Hoping hockey executive Anholt avoids being cancelled

Politics of extreme right and left cast shadow on sports

Peter Anholt, left, watches the Hurricanes play in December 2015.

Being genuine and who you are might be the easiest way to get yourself cancelled in today’s world.

Actually, I saw an interview from veteran country singer Gretchen Wilson that was posted to YouTube on August 1, 2024 where she said it is difficult to be anything in the current day. We live in the age of Donald Trump holding the role of President of the United States of America for the second time, and in this age, society is more filled with division and hatred than ever before casting a shadow over all parts of life.

The extreme right and left wings in politics are locked in a cultural war, and in my mind, both of those extreme sides believe total victory will be achieved when the other side gets obliterated.

Unfortunately, the influence of the political world does cast a shadow on the sports world. In this backdrop, people in the sports world are going to take a fall, when they shouldn’t take a fall. There are problems in the sports world like any walk of life that are always in the process of being worked out, but when a bazooka is being used to take out a mosquito, people that should be in the sports world will ultimately no longer be in the sports world.

That brings us to this past January 9 in the WHL when the Lethbridge Hurricanes announced Peter Anholt, who is 65-years-old, had resigned as the club’s general manager effective immediately. Hurricanes senior advisor Barclay Parneta assumed the duties as Hurricanes general manager on that same day on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2025-26 campaign.

Last season, the Hurricanes finished sixth overall in the WHL with a 42-21-3-2 mark. Lethbridge loaded up to make a deep run in the post-season. The Hurricanes advanced to the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series where they were swept away by the eventual WHL champion Medicine Hat Tigers 4-0 in a best-of-seven set.

This season, the Hurricanes found themselves at the start of a rebuild and were 12-27-0-1 at the time Anholt resigned. Lethbridge is currently second last in the 23-team circuit with a 12-32-0-1 record.

A WHL release from January 9 regarding Anholt’s resignation stated his departure follows the investigation of a historical personal conduct matter. The alleged matter, dating to 2015, involved a verbal interaction with a player that, as described, falls outside of the WHL’s Standards of Conduct with respect to threatening and intimidating language.

This follows WHL disciplinary action levied against Anholt and the Hurricanes this past November. On November 14, 2025, the WHL announced Anholt had been suspended for five games and the Hurricanes were fined $10,000.

The sanctions came following a WHL investigation that found Anholt breached the WHL Standards of Conduct through the use of intimidating behavior and language during a post-game address to players in the dressing room following the team’s 8-6 home ice loss to the Edmonton Oil Kings on October 29, 2025.

In a release on November 14, 2025, Anholt said, “My behavior and language in addressing our team did not meet expectations. The Lethbridge Hurricanes have always believed in providing a positive environment for our players. I accept the discipline issued by the WHL and will be committed to a higher standard moving forward.”

At that time, the WHL had imposed remedial measures that included supplementary education and support, enhanced monitoring and preventative steps to ensure there is no recurrence of similar conduct.

This past January 9, the WHL said in a release that the circuit was not aware of the historical allegation at the time the matter from November 2025 was handled. Both claims were filed via the league’s anonymous 1-800 WHL Respect hotline, which provides players, staff and others associated with the WHL with a confidential avenue to report concerns or incidents that may violate WHL standards.

The historical claim was investigated by the WHL Security Department.

The WHL also announced that along with his departure, Anholt has agreed to participate in counselling in the spirit of personal betterment. Anholt’s counselling will be sponsored by the Hurricanes and the WHL.

Before I go on, I just want to say that “Peter Anholt is a good man.”

Let me repeat myself.

Before I go on, I just want to say that “Peter Anholt is a good man.”

I have known Anholt since late 2002, and I consider him a good friend. I will always consider him one of my guys. We met when he came back to Prince Albert to once again become the head coach of the Raiders, and I was working full time as the sports reporter for the Prince Albert Daily Herald.

Anholt built a reputation as a Raiders hero as a defenceman from 1978 to 1981 when the team was still in the junior A ranks. He played on national championship winners in 1979 and 1981. When the club moved to the WHL before the start of the 1982-83 campaign, Anholt worked on the Raiders coaching staff as an assistant coach from 1986 to 1988 and was the head coach and director of hockey operations for the 1988-89 season.

I have always and still see Anholt as someone who is respected, accountable and personable. One of my best memories of Anholt for myself came when the Raiders were eliminated from the first round of the 2004 WHL Playoffs in Game 6 against the Brandon Wheat Kings in a contest played at the Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg. The Wheat Kings were forced out of their rink due to the annual Royal Manitoba Winter Fair in Brandon.

I was riding the bus with the Raiders at that time, and I had an important blood family issue to look after when we arrived in Winnipeg. Everyone on the team knew about the issue, and Anholt was a big pillar of support for myself.

When the bus arrived in Winnipeg the day before the game, I left to address the issue, and I didn’t see everyone again until Game 6 versus the Wheat Kings was played the next day.

After dropping a 4-1 decision to the Wheat Kings in Game 6, I interviewed Anholt after that contest. When the interview was done, he asked how things went on the blood family front. I said they went well.

Anholt smiled and said, “That’s good. Family is important.”

Before the start of the 2014-15 campaign, Anholt joined the Hurricanes as an assistant general manager. In case anyone forgot, it seemed like there was a death watch surrounding the Hurricanes when Anholt joined the team.

