THE MONDAY MORNING GOALIE

BUZZ FROM THE WEEKEND ..

1 – THE HUB CITY: Whomever gave Saskatoon this moniker knew what they were doing. ToonTown was the place to be this weekend as it played host to NHL, NLL and CFL stars! It was a huge thrill for me to be in the middle of it. From the 60th Annual Saskatoon Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner to the Sask Rush’s wild 9-7 win over Colorado, there was plenty of news coming out of Saskatchewan’s largest city. Read on ..

2 – NICE GUYS RUN THE KINSMEN CLUB: John Lynch had that right too. This year’s Kinsmen Dinner featured five Hockey Hall of Fame goaltenders: Glenn Hall, Bernie Parent, Grant Fuhr, Ed Belfour and Martin Brodeur plus Roughriders stars Charleston Hughes and Brett Lauther. As a small piece of Friday’s program, I was able to spend one-on-one time with just about all of them. Anybody who’s known me my whole life realizes this opportunity was a lifelong dream.

3 – THE EAGLE LANDS: The fun kicked off Friday morning with an encounter with Eddie “The Eagle” Belfour in the restaurant at the Holiday Inn Downtown. I informed Eddie that my Dad was employed by the Dallas Stars for 26 years and the pair won a Stanley Cup together in 1999. “I remember Jimmy,” The Eagle winked. “We used to spend a lot of time around the scouts.” That brought tears to my eyes. We would spend a good chunk of the day together, swapping stories, and exchanging contact info. 

4 – COCOA: Truth be told, the guy I was most excited to chat with was Grant Fuhr. I was scheduled to interview the Edmonton Oilers great on stage Friday evening but a last-minute change to the program nixed that chance. Fortunately I was able to get all my questions answered earlier in the afternoon and Fuhr was happy to field them all. The 5’11” icon feels the current trend of 6’2″-plus goalies in the NHL will come back around and give every goalie – no matter how tall – a chance to make The Show. He also feels there will be a return to “stand-up goalies” before long because shooters have caught on to the fact that goalies will be on their knees as soon as skaters cross the blue line.

5 – MORE COCOA: The Spruce Grove, AB product scoffs at anyone who suggests his stats aren’t Hall of Fame-worthy (3.37 career GAA and .887 save percentage). “The only stat that matters is wins,” Fuhr smiled. “Always has been and always will be.” While he’s spent time coaching goalies in the WHL and NHL, he now runs a golf course in Palm Springs, CA. If another NHL opportunity presents itself he’d look at it but, if not, he’s happy as heck doing what he’s doing now.

6 – MARTY PARTY: I was eager to pepper some questions at Martin Brodeur since we’re the same age and always admired his career, like many of you. He was far less interested in discussing his three Stanley Cup wins than he was the two Stanley Cup Finals he lost. He winced and kicked at the snow outside TCU Place at the mere thought of the pair that got away. The Montreal product was generally quiet, preferring to chuckle at the steady stream of jokes coming out of Flyers great Bernie Parent. Roughriders star Charleston Hughes was never far away, clowning it up and acting goofy. “Football players,” Brodeur quipped, rolling his eyes.

7 – PARENTAL CONTROLS: Jon Ryan’s brother Steve asked via Instagram which Hall of Famer had the best stories. I answered that it was Bernie Parent by a mile. “You know why the 1970’s Flyers wouldn’t win a game now?” Parent winked. “Because we’d all be in jail!” At 74, Parent is very much in tune to the Philly sports scene including the Flyers, Eagles and NLL’s Soul. He fired a barrage of questions at Brett Lauther over lunch, wondering intently what it takes to be a successful pro football kicker. Bernie also reminded me of my Dad because he offered a steady stream of life advice like, “The team that will always have a chance to win is the one that’s a true TEAM”, or “What goes around comes around so you’d better always treat people right.”

8 – MR. GOALIE: Glenn Hall put his hometown of Humboldt, SK on the map and, at age 88, stole the show at the Kinsmen Dinner. He referred to the fivesome of Hall of Fame goalies as “ugly” – which brought the house down – but countered with, “They’re all the nicest guys. Please don’t tell anybody I said that”. The crowd marvelled at Hall’s record of 502 consecutive NHL games played and he did it WITHOUT A MASK! It’s important to have events like this and recognize the past because these feats can’t be forgotten.

9 – MR. KICKER: Rider kicker Brett Lauther is just a treat to be around and his story of getting to the CFL is one that should be made into a movie. (Similar to Invincible, chronicling the life of Eagles great Vince Papale). Brett spoke at length about Touchdown Atlantic 2020 and how eager he is to play in his home province again. He feels the Atlantic Schooners dream will be realized but it has to be done right. He doesn’t favour playing the first two seasons out of Moncton, NB, and feels they need to be good right out of the gate. Lauther also explained why he’s a far better hockey player than football, having played junior in the Maritimes.

