The Monday Morning Goalie For SUDS
TRUTH & RUMOURS FOR SUDS CAR WASH
1 – HAIL THE QUAD!: Remarkably the Canadian Football League hadn’t staged four games on one day since 1995, in the US expansion days, but that was the case in Week 15 and it turned out to be a fabulous bonanza on Saturday! (Unless you were the road teams, who went 0-4). Here are your scores: Toronto 26-Ottawa 23, Winnipeg 19-Saskatchewan 6, Edmonton 53-Calgary 16 and BC 48-Montreal 29. It also officially kicked off the final third of the CFL regular season – aka the stretch drive – but it feels like the homestretch has been on for awhile.
2 – ANALYSIS: The RedBlacks dropped to 0-12 and there’s no reason to expect they’ll win a game this season. No CFL team has gone winless in a season in the modern era. The 2003 Hamilton Tiger-Cats went 1-17 and their lone win was against, you guessed it, the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Ivor Wynne Stadium. I called that game, as Paul Osbaldiston kicked the game-winning field goal in OT. … Redemption for Edmonton coach Mark Kilam, who was unceremoniously fired in Calgary two years ago, and his Elks swept the Stampeders in the Labour Day/Rematch set to destroy the soul of the Calgary football team. The Stamps are in last place, and GM/head coach Dave Dickenson will undoubtedly be forced to give up one of his roles if they miss the playoffs. … The Riders lost in Winnipeg, the fans are blaming the refs, and in other news the sky is blue. Is A.J. Ouellette ever gonna play again? The Riders lost the turnover battle 5-2 but at least their rookie kicker Dawson Hodge went 2/2 in his CFL debut. What a tough place to be a kicker! … Kudos to the Alouettes for having the alertness to utilize the little-used “punt for a first down” rule while facing 2nd-and-20 Saturday night. It’s got the Lions, and CFL fans & media, howling today, but in the end they still lost the game.
3 – WEEK 16: Back to normal next week in the CFL, but there are only three games. On Friday 10-3 Montreal visits 4-9 Hamilton, and there’s a Saturday doubleheader with 10-3 Edmonton at 7-6 Toronto followed by 0-12 Ottawa at 5-8 Calgary. Enjoying byes are Saskatchewan, BC and Winnipeg. … Will be glad to hear the announcement of the halftime show act for the Grey Cup in Calgary! Any guesses?
4 – NFL: The Dallas Cowboys looked like a high school team in their season-opening, 28-20 loss at the NY Giants. Dropped passes, penalties, weal tackling, just overall undisciplined play led to the biggest dud of Week 1. I got ’em at nine wins and certainly don’t expect them to win the division, let alone make the playoffs. That was a tough one to open with. … Dolphins fans thought if Miami lost at Las Vegas in Week 1, they might not win a game all year. They lost 27-13 to the Raiders, who looked sharp. … Huge kudos to the Cardinals, who upset the Chargers in LA 26-14. The Birds were forecast to win two games all year. Great start for the Big Red! … The 2026 season kicked off on Wednesday with an eye-glazing Seattle 13-10 victory over New England, and then a monumental upset in Australia on Thursday with San Francisco taking down the LA Rams 27-7. In a lot of ways it was a catastrophic loss for the Rams, inside the NFC West, as the presumptive Super Bowl champs were picked to have a 14-win season. Now they’ve gotta win 14 of their next 16 to do that, and QB Matt Stafford was shutout of the endzone. He wasn’t shutout once (TD passes) at all in 2025. Back to the drawing board.
5 – COLLEGE: Holy comeback Batman! Trailing 23-3 after three quarters to OSU, the Texas Longhorns roared back in the fourth quarter to upset the Buckeyes 24-23 on Saturday night. It’s the biggest win in former Roughrider Steve Sarkisian’s career at Austin. … Lane Kiffin’s LSU Tigers destroyed Louisiana Tech 45-14 in Baton Rouge. #1 CFL draft prospect Ty Benefield was credited with one tackle and two assisted tackles for LSU. … Here in Miami, the Hurricanes flatly embarrassed Florida A&M 77-7 on Thursday night at Hard Rock Stadium and according to my friends who were there, it’s the first time a game’s been called in the fourth quarter (mercy rule). I’m sure the ACC Network loved that.