At the completion of the 2013-14 campaign, the Hurricanes posted a 12-55-2-3 record and missed the WHL Playoffs for a fifth straight season. Things were so bad at times during the playoff drought that the Hurricanes were having trouble securing a radio broadcast deal at one point, which is highly unusual for a WHL franchise. There were also times the Hurricanes existence in Lethbridge was also called into question.

In December of 2014, the Hurricanes named Anholt the team’s head coach and general manager as he worked to get the team turned around. Before the start of the 2015-16 campaign, Anholt hired Brent Kisio to be the Hurricanes head coach, while Anholt focused on the role as general manager.

The Hurricanes turned around on and off the ice and made the Eastern Conference Championship Series in 2017 and 2018. Lethbridge fell in six games to the Regina Pats in 2017 and the eventual WHL champion Swift Current Broncos in six games in 2018.

While the Hurricanes are in a rebuild in the current campaign, they are still a respected franchise, and they are expected to be part of the Lethbridge community long into the foreseeable future. Anholt played a major role in getting that franchise to that point.

Since 2022, hockey in Canada has been under a microscope since the legal issues came up regarding Canada’s entry that won gold at world juniors during the 2017-18 campaign. That saw five players be charged with sexual assault and then be acquitted. All sorts of fallout and all sorts of other issues came to the surface as a spinoff of the legal issues that came to the surface for those five members of Canada’s world junior team from the 2017-18 campaign.

To me, there has been more of a heightened pressure from the Government of Canada on sports bodies and organizations to create codes of conduct and make sure they are followed. There is also a push for sports organizations to have 1-800 hotlines where people can make anonymous tips about misconduct that are investigated by an objective third party, but I would say about 80 per cent of sports organizations in Canada don’t have the funding for an oversight body like that.

For a lot of sports organizations including national sports bodies, funding for an oversight body would take up their entire budget.

As for Anholt, he is personable, but he also wears his heart on his sleeve. He is genuine and honest, and if he thinks someone isn’t a good person or a team isn’t giving a good effort, he calls it as he sees it. Most of the time, his observations are correct.

I did worry that something like the post-game address on October 29, 2025 after the Hurricanes loss to the Oil Kings and the fallout afterwards could happen. I also should note that isn’t an everyday thing with Anholt, and it didn’t surprise me he owned that situation.

The historical matter from 2015 concerns me from the aspect of how skeletons in the closet from the past get treated. Of course, some skeletons are worse than others and is a bazooka going to be used to take out all skeletons.

Reflecting back to when Anholt came on board with the Hurricanes and his first couple of seasons on the job, there were players on that team that could be deemed as cancers and having attitudes. Anholt was trying to weed those types off the team. I also know if you are a cancer that Anholt will bluntly tell you that to your face.

Because Anholt is genuine, I know lots of people who have worked under him as a manager in hockey and manager in the working world outside of hockey who say he was the best boss they ever worked for.

I know countless players who say he is the best coach they have played for and the best general manager they have played for. Whenever Anholt’s travels take him, it is common for him to have former players come visit him. I know of players who after they have gotten married would visit Anholt after games and brought their baby children to meet him.

I will say for sure that everyone who played for the Raiders from 2003 to 2005 loved playing for Anholt as a coach.

When Anholt goes to Prince Albert, he knows he has to leave his work behind. If he is at a WHL game at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre, he knows he will barely see the game with all the people who want to come and visit him.

I could go on and on saying good things about Anholt and there are a lot more to share. I also know with the way things are politically with the extreme left and the extreme right in the current day that those who have their mind made up that Anholt is bad won’t be persuaded otherwise.

I’ve already seen some of that chatter on social media. It feels like those aren’t people who follow hockey normally, and are in this case extreme left wingers who want to jump in with rage to put on a show and like to talk down to others.

Folks in Prince Albert have seen lots of those when the Raiders have faced criticism when they have used their traditional Arab on skates logo for throwback usage. The online criticism and criticism overall comes from people who do not reside in Prince Albert and seem to reside in Toronto or Vancouver. Those people want to talk down and tell the folks in Prince Albert how they should live their lives.

In the current world, I believe Anholt’s biggest challenge is that he is too genuine, and he isn’t the ultimate example in being politically correct. For myself, I have found those that focus on being the ultimate example of being politically correct are often people I find I distrust, are not credible and are not genuine.

I just hope Anholt avoids getting cancelled and does return to hockey one day. With the Hurricanes and WHL sponsoring his counselling, I think that is a path he is heading towards.

If Anholt does get cancelled, I fear there are a lot of other good people in the sports world that could end up in that same predicament as well.

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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Unfortunately, sports and politics do collide

Expect trend to increase with Trump as US President

Has anybody in Canada seen much of Steven Guilbeault in recent weeks?

From 2021 to 2024, it seemed like the famed former member of Greenpeace was a regular on Canadian news networks serving as Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, which is a position he still holds. Guilbeault seemingly spoke as Prime Minister of Canada 1A creating policies to force Canada to move towards a green economy. He was the star shown all over the place as it seemed to be Canada was positioned to be the hero that was going to save the world from climate change under the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Guilbeault was seen regularly in early January 2025 until January 20 rolled around and Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States of America for a second term taking over from Democrat Joe Biden, who beat Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election. Since becoming the President of the United States again, Trump signed off on an avalanche of executive orders changing numerous aspects of life in that country and using the threats of tariffs to declare economic war on first Canada and Mexico along with seemingly the rest of the world.

Of course, he keeps repeating that line about making Canada the “51^st state.”

All of that has thrown Canada’s political scene in a crisis mode with the country’s economy being very dependent on what has traditionally been a good relationship with the United States. Under the specter of this current political climate, it seems like there is a fear that Canada could turn into a third world country overnight, if Trump makes good on his plans.

