THURSDAY SHOW RECAP: DOM PICARD AND NLL COMMISSIONER JOIN!

We tackled the day’s hottest sports topics on Episode #282 of The RP Show on Thursday! Here are the highlights:

• Rod, Dupes and Derek “Duke” Meyers opened with The Rollout for Flooring Superstores covering these Quick Six show topics: 1) Justin Dunk reports over 85% of CFL players voted against accepting the owners’ Return To Play in a survey from the CFLPA, 2) The Blue Jays beat the Red Sox 2-0 in their preseason finale, 3) It’s opening day in MLB! Yankees at Nationals followed by Giants at Dodgers, 4) Sidney Crosby practiced alone on Wednesday, 5) TSN’s Craig Button says the New York Rangers are the darkhorse in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and 6) It’s CFL SIM game day! The Argos face the Roughriders in Touchdown Atlantic in a computer-generated game to be broadcast live at 7:00 pm MT on the RP Show Facebook Live channel.
• News broke in Hour 1 that Seattle’s NHL team will be called the Kraken. Duke loves it, Rod’s against it and Dupes is somewhere in the middle. This spawned a discussion throughout the show of potential team names including the Edmonton CFL franchise and the new NLL team in Fort Worth, TX.
• NLL Commissioner Nick Sakiewicz joined the show from his office in Philadelphia to recap Wednesday’s announcement of the NLL granting its 14th franchise to Fort Worth, TX. Nick talked about the Texas franchise’s majority owner Bill Cameron and their venue, the brand new 14,000-seat Dickies Arena. Sakiewicz also talked about the difficult decision to pull the pin on the 2020 NLL Playoffs and said it’ll be tight to begin play next season in December. They have a schedule drawn up to start as late as March. All kinds of NLL fans wrote in with questions for the Commish and since they ran out of time, Nick agreed to come on later this summer for a fan Q&A.
• Regarding the day’s CFL news, RP said he’s been talking with league types over the past 24 hours and the feeling is that the Return To Play will be officially voted down by the players. What’s next is anyone’s guess.
• Hour 2 was broadcast on Facebook Live only and we were joined by former CFL centre Dominic Picard from Quebec (Argos, Bombers, Roughriders & Alouettes). Dom explained he’s coaching high school football now and hopes to advance his coaching career to the point he may join the Roughriders staff. Picard reflected on the 2013 Grey Cup and gave his perspective on the Riders’ 45-23 victory over Hamilton that day. He also discussed his love for junior hockey and regrets leaving Regina just as the Pats were getting hot. He and Rod used to attend Pats games together.
• Saskatchewan Rattlers President & COO Lee Genier joined the show from St. Catherines, ON, site of the CEBL’s Summer Series which tips off on Saturday. Lee said the Rattlers’ roster will be unveiled on Friday and that the group’s held great workouts all week. Genier compared this year’s squad to last year’s CEBL championship Rattlers team and said they’re very similar. This year’s Rattlers club features Regina product Kai Williams. All games over the 2-week tourney can be viewed on CBC or the CBC Gem app.
• The daily Capital Auto Mall/Universal Collision Centre poll question was: Where will the Blue Jays finish in the AL East – 1st, 2nd, 3rd or last? At press time, the majority of voters predicted a 3rd-place finish.
• You can vote now on our Twitter poll for the Rockstar of the Day for RoxDar Supply Chain Solutions. At press time, Dom Picard was leading. Thursday’s vote was won by Kelly Hrudey.
• See you at 7 pm Sask Time tonight for Touchdown Atlantic SIM and then at 10 am MT on Friday for Football Friday on Game+ TV, Facebook Live and RodPedersen.com/ListenLive! Our guest list includes Shaq Johnson of the BC Lions.