The Monday Morning Goalie For SUDS Car Wash
Truth & Rumours for SUDS Car Wash
1 – UPSETS!: Just like quarterfinal day at the World Junior Hockey Championship, Round 1 of the College Football Playoff and – generally – Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, there’s ALWAYS one upset on NFL Wildcard Weekend. Maybe more. And so far through five of the six first round NFL Playoff games, we’ve enjoyed a pair. On Saturday the Chicago Bears recorded the first upset of the weekend, shocking Green Bay 31-27. Then the middle game of Sunday’s tripleheader provided another, as San Francisco stunned Philadelphia 23-19. That’s an outcome nobody had. In the others, the L.A. Rams held off the Carolina Panthers 34-31, Buffalo outlasted Jacksonville 27-24 and New England handled the L.A. Chargers 16-3. The games have been fantastic!
I’ve actually got an upset predicted for the finale, as Houston visits Pittsburgh in the Monday Nighter and the Texans are 3-point favorites.
2 – DUUUUUVAL: The internet is buzzing over what went down after the Bills-Jaguars game in Jacksonville. In Jags head coach Liam Cohen’s postgame news conference, an older black lady was in the crowd and consoled Cohen with some encouraging words and a minor pep talk. He seemed surprised but grateful. The reaction of the exchange has been swift and wide-ranging, from ESPN’s Adam Schefter calling it “awesome” to several grumpy newspaper writers calling it “inappropriate” and calling for the lady’s press credentials to be revoked. My reaction? 1) Nothing surprises me anymore, 2) the team and NFL will revoke her media pass if they see fit, and 3) It was a nice diversion from fighting over the ICE shootings in Minneapolis and Portland. This was a lot kinder and gentler.
3 – ALL ABOUT THE U: Many have asked what it’s like in South Florida at the moment whatwith the Miami Hurricanes set to play for the College Football National Championship in their own stadium (Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens) against the Indiana Hoosiers on Monday, January 19. Well, as you can imagine, it’s bedlam. Especially with projected #1 pick and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, a Miami product, leading the Hoosiers into his hometown. INSANITY! Everywhere you look, people are wearing Canes gear and in downtown Miami, highrises have their lights affixed in the “U”. … The biggest panic is that the Florida Panthers welcome the San Jose Sharks that same night and the Cats are being urged to move the start time. “Hey, the Leafs did it for the Blue Jays!’ one local scribe chimed last week. We’ll see if they do …
4 – SHARK BITES: Regardless, I’ll be at the Panthers-Sharks game because I dearly wanna see San Jose star Macklin Celebrini who’s currently on a 13-game point streak. The Vancouver product notched three assists in San Jose’s 5-4 victory over Dallas on Saturday and it was his 15th career 3-point game as a teenager, tying Steve Yzerman in the record books. Wayne Gretzky has the record for 3-point games by a teenager at 33. Regardless, I’ve gotta Celebrini in person. Canes be damed!
5A – NHL NOTES: Reading the game notes coming out of Saturday night’s 14-game slate is akin to taking a sip from a firehose. But fun! Here goes: The Colorado Avalanche have won 17 straight at home. The league record is 23 held by the 2011-12 Detroit Red Wings. … The Leafs have won seven straight at home and have points in nine in a row. … Buffalo is in a playoff spot and have won six in a row at home, and 13 of their last 14 games. … Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist in his 700th career game as Vegas downed St. Louis 4-2. … The Boston Bruins routed the NY Rangers 10-2 in the Garden on Saturday and it’s the first time the Bruins have scored 10 goals in a game since 1988. … The Tampa Bay Lightning are officially the NHL’s hottest team, having won nine in a row and are 21 days away from taking on the Boston Bruins on February 1 in the Stadium Series game at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Buccaneers. … Let’s not forget the Florida Panthers who, despite sitting three points out of a playoff spot, are only four points behind last season’s halfway point. Head coach Paul Maurice reminded us of that before heading out on this current Canadian road trip.
5B – WINNIPEG JETS: Everyone’s scratching their heads wondering how the Winnipeg Jets could go from winning the Presidents Trophy last season to dead-last overall just half a season later? From the outside it appears to be coaching but I shot a text to a veteran Winnipeg hockey man who said Scott Arniel’s not the problem at all. This guy figures it’s a confluence of a lot of things including getting old (not committing to youth at all), early struggles leading to lack of confidence, the failure to re-sign Nikolaj Ehlers in free agency, the inability to sign quality free agents and filling those holes with cast-offs and has-beens (his term), and lack of chemistry. Plus it’s never been regarded as a desirable place to play. In short, the window appears to be closed.