All of a sudden, you don’t hear much about Guilbeault and talk about Canada’s environmental policies has become muted. If they are talked about, they seem out of place in dealing with the economic challenges Canada now faces.

Shifting to the sporting world, Trump appeared at Super Bowl LIX on February 9 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. He received big cheers, but left early as the Philadelphia Eagles stormed to a 34-0 lead and hammered the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs 40-22. The Chiefs scored two touchdowns in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter to make the final score look better cosmetically.

On Sunday, Trump appeared at the Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Air Force 1 took a flyby of the track and Trump road in his armoured Cadillac limousine nicknamed “The Beast” and lapped the track with his presidential motorcade leading the field of cars.

In Canada, the national anthem of the United States has been booed before NHL and NBA games hosted in Canadian cities and the two 4 Nations Face-Off games the United States team played at the Bell Centre in Montreal. The booing is done to show displeasure with Trump’s tariff threats.

On Monday, Bill Guerin, who is the Team USA general manager for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, said on Fox News he would be very happy to see Trump in the crowd for Thursday’s championship game. The USA will face Canada in the final to be played at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts (7 p.m. Saskatchewan time, Sportsnet). At the moment, it does not look like Trump will be attending this contest.

Trudeau was in attendance for the preliminary round game between Canada and the USA taken 3-1 including an empty-net goal by the Americans last Saturday at the Bell Centre in Montreal. That game started with three fights in the first nine seconds of the opening frame.

If the United States wins the 4 Nations Face-Off title game, you can be sure you will see messaging on social media that Canada was put in its place and that the USA owns Canada. You will likely hear messages from the folks in the United States that Canada has become an embarrassment in the game it loves and that Canada really isn’t a real country and should become a state.

When it comes to sport on the international scene, sport has become the place where a sizable number of countries use that space as the spot that proves their country and culture is superior that of another country and its culture.

When the Soviet Union existed, it often used both Summer and Winter Olympic Games along would world championships to declare being the world’s most superior nation state. Russia would do that under the rule of Vladimir Putin before their sports bodies were banned at Olympic and various other international sporting events following their invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

When Canada’s NHL players face the Soviet Union in the famed eight-game Summit Series of 1972, it became a tribalistic battle between cultures and peoples out on a hockey rink. Canada claimed that series with four wins, three losses and one tie on Paul Henderson’s famed Game 8 winner that broke a 5-5 tie and gave Canada a 6-5 victory with 34 seconds remaining in the third period.

Unfortunately, I believe the politics of the current day has devolved into a clown show and that has happened over the last 15 years.

To me, the extreme left that is seen as the woke left follows Trudeau. To me, it seems like that group of people believes concerns about the environment and climate change surpass all other issues, people are not born with a gender and can chose their gender, the Christian religion is evil, religion has no place in government, diversity, equity and inclusion is important, people are citizens of the world and should work toward a good of the globe view, the media should be controlled, the right wing voices should be silenced and the education system should conform to the leftist view that were listed.

To me, the extreme right follows Trump and the idea of Trumpism. To me, it seems like that group of people believes the economy is the issue of greatest concern, being hired on merit is more important than diversity, equity and inclusion, the Christian religion is good, religion has a place in government, there are only two sexes in male and female, women’s sports are for biological women, concerns about the environment and climate change have gone too far, those on the left wing are crazy, being combative with the media and those that don’t share your views is an acceptable behaviour and the education system should conform to the rightist view that were listed.

For both the extreme left and extreme right, I feel like if you don’t follow the dogmas I listed for each side those on each side believe you are an evil person that should be destroyed or at minimal cancelled.

Both sides have had their surprises.

In Canada especially Western Canada, the Liberals climate agenda when fully implemented would see only electric vehicles being used in Canada and all structures would be warmed by electric heat pumps. If you lived in Saskatchewan the last 10 days and experienced the extended extreme cold weather, those policies would mean no one would go anywhere and people would be freezing to death as electric heat pumps quit when it is colder than -25 C. In already following a green economic policy that has partially been put into action, tent cities and homeless has become the norm in Canadian centres of all sizes due to job losses and increased poverty.

Also if only electric vehicles were used, people at the moment would need to pay $31,000 to $75,000 to replace a battery on an electric vehicle. You are not likely to get three years out of a battery of an electric vehicle. The battery in an electric vehicle like all batteries declines in efficiency every time it is used, and electric vehicle batteries decline faster due to the size of the charge they need to hold.

Also, it does way more environmental damage to mine for the lithium for electric batteries for vehicles, and as my mechanic told me, the electric vehicle graveyard is already bigger than the gas vehicle graveyard. The world also doesn’t have enough lithium for there to be a full conversion to electric vehicles.

In the United States, President Trump’s second term so far has been more than anyone expected on the surprise front with all the executive orders he has signed. He is trying to change how government there operates, clear out senior executives in the FBI, send buyout offers to the entire CIA workforce, threaten economic war with Canada and Mexico and seemingly most other parts of the world and has seemingly sided with Russia in its war with Ukraine falsely saying that Ukraine started that war.

To me, both those on the far left and far right are trying to work things on the financial front to profit themselves and their buddies. If they do actually want to help the people they govern, they don’t truly know how to do that.

I said this before, but I personally have no use for Trudeau and Trump. I also believe there is value in trying to understand why people vote for either side, especially if their views are moderate or centralist. I believe it helps to figure out why we got to where we are in the world.

