Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – BARKER BLOWBACK – I watched the Rod Pedersen Show segment with Jim Barker last week where Barker made a very good case for not taking sides on the Chad Kelly matter because nobody knows what he did other than he’s been found guilty by the league of violating the CFL Gender-Based Violence Policy. Barker spoke quite concisely about saying maybe Kelly should have received more than 9 games and maybe he should have received less but aside from the fact we just don’t know any details beyond the fact that he’s violated the policy we just don’t know. Barker also talked about a CFL employee criticizing the Argos for allowing Kelly to be on the field during rookie camp and pointed out that there is no equity in the league if she’s not fined for her public statements. What Barker is slow to realize is that there is, simply, no equity. If that same CFL employee criticized the league’s vaccine policy from a couple of seasons ago she would be shown the door in record time. It all depends on which side of the social spectrum you fall. Here’s what most people fail to grasp: The Argos, up until the other day, sided with Kelly. I guess it got a little too hot in the kitchen for Pinball. I guess what I’d like to know is when did the trainer complain about Kelly to her authorities? Did she do it after the first time and the Argos failed to act? If so, why aren’t the Argos being punished too?  

2 – PRO SPORTS PROFITS – The UFL is a hit in St. Louis with the Battlehawks averaging well north of 30,000 fans a game but everywhere else is hovering around 10,000. It remains to be seen what teams need to remain feasible and there are deep pockets behind the league propping it up. One thing we learned about all pro sports leagues during the Covid era is that the number of bums in the seats don’t necessarily relate to whether or not teams are making money. Take the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, for example. In 2019, with fan attendance at a much higher average than it is today and a much healthier economy, the Riders lost $200,000 but that was, in part, due to propping up the Montreal Alouettes and money invested in hosting a Grey Cup that never happened in 2020. If you remove those two expenses, the Riders would have made close to $700,000. Fast forward to 2023 where the Riders announced a $7.1-million surplus (thanks to the Grey Cup in 2022). But, even taking away the Grey Cup, the Riders still made $3.8-million and that’s despite a $2-million drop in gate receipts from 2019. So, don’t let anyone tell you that fan attendance is crucial to a professional sports team’s survival. If that formula works for the Riders, it works just as well or better for everyone else in every other league where sponsorship dollars are much greater. The NHL’s Winnipeg Jets have threatened their fan base twice in the last year with this fake notion that the team is bleeding money unless the place is sold out. Nonsense.  

3 – NHL BETTING – NHL officiating is being called into question during the second round after a few blatant infractions, even after video review, were missed by referees.  Skeptics point to the enormous amount of money involved and wonder if betting hasn’t influenced the outcome of the games. I’m not someone who bets on sports aside from playing in fantasy drafts with some friends but I will say this when it comes to the NHL – you’d have to be crazy to bet with confidence on games when teams are allowed to be as secretive as they are when it comes to injuries and other matters. Take game seven between the Leafs and Bruins as an example. I think a lot of people felt, relatively, confident about Toronto’s chances in this game until the pre-game warmup when it was revealed Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll wouldn’t be playing. There was no hint of Woll missing that game and I think the betting strategies would change had Woll been given, at minimum, a questionable tag the morning after the game six victory.

4 – NHL REPLAY – After the Boston-Florida game four in which Sam Bennett’s game tying goal was allowed to stand following his cross check of a Bruin into netminder Jeremy Swayman; many are left wondering what is goaltender interference if this isn’t it? Well, the NHL is a league built on technicalities. You can’t challenge a missed penalty so it’s possible that this is cross checking but it’s not actually goalie interference. Therefore the goal stands. I saw it a few years ago when Connor Hellebuyck was slashed across the face so hard that James Neal actually broke his stick on the play. Less than three seconds later, Erik Haula scored a goal. The Jets challenged and lost. I’m drawing a blank but I’ve also seen instances where goals have been challenged when there is potentially both offside and goaltender interference involved but you have to pick one infraction.  If you pick goalie interference and the officials decide there was no interference but there is, in fact, offside the goal will stand because you never challenged the offside. For your efforts, you also get a 2 minute minor penalty.  All in the name of getting calls right they say. Uh huh.

5 – BRAD MARCHAND – Prior to the Boston-Florida game six, injured Bruins forward Brad Marchand spoke to the media and made some interesting comments about Sam Bennett and the hit that resulted in Marchand getting injured. Marchand believed the hit to be a cheap shot but then followed it up by saying he has done similar himself.  He also went on to say the reality is that teams are always looking to knock other players out of the game so that they can have an added advantage in the playoffs. This has struck a nerve with the fair-play folks but Marchand speaks total truth on this. The biggest problem I see in Marchand is that he’s gotten soft with age. There’s no way Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk should have the edge over him the way they do when it comes to antagonizing and cheap shotting. Marchand used to be the master and because he no longer is, the Bruins aren’t as good as they could be.

