Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – CROSBY – Watching Sidney Crosby’s performance so far at the 4 Nations Cup has me wondering if hockey pundits weren’t a little too quick to pass the torch from Crosby to Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon as the top players in the game. While Crosby is 37-years-old, he’s still playing at way over a point per game pace and his compete level, which isn’t measured by statistics, is still unmatched despite MacKinnon’s well documented focus to the finer details of the game. While it’s true that Crosby isn’t going to win a scoring title over McDavid or MacKinnon, Crosby is still the first player I’d select in a draft of Canadian players. As hard as it may be to believe, I think Crosby has been underrated for the better part of the last five years.

2 – GAMES ARE INTENSE – So much for this event being a mail-in for the players as there were three fights in the first nine seconds of the Canada-US game on Saturday (a 3-1 victory for the Americans). If Canada can defeat Finland on Monday, it will set up a rematch with the Americans for the event’s title game on Thursday and while I shrugged this exhibition showcase off as nothing I cared to watch, I won’t be missing Thursday.  Canada has the top four players in the tournament (Crosby, MacKinnon, McDavid, and Makar), but the Americans are a deeper team and they have toppled Canada as the world leader when it comes to playing with grit and character. Canadians are maybe too self-absorbed to notice but I’d even say we are third now in this area with Finland coming second. If we could rediscover the heart we used to exude, none of these games are even close because we still have the most talent. So much so, we can monkey around with the depth players and ignore stars like Mark Scheifele, Matt Duchene, and Evan Bouchard.  Scheifele, for what it’s worth, is the fourth leading Canadian scorer in the league but takes a back seat to Anthony Cirelli. Bouchard, Doug Hamilton, and Jakob Chychrun are 4-5-6 in blueline scoring amongst Canadians but weren’t good enough to go to the tournament over Drew Doughty (who has played 5 games all year) and still not good enough to get a call when Makar and Shea Theodore went down with injury/illness. That should tell you the level of talent the Canadian team has when we don’t need these players.  

3 – RUSH SATURDAY – The NLL standings are based on winning percentage, but if they went by the baseball style of ‘games behind leader’, the Saskatchewan Rush moved into a tie for first place Saturday night by, convincingly, defeating the Rochester Knighthawks 17-9, while the first place Buffalo Bandits lost 14-13 in overtime to San Diego. The Rush are now 8-and-2, the Bandits 7-and-1.  Officially, the Bandits are still first and the Rush second. It was a rare weekend where the Rush played twice and they started it with a 16-13 win at Calgary on Friday so the fact they were able to play that game, take a six hour bus ride home after the game and then dominate Rochester the way they did is a real testament as to where the Rush are competitively. They have cemented themselves as a true contender and while it’s premature to say they are back to 2016-2018 levels when they won two titles, they are definitely well on their way to re-establishing themselves as one of the top franchises in the NLL.

4 – RUSH WELL BUILT – I have a hard time picking apart weaknesses on this team.  Even with the injury to faceoff specialist Jake Naso, Mike Messenger has done a really good job at winning draws.  He’s not winning the majority of the match-ups the way Naso was, but he is faring much better than last year when he was the primary player taking the face offs.  The defense can be outright dominating with Jake Boudreau tracking down loose balls and Matt Hossack causing turnovers.  Hossack has to be in the conversation for Defensive Player Of The Year.  In goal, Frank Scigliano has been very steady and consistent while his back-up, Thomas Kiazyk, also impressed when pressed into action a few weeks ago.  On offense, the depth is a major strength.  Zach Manns leads the team in scoring but he’s a long way down in the league scoring leaders.  However, it’s impossible for teams to focus on one single player.  Robert Church is back to elite form after missing two games with an ankle injury.  Ryan Keenan got off to a slow start, but he has 34-points in his last 5-games.  Austin Shanks led the team last night with 7-points and Clark Walter, who was a healthy scratch on Friday, scored three goals on Saturday.  Big Mike Triolo is a regular contributor you can bank on 3-4 points a game from, it seems. Rookie Brock Haley is making an impact and then you have fellow rookies Levi Anderson and Josh Zawada waiting in the wings.  Both players would be regulars on just about every other NLL team.

5 – SPRING TRAINING – Major League Baseball training camps are opening with pitchers and catchers having already reported.  Ball players have a reputation of being the biggest drama queens of all professional athletes and that’s really saying something in today’s environment.  Yankee pitcher Marcus Stroman is drawing a bit of criticism for saying he won’t pitch out of the bullpen this season despite being listed 6th on the starting pitcher depth chart.  On the same token, Stroman was the last pitcher to report as he arrived at the latest possible date and time required, which sends a message contrary to that of working hard to earn a slot higher than what’s projected.  When discussing the Stroman situation and his last moment arrival to Spring Training, former MLB pitcher Ron Darling shared a story about when he played with the Oakland A’s.  He said each year, Jose Canseco and Rickey Henderson would come to camp on the last day players were allowed to report before getting fines.  Both of them would then sit in their vehicles and try to outwait each other before going into the clubhouse.  Like hockey players who are finicky about being the last player off the ice during pregame warmup, Canseco and Henderson had their own competitive ‘last to camp’ thing going on.