I believe the strong centralist voice has been lost. I believe good democracy comes from doing the art of the compromise well.

I also believe there are too many lies told in this world being both “white” lies and straight out lies. Those lies make trust hard to achieve and gives conspiracy theories traction.

I believe I don’t fit with either the far left or the far right, which means those on both spectrums will hate me. I understand that is an “it is what it is” thing, and I am fine with it.

Things will play out however they play out, and I will adjust to those factors when the effect me the best I can using the cards that are dealt my way. I feel like I have constantly said that since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic started in March of 2020.

For myself, I personally wish sports and politics did not mix. Unfortunately, the reality is sports and politics do mix, and they have mixed pretty much for all time. The intensity of how sports and politics mix constantly changes as the years go on and can rage for a small to no mix up to a big mix.

With the way the world is currently especially in North America, the sports and politics mix appears set to happen on a more regular and intense basis going forward. Buckle up.

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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Eagles crush Chiefs, leave no doubt in Super Bowl win

Trump shades Swift to create tabloid fodder

“Donald Trump likes to win.”

Fortunately, that didn’t come into play in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Philadelphia Eagles roared out to leads of 34-0 and 40-6 and hammered the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 before 65,719 spectators. The Chiefs scored two touchdowns in the last three minutes of the fourth quarter in “garbage time” to cosmetically make the final score look better.

The contest also made news as Trump became the first sitting President of the United States of America to watch the Super Bowl live in person. In a pre-game interview with Fox, Trump predicted a Chiefs victory after praising the team’s quarterback in Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany. Trump was pictured getting on Air Force One more than an hour before the contest concluded.

On the flight to the Super Bowl, Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports including from Canada and Mexico. That got the mainstream news outlets fired up in Canada.

At the Super Bowl, Trump fed the tabloids content. During the Fox broadcast of the game, he was shown during the national anthem to big cheers from the stadium.

On social media channels specifically Platform-X, which is owned by close Trump associate Elon Musk, video was shown during the game of the fans booing music superstar Taylor Swift when she was shown on the facility’s big screen.

For the presidential election held this past November in 2024, Swift endorsed Kamala Harris, who was the Democratic candidate. Swift is also dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Trump responded on Truth Social to Swift’s endorsement of Harris that he hated Swift and was not a fan of her.

As the Eagles route in the Super Bowl continued, posts circulated on social media of the crowd cheering Trump and booing Swift. Trump shared one of the posts of the duel video of him getting cheered and Swift being booed on Truth Social.

He also put out a post on Truth Social that said, “The only one that had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift. She got BOOED out of the Stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!”

Both social media actions come off as being childish and petty. Trump does like to throw dirt on his perceived enemies.

Trump supporters on Platform-X on the other hand reveled over the Truth Social post and the fact he shared the post of him getting cheered and Swift being booed.

A year ago in the Chiefs 25-22 overtime Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ERS in Las Vegas, Nevada, Swift was the big celebrity star with her relationship with Kelce drawing tonnes of attention. Now, all of that feels like it happened in some other universe.

All of a sudden, there were no conspiracy theories that the NFL officials were making calls to favour the Chiefs in order to make Swift happy.

Actually, there was no way to save the Chiefs on Sunday with favourable calls, if you believe that conspiracy theory. The Eagles were that good.

Philadelphia had the NFL’s top defence during the 2024 regular season giving up just 278.4 total yards per game, and that defensive unit was as good as advertised on Sunday.

In an NFL where it has become increasingly harder to be a physical team due to rule changes, the Eagles defence hammered the Chiefs. Philadelphia’s defensive pressure resulted in six quarterback sacks.

Linebacker Josh Sweat had 2.5 sacks to lead the Eagles, while defensive tackle Milton Williams had a pair of sacks, fellow defensive tackle Jordan Davis had a single sack and linebacker Jalyx Hurt had a half sack.

Rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean returned an interception 38 yards for a touchdown that put the Eagles up 17-0 with just over seven minutes remaining in the second quarter. That play was a huge turning point in the contest. The body language of the Chiefs players and coaches just dropped right down after that play and never recovered for the rest of the game.

Linebacker Zack Baun had a diving interception that set the Eagles up on the Chiefs 14 yard line with 1:45 remaining in the second quarter. Two plays later, Eagles star quarterback Jalen Hurts connected with receiver A.J. Brown on a 12-yard touchdown toss that put the Eagles up 24-0 going into halftime.

In the third quarter, the Eagles pushed their edge out to 27-0 on a 29-yard field goal from kicker Jake Elliott. After forcing a turnover on downs with just under three minutes to play in the frame, Hurts connected with receiver DeVonta Smith on a 46 yard touchdown bomb to increase the Eagles advantage to 34-0.

At that point if the game was a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the fight.

It seemed like the Eagles were channeling the 1985 Chicago Bears, when they hammered the New England Patriots before the era of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick 46-10 in Super Bowl XX. Actually, one was wondering if the Eagles were going to post the first shutout in the history of the Super Bowl and one up the 1985 Bears and the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.

The 2000 Ravens only gave up a kickoff return touchdown in thumping the New York Giants 34-7 in Super Bowl XXXV.

On Sunday, Hurts had his finest hour in the NFL being named the game MVP of his team’s Super Bowl win. He completed 17-of-22 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns, while throwing one interception. Hurts, who won an NCAA championship with the University of Alabama Crimson Tide Football Team in 2017, ran the ball 11 times for 72 yards and scored the Eagles first major on the “tush push” play.

