STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – HOCKEY TRAVEL – I wouldn’t be me unless I offered a different take on a hot button issue so I’m going on the side of the minority as far as the youth hockey teams from Saskatchewan that went to Winnipeg for a tournament earlier this month.  First of all, it can’t be stressed enough that these teams went through the proper channels to see if it was okay to attend the tournament and they were given wrong information from the provincial government.  So, when Premier Scott Moe lambasted the families for going to the tournament, he maybe should have checked his emotions at the door and realized he needed to direct his anger towards provincial government employees instead for not knowing their own rules.  Maybe the teams should have known better and not asked, but in a world where 300 people can cram into Costco without anyone batting an eye compared to a gathering of 151 at a race car event that holds 2000 being prohibited; it’s worth checking out to see if you can go to Winnipeg and play hockey. Maybe in a similar way where the virus is spread at weddings and funerals but not during protests and riots; perhaps the virus is spread in Brandon but not Winnipeg.

2 – CONCEALING NAMES – The Yorkton team that attended made no attempt to conceal names, while the Wheatland Wild did go to great lengths to hide who they were and I don’t blame them at all for this. Just look at the online venom being delivered their way now. If authorities give you a green light to go, you still realize it’s dicey as far as public perception is concerned so you make a decision to fly under the radar with a team name change and just player initials on the game sheet. The scorn that has come down since the news story broke proves they were right to make this decision. In addition, you don’t want to hurt a youth’s chances on a future team as it’s possible that the participation at this event could be used as a tiebreaker or factor into decisions when it comes to making elite teams down the road so the less attention you can draw to yourself and your team, the better.  

3 – LOSING OUR YOUTH – Kids are not kids for very long in life. As adults we should know this better than anyone. Yet, we seem to be in no rush whatsoever for them to have a return to normalcy. You do realize that it’s not as if we get to reset after the pandemic is over right? Your 12-year-old who maybe lost two years of hockey doesn’t get to do them over. Some of you will say ‘it’s only hockey’ and that may be true but just think of all the other great experiences your children get from sports that aren’t related to sports but rather helps them with personal development. It’s alarming to me that through this pandemic where we proclaim to be thoughtful of others through mask wearing and assuming we are all virus carriers that nobody has stopped to consider children and the mental and social damage inflicted to youngsters who aren’t sick.  If you have kids who are, at all, outgoing you know precisely what I mean.  And, while there are those who will say I have no compassion for older people I will put it in very real scenarios for you.  If you are asking me to choose between my grandparents, my parents, or myself versus allowing life to go on for my children I will sacrifice the older 100 times out of 100.  My grandparents, parents, and myself have already lived productive lives and while it would be nice to have more in front of me, the reality is that my kids are more important and my mind will not change on that.

4 – KIDS ARE SAFE – Kids handle this virus very well. In Canada, we’ve had one person under the age of 20 pass away from Covid. Media doesn’t make money on good news so they won’t tell you this but I will: if you are young and healthy you can get the virus and recover quite well, usually very quickly. Even as older adults the only stories remotely close to being bad in the professional sports world are Freddie Freeman’s overnight fever of 104 and Eduardo Rodriguez being diagnosed with myocarditis, which may actually not even be from Covid but rather a condition that was discovered because he had Covid. The message needs to be this: practice a healthy lifestyle. When you hit 70, that’s when the real Covid fears should start to set in. 8 out of every 9 coronavirus deaths are people over that age. We need to settle down.

5 – BE SELF-RESPONSIBLE – I realize I’m beating a dead horse and talking to a wall on this issue, but we all need to be accountable and self-responsible. There wasn’t a single family at that tournament that wasn’t aware of the risks of either passing the virus on to someone or getting the virus themselves from someone.  And, instead of hammering on these people maybe we could look at what they did right and perhaps use that as a starting point to move forward and allow hockey to be played in a manner in which it was intended.

6 – A BIT OF CLEARING UP – Not necessarily relevant but when CBC goes digging for dirt on a story like this, they really should make sure they’ve got all the facts straight before they publish for all of us to see.  First of all, a phone call to the Yorkton Maulers U18 (AAA Midget) team to find out why they went to this tournament shows clear ignorance and a lack of knowledge with regards to what this event actually was, the ages of the kids involved, and the organization as a whole. Secondly, if you are going to ask a coach where he was on a particular weekend, it would be best to make sure you have the dates of the tournament correct.  The coach didn’t lie when he said he was fishing on the weekend in question because he was asked about the wrong weekend. Some of you will say I’m splitting hairs but what was he supposed to say? “Oh hey, I get that you are looking for dirt on that hockey tournament in Winnipeg, so just to clarify it was a different weekend and not the one you are asking about.”  Who would do that?  Finally, shame on the person for blowing the lid off this. We can all be upset about playing time but to use that tactic as a retaliation technique against the team is, potentially, harmful for the future of the youngster as a player. Not many coaches will want to have a player on their team knowing a parent will stop at nothing to get his/her way. I can tell you that as a coach of kids, who the parent is impacts decisions on roster make-up almost as much as the talent displayed by the player and most coaches who are being honest will say the exact same thing.

7 – LENGTH OF BASEBALL SEASON – I don’t have a good feeling about this going too much longer and yet whether or not it gets cancelled probably has nothing to do with the protocols established by the Commissioner’s Office or the fact the leagues are not in a bubble like the NHL and NBA. I think it comes down to the players not being able to follow the rules. If you read the tea leaves on what has gone on over the last week, it is reasonable to surmise the Miami Marlins are the makers of their own disaster.  Yet, I also suspect we are going to see more of this and how long MLB can hang on remains to be seen.

8 – NHL STARTS SATURDAY – I admit to being very excited for this yet it felt very strange watching the game on Wednesday between Winnipeg and Vancouver. I haven’t been too bothered by the lack of fans when watching NASCAR, Major League Soccer, Major League Baseball, or the NBA. Yet, it did feel exceptionally odd watching the NHL. I hope I can get over it. I know the delayed fake crowd noise after a goal has to improve or else they need to just get rid of it altogether.

9 – CAN THEY DO ANOTHER YEAR – Watch as much professional sports as you can because I don’t think any of these leagues will play next year to empty buildings. I think the empty building stuff is an investment with an eye towards gradually allowing people back inside for 2021 but there are indications we are still nowhere near fans being permitted. Would a vaccine really change things anyway? You have a significant number of people who won’t trust a vaccine and they aren’t going to be able to give it to everyone all at once. This is, of course, assuming one is forthcoming.  I give 2021 professional sports a 30% chance of going ahead.

10 – MASKS – You go to the grocery store and there are specific directional arrows set up so that you can social distance properly in the event of a little traffic in the aisles. When you go to the checkout, there are dots spaced appropriately apart so you don’t get too close to anybody. Then when you reach the checkout, you are still separated through proper distancing plus there is plexi-glass separating you from the employee. In some cases, the employee may be masked. So, explain to me why the customer also needs to wear a mask when you have distance and plexi-glass already separating you. If you want to drop all these restrictions, then I can be coerced into masking up. But that’s not what the conversation is. It’s adding a mask in conjunction with all these other measures. More normalcy isn’t going to return through masking up. In fact, all that will happen is authorities will find something else to mandate on you. In the United States, the discussion about wearing goggles in public has already begun. It’s never going to end.

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