MONDAY MORNING GOALIE FOR PEDERSEN MEDIA SUMMIT 2.0
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| Keith Hershmiller Photography |
A BRAND NEW WEEK
1 – A PICTURE SAYS 1000 WORDS: Doesn’t that pic from Saturday’s Game 2 of the WHL Finals say it all? The Regina Pats are back in this series in a big way after netting a 4-3 overtime victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds, drawing the series even at 1-1. It was absolute and sheer bedlam in the Brandt Centre when Josh Mahura slapped home the winner 5:22 into overtime, completing the comeback from a 3-1 deficit. Why this team always wants to do it the hard way, I have no idea. But in the end, they always seem to get it done.
2 – SELFISH, SELFISH, SELFISH: I’ll say it again; this is why we love sports so much. It’s because when you go to the arena, stadium, ballpark each day, you never know what to expect. And in Saturday’s Game 2, I saw something I’ve never seen in a lifetime of watching hockey.
Seattle Assistant Captain Keegan Kolesar kneed Regina defenceman Connor Hobbs in the jewels early in overtime, putting his team down a man at the most critical time.
Kneeing a guy in the groin? Why? Especially then.
I’ve seen players do selfish things before on the ice. (In fact it happens almost every night). But this is the biggest head-scratcher of all-time.
Instead of being part of winning the game for the Thunderbirds, Kolesar assuredly cost his team the game. Had they gone up 2-0 in the series heading back to Seattle for Games 3, 4 and 5, they very likely were going to take this thing on home ice.
Now, the Pats have some momentum as the series shifts venues. Should Regina go on to win this thing, they can look back at the pivotal Game 2 and thank Keegan Kolesar for his ridiculous penalty in overtime.
3 – SAVE IT: I can hear some of the fans now. “But Rod, these players are kids! Take it easy on them!” For one, I’ve never really bought that argument. Kids or not, WHL players are treated like rockstars in their market and the benefits vastly outweigh the drawbacks. It can set them up for life if they’re smart. So when it comes to criticism, you need to take the bad with the good.
Keegan Kolesar is 20 years old. He’s an adult. A man. And the Thunderbirds are furious that he may cost them their first league championshp in franchise history.
4 – GO JONNY GO: Caught right smack dab in the middle of this series is NFL star Jon Ryan. The punter for the Seattle Seahawks calls Regina, SK home so clearly he has allegiances to both franchises in these WHL Finals. I asked him prior to Friday’s Game 1 who he’s rooting for.
“A real Sophie’s choice,” Ryan wrote via text. “I’ll be at the games wearing a Switzerland shirt. Seriously, I ordered one.”
Switzerland, of course, has a history of being neutral as a country during world conflicts and not picking a side.
Either way Ryan will be on hand in Kent, WA for Wednesday’s Game 4, dropping the ceremonial game puck.
Perhaps his mother Barb can stitch a jersey that’s half Pats/half Thunderbirds.
5 – TRAVEL: Everybody’s asking about the travel in between games in this Best-of-7 series given the geographical distance between Regina and Seattle. Well, dating back to at least 1968, teams have shared a charter aircraft paid for by the WHL to take them back and forth between games.
The reason I know this occured in 1968 was because the Memorial Cup was a Best-of-7 series back then and the Regina Pats and Montreal Jr. Canadiens flew together on an aircraft across the country.
Mal Isaac was the Pats broadcaster back then, and he said a brawl erupted on the plane in the middle of the series! I don’t think that comes as a surprise to many.
And just like last year, this chartered aircraft flew from Regina to Abbottsford on Sunday and the teams bussed the two hours down to Seattle (separately).
6 – YOURS TRULY: Many thoughtful Pats and WHL Fans have asked over the past few days if I’ll be attending Games 3, 4 and 5 in Seattle this week.
I WISH! But somebody’s got to stay home and mind the SportsCage and keep you abreast of all the other goings-on around here.
Should the Pats advance to the Memorial Cup, then I hope to head to Windsor for sure.
7 – WHAT A DRAFT!: The Saskatchewan Roughriders feel very good about the nine picks they made in the 2017 CFL Draft Sunday evening and why wouldn’t they? They got the top linebacker available in the entire draft (UCLA’s Cameron Judge) and felt they got a steal in Round 2 (offensive lineman Dariusz Bladek of Bethune-Cookman who was pegged to go in Round 1).
Scooping U of R Rams receiver Mitch Picton in Round 5 was another steal since the mock drafts at CFL.ca had Picton scheduled to go in the third round.
Of their nine picks, four were offensive linemen and frankly that’s the only major area of concern for the Roughriders heading into 2017.
The rest of these players, we’ve never heard of, but it’s a great stockpile of additional talent heading into training camp in 20 days!
8 – ALONG CAME JONES: Roughriders Head Coach & GM Chris Jones attended his first ever Regina Pats game on Saturday and came away thinking it was “really cool”. He compared it to last year’s Championship Final in Saskatoon when the NLL’s Saskatchewan Rush captured the league title at a raucous SaskTel Centre.
Jones was particularly moved by the military officer who comes onto the ice before every Pats playoff game carrying a torch and saluting the crowd. “That was really, really cool,” Jones mentioned on Sunday.
Jones was shown on the big screen during Saturday’s Pats game and there’s some conjecture over the response he received. Let me FIRST say that I was headed downstairs at the Brandt Centre at that exact moment so I completely missed it.
Some say Jones got a smattering of applause, some say there was generally no reaction at all, and many others said Jones was booed by the pro-Pats crowd.
They certainly didn’t go wild!
I asked one well-heeled local businessman what the reaction was and he replied, “He got about the same reaction Brad Wall would get if he was to be introduced right now.”
Wall would first have to come to a Pats game for that to happen!
And as far as Jones goes, I think people would really warm up to him if he did more radio interviews and community appearances because he’s very funny, downright charming, and quick-witted. But I understand that’s not his preferred thing and if he builds the winner he’s promised, he’ll walk on water around here no matter how much he shows his face.
9 – OH SO CLOSE: As mentioned, training camp opens in 20 days at Griffiths Stadium in Saskatoon so the longest off-season ever is almost over. It was a treat to be able to watch the CFL Draft at new Mosaic Stadium on Sunday, and it’s an honour just to be able to be in the facility each time we go.
Every time we go in there, it just gets better and better.
One of the questions I’ve gotten the most lately is, “What’s your broadcast booth like?”
Well, it’s as good as there is in pro football. It’s identical to the NFL broadcast booth at MetLife Stadium in New York and better than the radio booths at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.
As bad as ours was at Taylor Field, the visitors broadcast booth in the old stadium was 10 times worse. It was cramped, the windows wouldn’t open properly, and it was in a bad location.
Visiting CFL, USports and PFC broadcasters will think they’ve died and gone to heaven in Regina now.
However the home booth is out-of-this world, second only to the TSN booth next door.
10 – HOW ABOUT THOSE OILERS?: That was nuts on Sunday. The Riders put the Oilers-Ducks Game 6 on a giant TV screen next to the CFL Draft broadcast in the team theatre at Mosaic Stadium and we couldn’t believe our eyes as the Oilers went up 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0, 5-0, etc.
How in the world does this happen? But full marks to them, and at least we didn’t have to hear about the officiating for once.
The Oilers won in a 7-1 rout and forced a Game 7 back in Anaheim this week.
This will assuredly be the highest-rated hockey broadcast on TV so far this year, save for perhaps the World Junior gold medal final in Montreal.
Go Oilers!
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