Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – MORE RUSH – The Rush trailed for over 26 minutes and it was a stretch late in the first quarter and most of the second quarter that did them in as they held the Wings off the scoreboard for the first 10 shots, only to allow 8 goals on the next 15 shots.  From there, Frank Scigliano stopped 20-of-24 but it was not enough as the Rush rallied from 8-5 to get to within 8-7 before also trailing 11-8 heading into the fourth but two goals from Triolo and one from Zach Manns allowed them to force the extra time.  Because Naso, once again, dominated on face-offs the Rush had a number of chances to win it but couldn’t solve Nick Damude, who turned in an excellent performance with 47-saves on 58-shots.

3 – ATTENDANCE – With the Rush entering the game 3-and-0, I had hopes for a larger crowd than 6000 but one long-time Saskatoon sports fan told me before the game that the fans probably won’t return until April, assuming the team is still in the upper half of the league standings.  Another Saskatchewan sports fan relayed that the reality in Canada right now is that attending live sporting events is just not that high of a priority for people.  If you look around, most teams are showing diminished attendance numbers.  The Rush aren’t alone.   That’s especially true on the prairies where the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Jets have also played games in front of too many empty seats.  Having said that, the Calgary Roughnecks home opener last night drew over 13,000.  Halifax defeated Albany in front of over 10,000 and south of the border, Buffalo sold out to 19,000 so it’s definitely not all bad news as far as crowds go in the NLL.

4 – JAKE MAIER JOINS RIDERS – The Saskatchewan Roughriders shored up their quarterback room by acquiring Jake Maier from Calgary this week.  Maier figures to back up Trevor Harris next season with an inside track on being the starter in 2026, assuming this is Harris’ last season.  Maier, in the event of a Harris injury, gives Saskatchewan a good chance to still win games.  His game is similar to Harris in that it’s built around a quick release and very limited mobility which means the game plan stays the same whether it’s Harris or Maier under center.  He’s also only 27 and his body of work to date has been serviceable, at worst, and he’s had moments of playing above average.  The reality is that the Stamps weren’t a very good team around him so I believe there’s plenty of untapped potential here and he’s the best choice out of everybody left on the list that the Riders could have signed.  Well done.

5 – MORE ON MAIER – People quickly forget it was Maier who played very well when Bo Levi Mitchell was injured in 2021 and 2022.  In fact, Maier outplayed Mitchell by a wide margin in 2022, precipitating Mitchell’s exit the next offseason. Current Roughrider OC Marc Mueller was Maier’s QB coach in Calgary so this match has a chance to exceed a lot of expectations. While the last two years have been disappointing, to say the least, there is no guarantee Calgary will be any better in 2025 with Vernon Adams and the unproven PJ Walker at the controls and a support cast that would appear to be similar to 2023 and 2024. Maier, meanwhile, has a lot more talent to work with in Saskatchewan and if Harris stays healthy, he has the benefit of just settling in for a year with no pressure. 

6 – MILLER/PETTERSSON – I watched a media scrum with JT Miller last week as he tried to fend off ambulance chasing media who wanted to capitalize on a potentially juicy story surrounding a riff he may have with Elias Pettersson. I thought Miller did a good job downplaying it and not providing additional fodder but the question I have is why did he do an interview at all? If I was him, I wouldn’t give these people the time of day. They are not interested in doing anything nice for him so why should he be nice and provide sound bites?  Here’s another tidbit for you: just about all teams in all sports (professional and amateur) have top players who don’t get along with other top players on their team. It’s quite normal.

7 – CANADA LOSES TO LATVIA – There was a lot of hand-wringing on social media Friday night after Canada’s 3-2 upset shootout loss to Latvia at the World Juniors. Perspective is needed. Canada didn’t really care about this game as evidenced by the fact they skipped over starter Carter George and back-up Carson Bjarnason in goal and gave their very, very young netminder some experience instead. Having said that, goaltending was hardly the problem. It’s also hard to stay disciplined when you think you are in a joke of a game. And in all reality, this result isn’t going to matter. With the Russian players being banned because the IIHF doesn’t like Putin but are okay with Trudeau freezing his own citizens’ bank accounts, there is only one true barrier standing between Canada and a gold medal and that’s the United States. When you are so stacked that you can just leave players like Andrew Cristall and Riley Heidt at home, I would say there is nothing to worry about here.

8 – REPLAYS – I’ve seen a lot of complaining about replays in sports, especially the NHL and CFL. I have a remedy for all leagues: anything that requires judgment (pass interference, goalie interference) of a person is not reviewable. Anything that is concrete (offside, the puck crossing the line, the football going over the goal line) is reviewable. Having said that, the person reviewing the video should only get one look at normal speed from each camera angle and then has to make a determination based on that. If you have to stop the video and go over it for five minutes, that should not be something that gets overturned. We want to keep the games going and the on-field and on-ice officials have to make split second decisions. The replay officials should be held to the same standard. Why do we have to make it so hard?

9 – MAN IS FEMALE TOP ATHLETE FINALIST – An Olympic Boxer who failed a gender test has been named a finalist for the Associated Press Female Athlete Of The Year. You can’t despise mainstream media enough. It’s a straight up troll job designed to get people fired up and it works. It also cheapens or diminishes the accomplishments of real females because most of us don’t even know who the other two finalists are. It’s also a disservice for the third female who should have been named a finalist.

10 – CANADA OH SAY CAN YOU SEE – Donald Trump’s troll game is picking up steam as he put out a social media post over Christmas stating that he wanted Wayne Gretzky to run for ‘Governor of the great State of Canada’.  A few Canadians are starting to take offense to Trump belittling our country but I’m not one of them. The last ten years of Trudeau rule has sucked any amount of national pride that I had right out of me. I will stand for the anthem at sports events but it doesn’t carry the same meaning as it used to for me. Trump also knows a loser when he sees one and Trudeau is low hanging fruit. I think what has gone somewhat unexpected is the lack of resistance from Canadians to Trump’s ‘threat’ to absorb the entire country. Personally, I see no downside to joining the US. The big obstacle from a lot of people would be healthcare.  Americans have a system that is private and certainly comes with flaws. Canada has a public system where most don’t even have a family doctor and we pay a premium for it through general taxes and that’s enough to fool most of us into thinking we are well taken care of. Sign me up for lower taxes and more control of my healthcare any day of the week. Here’s a little tidbit most don’t know about: Germany has socialized medicine like Canada does and both countries, per capita, spend the same amount of money on it. Germany has one administrator for every 15,000 citizens. Canada, meanwhile, has one for every 1500. That’s ten times the bureaucracy. Not double. Not triple. Ten fold. TEN. Canada has 27,000 administrators for 38 million people.  Germany has less 5,000 for 84 million and you are worried about Canada losing its healthcare system? By the way, Germany isn’t perfect either but the system isn’t falling apart like Canada’s.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)