Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – RUSH SEASON STATS – Zach Manns led the Rush in scoring with 74-points, that’s the lowest total for a leading scorer on the Rush over a full season since the team moved from Edmonton in 2016, however the team also had four players eclipse 70-points for just the second time in the team’s history and the last time they did it was the 2018 championship year when Mark Matthews, Church, Ben McIntosh, and Keenan all finished above that mark.  The 13 wins ties for the second best regular season ever, just one win less than the 2018 championship year.  The 179 goals allowed is the lowest for a Rush team since the move to Saskatoon and Scigliano’s 9.40-GAA and 79.5-SPCT represent franchise best marks as well.

3 – NLL PLAYOFFS – The Rush will play Georgia next Saturday at 7:30pm (note the start time is different from the usual 7pm) in a one game quarter-final playoff match.  The two sides met in early March with the Rush winning 8-7 in a game that the Rush played without Church.  Jake Naso defeated former Rush faceoff specialist Jeremy Thompson 9-6 on faceoffs and that was the start of a bad run for the Swarm, who ended up losing 2 more after that game to Saskatchewan and they limped home with a 2-and-5 record, needing the upset win over Buffalo last night to get into the playoffs.  Other playoff matchups will be the Bandits against San Diego, Halifax gets Calgary, and Vancouver will play Rochester.  The Warriors are 6-and-0 since acquiring goaltender Christian Del Bianco and have to be considered the favorites as the Bandits were just 4-and-4 to finish the year and the Rush were 4-and-3.  

4 – HAWKS TERRIBLE – I remember thinking the Chicago Blackhawks made a horrible trade three seasons ago when they dealt 23-year-old Brandon Hagel to Tampa Bay for two late first round picks, Boris Katchouk, and Taylor Raddysh. I had friends and other hockey people tell me it was smart because Hagel was due for a raise and he had a very limited ceiling and the Hawks are stock piling assets.  This trade is Exhibit A as to why you should never ever trade a proven commodity for lotto tickets.  Besides, Hagel was also only 23.  Don’t you want him to be part of a rebuild?  The chances of getting someone as good as Hagel in that ‘four player haul’ was always slim to none. Here we are now and Hagel is a top ten player in the NHL with 90-points.  How good would he look with Connor Bedard?  Bedard should absolutely ask out of there this Summer, even though he has publicly stated he is willing to stick it out with this team that, clearly, doesn’t deserve him.  I see Bedard’s game deteriorating instead of improving and that’s not on him.  That’s on the Hawks.  

5 – MORE ON THE HAWKS – It was so important for the Hawks to move out Hagel and yet here we are in 2025 and they gave significant playing time to Nick Foligno (36), Patrick Maroon (36), Alec Martinez (37), and TJ Brodie (34).  They’ve made moves to bring in the likes of Ryan Donato, Teuvo Teravainen, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Ilya Mikheyev— all of whom are in their late 20s and have very limited upside.  You look at the roster and it makes no sense at all as to what they are doing.  It’s either deliberate (inexcusable) or incompetent (also inexcusable).  They also wrecked Seth Jones and moved him out and before you criticize Jones for his responsibility in this mess, go look and see who it was that decided they wanted Jones:  The defending champion Florida Panthers.  Bedard should not only demand a trade, but provide a list of teams that he’s willing to go to and I would say that list should be a small one:  Florida, Vegas, Tampa, Carolina, and Colorado.  They are the teams that seem to be trying to win year after year after year.  

6 – REBUILDS/HABS – Why should the last place team always get the top draft pick, or at least have the best odds to get the top draft pick?  If this is true competitive sports, you shouldn’t reward incompetence by gift wrapping these junk teams franchise players.  Teams that suck should have to work their way out of it.  I’ve long been a proponent of the top team that misses the playoffs getting the top pick and in this case, the team that deserves the number one pick this summer would be the Calgary Flames.  It’s just never made sense to me to reward a team for shedding its stars and putting crap on the ice to subject the fans to watching for six years while management kicks back and just waits for the draft picks to develop.  I see Montreal Canadiens’ fans all happy with their ‘rebuild’ but how long is this going to take?  They’ve missed the playoffs six of the last nine years and gone in the first round in two of the three seasons where they did make it.  They gave away Arturi Lehkonen to Colorado, who would look pretty good on their top line right about now.  That’s not to mention they also used to have Philip Danault, Alexander Romanov, Sean Monahan, and Joel Edmundson (among others) in the very recent past but all of them are gone in the name of a rebuild.  All of them would be of great assistance today.  And, the Habs are also still in the last playoff spot available.  It’s not like they are this powerhouse yet everyone seems to think they are going to roll Washington.  I guess we will see. 