6 – SUSPENSION – London Knights forwarded Landon Sim was given a five game suspension for calling another player a ‘p*ssy’.  Five games. And, these are playoff games where hockey, traditionally, has placed more value on games whereby a 5-game playoff suspension would be similar to a 10-12 game suspension in the regular season. I know this is going to make a lot of you upset, but this is insanity. It’s name calling and if you can’t handle it, I got nothing. It gets even worse than that. The Knights wanted to make sure Sim wasn’t branded a racist or a homophobe, so they made sure people knew what the word was that he used. That upset the OHL head office even more and declined to hear his appeal given that the word was ‘leaked’. How petty and insecure can you get? Here’s the simple reality when it comes to how truly crazy this has become: if you are a hockey player and you are upset at someone else on the ice, you are better served to baseball-swing the guy and take a chance breaking his wrist. You will get a lesser suspension, especially if you are a first time offender. There’s also no coming back on this. There is no way a hockey governing body is going to stand in front of a politically correct world and say ‘we have gone too far punishing players who utter hurtful words’.  Not happening. There are too many people out there who would just love to see hockey’s demise in Canada altogether and people that are in charge of hockey seem all too happy to help that movement along for whatever reason. Here’s what is more likely to happen: even more harsh suspensions for bad words and devastating suspensions for physical infractions. Some of you are reading this and saying ‘Good, a slash on the wrist should be a year’. To that I say be careful what you wish for.   

7 – GARDINER MACDOUGALL – Last week I wrote about Gardiner MacDougall and how any NHL team that is serious about winning should inquire about his availability. Apparently, the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL are serious because MacDougall ‘retired’ this week from his post at UNB, where he led the team to a 30-and-0 record this season, culminating in a national university championship.  MacDougall, whose son is the General Manager of the Wildcats, promptly accepted the position of bench boss and even though this year’s Memorial Cup hasn’t even started, I’m going to predict Moncton wins it all next year.  

8 – RATTLERS COACH – When the Saskatchewan Rattlers tip off their new season next Wednesday, they will do so with a new coach. Larry Abney comes to the team from the NBA G League’s Ontario (California) Clippers, where he was serving as an assistant coach. As a player, Abney holds the NCAA modern day record for most rebounds in a single game: 35. Two of Abney’s players with the G League’s Clippers are on the Rattlers roster in Elijah Harkless and Bryson Williams.  Incidentally, rebounding has been a weak spot with the Rattlers in recent years so it will be interesting to see if that’s an area that Abney is able to help shore up. The last signing before training camp began last week was 6’9” forward Grant Basile, a first year pro who graduated from Virginia Tech/Wright State, where he scored a team leading 16.4-ppg and 5.4–rebounds as a senior with the Hokies.

9 – BUTKER SPEECH – The woke world is up in arms after Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker delivered a graduation speech at Benedictine College (a private Catholic liberal arts school) that focused on traditional family values whereby he stated that a lot of the young ladies in attendance may be excited about their future marriage and being a mother. Here’s the full quote:  “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she started her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”  Some are really reaching to try and bring racism into this and compare Butker to the blacklisting that NFL teams are accused of doing to Colin Kaepernick. There is no comparison. Kaepernick used his public platform to put pigs on his socks and subjected the entire NFL world to his views. Unless you stopped watching the NFL, you had no choice but to be exposed to what Kaepernick was doing. Butker is, merely, suggesting women may be more excited about their family than their career. There’s a big difference here if you are being honest with yourself.  Butker also made the comments at a PRIVATE school graduation in front of an audience that was, essentially, asking to hear his views. It wasn’t like he grabbed the microphone from the anthem singer and forced millions of people to listen to him. Having said all of that, I also would agree Kaepernick was blackballed.  I’ve watched far too many bad quarterbacks (ones far worse than Kaepernick) to think otherwise. Update since I started writing this piece: the nuns at the college have characterized Butker’s speech as divisive. I give up.  They should have got Rashee Rice to speak instead.  

10 – DUTCHYSHEN – Canadian broadcasting legend Darren Dutchyshen passed away this week at the age of 57. My first television media job was at IMTV in Dauphin, Manitoba in late 1995. It was in a building where I stumbled across some archives that were attributed to John Dutchyshen. It was at that time it was revealed to me that Dutchy got his start in broadcasting, also, in Dauphin and was from a small community 20-minutes down the highway. One of my few talents is being able to impersonate people and I used to entertain some of my buddies by doing highlights Dutchy style. It’s often said imitation is a form of flattery and I, deeply, admired his delivery and on-air performance. I was first exposed to his uniqueness when he was on ITV Edmonton. The man was incredibly talented, never met him in person. Gone way too soon. It’s sad. 

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)