Eagles superstar running back Saquon Barkley turned heads in 2024 leading the NFL in rushing during regular season running the ball 345 times for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns. The Chiefs were focused on stopping Barkley, who ran the ball 25 times for 57 yards. Barkley did come up with six big catches for 40 yards and was overjoyed to get a Super Bowl win on his 28^th birthday.

Elliott made all four of his field goal attempts with a long from 50 yards out. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni looked like a genius with how well his team played.

Overall, the Eagles were full marks for their impressive win, and they were the night’s biggest story. The Trump shading Swift tabloid moves on social media was a secondary story that is attracting a lot of looks.

Welcome to the new reality where sports and politics mixes with Trump serving a second term as President of the United States. Don’t expect these types of occurrence to go away any time soon.

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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U.S. President gets COVID-19, QMJHL plays, mixed messages are maddening

The Acadie-Bathurst Titan celebrate a Memorial Cup win in 2018.

Maybe The Onion will go out of business?

The satirical media company has to be challenged to come out with stories that are more outrageous than what real life presents.

As life goes on currently in the world, one keeps constantly asking themselves, “Is this real thing?”

The frequency that question keeps getting asked in one’s head seems to increase as the second, minutes and hours swiftly move on.

Late Thursday night or early Friday morning depending on what time zone you live in, news broke that United States President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania tested positive for COVID-19. On Friday, Trump was moved to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., just outside of Washington, D.C.

At some point on Friday, Trump received a dose of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ duel antibody, which is an experimental antibody cocktail.

Since the middle of March, the world has been caught in the grips of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Trump has downplayed the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic for months and hadn’t be taking precautions to avoid getting COVID-19.

Even with all that in mind, it still seemed surreal that that whole COVID-19 situation with Trump was playing out the way it currently is.

You were asking yourself, “Is this actually real?”

While the Trump situation was playing out in the United States, up in Canada the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League kicked off its 2020-21 regular season.

Six games were played in centres in the province of Quebec without fans on Friday night. This is happening at time when the province of Quebec is increasing lockdown measures to combat COVID-19.

On Friday, provincial authorities in Quebec announced the province had 1,052 new cases of COVID-19. On day earlier on Thursday, Quebec officials announced the province had 933 new COVID-19 cases and two deaths due to the virus.

Still, they are playing major junior hockey, which is the most elite of the junior hockey levels.

With all that noted, two QMJHL games were played in the province of New Brunswick on Friday with limited but sizable crowds. As a Friday, New Brunswick reported there were only five active COVID-19 cases in the province.

In Bathurst, N.B., the host Acadie-Bathurst Titan slipped past the Saint John Sea Dogs 4-3 in overtime before 1,372 spectators at the Centre Regional K.C. Irving, which holds 3,524 spectators for hockey.

The Oil Kings are second in the CHL Top 10 rankings.

In Moncton, N.B., the host Wildcats dropped a 4-2 decision to the Charlottetown Islanders before 2,278 spectators at the Avenir Centre, which seats 8,800 spectators.

Oh, the Quebec provincial government is considering subsidizing the 12 QMJHL clubs based in that province with $20-million. Last week, Quebec education minister Isabelle Charest said she would like to see the circuit ban fighting before the province gave any money.

On Wednesday, the QMJHL did roll out tougher rules with regards to fighting. Anyone involved in a fight gets a five-minute major and a 10-minute misconduct as opposed to just the major penalty alone. After accumulating three fights in a season, a player will get a one-game suspension and receive another one-game suspension for each additional fight.

There is still no word if the QMJHL squads received any money from the Quebec government.

Also on the hockey front back on Tuesday, the Spengler Cup hockey tournament, which is held annually in Davos, Switzerland usually from Dec. 26 to 31, was cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When you look at all those developments, you ask yourself, “Can this all be happening at close to the same time?”

To add to the craziness of the current time, the Canadian Hockey League announced its pre-season Top 10 rankings. The CHL is the umbrella the three major junior circuits of the WHL, OHL and QMJHL play under.

At the present time, the WHL and OHL aren’t slated to take the ice for regular season action until December.

The Sherbrooke Phoenix of the QMJHL checked in at the top spot. The WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings, Kamloops Blazers and Portland Winterhawks were listed second, sixth and ninth respectively.

The Brandon Wheat Kings and Prince Albert Raiders were honourable mentions. That isn’t bad considering none of those WHL clubs have held a practice for the 2020-21 campaign.

On the statistical front, Worldometer, which keeps really accurate number counts, stated there were 1,033,330 deaths due to COVID-19 in the world this year at the time this post went life. In comparison, Worldometer states there have been 1,271,167 deaths in the world this year due to AIDS/HIV, 1,020,751 deaths due to road traffic accidents, 810,877 suicides, 741,715 deaths due to malaria, 636,778 deaths due to water related diseases, 369,614 deaths due to seasonal flu and 233,724 deaths due to mothers giving birth.

There are still some out there who say as many people die of the seasonal flu as have died of COVID-19, but someone COVID-19 deaths worldwide surpass those of the season flu by over 640,000 so far this year.

Also, most of the world is taking precautions to combat COVID-19 and a death total of over 1-million has still occurred. Who knows what that total would be if there were no precautions noting how easily COVID-19 is transmitted, and the lingering health issues some have continued to have after their battle with COVID-19.

The Raiders are an honourable mention in the CHL rankings.

The skeptics do ask what about deaths due cancer. There have 6,210,397 deaths worldwide due to cancer, but a person can’t be infected with cancer interacting with a person that has that disease.  COVID-19 can be transmitted person to person through interaction.

