Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – RIDERS REGULAR SEASON FINALE – Before kickoff on Saturday, we will know if the Riders’ final game of the season is meaningless or not.  For a team left for dead a month or so ago, it’s a remarkable position to be in: a Riders win at home over Calgary on Saturday combined with a Blue Bombers loss and the Riders will host the West Division final and earn a first place regular season finish. Not to say I told you so, but I told you during their midseason swan dive that something felt different about this team when I compared it to the ones from last year and the year before that went completely in the tank before Labour Day. Sometimes teams that have a prolonged losing culture have no other alternative but to win their way out of a slump. I know reading this, some of you are saying ‘well duh’, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. Losing will breed losing and the more you lose, the harder it is to snap out of it. But, the one thing Rider brass should be commended for is getting the hiring correct with the head coach and he was able to keep the ship from going completely under despite it taking on a lot of water and now that the storm has passed, I don’t know why you’d pick a team other than the Riders to win it all at this point. Having said that, it won’t be easy if the BC Lions stick with Vernon Adams at quarterback and the Blue Bombers are likely going to be the pundits’ pick to win it all but I believe they’ve peaked too soon. A Roughrider-Montreal Grey Cup game in BC with Cody Fajardo going against his former team would make for a fascinating story.

2 – CUP CONTENDERS – I had a long highway drive this week and I, sometimes, will tune in to a mainstream media radio talkshow and this particular day I found TSN Overdrive and the segment was very interesting. Bryan Hayes, who is probably the best in the business in this country, labeled five teams that will 100% not win the Stanley Cup this year.  It got me thinking, how many teams actually have a shot at winning it.  The list is short. I have Florida, NY Rangers, Carolina, New Jersey, Dallas, and Edmonton as the teams who have a legit chance. Everyone else, to me, is a darkhorse. In the next group there would be Toronto, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Colorado, Vegas, and Vancouver. Let’s be honest, probably only Vegas can be taken seriously here.  Then you have teams that were contenders but are on the way down: Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington, Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Los Angeles. The rest aren’t worthy of mentioning.

3 – INTERNATIONAL EVENT – The NHL is staging the 4 Nations Face Off in mid-February as a replacement for the All-Star Game but also to offer as a precursor to Olympic involvement. So far, the buzz appears to be minimal for the tournament that will feature Canada, United States, Sweden, and Finland.  Noticeably absent is Russia as we continue to punish their players for the government’s involvement in the war against Ukraine. Funny how we don’t punish Canadian players for the government freezing bank accounts on its own citizens or supporting Hamas terrorists but I guess that’s different. What I don’t understand at all is if Russian players aren’t allowed to participate in the 4 Nations Face Off, why are they allowed to play in the NHL at all? I guess it comes down to convenience and virtue signaling. I’m sure the powers that be will tell you it’s because Russia isn’t welcome in the Olympics. Is an event with the world’s best really the world’s best when a bunch of the world’s best aren’t allowed to participate because of something that is out of their control?

4 – TEAM RUSSIA – When you consider the Russian players who won’t be part of this event, it’s fair to wonder if Russia wouldn’t actually win the event entirely. The forwards would be led by the likes of Panarin, Kucherov, Kaprizov, Malkin, Ovechkin, and Barbashev. Throw in youngsters like Michkov, Chinakhov, and Marchenko and you have the makings of a very good group. Sergachev would lead a solid but underwhelming defense where the group would be more known for toughness than anything else. The big advantage would be in goal as Shesterkin is the best there is. Bobrovsky is coming off a Cup win and then take your pick between Vasilevskiy, Sorokin, Varlamov, Kochetkov, Askarov, or Georgiev as a third. You may go five or six Russian goalies deep before you’d pick the top Canadian puckstopper.

5 – FREDDIE RECOVERED – Freddie Freeman hit a walk off grand slam to win Game One of the World Series on Friday night. It’s an amazing story as Freeman, self admittedly, almost passed away from a rampant fever back in 2020. Freddie is a Canadian citizen (parents from Ontario) and for that reason alone, there will be people in this country who feel a sense of loyalty to him (probably also a few fellow Canadians who could relate to his death door knocking feeling from watching a lot of CBC And CNN) but when Freeman left Atlanta there was one player more than happy to see him go. Ronald Acuna said Freeman was a bully when the former came up from the minors.  “We were close in that we shared the same stadium,” Acuna told the media when Freeman signed a massive contract with the Dodgers, only to lament the fact Atlanta traded for Matt Olson while they were waiting for Freeman to figure out how much money is a lot. A brain surgeon, Freddie will never be.

