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| I’m hoping to get a little more down time the next few weeks. |
I kind of
underestimated how fast this past winter sports season would go by. Going into
the 2021-22 winter campaign, I didn’t really know what to expect.
A year ago
in July of 2021, it seemed like restrictions regarding the coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic could come and go seemingly at a moment’s notice. After
there wasn’t much of a winter sports season in 2020-21, I wasn’t sure what to
expect in 2021-22.
I have to
admit I did not follow through with the original plan in my head. Originally, I
was thinking about making just weekly or twice weekly posts on this blog and
sitting back and seeing how the sports world in Canada would play out.
I expected
there would be pauses and schedule alterations due to positive COVID-19 tests
and there were.
It was
still in the realm of possibilities that sports seasons that start in Canada
might not be completed. To my knowledge, all seasons in the 2021-22 winter
campaign were played to a conclusion.
At the
professional level, I was pretty certain the NHL season would be completed as
the Stanley Cup was awarded in 2020 and 2021. In a 2021-22 campaign that still
had its wonky parts, the circuit finished a regular season where every club
played a full schedule of 82 games.
The regular
season was followed by on exciting post-season. There was still a fairly late
finish as the Colorado Avalanche captured the Stanley Cup in Game 6 of the NHL
title series by a 2-1 score against the host Lightning in Tampa Bay on June 26.
The Avalanche became “the team” by beating “the team” in the Lightning, who won the Stanley Cup the two previous years.
Hockey in the major junior ranks had an even later finish. In the Memorial Cup championship game held on June 29, the host Saint John Sea Dogs downed the OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs 6-3 to take the CHL title. The Sea Dogs bowed out in the first round of the QMJHL playoffs but used the time off to be able to finish first in the preliminary round standings with a 2-0-1 record at the Memorial Cup tournament before claiming the event’s championship game.
The one loss came in overtime by a 4-3 score to the WHL champion Edmonton Oil Kings. The Oil Kings win ended a 14-game skid by the club that was the WHL champion at the event.
Before the
Oil Kings win, the last time a WHL champion posted a win at the Memorial Cup
came back on May 29, 2015, when the Kelowna Rockets hammered the host Remparts
9-3 in Quebec City, Quebec, in a semifinal contest.
It was great seeing the Hilltops back in action last season.
The Oil
Kings weren’t able to make the playoff round with their 1-2 record getting
edged for third place in the preliminary round standings and the tournament’s
final playoff berth by the 1-2 Hamilton Bulldogs.
Hours
before the tournament started on June 20, the CHL announced a new points system
would be used for the preliminary round standings that saw three points given
for a regulation win and two for a win in overtime. The Bulldog advanced to the
playoff round due to the fact their win came in regulation, and it came against
the Oil Kings to boot.
The
overtime format was changed for the preliminary round too. Overtime in the
preliminary round would be 20 minute periods played in a sudden death
three-versus-three format.
The merits
of those changes can be debated, but the timing of the announcement of when
those rules were changed was awful. If the CHL was going to change rules in the
Memorial Cup format, they should have been announced before the 2021-22 season
started.
If the rule
changes were announced during the event starting with next year’s tournament,
the CHL would have come away with a way better look there.
With all that said, I didn’t find myself on the perimeter watching the 2021-22 winter sports season play out.
Opportunities arose to get back into covering games of
the CJFL powerhouse Saskatoon Hilltops in a beat writer fashion and the WHL, where I focused around covering the Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatoon Blades.
In my head, I was thinking the mainstream media in Canada wanted to get out of covering the sports world unless it was the NHL, so I wasn’t thinking opportunities would come in that realm. I find in the overall populous in Canada sports isn’t a big thing unless you are involved in sports with the NHL being the exception to that thought.
I also had
an opportunity to get back into covering the University of Saskatchewan Huskies
teams in a bigger way. I wasn’t expecting that to come up.
The
opportunities to cover the Hilltops and the WHL came up first, so I decided to
go with those routes. Out of all the leagues in Canada, I thought U Sports
would be the one where their season wouldn’t be played to completion.
Fortunately, I was proved wrong on that front and U Sports did play its season
to conclusion.
The Oil Kings won the WHL title in 2021-22.
The other
decision to just focus on Hilltops and WHL was to limit covering stops and
starts and possible cancellations due to COVID-19 positive tests. The WHL had
to pause its season for almost all the first two weeks of January due to an
abundance of positive COVID-19 tests.
Following the WHL season, I thought I was
going to go for a rest, evaluation and reset period. I elected to cover the
Saskatoon Valkyries in a beat writing form as they won their seventh WWCFL
title, because my relationship with that team has always been outstanding.
I decided I
didn’t want to miss out, because they had a lot of returning players that were
around from the 2019 squad before the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions occurred. I
enjoyed getting to know the first and second year players this past Valkyries
season too.
Now that
Valkyries season is done, I’ve decided take a break from creating content for
this blog for the rest of the month of July. On the weird part, the break from
writing this blog won’t be primarily due for rest and recharge reasons.
