THE MONDAY MORNING GOALIE

Taking Shots …

1 – SUPER BOWL 55: By now you know the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be the first team in history to appear in a Super Bowl in their own stadium after upsetting the Packers 31-26 in Green Bay in the NFC Championship on Sunday. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely seen the stat that Tom Brady is set to make his 10th Super Bowl appearance meaning he’s appeared in 18% of all Super Bowls! The Bucs’ opponents will be the Kansas City Chiefs who disposed of the Buffalo Bills 38-24 in the AFC Championship. Super Bowl LV will be waged on Sunday, February 7 at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium and the Chiefs have already been installed as 3.5-point favourites. These two teams met in Week 12 in Tampa, with Kansas City winning 27-24. I’ll take Brady’s Buccaneers by 7 in this one.

2 – CFL: These are interesting times in the CFL, and no doubt you’re paying attention. Two team Presidents – Edmonton’s Chris Presson and Winnipeg’s Wade Miller – made comments this week stating they’re optimistic the league will find a way to play in 2021. Both alluded to the fact that their business projections involve at least some fans being allowed into stadiums by the summer. That’s where it gets very interesting because health officials don’t seem to be softening on their stance of banning large gatherings anytime soon. Is this a stare down, or do CFL officials know something the rest of us don’t? Time will tell, and we continue to wait.

3 – AMBROSIE: A CFL follower mentioned to me that Commissioner Randy Ambrosie really put his neck on the line by stating in Friday’s letter to fans that the League is determined to play in 2021. I disagree. If the CFL doesn’t play at all this upcoming season then it’s likely to fold and Ambrosie would be out of a job anyway. I, for one, admire Randy’s boldness and am also expecting there to be a season. However the hurdles are high and they include increased corporate sponsorship in a time when money’s tight, and for the virus to be largely eradicated across this country. A tall order indeed. Perhaps this is why they’ve yet to guarantee they’ll play.

4 – QB STABLE: The General Managers have to conduct business as normal, planning for a season and that includes Saskatchewan’s Jeremy O’Day. Assuming there is a season, the training camp battle at quarterback is tantalizing as the club has six QBs under contract right now – Cody Fajardo, James Franklin, Isaac Harker, Justice Hansen, Mason Fine and Tom Flacco. That already has tongues wagging but it reminds me of 2016 when the Riders brought 10 quarterbacks to their Florida minicamp but Darian Durant took almost every snap the entire season. The same goes for Cody Fajardo here. It’s his team.

5 – HACKING AND SLASHING: From the outside it appears O’Day spends just as much, or more, time sharpening his pencil and trying to get salaries to fit under the new mandate. Quarterback is just one position so he needs to play a delicate game of Salary Tetris to make it all fit across the board. Star defensive end Charleston Hughes has made it known he’s been presented with a take-it-or-leave-it salary cut and can’t be blamed for trying to find fair value elsewhere when the market opens next month. So it seems the Rider team that takes the field in 2021 will look much different from the one we last saw in the 2019 West Division Final.

6 – LAINE: The top story across the nation over the weekend was the Winnipeg Jets shipping disgruntled forward Patrik Laine to the Columbus Blue Jackets for fellow disgruntled forward Pierre-Luc Dubois in a package deal. By Monday it seems like old news but it was hotly-debated across the prairies for 24 hours after it was announced Saturday morning. Jets fans are burning their Laine jerseys and it really is a sad situation. It appeared he and the team were making amends over the past week but clearly lots was going on behind the scenes. TSN 1290’s Brian Munz revealed on our Instagram Live chat Saturday afternoon that Laine was indeed injured for last week’s games in Ottawa, and that’s why he was held out of the lineup. Everyone wants to declare a winner in the deal but it’s far too early to draw any conclusions. Surely it’ll help Dubois that he’ll be able to live with his parents in Winnipeg, as his father is an assistant coach with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose. Fun to watch it unfold.

