THE MONDAY MORNING GOALIE RETURNS
BUZZ FROM THE WEEKEND:
1 – HAIL THE CHIEFS: Super Bowl LIV was indeed super, with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs posting the second-largest S.B. comeback ever, downing the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 in Miami. It’s hard not to be happy for the long-suffering Reid and Chiefs fanbase, but the 49ers HAD IT! When Mahomes heaved that interception with 11:30 to go and San Fran leading 20-10, I thought it was over. You had too as well. But Mahomes took over and now he’s well on his way to legend status.
2 – HALFTIME SHOW: It was good, even great, but not the best ever. Jennifer Lopez and Shakira did more booty-shaking than the exotic dancers on South Beach and belted out a nice medley of hits. However NO ONE can top Lady Gaga jumping off the roof of NRG Stadium in Houston in Super Bowl LI. Poker Face beats Jenny From The Block.
3 – BATTLE OF ALBERTA: The events of the last three Oilers/Flames games are to be cherished because we thought they were extinct. Fights and goals galore, just like the 80’s and 90’s. It’s really all anyone’s talked about around here for weeks and Saturday’s goalie fight between Mike Smith and Cam Talbot was the cherry on top. Fans of both teams are begging for a playoff series between the two. What could possibly be wrong with this? (Incidentally Talbot started the melee with a blocker punch which, even in the old days, would come with a multi-game suspension).
4 – OLD TIME HOCKEY: You’ve got to help me out with something: why are the suits who run hockey so adamantly opposed to fighting? In all the polls we’ve seen, 90% of fans think fighting belongs in the game. So why, why, why is it deemed so evil? No one gets hurt and it’s turned fans back onto the game. I don’t get the move to ban fighting, and I don’t think I’ll ever get it.
5 – JOIN THE REGIMENT: Fans got their money’s worth and more in the Regina Pats’ 5-4 shootout win over Victoria on Friday in the Brandt Centre. While the Queen City Kids will miss the playoffs in 2020, hats off to head coach Dave Struch who has this team giving 100% every night. That’s all the fans want. Meanwhile I had occasion to visit with the Pats owners and there’s no truth to the rumour the franchise is for sale. “We’re committed,” was the edict I got. They knew hard times would come, but they’re pleased with attendance and how Regina continues to support their hockey team. (I think having the majority of home games televised is a big reason for the impressive crowds).
6 – BIDDING SEASON: We are 24 hours or so into the inaugural CFL bidding season and the Riders already snapped up pending free agents LB Cameron Judge and LT Tacoby Cofield. Now the word is pending free agent LB Solomon Elimimian is looking for top dollar and is far apart from what Saskatchewan is offering. Somebody’s going to have to go, whatwith star QB Cody Fajardo making $400,000+ and Judge getting a huge raise to over $200,000. This game of Salary Tetris is what GM Jeremy O’Day gets paid for and I’m not interested in playing Armchair GM (second-guessing him). I realize that’s a favourite pastime in this province, but it’s not mine.
7 – DIRTY POOL: In what year will we get used to the fact that CFL teams cut players the night before whopping salary bonuses are due? The most egregious one I can recall was 2016 when John Chick was bounced just before a scheduled payment of $100,000 (although he wound up getting his money when he wouldn’t go quietly). How many times do people need to hear this is a “dirty business” before it sinks in? It makes you wonder why these bonuses are included in contracts at all.
8 – REGINANS OFF TO THE BRIER: It wasn’t lovely scheduling to have the Mens Tankard Final up against Super Bowl LIV but in the end we found out the Regina foursome of Matt Dunstone, Braeden Moskowy, Catlin Schneider and Dustin Kidby defeated Team Muyres to punch their ticket to the Tim Hortons Brier in Kingston. Wouldn’t it be something if the vaunted 1980 Curse was snapped by a rink from the Queen City!
9 – FEEL THE RUSH: The Saskatchewan Rush will be looking for redemption when they host the Colorado Mammoth Saturday night at SaskTel Centre. We’ve written enough about how the Rush has under-performed at home in two starts this season, so we’ll just say it’s Put-Up-Or-Shut-Up time. The Mammoth are smarting after a 17-10 loss to San Diego in Saturday’s Sin City Showdown in Las Vegas. The NLL is one league that isn’t afraid of roughhousing and fighting, and I’m here for it.