6 – MINOR HOCKEY BRAWL: The internet is also buzzing about Saturday night’s – let’s call it “Tim Hortons Timbits” – brawl between members of two minor hockey teams playing in the intermission of an AHL game in Hershey. I’ve watched the video several times because it’s just so entertaining but to me, it just adds up to boys being boys and harmless rough-housing (is that even still a word?). No one got hurt but I will say the goalie should probably be locked up before he does anymore harm.
7 – CFL #1: To a decent amount of fanfare, the CFL Players Association released its annual offseason report card this week where the results of a 78-part questionnaire among the players were released to the media. If you want to grab the public’s attention from a CFL perspective, do it NOW because there’s not much else going on in Canada on the football landscape. Hamilton finished atop the gradings with Saskatchewan not far behind. Finishing near the bottom were BC and Montreal which was a surprise to a lot of us. How is this going over? Well on NBCSN this week, host Mike Florio said NFL owners H-A-T-E when the NFLPA report card is released and I can’t see CFL owners being any different. For me, it’s interesting to read but i don’t put much stock in the results. Any disgruntled player or Locker Room Lawyer can create significant waves anonymously and I don’t think that’s fair, particularly to a progressive, upstanding owner like Amar Doman in BC, whom his staff all tell me they love. Also, if Hamilton players get treated the best in the league, they’ve got a funny way of showing it whatwith their 26-year Grey Cup drought on the go, the longest in CFL history.
8 – CFL #2: Hall of Fame Calgary Stampeders broadcaster Mark Stephen had a nice piece on Facebook this week where he listed which of the new CFL rules will come into effect in 2026. They are the 35-second playclock, the modified rouge (missed field goals or punts which land out of bounds will no longer count as a point), and benches on opposite sides of the field. This gave us great fodder for Friday’s RP Show, so thanks Mark for the topic. Toronto Argonauts head coach Mike Miller was on the show and when I asked him how the 35-second playclock will change things, his answer was “we’ll see”.
9 – CFL #3: The interview with Mike Miller was, if I do say so myself, an excellent one, and you may wanna go back and watch for yourself. He discussed growing up in Pittsburgh and breaking into the NFL with Bill Cowher’s Steelers as an assistant coach, going to the Super Bowl with the Arizona Cardinals and what it was like being Kurt Warner’s offensive coordinator, why he fell in love with the CFL and much more. Regarding returning Argos QB Chad Kelly, who attended Miller’s introductory news conference last month in Toronto, Miller said “We have no reason to believe, at this time, that he won’t be our starting QB when we open training camp.” He’s referring to the leg injury which kept Kelly on the shelf all of last year, leading to a 5-win Argos season.
10 – CFL #4: Might as well keep it going! Edmonton Elks QB Cody Fajardo joined the RP Show on Wednesday from his offseason home in Reno and gave plenty of life updates. He confirmed that he was offered a job as assistant coach with his alma mater Nevada Wolf Pack but felt there’s plenty of time to get into coaching. At age 33, he may just be hitting his prime as a pro QB! The Brea, CA product is excited to see what Elks GM Ed Hervey does in free agency but even if they do nothing, he feels Edmonton has everything it needs to make a big jump in the CFL West. I mentioned that Fajardo and Edmonton head coach Mark Kilam are two extremely fiery individuals and asked how that dynamic works. He said they challenge the hell out of each other and it works great! It reminds me of the relationship between Sean Payton and Bo Nix in Denver, and we’re all seeing how that’s working out. It’s hard not to feel excited to watch the Elks!! Also, the RP Show can be such a valuable resource for the CFL.
RANDOM THOUGHTS: No news is good news. … Some people looked better in masks. … Mike Tomlin on coaching: “I love the challenges this job provides.” Same with me, with my industry. … If you borrow someone’s lawn chair, bring it back!! … Please wear headphones in public. … Learned this week that LSU coach Lane Kiffin has been sober for four years. Look up his sobriety journey. Inspirational! … It’s a marathon, not a sprint. … A Miami writer said to me this week, “There will be no newspapers in three years.” … Why does Larry David get to decide when we should stop saying “Happy New Year”? I give it till January 31. … They’re talking about starting a sports-only Twitter. Sign me up! … A huge black bear that made its den in the crawl space under a Los Angeles man’s house for more than a month has finally been evicted. Ken Johnson said the animal began denning beneath his home around Thanksgiving, twisting gas lines and toppling bricks as he came and went. Surveillance video showed the bear easily tearing away screening and other obstacles and squeezing through a small opening. Johnson said in a phone interview Friday that he first asked state wildlife officials for help, but the air horns and paintball guns they deployed didn’t work. So he turned to BEAR League, a California-based nonprofit that bills itself as specializing in “living in harmony with bears.” The bear was out within about 20 minutes after members from the group arrived. … AND HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?
Y’er welcome,
RP
Thanx 4sharing this article today, as always a refreshing refresh of the weekend sports scene stories.