At the
moment, I am working on a project on the side. I need to sacrifice time in
other areas to focus on that project.
In August,
I’m hoping you will all get to enjoy seeing the results of the project I am
working on.
I hope to
get some rest and recharge time in too. Actually, it disappoints me to see my
two mountain bikes have been sitting in storage this year waiting to be tuned
up for use. I haven’t used them yet.
When August
comes, I will be back covering the Hilltops in a beat writing form. I suspect
the upcoming 2022-23 winter sports season will see me focusing on the Hilltops
and WHL.
I figured I
need to focus, because even with the opportunities that have come my way,
almost everything in Canada’s sports scene is not being covered outside the NHL,
Saskatchewan Roughriders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Toronto Blue Jays, Toronto
Raptors and the MLS teams in Canada’s three big cities.
By the
amount of releases and news that comes my way in the sports world for Canada, I
have to say that everything is happening now. Everybody in some way is
searching for attention.
It was so much fun seeing the Valkyries in a seventh WWCFL title.
I will
never close the door with regards in potential directions I could go. I do have
to weigh how involvement in Canada’s sports scene affects and accompanies
everything else in my life, and I find I do that a lot more than I ever had
before in my life.
For now, it
is time to sign off for a bit. I’ll see you all in August.
Rabbit’s return big
for Blades, other notes and observations
 |
| Ashley Callingbull, left, and Wacey Rabbit. (Photo courtesy Saskatoon Blades) |
On June 27, the Blades announced that Rabbit was returning to the team as an assistant coach. His wife, Ashley Callingbull, joined the Saskatoon Entertainment Group, which is the parent company that owns both the Blades and Saskatchewan Rush, as an ambassador.
Rabbit, who is 35-years-old, played centre for the Blades starting as an underage call up way back in 2001-02 and the following four seasons through to the conclusion of the 2005-06 campaign, when he was the team’s captain. The Kainai First Nation, Alta., product played in 259 career regular season games with the Blades posting 80 goals, 106 assists and a plus-seven rating in the plus-minus department.
During his overage season in 2006-07, Rabbit started the campaign playing for the Providence Bruins of the AHL. After his WHL rights were traded to the Vancouver Giants, Rabbit was returned to the major junior ranks.
Rabbit finished his WHL career with the Giants appearing in 30 regular season games posting 11 goals, 25 assists and a plus-13 rating. He helped the Giants advance to the WHL Championship Series, where they fell in seven games to the Medicine Hat Tigers. Following that series, he helped the Giants win the Memorial Cup as the tournament’s host team.
Rabbit proceed to play 14 seasons in the minor professional ranks and retired from the game as a player on August 26, 2021. Last season, Rabbit was an assistant coach and skills development coach for the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the junior A British Columbia Hockey League.
Callingbull, who is 32-years-old, is an actress, model, motivational speaker and international celebrity who has over 1.2-million followers on Instagram. The Enoch Cree Nation, Alta., product became the first Canadian and Indigenous woman to win the Miss Universe title on August 29, 2015.
The Blades had a coach vacancy to fill when it was announced on June 20 associate coach Ryan Marsh was leaving his position to become an assistant coach with Schwenninger Wild Wings in Germany’s top professional league.
Rabbit was a fan favourite during his time with the Blades and is one of the all-time most enduring players for the team’s fanbase. When a coaching role came open on the team, Blades management made the first move to contact Rabbit about returning to the club in a coaching role.
Rabbit said in many media interviews he wasn’t looking for jobs in the WHL, but when the Blades came calling, he said that was the team was going to say yes to. Rabbit has always considered Saskatoon as a second home.
Both Rabbit and Callingbull have been active with regards to Indigenous outreach throughout their adult lives, and they plan to continue that work in Saskatoon. Both have been outstanding role models for Indigenous youth.
For the Blades, bringing Rabbit back was a home run on so many levels and some levels that might not even be comprehended at the moment.
Blades management deserves huge applause for having the
vision and making the approach to bring Rabbit and Callingbull to the team.
This will likely be a move that has a huge positive impact on the community
beyond what happens on the ice surface at the rink.
- Saskatoon Blades left-winger Brandon Lisowsky was selected in the seventh round and 218th overall on Friday by the Toronto Maple Leafs on the final day of the two-day NHL Entry Draft held in Montreal, Que. Last season in his 17-year-old campaign, Lisowsky appeared in all the Blades 68 regular season games posting 33 goals, 25 assists and a plus-one rating in the plus-minus department.
- In the CHL Import Draft on July 1, the Saskatoon Blades selected 17-year-old defenceman Tomas Zizka, who is from Zlin, Czechia, in the first round and 37th overall. Zizka, who stands 6-feet and weighs 170 pounds, played last season with the Lidingo Vikings J18 squad posting one goal and 13 assists in 31 games. He also played 11 games for Czechia’s under-17 team collecting four goals. Zizka joins 18-year-old fan favourite Belarusian right-winger Egor Sidorov as the Blades two import players. Due to Russia’s invasion attempt and war with Ukraine, Sidorov is residing in Saskatoon for the foreseeable future.