Overall, the mixed messages that keep coming out from all walks of life in the current world are maddening.

In order to combat a pandemic like COVID-19, you need most of the public to be on the same page. 

At the moment, society is not in this together, and these crazy surreal moments that have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic are likely destined to continue.

Canada West delays January start decision, other notes

Will Evan Fiala and the Huskies return to action in January 2021?

Teams that are hoping to jump into action for the winter semester in the Canada West Conference will have to wait a little longer to find out if there will be a season.

Originally, the conference, which plays under the U Sports umbrella, was expecting to announce on Oct. 8 if there will be regular season play in the winter semester starting in early January of 2021. On Friday, the Canada West Conference announced the final decision to play during the winter semester has been pushed back to November 2.

The sports that are looking to resume play in January of 2021 include men’s and women’s basketball, hockey and volleyball along with rugby women’s 7s. Canada West Championships are still planned in the winter semester for men’s and women’s curling, swimming, track and field and wrestling.

All fall team competitions in the Canada West Conference were cancelled in June, while the conference championships for cross-country running and later golf were subsequently cancelled. All the cancellations are due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Canada West Conference golf championships, which were slated to start Friday in Kelowna, B.C., were the last fall sport that got cancelled with that announcement coming down on Sept. 22.

The Canada West Conference included the University of Saskatchewan Huskies program and the University of Regina Athletics program.

• On Tuesday, the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos announced at their annual general meeting that the community owned franchise lost $791,000 for the 2019-20 campaign. Steven Mah of the Southwest Booster has the story on the breakdown of the Broncos losses and that piece can be found by clicking right here.
• On Tuesday, the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors announced at their annual general meeting that the community owned franchise lost $391,299 for the 2019-20 campaign. Randy Palmer of MooseJawToday.com has the story about those losses and that piece can be found by clicking right here.
• On Wednesday, Hockey Edmonton announced Steve Hogle will be that organization’s new general manager. Hogle served as the president of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades from 2013 to 2019. He still serves as an alternate governor for the Blades.

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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U Sports, NCAA athletes make tough choice to head back

Josiah Joseph, left, and the U of Calgary Dinos were 2019 U Sports champs.

    If you go, odds are high you might not play.

    Even if you do play, there is a chance your season might still not get completed and even then you are playing a shortened campaign. You will also spend a lot of money in the process.

    These are the realities that face athletes in U Sports in Canada and the NCAA in the United States for the 2020-21 campaign due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Even with that in mind, athletes on both sides of the border have flocked back to many of their campuses to train for a campaign that has a big risk of not happening.

    Even for teams whose sport or season has been cancelled for the 2020-21 campaign, athletes have returned to many campuses to resume training.

    For the top level of NCAA football, the season is still a go, but many conferences have cancelled play for the fall. The Big Ten, Pac-12, Mid-America Conference and Mountain West are some of the conferences that have cancelled fall play.

    However, CBS was reporting Tuesday that United States President Donald Trump talked to Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren about reversing course and getting football back on the field in that conference in fall.

    The conferences and independents that are already committed to playing are doing so with various start times and various modified schedules. A pair of top level NCAA football games are slated for Thursday and a number of NCAA football contests are set to take the field on Saturday.

Willow Slobodzian missed her friends at Cornell.

    Back on Aug. 13, NCAA president Mark Emmert said there won’t be any fall NCAA championships because there are not enough schools participating due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision impacts 22 championships not including the Football Bowl Subdivision or the top level of NCAA football.

    Before that announcement was made, the NCAA had already said all fall championships in Division II and Division III had been cancelled and would not be rescheduled for spring.

    In U Sports in Canada, the Reseau du sport etudiant du Quebec is still pushing to get fall sports back in action including football. There is a hope football will start in the middle of September but work is still going on with provincial health officials in Quebec to bring post-secondary sports back to action with September 14 targeted as a potential decision day.

    U Sports has cancelled all its fall national championships. Atlantic University Sports and Ontario University Athletics conferences have shut down all varsity sports for the remainder of 2020.

    Canada West Conference has cancelled all fall sports with a couple of exceptions. The Canada West Golf Championships are still slated for Oct. 2-4 to be hosted by UBC Okanagan in Kelowna, B.C.

    The Canada West Swimming Championships were to be hosted by the University of Calgary in November, but that event is being pushed back to a date to be determined in early 2021.

Colton Klassen enjoys seeing his Huskies teammate at Ignite Athletics.

    The biggest plus for the athletes that get back together is it does improve mental health, and it even helps the mental health of the coaches and support staffs.

    Many of these groups haven’t been together for six months.

    Clavet, Sask., product Willow Slobodzian returned to train with the Cornell University Big Red women’s hockey team in Ithaca, New York. The star defender, who is eligible to play one more NCAA campaign, desperately wanted to see her friends from her team again.

    In Saskatoon, members of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team that live in town have been doing workouts at Ignite Athletics on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds since June 8. Those gatherings have boosted optimism and positivity.

    Huskies star offensive utility player Colton Klassen said training at Ignite Athletics has helped his well-being in a big way.

    Despite the plus of seeing all your teammate, there are a few other drawbacks that go along with the potential of not playing.

    The top drawback is cost.

    Even with scholarships that get paid on both sides of the border, athletes and their families will be dropping some cash to return to their respective institutions, especially if they live out of town.