10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: This weekend I dreamt that the Saskatchewan Roughriders signed Antonio Brown. … The WHL is not devoid of superstars. One is named Cole Sillinger, and he plays for the Medicine Hat Tigers. … The buzz in the Dub is that the suits aren’t pleased no shovel is in the ground for a new arena in Winnipeg, despite the fact it was promised when the ICE moved from Cranbrook, BC. … Thanks to all who showed up at Ballers Sunday for the inaugural RP Show Super Bowl Party. It was packed! … Running back Taku Lee and offensive lineman Tomoya Machino became the first Japanese players to be extended invites to the CFL National Combine, coming out of this weekend’s Japanese Combines. If this works, Randy Ambrosie will come off as a genius. If it doesn’t, well, nothing ventured nothing gained. But we still need CFL Week!
Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen
Welcome back MMG! Missed you lots.
Re: Fighting – “So why, why, why is it deemed so evil? No one gets hurt” Wellll….actually, a lot of people DO get hurt which is the problem that a lot of people have with it.
Just from the NHL team I cheer for, Mantha has missed weeks/months over the course of 3 seasons from fighting. Got to think you up your brain injury chance too
Wow!, Just Wow amazing! Mr Everything Chris Jones on the field playing for the Kansas City Chiefs winning a Super Bowl title. The guy is truly amazing! Ain’t nobody can’t tell me it wasn’t him, I heard his name being called numerous times on the Super Bowl broadcast that he should have been the game MVP. Congratulations Mr Everything Chris Jones, you may now go to Disney Land, you earned it.
Easy to recognize. He was the only player dressed head to foot in black & wearing sunglasses. LOL
SB Musings,
Why did the last minutes of the Super Bowl with a Kansas victory evoke instant memories of the 2009 Grey Cup game and how that game ended. Tell you … Andy Reid was calm, kool collected showing true professional sports on field game conduct. He collected himself as he calmly gathered his
players when he knew victory was there. “They didn’t start
celebrating until the clock hit zero, very professional unlike a
team up north from 2009.
Thanks for the return, MMG.
“In all the polls we’ve seen, 90% of fans think fighting belongs in the game. So why, why, why is it deemed so evil? No one gets hurt and it’s turned fans back onto the game. I don’t get the move to ban fighting, and I don’t think I’ll ever get it.”
Bob Probert, Derek Boogaard, Todd Ewen and Wade Belak.
It’s irresponsible to link those deaths DIRECTLY to hockey.
it’s irresponsible NOT to link them.
To me it’s simple. Make a big, bold sign that outlines the rules of hockey and state that you could suffer a head injury from a hit or a fight or a puck or whatever. If you still wish to play, great. If not, that’s okay too. But we don’t do that.
No one gets hurt in a hockey fight? Wow, how dumb of a take is this. Have you listened to ex-fighters and their brain issues as a result of tears of punches to the face. I am stunned at this stupidity
Glad to see the MMG back – it’s a must read. 1) Blaming fighting in hockey to the downward spiral of former players is akin to blaming the Mars corporation for losing one’s legs to diabetes. Nobody and I mean nobody forced any lump of crap that could not take a regular shift to sit on the end of the bench, get the tap and go out there. If it was such a hard life making six or seven figures go sell insurance. The other side is to again sit on the end of a bench, get 4 minutes of… Read more »
Well if ain’t ole Dink & Doink all rolled into one with the new moniker Jerry. Blathering slathering sponging all over himself posting glibly kook nonsense as per his usual weekly self.
I played over 25 years of hockey and had never been in a fight. There was never any issue that couldn’t be solved with a good old open ice body check. Skate towards him, pass him the puck, then proceed to deliver a solid clean shoulder check to the chest. Some times my opponent was an immovable object and I was the one who learned the lesson. No fighting was ever necessary. I do believe in enforcers, but they don’t need to drop the gloves. The tools are already there within the rules to help the refs manage the game.… Read more »