Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – RUSH UPCOMING – From here, the Rush head to Toronto to face a Rock team that is near the bottom of the standings but whose record may be a bit deceiving.  They’ve been in every game and are less than a season removed from being the top regular season team in the league but they’ve been very banged up with injuries.  Mark Matthews missed their game this week and it’s believed to be the first game Matthews has missed in his entire career.  A full Rock lineup would prove to be a very formidable foe for the Rush, who have to be considered a top team at this point.  It’s no longer just a hot start as we approved the ⅓ mark in the schedule.

3 – MAIER CONTRACT – The Saskatchewan Roughriders inked quarterback Jake Maier to a one year contract this week.  Maier, whose rights were acquired from Calgary last month, is slated to be Trevor Harris’ back up after being the Stamps’ starter for the last couple of seasons.  The rationale behind only giving him a one year deal is that Harris also is playing on a one year contract.  If the Riders are confident in what Maier can bring to the table, I would have liked to have seen a second year added.  A worst case scenario would be for Harris to get hurt, Maier to take over and excel and then he walks after the season and Harris retires.  A second year for Maier would have given the Riders flexibility and Maier some stability.

4 – ARGOS PAY CUTS – I didn’t see this anywhere else this week but if true, it’s a concerning situation.  According to former CFL reporter Marty York, 23 members of the Toronto Argos were asked to take pay cuts this week.  It could be a sign that, at least, one team is in financial difficulty.  The rumoured ‘For Sale’ sign on TSN should also be something the league and its fans are paying extra attention to because a different looking TSN (or no TSN at all) would be very detrimental to the league as a whole.  Of course since I live here, I pay more attention to the Saskatchewan Roughriders and their situation but the Riders have claimed record profits in recent years and also boasted they could afford to pay the rent that they were threatening to take the City of Regina to court over but simply didn’t feel they should have to pay it because they never used Mosaic Stadium during covid.  

5 – HOCKEY COSTS – Former NHLer Tyler Kennedy, who won a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh, posted a video on Facebook this week that went a bit viral.  In it, he bemoans the $400 price tag of hockey sticks.  He then expands on the need to make hockey more accessible to people by making it cheaper.  What I found even more enlightening were the comments on his post.  In it, were a multitude of people who shared stories of knowing the sport is way too expensive and they didn’t really have the money to spend on the higher end brand name equipment but they spent it anyway because it’s a sign of social status and it also prevents their child from being made fun of on the ice and in the dressing room by other players (some of whom are teammates).  Here we have these maltreatment rules where you can’t call someone fat, or suggest he’s a different gender or has a different sexual orientation, but you can make fun of his parents’ salary.  Just make it make sense.  During covid, I was basically ousted from being on the ‘inside’ of certain hockey circles because I was advocating to play and that’s fine.  I stand by my opinions and I always had the best interests of the players and the sport in mind in voicing my thoughts.  Perhaps this issue is front and centre amongst the administrators now but I wouldn’t know. I’ve always been on the side of the participants and stakeholders and that includes before covid came along.  I had concerns about the cost of the game well over a dozen years ago and when I brought them up, people around the table just laughed and said when it gets too expensive the people will stop buying and that’s when the prices will come down.  That’s probably true and I am not a believer in protecting adults from their own decisions but the fact of the matter is that families have long been going into debt to fund their kids’ hockey dreams when they really shouldn’t have to.

6 – SPORTS BETTING – I’m not active in the sports betting world, but I have a friend who is and he, often, will share his experiences with me and some of them are hard to fathom in so much that I don’t really know why people even wager.  When the lines came out for the Czechia-Canada World Junior quarter-final game, Canada was favored by 2.5 goals.  My friend said it was an easy choice to bet on Czech and he’d be more than happy to collect his winnings.  However, when it came time to pay it out, all he got was his money back.  The betting company has a clause in their agreement with customers that says any line posted ‘in error’ is subject to having the wager cancelled.  Yet, a further investigation seems to reveal they did post a different line closer to game time that was harder for the bettors to decide on and that one was paid out.  I wonder if the Chargers-Texans game had a line that was posted ‘in error’.  On one site, it looked like 95% of the money wagered was on the Chargers however the Texans won the game and the betting companies made a killing.  My guess is that errors on their side are never cancelled.  For me, I’ll just hang on to my money as it doesn’t sound as though you can really make all that much when the companies reserve the right to not pay you whenever the mood hits.

7 – FARCE OF A GAME – While I don’t expect anyone to do anything about it, the integrity of the NFL was definitely in question last week when Kansas City threw their game with the Denver Broncos.  You can’t spin this any other way.  Not only did the Chiefs rest their regulars (which they are entitled to do), they didn’t even put their back-ups and third-stringers in the best possible position to win.  I don’t have sympathy for the Cincinnati Bengals, who needed Kansas City to win in order to make the playoffs, because had the Bengals taken care of business on their own they’d be in the playoffs.  I’m just saying the next time you think a team is ‘tanking’, I will remind you of this game between the Chiefs and Broncos because that was tanking.  I’ve long seen games where back-ups and third stringers have played in an effort to rest the starters but I always felt as though I was getting the best effort from those on the field.  That wasn’t the case last weekend.

8 – NHL GIMMICKS – The NHL has long maintained a ‘no gimmick’ stance when asked about trying to drum up ideas to make their regular season more meaningful for the fans.  The NBA has gone to an inseason tournament with a pot of money on the table to try and peak overall interest and while it’s not the playoffs, it does seem to work.  My query when it comes to the NHL saying they don’t do gimmicks is why would they run outdoor hockey games in Florida if that was the case?  It’s not like Brayden Point (who probably never ever played on an outdoor rink in Canada as a kid let alone anywhere else) took vacations to the Sunshine State just to experience outdoor hockey life.  This is a gimmick and it’s fine.  But don’t say you don’t do gimmicks.

9 – AMERICAN TOURIST AD – I caught the first period of the Jets-Avalanche game on Saturday night and I was struck by one of the advertisers, which is visittheusa.ca.  Maybe American tourist companies have always purchased spots during Hockey Night In Canada and I’ve never noticed before but it does seem like this could be more targeted in light of incoming President Donald Trump’s suggestion that through economic force, he’s looking at the possibility of annexing Canada and making it a 51st US state (maybe 52nd if Greenland goes first).  

10 – NATIONAL PRIDE – Some of you miss my deranged and whacky world takes so I’m going to end this week with one for you.  While most of you blasted me for having Trudeau Derangement Syndrome from time to time, it’s worth noting now that since it’s, basically, Trudeau’s fault we have nearly half the country shrugging its collective shoulders at the thought of Trump gobbling up the country and rendering it a thing of the past.  Yes, I’m the crazy person but I wasn’t the one who:  changed the lyrics to the anthem, told the New York Times we have no core identity as a nation (post national state), removed the founding Prime Minister from the $10 bill and eliminated him from just about everywhere, accused Canadians of committing genocide, removed historical symbols from passports, and accused most of the citizens of having privilege which is why we are all racist or sexist.  I had a frequent reader message me this morning about a Bret Hart wrestling promo from 1997 where he gave an inspiring speech about Canadian national pride and, nearly, none of that speech is applicable today.  As Metallica would say, ‘Sad But True’.  

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)