    While the NCAA Division I ranks are stereotypically viewed as the place that gives full scholarships and takes care of all accommodations, that isn’t always the case. There are a number of cases where athletes are only getting partial scholarships and they and their families have to spend money on living expenses.

Nelson Lokombo (#25) was the 2019 U Sports defensive player of the year.

    In U Sports, all the athletes and their families are responsible for their own living expenses. For those who are hoping to see their basketball, hockey or volleyball seasons start in January of 2021, those campaigns still have a high likelihood of being cancelled. That means dishing out eight months of living expenses for no season.

    Most U Sports institutions are conducting classes online unless you have to head to campus for a lab, so the living expenses are a big factor. In Saskatchewan, most buildings at the U of Saskatchewan and University of Regina are still locked up.

    On the scholarships front, there are a number of partial scholarships in U Sports, which means athletes and their families and paying on that front too.

    For Canadian athletes that head back to NCAA schools, they have another hoop. They likely won’t return for Christmas break, because they will have to self-isolate for 14 days upon returning from the United States to Canada.

    The other peril NCAA athletes have to dodge is the temptation to go to off-campus parties. Many NCAA school brought back their entire student bodies, which meant there were a lot of options to go out and party.

    On Aug. 16, The Daily Tar Heel, which is the student newspaper for the University of North Carolina, wrote an editorial condemning the school for bringing students back and went so far to use the word “clusterf*&%.” The editorial said there were numerous reports of parties on the first weekend after the first full week of school.

Summer Masikewich helped the Huskies win a U Sports title in March.

    On Aug. 18, the U of North Carolina announced it would not hold in person classes after about 130 students tested positive for COVID-19.

    There have been constant reports of positive coronavirus tests within NCAA teams and one of the themes sees these positive tests get traced back to parties.

    Of the most notable cases here came on Aug. 7, when the University of Louisville dismissed three members of its men’s soccer team and suspended three others for hosting a party that lead to the spread of COVID-19.

    The Auburn University Tigers were slated to resume practice today and were without 16 players due to COVID-19 concerns. Multiple practices were cancelled at Auburn last week.

    Parties were not linked to any COVID-19 concerns in this case.

    Things on the NCAA landscape keep changing so much that ESPN is running a ticker on developments, and the latest ticker can be found by clicking right here.

    The COVID-19 concerns aren’t going away in the United States any time soon.

    As of Tuesday night, Worldometer, which gives pretty accurate statistics, said the United States has had over 6.2-million COVID-19 cases this year. That means 1.8 per cent of the United States population has had COVID-19 at one time this year.

    In Canada, U Sports athletes will be the only groups of students that will get together on a regular basis due to the focus of online classes. Getting COVID-19 at parties is less of a concern in Canada as 0.3 per cent of the population has tested positive for the virus this year according to Worldometer.

    Still, try and tell those in the 18 to 24 age group to not party seems like an impossible task.

The U of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s basketball team on March 12.

    For the U Sports and NCAA athletes, it is an enormous decision to return to campus to train. Overall, the biggest risk is a lot of money will be spent to not play.

    When the dust settles, it all comes down to how the athletes and their families want to spend their money and if they are comfortable with the unique factors that have risen up in these current times.

    If you can navigate all those variables, the athletes are free to do as they please.

    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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    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Oilers will always have a big following in Saskatchewan

The Oilers mingle at their bench during a timeout.

    The Edmonton Oilers will always have a sizable following in Saskatchewan.

    During Wednesday’s 4-0 NHL pre-season victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, a large gathering of 10,387 spectators were on hand at the SaskTel to see captain Connor McDavid and his Edmonton bunch. The Oilers star attraction didn’t disappoint netting a pair of goals and an assist to send almost all of a partisan crowd, who were mostly decked out in Oilers gear, home happy.

    The Oilers following in Saskatchewan has been entrenched for a few decades. The team build a huge fanbase during the 1980s and early 1990s, when the Oilers captured the Stanley Cup five times in seven years from 1984 to 1990.

    During that time, the Oilers were often labeled Western Canada’s team. Due to hitting the ice with players the likes of hockey icons Wayne Gretzky, who was part of the Oilers first four Stanley Cup wins, and Mark Messier, it was easy to identify with the team that was on television on a regular basis every April and May thanks to those championship playoff runs.

    Oilers netminder Laurent Brossoit enjoyed seeing the support his team gets from Alberta’s eastern provincial neighbour.

    “That is nice to have a couple of provinces that considers us their home team,” said Brossoit. “It is definitely a nice feeling. It is a lot of support for us.”

    Saskatoon product and rugged defensive defenceman Eric Gryba has always enjoyed his homecomings during his NHL career, and he noted there is a bit of an extra attachment when he returns home as a member of the Oilers.

    “Any time I come home and play in my hometown (before) a lot of friends and family is always a special thing,” said Gryba. “Obviously, the crowd is excited to have the Oilers in town.”

The Oilers and Hurricanes get set for a faceoff.

    While the Oilers haven’t won a Stanley Cup title in 27 years, a lot of fans in Saskatchewan still have an attachment to the team’s glory days. When the club is in a down stretch, the jerseys will sometimes be placed in the closet, but they are always ready to be brought out for that next memorable playoff run.

    Oilers fever hit a high pitch in the province in 2006, when the team advanced to the Stanley Cup finals only to fall 3-1 in a series deciding Game 7 to the Hurricanes. During that playoff run, many fans that weren’t alive to see the Oilers 1990 victory got to indulge in what appeared to be a team of destiny out of nowhere run.

