Weekend Commentary: Drive For Five

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A coupla three or so thoughts entering the weekend …

#1 – As Opening Days go, it couldn’t have gone much worse for the Blue Jays. The Baltimore Orioles hit a club record six Opening Day homeruns, Jays starter Jose Berrios gave up nine hits and six runs, and the O’s routed Toronto 12-2 at Rogers Centre.

The beauty of baseball is that they get right back at it tonight. Kevin Gausman will be on the mound for Toronto.

#2 – Big news from the NHL on Thursday when the Philadelphia Flyers fired head coach John Tortorella after a disastrous season.

Surprising? Not really. A source in Philly told me, quote, “It’s another Darryl Sutter situation. The players dreaded coming to the rink.”

At 66, you have to wonder if Torts will coach again. Or if he even wants to. The pundits all seem to think he will.

Would you hire him? I’m not sure if I would, given all the choices out there.

#3 – It was the last game of the hockey year in Regina. The Cooperators Arena was sold-out to watch the Triple-A Pat Canadians complete a sweep of Moose Jaw on Thursday to take the provincial title.

It’s the Pat C’s first league crown since 2015 and now they’re off to regionals in Kenora and then, hopefully, the Telus Cup.

Fun fact: The Pat C’s have won four national crowns, and it says here the best was the 1988 unit, coached by Roland Duplessis and managed by Graham Tuer.

Lest we forget.

And #4 – There’s some CFL news, and we’ll discuss it today on the RP Show’s Football Friday. 3DownNation remains my go-to for league info and they report that the 10% salary cap increase announced in February is apparently not official. Get back to us when it is!

And the Riders have apparently added Dallas Cowboys quarterback Trey Lance to their neg list, whose father Carlton once played for the Green & White.

I’ll be excited if actually shows up! I believe less than 10% of neg list players ever actually do, although his current Rider regime isn’t prone to P.R. stunts. My guess is they feel they’ll actually get him.

Enjoy your weekend.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary.

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm & 4 pm ET on Game+TV, Podcast & YouTube Live)