Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – UFC314 MAIN EVENT – UFC314 had a bit of controversy to it as Alexander Volkanovski defeated Diego Lopes with a unanimous decision in a fight that really could have gone either way and didn’t feel like it was that clear cut.  I’m a novice UFC viewer but I had it as 1-1 and then three other rounds could have gone either way and, in fact, you could make a case Lopes narrowly won all three of those other rounds.  The victory gives Volkanovski the vacated Featherweight championship which was vacated by Ilia Topuria as he has opted to move up a weight class.  

2 – FEATHERWEIGHT DIVISION – The Volkanovski-Lopes match was the third featherweight bout of the night.  Yair Rodriguez defeated Patricio Pitbull via unanimous decision and Jean Silva took out Bryce Mitchell with a second round submission.  Silva, in particular, looks like a big mover up the rankings and perhaps a match with Rodriguez could be next up for him.  Rodriguez hadn’t won a match in over two years but he was impressive with leg kicks against Pitbull.  It’s a highly competitive and entertaining weight class right now with the likes of Brian Ortega, Max Holloway, and Movsar Evloev also amongst the contenders.  Rodriguez has split two fights with Ortega and has lost to Volkanovski.  

3 – UNDERCARD – The undercard saw Paddy Pimblett pummel Michael Chandler with a third round TKO.  Pimblett is now, firmly, entrenched in the top ten of the Lightweight Division and seems to be eyeing Justin Gaethje or Charles Oliveira next.  Islam Makhachev is the UFC champion and, currently, ranked number one overall pound for pound.  Pimblett is highly unlikeable but there’s no denying he’s a legit contender.  Chandler, meanwhile, has lost three in a row and hasn’t won since May 2022.  He’s 38-years-old and was ushered out of the octagon immediately after the fight.  One has to wonder if that’s the last we have seen of him.

4 – NHL PLAYOFFS WEST – While it’s not yet official, it does appear as though Minnesota and St. Louis are going to lay claim to the last two playoff spots in the Western Conference.  Calgary would need to win their last three and have one of the Wild or Blues to lose their single remaining game.  Winnipeg will go in as the top seed in the West and they should make quick work of either the Flames or the Wild.  They should beat St. Louis as well but the Blues would pose a tougher test by virtue of how well they’ve played since mid-February.  I know everyone is amped up about a Dallas-Colorado first round matchup but the Stars have done absolutely nothing against the top teams and my expectation is for the Avs to win in five.

5 – OILERS CHANCES – The other team that could go out quickly is Edmonton.  Defenseman Matthias Ekholm has a mysterious injury to an unknown part of his body that will keep him out for an unknown amount of time and he’s their most complete defenseman.  It actually seems stupid to report on an NHL injury nowadays.  The Insiders on television will give you all the goods and they proclaim to have all the information and yet they don’t seem to know the two most important aspects of an injury – where on the body the player is hurt and how long is he out.  Instead, they dance around and use fancy terms that mean nothing like ‘upper’, ‘lower’, ‘week to week’, and my favorite ‘maybe the entire first round and it’s possibly serious enough to miss the entire season’.  Well, if the team loses in the first round that would be the season. It’s all just hot air and not worthy of the time of day for the viewer.  The Ekholm injury is only part of it for the Oilers.  Leon Draisaitl may also be injured.  Who knows.  Ask an Insider I guess.  And, the Oilers’ goaltending remains suspect as well.

6 – NHL PLAYOFFS EAST – The Eastern Conference has never been more set up for Toronto to succeed.  They shouldn’t have much trouble with Ottawa and then they’ll get a banged up winner of Florida-Tampa Bay that figures to go close to the distance.  If the Leafs aren’t in the final four this season, it may be time to just give up entirely.  I know Washington has had a good year, but I can’t see them rolling through to the final.  Carolina and New Jersey don’t provide a lot of enthusiasm either.  So that leaves Toronto and the winner of Florida-Tampa.  Yes, I know I left out Montreal.  I think the way the NHL does the playoff bracket, the Habs could upset Washington and then, realistically, I could see them beating the winner of Devils-Hurricanes too (if that’s how it unfolds).  They’d be dead in the water, though, against the Leafs/Panthers/Lightning.

7 – RUSH PLAYOFFS – The Saskatchewan Rush have a Sunday afternoon date in Colorado and then close out the regular season back at home on the 19th against Ottawa but both games will be meaningless for them as they’ve, officially, wrapped up second overall in the standings.  They’ll host a quarter-final playoff game on April 26th against an unknown team as there is still jostling for the final few positions.  It’s so close I won’t even speculate but Georgia, Calgary, Colorado, and San Diego would all appear to be possibilities.  

8 – ROUGHRIDERS TICKETS – I see the Saskatchewan Roughriders are stepping it up with perks to lure potential season ticket buyers for the 2025 season.  They are also offering a package for fans to purchase the home opener and the Labour Day Classic together, which actually floors me.  Those are, typically, two games where you wouldn’t need to do a heckuva lot to get fans because they typically sell out automatically.  So while the indicators aren’t great and the perks may be too little too late, there is reason for optimism. In other venues, fans are starting to come back to watch live sports.  The Rush are seeing increasing crowds with each passing game and the attendance numbers at various hockey league playoff games are off the charts, especially in the U18 (Midget) AAA, Junior A, and Senior ranks.  If the product is good and competitively priced, the people will come.    

9 – SJHL SEMIS – The Flin Flon Bombers are back in their SJHL semi-final series with Weyburn after falling behind 3-games-to-0.  The Bombers won game four in Weyburn on Wednesday 5-1 and then dominated the Wings 6-1 at the Whitney Forum on Saturday.  Game six is back in Weyburn on Monday with the Red Wings under all sorts of pressure.  It’s been a weird playoff for Flin Flon goalie Matthew Kieper, who’s allowed three goals or more in five of his eleven playoff starts.  This comes after allowing three or more in five of twenty-seven regular season games.  Having said that, Kieper was beaten for five twice in his last five regular season games but the overall numbers are still stunning as he’s posted 3-shutouts and a 1.81-GAA with a .936-SPCT in the postseason.  Kieper is 0-and-5 in those five games that he’s allowed three or more.  

10 – MILLEN PASSES – Shock and sadness hit the hockey world on Monday when it was announced former NHL goalie and well-known color commentator Greg Millen passed away at the age of 68.  While no cause was listed, I believe I located the cause via a local newspaper website where Millen lived.  Rather than spread gossip, you can look for yourself if you are interested.  All I’m going to say on this is that it’s incredibly sad that we live in a time where sudden deaths are more normal than they’ve ever been.  With technology in medicine advancement, you’d think the opposite would be the case.  For whatever reason, nobody even seems interested in investigating why so the best we’ve got is hope that we aren’t directly affected by it, but I can assure you we all will be if we haven’t been already.  Former NHL GM Ray Shero also passed away this week at the age of 62 and his cause of death was also not released although you can find it if you spend a lot of time searching for it.  A few of you who read this will be mad at me for talking about this subject but the best way to make it go away would be for people to not die so suddenly and prematurely (Millen and Shero, I hate to break it to you, were not old).

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)