Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – WHL RAIDERS FIRE COACH – The first place Prince Albert Raiders fired coach Jeff Truitt this week and offered no explanation as to why and even made it a point to say they wouldn’t be commenting on it.  Truitt missed about six weeks of the season back in December because of a medical issue and the Raiders did perform quite well in his absence but should any person lose their job because of injury?  Is there more to the story?  This is where reporting today gets amplified for being what it is: poor.  If I still worked in the media, I would find out why and if I thought the public should know, I’d be doing a story on it.  In today’s world, the media accepts the answer from the Raiders that there will be no mention of this subject and whatever it is that they don’t want to talk about is swept under the rug.  I’d suggest it’s in Truitt’s best interest to speak up, but if he’s guilty of something bad there’s no way he’s going to talk either.  If he’s been railroaded, he’s probably still not talking because he won’t want to be blackballed.  There are other ways to find out though and any good reporter would get to the bottom of it and it wouldn’t take long.

3 – COUGARS COACH – The Regina Cougars men’s hockey team is on the hunt for a new coach and a name I heard this week that makes sense to me is former Estevan Bruins bench boss Chris Lewgood.  Lewgood has served with the Cougars in an assistant capacity for the last couple of seasons and his resume as a head coach in the junior ranks is impressive in so much that his teams were always in the mix near the top of the standings and that’s really all you can ask for.  

4 – SJHL PLAYOFFS – The SJHL playoffs begin next weekend and the most intriguing matchup is Yorkton against Melville.  The two geographical rivals went .500 against each other during the regular season and they just wrapped up a home and home in which the visiting team won both games.  The Terriers hosted on Saturday and 2262 witnessed the 1-0 Melville victory.  It was a packed house and this series figures to attract big crowds in both arenas, so here’s to hoping for a long one.  The trap series is Flin Flon against Humboldt.  The Bombers are the 2 seed and Humboldt is 7 but the Broncos have Dazza Mitchell in goal who is capable of stealing games and their coach, Brayden Klimosko, is a proven league champion.  Having said that, the Bombers have Matthew Kieper in goal and if I was handing out league hardware, he’d win MVP of the league after going 23-2-and-2, 1.80, .936.  He, almost single handedly, turned Flin Flon’s season around when he was acquired in late October and the Bombers are much less imposing 14-11-and-3 in games not tended by Kieper, but if Kieper isn’t in the net for every game in the playoffs something has gone terribly wrong.  Flin Flon should still win but this is not a typical 2 vs 7 series.

5 – PARKING LOTS – Yorkton is not small enough to be a town and not big enough to be a real city if you judge hockey arena parking lot etiquette as being a factor.  It’s the unwritten rule when there are no traffic attendants that the best way to keep the flow going is to let one car trying to turn out to get in front of you and everything moves smoothly.  In Yorkton, everyone can still be home within 10-15 minutes of getting in their vehicle but the Gallagher Centre parking lot is a smash up derby waiting to happen.  Vehicles in the straight line ride bumper to bumper so that those turning out don’t have an opportunity to squeeze in and when a vehicle does happen to squeeze in, there’s another one right on his hind end and then two vehicles have butted in line instead of one and now we’ve got all sorts of blocking and a bit of road rage going on, not to mention pedestrians walking in a random fashion in front of you.  Then you have a number of vehicles just trying to squeeze in wherever with no set order.  It only stands to get worse if we have 2000+ at each of the Mils-Terriers playoff games and Melville will be worse because it’s a smaller town, smaller lot and people park on the street in a somewhat disorganized fashion on non-busy nights.  I think I’ll just wait it out for 20 minutes before trying to leave.

6 – STANKOVEN TRADE – Last week the Dallas Stars dealt rookie forward Logan Stankoven to the Carolina Hurricanes as part of the Mikko Rantanen deal.  Stankoven is from Kamloops and also played his junior there.  Not thinking he’d be dealt, 500 of Stankoven’s friends and family bought tickets for the game against Vancouver last Sunday.  Once news of the trade hit, 400 of them still went anyway and decided to meet up at a local pub beforehand.  They got to witness Stankoven scoring his first goal with Carolina on the big screen and then still enjoyed the Stars rolling the hapless Canucks later that evening despite Stankoven no longer being on the team.

7 – ARASH DISMISSED – Sportsnet has cut ties with Arash Madani.  I know Madani was quite popular in these circles but he was also the author of some fairly divisive and hateful comments during Covid and he has come under some criticism for only paying attention to the CFL when there is something negative to say.  In my opinion, it’s just the latest example of someone forced to sell his soul to a major corporation in order to hold down a job and the thanks you get is a termination slip. I’d be curious to know what he ‘really’ thinks on certain issues without a suit and tie guy micromanaging him. 

8 – RATTLERS COACH – After serving the last three seasons as an assistant, Eric Magdanz has been promoted to head coach of the Saskatchewan Rattlers.  Magdanz is a Lloydminster product who has had success at the U Sports level and my hope is that he can settle in and provide some continuity for the franchise and be the coach for a prolonged stretch.  It’s certainly a bonus that he’s from the local area and has experience in the CEBL even if it’s not as the head coach.  More roster announcements are slated in the coming weeks, but Magdanz does have the benefit of knowing Cody John and Jaden Bediako are both coming back after assuming prominent roles down the stretch last season.  What the Rattlers need more than anything is to win.  The second thing they badly need is someone to give them an identity and if Magdanz is the coach and visible in Saskatoon year-round, that will go a long way.  The CEBL tips off in mid-May and plays a 24-game schedule over three months.

9 – TREVOR BAUER – The New York Yankees are ravaged by injuries to their pitching staff and former Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer is tweeting that he’d sign for nothing and yet the Yankees haven’t reached out.  This should tell you all you need to know about the Bauer situation in a nutshell – he’s blackballed and there isn’t anything anyone is going to do about it.  Nice union.  Some of you who take offense to Bauer’s personal life may be unaware that he has never been found guilty of anything other than being highly critical of the Commissioner.  The media attention given to accusations of Bauer’s sexual impropriety was immense but there hasn’t been nearly the same coverage given to him now that it’s been revealed he was the victim of a set up.  You just hear stories about how teams wouldn’t want someone like Bauer in their clubhouse but Aroldis Chapman never has a hard time finding work. 

10 – BENEFIT BASKETBALL – A few weeks ago, my daughter’s high school basketball team played a benefit game in Norquay for Cheyenne Peterson, a high school student from Sturgis who had been diagnosed with brain cancer in October 2023.  The love for Cheyenne that I felt in the gym that Friday night was incredibly moving and indescribable.  I’ve been to benefit games before but this young lady clearly had a major impact on the students and teachers of her high school and even the students and coaches of other teams.  We often criticize social media for all its negative effects, but there are also instances that are never talked about that are positive too.  Social media makes the high school sports world extremely small and tight and the girls on Sacred Heart also felt a connection to Cheyenne.  Of course I always cheer for my daughter’s team, and they got off to a hot start leading by 14 through the first quarter but it was if a higher power was on the side of Norquay that evening because from the second quarter on, they could do no wrong and they ended up winning the game and I couldn’t help but be happy for them.  Cheyenne was even there to take everything in and sat at the end of the Norquay bench for the entire game.     Wednesday night, Cheyenne passed away and even though I’ve never met her or her family I can’t help but tear up as I tell you a little bit about her and the love for her that I witnessed coming the school and community.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)