10 – CHUCKY: This weekend was the most one-on-one time I’ve spent around Charleston Hughes and you can see why the Rider Nation has gravitated to him. He’s just as charismatic as Duron Carter, and his motor never stops running. I asked him why he wanted to be part of the Kinsmen Dinner for a second-straight year and he said because he believes so much in what the Kinsmen does for the disadvantaged in Saskatchewan. Great guy!

11 – THE FUTURE: The Saskatoon Kinsmen Club is made up by a bunch of young, energetic, successful guys with huge hearts. Their biggest challenge in the years ahead is topping what they’ve done over the past few like welcoming Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, Joe Montana, Bo Jackson, the biggest Roughriders names and many more. But they’ll pull it off. Someone asked me during Friday’s dinner, “Does Regina have anything like this?” I had to say no.

12 – FEEL THE RUSH: Saturday’s Saskatchewan Rush 9-7 win over the Colorado Mammoth at SaskTel Centre was everything the Rush hoped it would be. The game was close and energetic, and the crowd was bumping as much as it’s ever been. As announcer Pat Dubois said on the 92.9 The Bull postgame show, “This is the first time this season the team and the crowd sync’d up like we’ve been waiting for”. Unfortunately when I brought some newbie fans to the past two home games, the vibe wasn’t there. But they’ll be back. I messaged Brett Lauther and asked what he thought of the game. He replied, “Unreal time”.

13 – X MARKS THE SPOT: The opening weekend of the return of the XFL was something to witness. It was possibly more fun to watch fans’ reaction on social media than it was to watch the games. So many CFL-supporters did their best to poo-poo the fledgling league but the action was pretty good. It was cool to see CFL/NFL-types like Marc Trestman, June Jones and Jerry Glanville on the sidelines again and maybe some of these players will become household names. The televised product was slick and the rules enhancements were cutting edge. Just think – it took the XFL to figure out how to make kickoffs safer! I expect to see some of these rules innovations to be adopted by the CFL and NFL.

14 – CFL FREE AGENCY: The bidding season is now closed and we’re currently in the exclusive negotiation stage for teams before the 2020 Free Agent season opens at 11 am CT on Tuesday. Roughriders GM Jeremy O’Day seems to be right on track, being able to sign his targeted players. Will he win free agency like he did last year? (Cody Fajardo, Jon Ryan, Solomon Elimimian, Micah Johnson, William Powell, et al) We won’t know the answer to that question for several months but so far it’s a thumbs-up.

15 – ALOUETTES GROUNDED: The new Alouettes ownership slashing the team’s cheerleading squad is unconscionable. They play as big a part of connecting the team to the fans as the players! And the Alouettes crew is always rated near the top of the league. Furthermore, with Kevin Glenn reportedly turning down two CFL coaching offers because the money was too poor and opting instead to work as an admissions officer at a Detroit high school has me wondering where the CFL is headed?

**UPDATE** The Alouettes announced Monday morning they are reinstating the Cheerleading Team after public pressure!

16 – GREY CUP ODDS: Here are the Las Vegas odds for 2020 Grey Cup favourites as we stand today: Hamilton, Saskatchewan, Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Montreal, BC, Ottawa, Toronto. 

17 – BATTLE OF ALBERTA: According to legendary Edmonton sportswriter Terry Jones, if the Stanley Cup Playoffs opened today, the Flames and Oilers would meet in Round 1. If there’s such a thing as hockey gods, they’ll make it happen.

18 – FACT OR FICTION: Saskatoon sports fans told me on more than one occasion that the UofS Huskies hockey team is out-drawing the Saskatoon Blades for attendance. It should be an easy stat to look up, but that’s the buzz on the street.

19 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: Don’t tell a woman she has a deep voice, even if you think it’s a compliment. … I’ll take XFL games over the eye-glossing, mind-numbing NFL Combine/Draft coverage. … Is it true that it’s harder to lose weight in the winter than it is in the summer? It sure seems to be. … The Cowboy Code: Honesty, Integrity, Community & God. … There’s no need to point out who broke which stories across the CFL. The people who are paying attention already know, and those who aren’t paying attention never will. … Ranking the last four movies I’ve watched over the past two weeks: 1) Bad Boys For Life, 2) The Last Full Measure, 3) Gentlemen, 4) Uncut Gems.

20 – “COME HANG OUT”: Those three words are my favourite in the English language at the moment. The Saskatoon Kinsmen offered that phrase last week, saying to drive up a day early and mingle with the Hall of Famers even though I had no official role until Friday evening. The Vegas Golden Knights said the same thing and that’s exactly what I’m going to do later this week, heading to Sin City with my brother to catch the Knights’ home games against the Blues and Islanders. As my head hit the pillow Thursday evening at a Saskatoon hotel, a voice inside said, “This is the life.” 

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen