Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – RUSH FALL TO CALGARY – The Saskatchewan Rush missed an opportunity to move into first place as they fell 10-6, at home, to the Calgary Roughnecks on Friday night in front of 7622, their second largest crowd of the year.  The Rush fired 63-shots at Nick Rose and probably hit a post or crossbar ten times as well.  It was just one of those games where the Rush really shouldn’t be all that upset about the effort, they simply just didn’t get the results.  Robert Church had three goals to lead the offense and Jake Naso dominated on faceoffs for the second straight game, going 15-for-20. He’s now 43-for-54 in his last two games, which is an incredible 79.6% success rate.  Because of the loss and how well Rose played, it’s easy to overlook the fact Frank Scigliano was good again in net, making 37-saves, which translates to an 82% save percentage.  From here, the Rush go to Colorado to face a Mammoth team that is right on the edge of getting into the playoffs so they will be desperate.  Saskatchewan’s final home game of the regular season is Easter Saturday and then they’ll host a playoff game the following weekend.

2 – NASO/ROUGHNECKS NOTES – The season Naso is having on faceoffs is truly remarkable.  The rookie is fourth in the league at overall success rate as he trails only well established veterans Joe Nardella (Albany), TD Ierlan (Toronto), and Jake Withers (Halifax).  Fifth overall is Calgary’s Justin Inacio and Naso dominated him last night.  Speaking of the Roughnecks, there is a massive logjam for playoff positioning after Buffalo and Saskatchewan in the standings but if Calgary gets in they are going to be a major problem for whoever they face.  The trade deadline acquisition of Rose from Toronto to be their starting goalie has completely turned the complexion of their team around and they no longer have to score 14+ to win.  He’s had one hiccup in his five starts since joining the team (March 22 against San Diego), but he’s otherwise posted a dazzling SPCT of .826 in his other four games combined.  On offense, 36-year-old Curtis Dickson and Jesse King are elite producers and Dane Dobbie, at age 38, can still get it done too (especially on the powerplay).  The Roughnecks, at 8-and-8, are also a puzzling 2-and-6 at home.  They are the one team I would least want to see if I was the Rush.

3 – LANCE CHARGERS – The Los Angeles Chargers have signed Trey Lance to a one year contract, which puts an end to any fantasy dreams fans would have had about him coming to Saskatchewan.  This is a real good landing spot for Lance as there’s a chance he sees the field.  He only has to beat out Taylor Heinicke for the back up job to Justin Herbert and Herbert isn’t exactly known for being able to stay healthy for a full season.  Lance still has tantalizing potential.  He’s hardly played any football in the last five years and that’s his biggest knock.  

4 – CFL COMMISH – The Canadian Football League has named TSN President Stewart Johnston as its new Commissioner.  Johnston was at the helm of The Sports Network since 2010.  I know nothing about him so it’s hard to judge this hire until we see what he does once he’s actually on the job.  Here’s what we do know when it comes to TSN though:  it’s rumoured that Bell Media has the channel up for sale and they don’t have broadcast rights for the two most important entities in Canada – the NHL and the Blue Jays.  They do have curling and the CFL as well as some regional hockey deals but that’s hardly enough to make the channel attractive to a buyer, especially with Rogers being locked in with the NHL for 12 more years after next season.  There is no hope TSN is going to have national NHL rights ever again at this point.  Broadcast executives aren’t my favorite people but they do know when to abandon a sinking ship and my prediction for TSN is that the channel actually goes completely dark within two years and Johnston knows full well that could be the future and, therefore, he needs a landing spot.

5 – NHL GOAL RECORD – Alex Ovechkin has tied Wayne Gretzky for most career goals as NHLer.  This is a huge deal in hockey and I understand why but I, personally, have never been a huge fan of stat collection.  If you were to ask me the greatest goal scorer (at least in my lifetime) I would tell you without hesitation that it was Mike Bossy.  Bossy had a bad back and it cut his career short.  Second on the list would be Mario Lemieux and third Brett Hull or Ovechkin. I’m not sure I’d have Gretzky even in my top ten for actual goal scoring.  From 1992 to 1999 (when he retired), Gretzky only scored 176 goals.  Ovechkin, by contrast, has 336 in his last eight years.  Bossy is a player most forget about.  He only had a 10-year career but he scored 573 goals in 752 games and was the best player on four Stanley Cup champions.  Sure, he would have slowed as he got older but he was on pace to score over 1000 goals in the same time frame as what Ovechkin and Gretzky scored 894.  Either way these must be difficult times for Canadians who have developed a sudden hate for Gretzky because he prefers living in a country with more freedom, lower taxes, and hangs out with a President who we think wasn’t elected decisively by Americans.  Conveniently, we forget that Ovechkin is a major supporter of Vladimir Putin while Canada is a big proponent of Ukraine. So here we have two hockey idols, both of whom are politically aligned against the consensus in Canada so we vilify one (Gretzky) and celebrate the other (Ovechkin) and just pretend there is no connection to Putin.

