard cash. In typical Canadian fashion, no real critical thought has been given towards what a cashless society truly means and I’m long past the point of being surprised at anything from anybody.  Yes, I know it’s crazy talk to think a cashless society means our congenial government can, as easily as ever, freeze your financials but for the time being I’m free to use cash and I will continue to use it and if it triggers the rest of you, I don’t give two hoots. Since the freezing of bank accounts a year and a half ago, I’ve made it a very specific point to use cash a lot more often and if I run into a venue that won’t take it, I leave the merchandise or food on the counter. If my cash isn’t good enough, neither is your product. I haven’t needed anything bad enough to succumb to the cashless world and that includes anything I may buy at a sports event.

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