7 – PLAYOFFS BEGIN – The NHL playoffs began yesterday with Winnipeg beating St. Louis and even though the Jets have a couple of key injuries (Gabriel Vilardi, Nik Ehlers) the reality is that as long as Connor Hellebuyck plays like he’s capable of, the Jets should win this series in short order.  Colorado beat Dallas 5-1 in the first game of a series that most expect will go the distance.  I’m expecting it to go no more than 5.  Dallas, despite a talented roster that would rank in the top three in the entire league, has been brutal-to say the least-against other top teams this season and their coaching hasn’t done them any favors either.  In a 3-1 game last night, they pulled the goalie with almost four minutes to go in the third.  If you haven’t done your playoff draft yet, stay far far away from Stars players, including Mikko Rantanen, who was exposed and went -2 in game one against his former club.

8 – RATTLERS SIGN CHAPLIN/ANTICEVICH – The Saskatchewan Rattlers have made a signing that, potentially, could result in them landing their marquee player of the season in 24-year-old 6’5” guard Jamir Chaplin.  Chaplin averaged 14.7-ppg with Arkansas-Little Rock (NCAA Div I) last season.  He also played four years at South Florida.  He had a very brief look from the Dallas Mavericks this past October.  “We are expecting some big things out of him and he will play a major role in the success of our team this season,” said GM Barry Rawlyk. A couple days later, the Rattlers announced the acquisition of Australian forward Grant Anticevich, who Rawlyk has also labelled as an impact signing.  Judging by his numbers in college and the pro ranks to date, he should be a force on rebounds and will be a solid contributor on offense.

9 – RATTLERS ON NOTICE – The Rattlers have also signed former Vancouver Bandits Defensive Player Of The Year Duane Notice for the upcoming season.  Over the course of four seasons in the CEBL, Notice (who is Canadian) has averaged 7.1-PPG, 2.5-APG, and 3.4-RPG and he always has played exceptionally well against the Rattlers.  While the numbers don’t pop out at you, this is an impact signing as well.  Notice should be in the starting lineup or, at least, play starter minutes for the team this season.  He also should stick around for the entire season as he played every game for Vancouver in each of the last two years.  The Rattlers’ home opener is Thursday, May 15th.

10 – UFC – I’m all-in on following the UFC.  There is a clear villain once again in featherweight Paddy Pimblett and there is no shortage of fighters who want to line up and try to take a piece of him.  Last weekend, Colby Covington had words with Pimblett in the dressing room area but the two aren’t in the same weight class.  Covington is a welterweight and it could also be argued he wouldn’t be much more of a challenge than Michael Chandler was as he’s 37-years-old and is coming off two losses and hasn’t won since March 2022.  It sounds like Justin Gaethje is going to be next up for Paddy.  UFC315 will be held May 10th in Montreal with the welterweight title up for grabs between champion Belal Muhammad and number five ranked Jack Della Maddalena.  UFC316 in June is the one I have circled as it’s a rematch from UFC306 between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili.  Dvalishvili won a unanimous decision and has since defended the bantamweight title against Umar Nurmagomedov.

UNHINGED BONUS – I’m old enough to remember when Andrew Scheer’s stretching of the truth on his LinkedIn page where he said he was an insurance broker despite not finishing his qualifications to become one was deemed to be a cardinal breach of honesty and we could, therefore, not elect him as Prime Minister.  Here we are now in 2025 and nobody gives a damn about dodging taxes in Bermuda or cozying up to China.  It’s all about whether or not you were honest on LinkedIn.  What a country.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)