7 – IT HAPPENS: The media world was quick to torch Sportsnet’s Hazel Mae for reporting the Blue Jays and free agent outfielder Michael Brantley had agreed to a deal on Wednesday. As it turned out Brantley signed a new deal with the Astros, keeping him in Houston. Hey, sometimes you get bad info. A similar thing happened to me last week when I Tweeted Chris Jones was on the Browns sidelines in Cleveland’s AFC divisional playoff game at Kansas City. As it turns out, my eyes failed me and it was another masked up, stocky defensive coach gesticulating wildly from the Browns bench. My phone blew up from the Jones crew stating he wasn’t even on Cleveland’s sideline in that game. Those messages went on to report that Jones is indeed likely to resurface somewhere else in the NFL, or NCAA, next season. Win some, lose some. I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong. John Hodge’s report from 3DownNation that Jones’ time is up in Cleveland appears to be accurate. This situation reminded me of some advice I got decades ago from WHL coach Parry Shockey: “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.”

8 – DUB HUB: There are so many rumours whirling around about the WHL’s Return To Play that it would almost be a disservice to print any of them here. I’ve heard of hub cities, “hubbles”, that the Manitoba government’s harsh Covid restrictions are holding things up, and that one Sask team has told its players to be ready to report to camp in three weeks’ time. I have no idea if any of this is true. What I do know is it’s gross that there’s no junior hockey in Canada while it’s being played all across the US. AND the SJHL demonstrated this fall they can play safely.

Unfortunately the focus in the WHL today is Kamloops Blazers forward Kyrell Sopotyk, who suffered life-altering injuries in a snowboarding accident on the weekend. The League issued the following statement:
 
“Everyone associated with the Western Hockey League is deeply saddened by the devastating news regarding Kamloops Blazers forward Kyrell Sopotyk. 
 
“The WHL and our member Clubs extend our thoughts and prayers to Kyrell, the entire Sopotyk family, Kyrell’s teammates with the Kamloops Blazers, and all his friends during this challenging time.”

9 – MO EGGER: The ESPN 1530 Cincinnati radio host who torched me on his show for mocking the new Bengals uniforms will appear on The RP Show Monday morning, and I can’t wait. Viewers are expecting a rock ’em, sock ’em spitshow but it’ll be nothing of the sort. Frankly I found Egger’s comments hilarious and I’d actually like to thank him for noticing what’s gone down in my life the past two years. As Mo said, “Rod Pedersen just talked about re-branding. I guess he went from his radio show to TV, errrr, I never heard of the guy. But he referenced it. They’re re-branding! In life sometimes you gotta re-brand. One day I’ll probably have to re-brand. That’s all it is! It’s a re-brand.” This guy figured it out in a matter of minutes while a lot of folks around here still can’t accept that I’m deep into the next chapter of my career! This is working out wayyyyyy better.

10 – RANDOMS TO END: Some people look better in a mask. … Perhaps it’s my addictive nature but I get incredibly annoyed when I can’t watch NHL hockey for hours on end each and every night. “Everything in moderation,” they say. … Hockey Night In Canada’s Ron MacLean has been gracious to come on our show multiple times but on each occasion he’s faced a backlash from Canadians over how the Don Cherry situation went down. I think that’s incredibly unfair. Don had the opportunity to apologize for his controversial “You people” comment but declined, and left Sportsnet. What was MacLean supposed to do? Quit his lucrative, Hall of Fame career too? Tell me what I’m missing here. … Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crave, Siriux/XM, The Athletic, Access cable, where does it end with these subscription services? It seems like if you don’t have them ALL, people treat you like an outcast. … The SJHL is hosting a Virtual Showcase on January 29th & 30th. The Showcase will include four teams selected by the SJHL’s Coaches Committee. Each player was created and placed into NHL 21 where games will then be simulated on a Playstation 4. Games will be broadcast live on SaskTel MaxTV and the SJHL’s Twitch page. … Sportsnet’s Louis Debrusk has shown tremendous versality this year and for that, I feel he’s the best colour guy in the land. In the last six months the network’s paired him with Chris Cuthbert, Harnaryan Singh and Jack Michaels. That makes it difficult to get into a flow but Louie’s done it seamlessly. … Readers chimed in with some more phrases we never want to hear again once the pandemic is over and they include, “New normal” and “Stay safe”. I’ll add “Trust the science.”

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen