The Monday Morning Goalie

One-Timers:

1 – What a weekend! Here’s hoping yours was just jim dandy. This won’t be a long column, but there are more thoughts than I could squeeze into a :90 second commentary, so please enjoy …

2 – It’s a good news/bad news scenario for the Canadian Football League which – now with hockey behind us – is front and centre in our minds, and on the sports stage in Canada. The good news is the games in Week 3 were all pretty good – proud to say I went 4-0 in picks and stand at 9-3 on the season – but the bad news is the attendance was horrific and if the alarm bells aren’t sounding at CFL headquarters in Downtown Toronto, they sure as hell should be. Is the league profile at an all-time low? It sure seems that way. The time for excuses and finger-pointing is long past. What’s being done about this?

3 – Watching with interest how new TSN football analyst Luke Willson is tearing a page from the John Lynch playbook and “telling it like it is!” when it comes to CFL games and the narrow-minded “old guard”. The Super Bowl-winning tightend with the Seahawks called Friday’s Riders/Argos game “hot garbage” and “unbearable”. Oh and he’s accused CFL media of dishonesty, and that their attempt to protect the league is actually doing more harm than good. Can’t he’s wrong with any of it, in fact I think I’ve heard that somewhere before.

May God have mercy on his soul.

4 – You’ve been reading this column for quite some time and know that I don’t consider myself a football connoisseur in any way, shape or form (hockey’s another matter). But as far as I’m concerned – as a guy who worked in the CFL full-time for 20 years – the CFL product is fantastic, and always has been. What it’s suffered from the last 15 years is marketing and if possible, even worse public relations and community outreach. They also ignore the icons and heroes of the game (spending Friday with Tony Gabriel proved this) while the Alumni is celebrated in the NFL at the league and club level. The NFL can do it, but the CFL can’t? Okayyy.

But I enjoy the games. Hopefully they’re here for years to come, however something needs to change and I’d suggest … damn fast.

5 – The Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA championship with a pretty electric Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers by a score of 103-91 on Sunday night. We tuned in and out for the contest, but America’s Got Talent got more airtime in our house. However the kids all know that Hamilton, ON’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 29 points for the Thunder. He’s the first Canadian NBA MVP since Steve Nash and the first-ever to win an NBA title and MVP in the same season. The cool kids call him “SGA”.

6 – Gotta say I realllllly enjoyed our four days in Southern Ontario last week. We bounced around all over; Toronto, Burlington, St. Catherines and Niagara Falls. When I think of how we were treated, I get a little choked up. They all watch the RP Show and sent us home with the very best of wellwishes. One of the football coaches said, “My Mom watches you evvvvveryday! She loves you!” I instructed him to tell his mother that I love her too.

My old hockey buddy Curtis Hunt said it best once: “There are good people everywhere.”

7 – The Florida Panthers are getting roasted pretty good for their post-Stanley Cup victory antics. Breaking the trophy, twice, wasn’t a particularly good look but defenceman Aaron Ekblad says they’re not considering toning it down at all. At Sunday’s parade and ceremony on Fort Lauderdale Beach, the profanity would make a sailor blush and the franchise continues to catcall and troll the Oilers. Did something happen in that series that I’m not aware of? I mean, I watched it all but don’t recall the Oilers doing anything that would cause this amount of vitriol and trolling?

But that’s okay! The Panthers are making no apologies and if the hockey gods feel they’re over the line, karma will have the final say. And these days, karma shows up with receipts and screenshots.

8 – It’s g0ing to be a welcome, quiet week at Ross Wells Park in Moose Jaw. The defending WCBL East Division champion Miller Express are on an Alberta road trip and that’ll give me time to breathe a bit. It’s been hectic since the season opened a month ago! As Millers President Darryl Pisio says, “The WCBL season is short, but it’s long.” Our Millers are 10-10 and in 4th place in the East Division which is just fine. Manager Eric Marriott knows the key is to get hot at the end, like last year. The Saskatoon Berries are running away with the Division at 17-3. Slugger Carter Beck is 6th in batting average at .393 and has three homeruns. ALL of them came at Ross Wells Park four Fridays ago including a grand slam, which I had the pleasure of calling on FloSports. Things are heating up in the WCBL!

9 – It’s been a forgettable season for the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Saskatchewan Rattlers. They lost 93-89 at the Montreal Alliance on Sunday to fall to 2-9, last-place in the West Division. Hopefully I can get out to a game this summer before it’s over.

10 – It’s a blessing to be able to see the trap before you step in it. When Uber drivers, servers, hotel staff, etc. in Ontario found out I’m from Florida, they all tried to get me into a discussion about Donald Trump, and politics in general. I avoid it like the plague. It’s not like I don’t know what’s going on but if you persist, I’ll put you in a bodybag. But it takes a lonnnnnnng time to get me there.

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen