WEDNESDAY RUNDOWN: THE LATEST NEWS & HOCKEY TALK

It was a spicy Episode #324 of The RP Show, Canada’s Daytime Sports Talk Show on Game+ TV and Facebook Live! Here’s the recap:

• Rod and Dupes opened with The Warmup covering these Quick Six show topics: 1) Tuesday’s games saw the NBA’s Nuggets down the Lakers 116-104 in the Western Final and MLB’s Yankees routed the Blue Jays 12-1 (the Jays’ magic number to clinch a wildcard spot is 2), 2) Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final goes Wednesday with Tampa and Dallas tied 1-1, 3) The Edmonton Football Club terminates 49-year equipment manager Dwayne Mandrusiak, 4) SJHL followers are expecting an announcement soon on a go-ahead for the 2020-21 season (RP is not, saying the governments don’t appear to be budging), 5) ESPN’s Top 5 NFL teams are 1-Baltimore, 2-Kansas City, 3-Green Bay, 4-Seattle, 5-Pittsburgh, and 6) The NFL fines Jon Gruden and Sean Payton $100,000 for not wearing masks during games.
• The daily Capital Auto Mall/Universal Collision Centre poll question was: Is the $100,00 fine too harsh? The results were around 50/50. RP explained that it’s not about preventing the spread of Coronavirus but rather the coaches must wear masks in order for the NFL to play, and to set an example for fans.
• RP and Dupes were wearing red to support the #RedAlert movement to bring awareness for the million-plus live event workers in Canada who haven’t worked, nor been paid, for seven months.
• Hockey Night In Canada’s Ron MacLean joined the show to discuss a wide variety of topics. He admitted the Lightning/Stars match-up isn’t a “sexy” one for Canadian viewers and admitted Canadians may opt to get outside near the end of summer rather than watch the Final. The broadcasting icon told a story of his close friendship with Dallas Stars head coach Rick Bowness, and also discussed mentoring new HNIC analysts Kevin Bieksa and Anthony Stewart. MacLean mentioned he’ll wear red on the Game 3 telecast to support live event workers. He also described Producer Clark as a “hound”, which spawned a nickname for the show’s guest-booker and jack-of-all-trades.
• Hour 2 was broadcast on Facebook Live only and we were joined by 12-year NHL veteran goaltender and Calgary Hitmen/Hockey Canada goalie coach Jason Labarbera. He talked about the mandatory mask mandate in Calgary and said the players he coaches individually are getting antsy and “want to play”. He said they can’t understand why they’re not. The former Winterhawk also talked about goaltending in the playoffs and said there’s no hard-and-fast rule. For instance Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy has started every game for the Lightning in these playoffs while Edmonton and Vegas both rotated netminders.
• Two-time Stanley Cup champion Chris Dingman joined the show from Edmonton and discussed the NHL opioid epidemic story on TSN. He agreed with Rod that the onus is on the player to be honest about injury situations, and not fool trainers. Dingman also talked about why he feels Tampa will win the Cup, and told tales of playing for Kelly McCrimmon years ago with the Brandon Wheat Kings.
• Wednesday’s show is available for viewing now on our Facebook page, you can catch the replay at 4:00 pm ET on Game+, listen to the podcast by clicking on the CONTENT tab at the top of this page or listen to our 24-hour live audio feed at RodPedersen.com/ListenLive.
• See you at 10 am MT on Thursday!