6 – HALF TIME SHOW – I’m not one to get too up in arms over the Super Bowl half-time show but this year’s version has to be the worst ever and I’m not sure I can even pinpoint a close second.  I went on wikipedia to try and remember all the halftime shows of the last 20 or so years and every single one of them were miles better than this past weekend.  Admittedly, I’m very narrow minded when it comes to music.  If it doesn’t rock, I don’t like it.  But I would also like to think I can set aside my likes and judge a performance based on how entertaining it was despite me not liking it.  You couldn’t pay me to listen to Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, Justin Timberlake, etc. but all of those half-time shows were very well done and entertaining even if you aren’t a fan of the artist.  They also all have songs that 90% of us have heard before, even if by accident.  To me, take a look at who’s at the top of the charts and book your act based on that.  So, go with Morgan Wallen or Post Malone or Daughtry or somebody like that who has more wide appeal and is charting.  With all due respect to Kendrick Lamar, I don’t believe those who watch the Super Bowl are at all familiar with his songs or his dispute with Drake.

7 – KELCE MARKETING MACHINE – While I find the constant Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce/Jason Kelce/Mama Kelce coverage nauseating, I have to tip my hat to all of them for being master marketers.  Jason is the most famous center to ever play the game and I don’t know how he went about becoming as such but he’s turned himself into as recognizable a face as any of the top NFL quarterbacks.  Travis capitalized on big pharma to promote a drug he’s probably never even taken himself all the while finding a girlfriend who is the most popular pop singer of our time.  I don’t listen to Swift’s music but she’s the female version of Elvis Presley.  Prove me wrong on that.  The mom, somehow, has latched on to all of this and by wearing embarrassing clothes and hanging out with her potential daughter-in-law. I’ve had more than enough of it but the general public can’t seem to get enough.  So, we will be subjected to more of it until, at least, the break-up.

8 – BUFFER INTROS – I know I’m showing my age on this one, but while I have taken an interest in UFC, I don’t get the Bruce Buffer introduction aspect.  I know it’s entertainment and it has to be full of energy to pump everyone up, but I can’t understand what he’s saying.  Michael Buffer’s ‘Let’s Get Ready To Rumble’ had its appeal for a short shelf life but he was annoying once that shtick ran its course.  It’s sort of like the oldtimer Leafs announcer, who drops a ‘Holy Mackinaw’ in the middle of an icing.  Retired Penguins announcer Mike Lange was good because he had a wide arsenal of catch phrases and still, occasionally, came back to his most famous one – ‘a rented mule’.  As much as I despise the Yankees, John Sterling had staying power because of his diversity of having a different signature for each player’s home run.  Perhaps Bruce needs to mix it up?  I don’t know, but I just find the introductions to be too long and other than ‘It’s Time’, I can barely make out the rest of what he has to say but it sure looks good with his 180 and other physical actions in the octagon that he puts on display for the crowd but perhaps that’s the point.  

9 – RUSH ANTHEM – I was pleased at the overall showing of class by fans at the Rush game last night as the American anthem was not booed and it also even generated some applause at the conclusion of the song.  Having said that, I must have picked the worst seat in the house as two jerks sitting next to me decided to stay seated through the entire song.  I guess that’s better than booing but it’s amazing how quick some Canadians are to show their hatred for Americans.  Donald Trump has nothing to do with the US national anthem and while I’ve said in earlier columns that Justin Trudeau has sucked a lot of national pride from me, I would not for a single second turn over the anthem to him and disrespect it as a means to ‘get back’ at him.  One of Canada’s dirty little secrets is how we feel about Americans.  We look down on them and are snobby towards them.  This ‘tariff war’ that Trump has started simply makes it ‘okay’ for us to express openly our dislike for them.  By the way, what is it that we are ‘protecting’ as a country from Trump?  All of our institutions are broken and/or compromised and the taxes are out of control with no visible sign the money is being spent wisely to benefit us.   

10 – DASH OF SPORTS WITH WHAT’S HAPPENING – Most of us are so allegiant to our political side that we only ever see one side of an issue. Here’s the reality in the situation with the US and Canada as far as I see it: Trump’s suggestion that his country doesn’t need Canada and that we are the source of a lot of the issues at the border are exaggerated and he’s out of line on a lot of it. However, Trump despises Trudeau and the Liberals and this is a response to how he has been treated by the Canadian government during his first tenure and payback is a bitch. While we’d never win a military style war with the US, the fact remains we are a security threat due to our close ties with China and our slack rules regarding terrorist organizations who have found a comfortable home to operate in our country. We also have a government that isn’t the least bit interested in governing.  They’ve prorogued Parliament to cling to power when they should be sitting to deal with the Trump tariff threats.  On one hand we have this economic emergency, on the other it’s not serious enough to call the politicians back to work. So don’t be mad at Trump. Don’t be mad at American citizens and boo the anthem.  Yes, you should support Canadian companies but you should ALWAYS be supporting Canadian companies, especially small businesses, many of which continue to struggle after the same Team Canada politicians shut the businesses down during Covid and allowed packed corporate American owned department stores to operate. Yes, you can cheer for Canada at the 4 Nations despite living in a country that couldn’t put 12 players on the ice in an empty arena during Covid when North Dakota was playing hockey like it was 2019. So forgive me if I find a lot of disingenuity to all of this. Here’s also reality – if we become the 51st state, all of a sudden those Premiers in powerful political positions become a lot less powerful and important so no wonder they are enthusiastic about promoting ‘Canada’. I don’t buy their sincerity for a second.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)