- The Prince Albert Raiders didn’t make any selections in the CHL Import Draft held on July 1. They will return Belarusians in goaltender Tikhon Chaika and left-winger Vladislav Shilo as their two imports. Both are heading into their 19-year-old seasons. Both Chaika and Shilo are residing in Prince Albert for the foreseeable future due to Russia’s invasion attempt and war with Ukraine.
- On July 2, Bret “the Hitman” Hart turned 65-years-old. Hearing that, it is another sign that time is passing way too fast. When it comes to sport entertainment’s pro-wrestling especially if you reside in Canada, Hart will always be, “The best there was, the best there is and the best there ever will be.”
- Jorde Chartrand is the unknown Canadian idol. The 19-year-old right handed pitcher and Weyburn, Sask., product has been playing with Softball Canada’s National Women’s Team. She has been training and playing on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds for a number of years. She has a good following inside the local Saskatchewan softball community, but with Canada’s downsized mainstream media particularly when it comes to covering sports, Chartrand isn’t well known outside the sport. That is too bad, because she is an outstanding role model athlete that excels in the classroom as well as the field of play. Don’t be surprised if she pops on the media radar in a future Olympics.
- The Saskatoon Cubs will host the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League under-18 AAA championship tournament July 22 to 24 at Cairns Field and Leakos Field. If you have never seen a Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League game, you are missing out. In Saskatoon, it is still kind of a hidden gem. As the SPBL regular season heads into the home stretch, the Cubs top the under-18 AAA standings with a 19-4 record.
- The prestige and reputation of Hockey Canada has taken a major hit over the past four months. On April 20, a woman, who is now 24-years-old, filed a $3.55-million lawsuit in London, Ont., against Hockey Canada, the CHL and eight unnamed CHL players over an allegation she was sexually assaulted by the players. The alleged sexual assault was said to occur a hotel room after Hockey Canada gala and golf event in London, Ont., in June 2018 and members of Canada’s 2017-18 gold medal winning world junior team were alleged to be among the eight players. The allegations have not been proven in court. Hockey Canada quietly settled the lawsuit in May. The Government of Canada started looking into Hockey Canada’s handling of the lawsuit in June. That included a meeting with the House of Commons standing committee on Canadian Heritage, where Hockey Canada executives were grilled and came out not looking good including then Hockey Canada CEO Tom Renney, who retired on July 1. After that meeting, the federal government froze fund they were putting into Hockey Canada. A number of major sponsors have frozen their funding to Hockey Canada. This story isn’t leaving the news cycle, so expect developments to keep coming.
- From what I heard, Kevin Waugh, who is a Conservative MP representing Saskatoon-Grasswood and is a former CTV sports reporter, was one of the key figures that pushed for the federal government to look into Hockey Canada’s handling of quietly setting a lawsuit regarding sexual assault allegations with a now 24-year-old woman. Waugh was concerned that the stories produced by TSN’s Rick Westhead weren’t getting traction in the rest of the mainstream media, so he wanted to bring the federal government into the picture. Ultimately, Waugh might be looked upon for playing a sizable role in finding out the truth and creating accountability over this matter.
- Regarding Hockey Canada’s handling of quietly settling a lawsuit regard sexual assault allegation with a now 24-year-old woman and the fallout that is still coming, you have to wonder if those holding leadership positions in Hockey Canada will be able to survive in those positions. In a strange coincidence, Hockey Canada announced on April 20 that CEO Tom Renney was going to retire effective July 1, 2022. That April 20 announcement was the same day the alleged sexual assault lawsuit was filed in court in London, Ont. With that noted, somebody in Hockey Canada’s leadership could have fallen on the sword taking ultimate responsibility over the handling of the lawsuit in being in a leadership position in the organization. That type of act could have prevented a funding freeze from the federal government and sponsors.
- The most powerful person in sports entertainment’s pro-wrestling is being dogged by sexual misconduct allegations. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published a story saying Vince McMahon, the famed CEO of WWE who stepped down from his role on June 17, paid four women US$12-million total over the past 16 years to hide numerous allegations of sexual misconduct. This story came out after the Wall Street Journal reported on June 15 that McMahon, who is 76-years-old, paid out a US$3-million to hide an alleged affair with a former employee, who reportedly was hired as a paralegal in 2019. The WWE’s board of directors was investigating the US$3-million payout, and McMahon stepped down from his CEO role due to that investigation. McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie McMahon, is serving as interim CEO and interim chairwoman after serving as the company’s chief brand officer. The US$3-million payout was part of the US$12-million payout in the Wall Street Journal’s latest story. This story has been picked up by most of the major mainstream media outlets in the U.S. It is possible this could end Vince McMahon’s involvement in sports entertainment’s pro-wrestling scene.
- Today on Saturday, July 9, I had new content appear on the Howe Happenings blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a feature story Parker Frey, who is the ace pitcher of the Saskatoon Cubs under-18 AAA team. The piece on Frey can be found by clicking right here. I also created a new photo roundup of the sweet cool moments happening on the Complex grounds that can be found by clicking right here.
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
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