Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – RUSH GREAT PERFORMANCE – The three players most responsible for the successful season the Saskatchewan Rush have had so far all stepped up in a big way Saturday night as the Rush held off the Georgia Swarm 13-9 to advance to the NLL semi-finals against Halifax next weekend.  Jake Boudreau, who’s up for NLL Transition Player Of The Year, scored four times and finished with five points as well as nine loose balls.  Matt Hossack, who should be a runaway winner for NLL Defensive Player Of The Year, contributed three assists, six loose balls, and two caused turnovers.  Goalie Frank Scigliano made 38-saves, several of which were highlight reel variety.  From here, the Rush tangle with Halifax in the semi-finals.  The Thunderbirds have brought out the worst in the Rush in each of the last two years when games have been played in Halifax, as the Rush have been outscored 36-15 in two games on the East Coast and Halifax has won three of the last four head to head meetings.

2 – GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS – The non-competitive good news from last night is that the anthem singer used the true lyrics of ‘…all thy sons command’ and was given a very polite cheer in the middle of the song for doing so.  Was it a symbol that Canada is nearly finished with the DEI nonsense that has consumed us for ten years?  We will find out Monday.  The non-competitive bad news is that only 5434 showed up to watch the first Rush playoff game in six seasons.  When the Rush were selling out Sasktel Centre on a regular basis during their early years I was impressed at how the city and community stepped up to support a team and a sport that isn’t universally popular like hockey or football but I was warned by many that Saskatoon is a soft market and they will abandon ship at the first opportunity.  Those people appear to have been right because this attendance number was, by far, the lowest of the four quarter-final games this weekend.  Embarrassing.  The Rush have done their part restoring a championship level team to the city.  The fans haven’t done theirs.

3 – INDIRECT CONSEQUENCE – I make mention of finding out on Monday if Canadians have finally had enough abuse from the federal government and it’s entirely possible we have not because there are just too many who are ‘unaffected’ by silly things like taxing the equity on your home, inflation, increasing crime, homelessness, drug abuse, Chinese interference, and a tax dodging Prime Minister.  That’s all fine if that’s where your head space is at but I can also tell you that an indirect consequence of wanting more government control from power hungry politicians will result in a loss of professional sports teams.  Owners won’t like the increase in expenses (which are already dangerously too high) that have to be paid in Canadian funds despite dealing in a league that works with US dollars.  Players will also have no desire to live in a communist country and also won’t like forking over money to the government when they can clearly see they wouldn’t have to pay as much in other American locations.  You can laugh and vote Liberal but mark my words that’s one of the things you can look forward to which nobody has actually talked about.

4 – CFL PUBLIC IMAGE – One of the first things the CFL released under its new Commissioner is a DEI program the league is very proud of in which nine candidates from a diverse cultural background have been selected to contribute to the football operations department in each of the nine franchises.  The post was shared on Facebook earlier this week and the comments from fans have been overwhelmingly negative.  I didn’t look to see if one particular market has more fans than others posting comments but it is further evidence that despite the change at the top, the CFL isn’t listening to its fans.  This new commissioner comes from TSN and Bell Media, so you can expect way more of these types of things that are focused on ‘looking good to the public’ which don’t actually translate into greater overall interest in the league.  Good luck with it.

5 – CFL EXPANSION – For years, under the former Commissioner, a lot of hard work went into trying to secure an expansion franchise for the Maritimes.  Sometimes that focus was on Halifax and sometimes it was on Moncton but there’s no question the CFL invested a lot of money and time into a potential future footprint in the area.  Now, the new Commissioner says there will be no expansion anywhere anytime soon. Well, that was a quick 180-degree turn.  I probably don’t blame him though.  There appears to be dwindling interest in every single CFL market compared to ten years ago and if the league cares, at all, about bums in the seats (and they may not because there is mounting evidence attendance doesn’t matter in professional sports) a lot of attention will have to go towards the existing franchises and how to win back what has been lost.

6 – SHEDEUR SANDERS – The notion the NFL is racist and that’s why Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round in the draft is a saucy narrative but it’s just so far from the truth that it’s laughable.  First of all, what’s Sanders’ ceiling as a pro?  Is he a potential Super Bowl-winning QB or is he more likely to be closer to a league average signal caller?  Once you determine that as an evaluator you start looking at the intangibles, which for a quarterback, are every bit as important as the physical skillset.  There are multiple reports he interviewed poorly as well as many public videos that show him, basically, dictating to whoever picks him how things are going to work.  There were also hints dropped that he wouldn’t report to certain clubs.  One Executive said Sanders is like, “Imagine Terrell Owens, his father, Chad Johnson, and Jim McMahon multiplied by ten thousand.  In my 33-years I’ve never encountered a prima donna of this calibre.”  Here’s the other thing about Sanders that isn’t talked about enough:  he had an easy schedule that if you break it down, he went 0-and-2 against ranked teams this past season and I was stunned to see that he rushed for negative 84 yards in those two losses.  NEGATIVE 84.  He also had a pedestrian 2-TD, 2-INT against BYU in his final game and he was blessed with Travis Hunter at wide receiver.  Maybe he is the next Tom Brady but it’s far more likely he’s all hype.