6 – NHL: Rookie camps are open, or are opening, this weekend and that includes the Florida Panthers who get going in Fort Lauderdale. Follow my personal social media channels for coverage of the Cats, whom Fanduel has listed as the Stanley Cup favourites in 2026-27. … Analytics showed viewership of our season premiere of the Cats N Bolts Podcast on Thursday was 93% Floridians. We did it! … Training camps officially open on Thursday with the 4-game preseason opening Friday. … Hard Rock Bet ran a ChatGPT simulation of the 2027 Stanley Cup Playoff bracket and it had the Edmonton Oilers beating the Carolina Hurricanes for the Stanley Cup. The simulation also had Florida and Tampa Bay meeting in Round 2 which would constitute the fifth Battle of Florida in history! I’ve been here for the prior four. What a rivalry!
7 – DUB HUB: The Regina Pats finished the preseason at a perfect 7-0 following Saturday’s 7-6 victory over the Saskatoon Blades at SaskTel Centre. Liam Pue recorded three assists for the Pats. There had been some concern among the NHL scouts that Pue couldn’t perform without linemate/bestie Maddox Schultz but that appears to be false. … Looks like Darcy Hordichuk’s son Braden has made the Pats, as a 17-year old. At least, the Scottsdale, AZ product is still with the club as they prepare to open the season Friday at PA. … Nice start for new Pats head coach David Bell, a former Notre Dame Hound. … Condolences to the friends and family of NHL/WHL coach Brent Peterson who passed this week. Who remembers the 1998 WHL All Star game in Regina went Brent, coaching the Western Conference, referred to the Queen City as a “jerkwater town”? We thought it was hilarious! Great guy.
8 – WHL CENTRAL DIVISION PREDICTOR: Last week we gave you the scouts’ prediction for the WHL East Division standings. This week, here’s the scouts’ Central Division forecast: 1) Medicine Hat, 2) Calgary, 3) Edmonton, 4) Red Deer, 5) Lethbridge. … This looks eerily like last year’s final standings but in truth, it’s more an indication of the quality of programs in Alberta.
9 – SJHL POWER RANKINGS: Hey, why not?! Tis the season. The SJ fires up its regular season this Friday and courtesy of Jamie Neugebauer (the Elliotte Friedman of the SJHL), here are Neugsy’s season-opening Power Rankings. Read ’em and weep!: 1) Flin Flon, 2) Nipawin, 3) Battlefords, 4) Humboldt, 5) Melfort, 6) Melville, 7) Weyburn, 8) Estevan, 9) Kindersley, 10) Yorkton, 11) Warman, 12) La Ronge.
10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: Love is blind. … Vladdy finally homered at Rogers Centre. It was Sept. 13. … Still can’t believe they got rid of Kelly Hrudey. … Nashville is renaming its airport after Dolly Parton. … Do they still make music videos? … My favourite Kevin Costner movie is For Love Of The Game. … Loved Kelly Preston. She left us too early. … “If you don’t like prison food, don’t go to prison.” – Brad Wall. … The Moosehead in Kenossee burned down five years ago this week. … You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket. … British police have a stout task ahead: recovering 70,000 pints worth of stolen Guinness. Two trailer truckloads of the famously creamy dark beer valued at $155,000US were stolen from a depot near Liverpool in northwest England, the Cheshire Constabulary said Thursday. The Guinness had been destined for pubs, but was snatched Monday night by two drivers who pulled up to an industrial park in Runcorn and hauled away the trailers containing about 800 barrels of stout. The theft comes just weeks after a US beer heist captured the public’s attention because of the brewer’s cheeky social media posts about the loss of roughly 34,000 cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon in Southern California. “To the thief: we don’t fault you for wanting to brag to your friends how much PBR you have, we just wish you obtained it the honorable way,” the company wrote on Instagram. “PS: this is real and we are deadly serious.” .. AND HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?
Y’er welcome,
RP