6 – TERRIERS FORFEIT – The Yorkton Terriers were docked three wins for using an illegal player for six games (two weeks) earlier this month. The SJHL was quite vague on what the infraction was and it’s not my place to go into a lot of detail on it or single out the player because it’s not his fault. The buzz in Yorkton is that in the event of a clerical error, someone should have overseen the ‘mistake’ and taken action well before it was discovered after two weeks and six games had taken place but I am going to take the side of the league on this one. As an administrator in senior hockey, I tell all of the teams at the start of the year that their rosters need to be compliant but I am not going to police them as far as imports, elite players, and other various designations are concerned. I know that the teams are all watching each other to make sure there is no ‘cheating’ going on and in the event a player’s eligibility is called into question I tell the team to get a hold of me then I will look into it. The SJHL really is no different. There are lists, certified player cards, a maximum limit on the number of 20-year-olds teams can have ‘carded’, as well as other certain variables that come into play that makes players eligible and, most importantly, covered by insurance. Teams are always looking for an edge over the other so if they find a wrong birthdate or a misspelled name, they are going to pounce. So there is no need for someone in an office to comb over lists and registration files for compliance. The teams police themselves and that’s exactly what happened here. A team the Terriers didn’t even play in that six game stretch picked up on the ‘error’ and dominos started to fall after that.

7 – UNDERSTANDING CARDS – I don’t feel as though the Terriers were trying to do anything malicious or sneaky by using the illegal player. My experience working in Junior A hockey and with coaches over the years is that there are, often, some i’s and t’s that go undotted or uncrossed because coaches are more concerned about coaching than they are about official paperwork. There are also a lot of misunderstandings when it comes to player cards. For example, most fans and a few inexperienced coaches are unaware of how the card system works in so much that when you trade a player to another team and acquire a player back, you still have to delete the card from the outgoing player and then register the card for the incoming one. That also counts towards your total number of overall cards for the season. Prior to December 1, the number of cards isn’t an issue but it’s greatly reduced after December 1 so in the event you are using 22 cards and you make a 1 for 1 trade, the cards aren’t ‘traded’. You are now at 23 cards because you added a player. The player dealt has his card cancelled, but you don’t get it back and that’s where a lot of people get confused.

8 – NLL TRAINING CAMP – Training camps in the National Lacrosse League are starting up and the Saskatchewan Rush have an abundance of talent vying for 21 roster spots. As I scour the list, I’m not sure how many jobs are up for grabs as the team returns, virtually, everybody from last year and they’ve also added talent through the expansion draft (Matt Hossack, Evan Messenger) as well as veteran help (Austin Shanks) and they made a trade for a top draft pick from 2023 (Brock Haley). Maybe I’m overreacting, but I still worry about the team’s ability to win face-offs. The team has a lot of faith in Mike Messenger and he does bring a toughness element like nobody else on the roster but I’ll be watching to see if Jake Naso can make an impression or will be given an opportunity in that specialty. Naso is Duke’s all-time leader in face-off wins and ranks seventh in NCAA history for face-off wins and finished his collegiate career at just under 60% success rate. The first training camp session is next Friday at Henk Ruys Soccer Centre.

9 – SPORTS BETS – I’ve written a bit about sports betting and I listened to a podcast earlier this week where a journalist discussed some of the issues that appear to be off-limits as far as doing any sort of investigative reporting and sports betting was one of them. The journalist mentioned how much money is at stake now and how little scrutiny there is on the companies controlling the industry. Coincidentally, after listening to this podcast, I got a message from a friend who is very experienced at sports betting. He said his account was under an ‘internal review’ from one of the companies he played with. “I was betting heavily and cashing out often.  Without any warning or notice, I had my maximum wager reduced to $10 and when I inquired, I was told the restrictions would be permanent. Any person who says they are making a good living at sports betting is a liar.  These companies have entire departments dedicated to flagging bettors who are really good. They’ll find you and get rid of you. It’s impossible to win long term.” I have to admit I did get a chuckle from a sports meme earlier this week that said Shohei Ohtani is slated for a $250,000 bonus in the event the Dodgers win the World Series. It’s not in his contract, but rather from a bet made by his interpreter.

10 – LEMAY – Former NHLer and Saskatoon born Moe Lemay passed away this week at the age of 62.  Moe played parts of two seasons in my hometown, Fredericton, as a farmhand for the Vancouver Canucks.  In his final year of junior in the OHL, Lemay scored 68 goals in 62 games.  He only played 14 of his 317 NHL games with Edmonton, but it was very classy of Kevin Lowe to recognize Lemay as an Oilers alumni. In his later years, Lemay struggled with mental illness and substance abuse.  When he retired from the game about 25 years ago, the NHLPA didn’t have the supports in place they do today.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)