7 – NHL GOALTENDING – The first round of the NHL playoffs has been pretty much what the first round always is in the NHL: full of exciting games that will be hard to replicate in the subsequent rounds.  Good goaltending is crucial and it’s something Ottawa and Edmonton have not received and that’s why they are on the brink of being dusted.  As far as the Oilers go, I’ve been saying for three years that what they had as a starter wasn’t going to cut it and it’s too bad because the rest of the team is Stanley Cup champion worthy but they’ve refused to address it and here we are.  I see fans doing mental gymnastics trying to blame Evan Bouchard’s defensive play or the St. Louis Blues stealing away Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway as the reason rather than it being goaltending but the simple reality is this – the Oilers have the worst goaltending of any team in the playoffs and that’s a recipe for a quick exit.  As far as Ottawa goes, Linus Ullmark is a really good regular season goalie but there are over a dozen playoff games that he’s played that say he’s not the answer if you want to win a round in the playoffs.  The other team to watch where the jury is out on playoff level goaltending is Winnipeg.  Connor Hellebuyck is the best in the world during the regular season but he needs to, at least, match that in the playoffs and he hasn’t been close in the last two post seasons, quite frankly.  He’s got time to turn it around but I’d be nervous if I was a Jets fan. 

8 – GOAL REVIEWS – Video replay is perplexing at the best of times but what I saw in game three of Los Angeles-Edmonton was quite head scratching.  The Oilers scored a go-ahead goal in the third and the play went to review to see if Evander Kane kicked the puck in.  The officials deemed he did not but the Kings were allowed to then challenge goaltender interference.  If the intent of video replay is to get the call right, why can’t the referees evaluate ALL of the various factors that come into play when assessing whether a goal is good or not?  The NHL rules indicate that if they are reviewing whether or not the puck was kicked in, they actually can ignore whether or not there was goalie interference and leave it up to the team to challenge and then they will review the goal a second time (which is what happened here).  The challenge was ill-advised but that’s not the point.  If there was goalie interference, it should be well within the purview of the referee to announce that while Kane did not kick the puck in, video replay shows there was goaltender interference and therefore no goal.  Instead, we have to suffer through a second review and further delays to an exciting game.  If the intent is to get the call right, there should be no challenges allowed after one video review and the review should cover all possibilities on whether or not a goal should count.

9 – RATTLERS LATEST – I have to correct a mistake from last week when I said the Rattlers signed CEBL veteran Duane Notice away from the Vancouver Bandits.  It turns out there is a mistake on the CEBL website as Notice, in fact, is going back to Vancouver and was not signed by the Rattlers.  However, the Rattlers did sign two more players this week with one of them being Canadian Dondre Reddick, who turned pro last year and played sparingly with Calgary.  Reddick is a potential top scorer but he’s going to need playing time.  His university history at St. FX and his pro debut in the Georgian Super Liga would indicate a sharp uptick in his development.  The Rattlers also have signed Elijah Ifejeh, a Montreal product who played each of the last three years in his hometown with the Alliance.  Ifejeh projects as a potential 10-ppg, 5-rpg player who brings durability and toughness to the roster.  The Rattlers play their home opener on May 15th.

10 – NHL COURT CASE – A mistrial was declared on Friday morning in the case of five former NHLers who are accused of sexual assault stemming from a 2018 incident in London Ontario.  A publication ban prevents details on why a mistrial was declared but the jury was discharged and a new jury was selected.  The case will now begin on Monday.  All five players have pleaded not guilty.  On an unrelated note but this also covers sex abuse, I feel it’s important to point out Virginia Giuffre was suicided this week.  Giuffre was 41 but came to fame as being the girl seen in a widely viewed picture of Prince Andrew as it relates to Epstein Island.  I have wondered why the high profile names of perverts and criminals haven’t been released while Ghislaine Maxwell sits in a jail cell for having trafficked girls to clients who have never been brought to justice. It would appear that if someone threatens to talk or take serious action in this delicate situation that could see a some of the world’s most powerful people get brought down, that suicide or an accidental death could be a by-product and so I don’t anticipate the list ever being made public despite some of us knowing a few of the names on it.  Frankly, it’s disgusting to see them get away with it but they have and will never ever have to answer for what they’ve done.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)