6 – SIMPLY THE BEST: A number of weeks ago I was bored and so I tried to compile a list of who I felt have been the best NHLers in my lifetime since I can remember starting to watch hockey.  I love lists because they can be the source of a great debate so here, without further ado is my top ten NHLers from 1982-2025:  Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, Mark Messier, Mike Bossy, Dominik Hasek, Alex Ovechkin, and Nick Lidstrom.  Honorable mentions:  Jaromir Jagr, Sergei Fedorov, Mike Modano, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Patrick Roy, and Jarome Iginla.  A few of the more underrated stars of the last 40+ years:  Pierre Turgeon, Ron Francis, Joe Mullen, Luc Robitaille, Adam Oates, Dale Hawerchuk, Bernie Nicholls, and Al MacInnis.  Feel free to discuss, I’d love to read some of your comments.

7 – MCAFEE TRASH TELEVISION – I consume nearly no sports content aside from actual game play so to say I regularly tune in to Pat McAfee would be a lie.  I have seen him, on occasion, for sure but I’m not someone who regularly tunes in.  This situation that cropped up this week where an Ole Miss co-ed student is taking legal action against McAfee and ESPN is one that should have us all concerned (because it can happen to anyone) and shows just how low the media has gone to try and attract eyeballs and ears.  I may not even have this totally right, but it sounds as though McAfee veered off topic with an NFL analyst that he had on and alluded to a rumour about an unnamed university student and insinuated she was having sex with her boyfriend’s father.  Well it’s not hard for people to figure out the name of this young woman and her life has been, basically, destroyed ever since and so she’s seeking damages and I hope she wins big.  For what it’s worth, there appears to be no truth to the story anyway but even if it were it’s none of anyone’s business.  Especially a national talkshow host who has the attention of millions.  If you can’t keep your audience on a sports channel by sticking to sports then you don’t deserve an audience.  It’s that simple.  That doesn’t mean you can’t connect sports and real life from time to time but carelessly throwing gas on an unfounded and salacious rumour in order to keep yourself relevant, while wrecking the life of someone you don’t even know, is disgusting.

8 – ENOUGH TALK – 31-year-old female fencer Stephanie Turner has been sanctioned with a black card, the most severe infraction that can be imposed on a person after she refused to compete against a man who claims to be a woman.  It’s not funny, but when looking at the statement issued by the governing body, they say, “We respect viewpoints on all sides (clearly not) and the way to progress is by respectful discussion based on evidence.”  That apparently means penalizing a competitor for expressing herself on the side that isn’t crazy.  How respectful.  I thought Donald Trump put a stop to this with an executive order a couple of months ago, but apparently not.  I tried doing a few minutes of research on it and it would appear if this was an NCAA event then perhaps Turner has a case to sue the governing body but this was a club event and educational institutions were not involved.  Regardless, why wouldn’t Trump’s order cover everything and not just schools?  Say what you want about Trump, but all I have seen from him is a bunch of tough talk and not a lot of action.  Has he actually withheld funding from schools (Maine, for example) that are standing up to him?  How’s the Ukraine war going that he bragged about being able to stop within a day?  It’s long past time for people like Donald Trump, Danielle Smith, and Yves-Francois Blanchet to back up their flapping gums.  If you are going to brag about being a peacemaker, make it happen.  If you are going to threaten the feds over the CPP, just shut up and take what you think is yours.  If you are threatening to separate from Canada, just go ahead and do it.  For me, I’m done with all these politicians.  Wake me up when they actually do what they say.  At least Mark Carney admits he has minions to buy his American strawberries.  Vote liberal if you can relate to having a servant get your groceries.

9 – RATTLERS SIGNING – The Saskatchewan Rattlers have announced the signing of Canadian Deon Ejim to the roster for the 2025 season.  Ejim played at St. FX University in Nova Scotia and hails from Ontario.  He has previous CEBL experience with Calgary in 2023, where he played sparingly at 12 minutes per game and averaged 4 points per game.  Canadian content is important and Ejim also has NCAA experience with Illinois-Chicago (Div I) so it’s possible Ejim is a lot like Cody John in that he just needs an opportunity to showcase his potential.  John averaged 16.4-ppg in the second half of last season when his playing time spiked following the departure of the entire starting lineup.  Meanwhile, Anthony Tsegakele is also coming back for season number four.  Tsegakele had a bit of a down year in 2024 but can be a force on defense.

10 – GET IT OVER WITH – NBA star Anthony Edwards has settled his child support payments with one lump sum payment of $1,080,000.  That’s $5000 per month for 18-years.  I’m not sure what to make of this one other than it’s obvious Anthony Edwards wants no more contact with mother and child.  If only we could all eliminate long term annoyances with one stroke and one payment.    

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)