    Edmonton proceeded to miss the post-season for the next 10 straight years.

    Last season, the Oilers returned to the playoffs posting a 47-26-9 record in the regular season. They eliminated the San Jose Sharks 4-2 in a best-of-seven first round series and fell 2-1 in a series deciding Game 7 to the Anaheim Ducks in the second round.

    Thanks to that run where they came up a win short of qualifying for the NHL’s Western Conference championship series, the support for the Oilers is gaining momentum again. With McDavid under contract for the next nine years, hope is high the new cast of characters that make up the current Oilers can bring home another Stanley Cup championship win.

    During a public autograph session that was part of the Royal University Hospital Foundation’s Celebrity Golf Classic last June, the players that received the most autograph requests were Gryba and Oilers starting netminder Cam Talbot. You could tell the run in the 2017 NHL playoffs was fresh on the minds of the fans.

    In Saskatchewan, there will always be strong followings for the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs due to the NHL’s historic Original Six days.

    Thanks to the Stanley Cup runs from 1984 to 1990 and the sprinkling of playoff marches that have occurred since, the Oiler will always have a big backing locked down too in “the Wheat Province” too.

Other thoughts from Wednesday’s NHL stop in Saskatoon

The Oilers skate off the ice after saluting the fans at the SaskTel Centre.

    The fans that attended Wednesday’s NHL pre-season game at the SaskTel Centre got to see a good show.

    While a 4-0 score in favour of the Edmonton Oilers might say otherwise, the Carolina Hurricanes had a number of solid chances to score. After outshooting the Oilers 13-4 in the second period, Carolina looked poised to rally from a 2-0 deficit. Connor McDavid scored twice inside of the final 10 minutes of the third to seal Edmonton’s victory.

    I have seen the NHL pre-season games that have been held in Saskatoon annually for the last four years. Last year’s game that saw the Ottawa Senators down the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime was the most exciting of the four.

    The games that have been held each of the past two years were far better than the ones I saw in 2014 and 2015. The contests the past two years were held late in the pre-season, and teams hit the ice with lineups that more resembled the ones that would be used in the regular season.

    The games in 2014 and 2015 definitely weren’t worth paying ticket prices ranging from $59.50 to $112 including fees to go see.

·         Hurricanes defenceman Haydn Fleury looked like an all-world player during his WHL days with the Red Deer Rebels, which wrapped up following the 2015-16 campaign. The sophomore pro looked ordinary trying to defend McDavid on a one-on-one rush on the Oilers fourth goal on Wednesday. McDavid seemed to toy with Fleury and cause the rearguard to move into position where he screened netminder Cam Ward. Fleury isn’t the first and won’t be the last player to look ordinary going against McDavid.

·         Wednesday’s attendance of 10,387 was quite a bit higher than the 7,541 that saw the Oilers play in Saskatoon in 2015. McDavid suited up for that 2015 contest, picking up an assist in a 3-0 win over the Minnesota Wild. Back then, McDavid was going through the paces of his rookie campaign.

·         Defenceman Eric Gryba of the Oilers and Trevor Carrick of the Hurricanes engaged in a late third period fight. Carrick managed to get some decent shots in, but the bout ended quickly after it started when the pair slipped down to ice.

·         Way less media from Edmonton attended Wednesday’s game compared to past years, when the Oilers came to Saskatoon. Outside of the crew putting together contest for the Oilers website, only one Edmonton based reporter was present during post-game interviews. In past years, a number of members from the Edmonton media were on hand. There were no appearances this year by legendary Edmonton sportswriters Jim Matheson and Terry Jones, who are both first class guys. It was another sign of Canada’s worse than skeleton crew media cut era. On the bright side, all of Saskatoon’s local outlets were represented.

·         I covered Wednesday’s game for The Canadian Press. My story for that wire service can be found right here.

Anthem protests didn’t have to happen

Some fans have burned their NFL gear over anthem protests.

    The sports world, especially the professional sports world, has been overwhelmed with protests regarding the United States national anthem, and the recent wave didn’t need to happen.

    A year ago, Colin Kaepernick, who was then the quarterback of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, at first sat and later kneeled during the playing of the U.S. national anthem to protest social injustice – primarily inequality and police violence against blacks. Issues involving race have always been a huge elephant in the room in the United States. Canada has its racial issues too, but arguably, they are not as wedge oriented as those in the United States.

    A number of other players joined Kaepernick when he started doing his protest, but the story really died down to the point it was pretty much off the radar at the start of the current NFL season.

    That changed last Friday, when U.S. President Donald Trump made a speech to supporters in Huntsville, Ala., and attacked players who kneeled in protest of the U.S. national anthem.

    Trump said, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’”

    He followed with a storm of inflammatory tweets. When NFL games rolled around on Sunday, there were massive protests that included over 200 players sitting or kneeling during the U.S. national anthem. Most teams locked arms in standing for the U.S. national anthem.

    In the CFL on Sunday, the Saskatchewan Roughriders locked arms during the Canadian national anthem before their 15-9 loss to the Calgary Stampeders at Mosaic Stadium as a show of support to the NFL players in the U.S.

    Since Trump’s speech last Friday, the anthem protest story seems to rise again with each passing hour with another story containing a different angle. It really feels like this is a story that is out of control. Had Trump not said what he said last Friday, life in the professional sports world and the overall sports would have gone on as normal.

    Now, you have two camps. You have those that kneel and lock arms to peacefully protest during the U.S. national anthem for Kaepernick’s original cause of protesting social injustice and police violence against minorities.

    You have the other camp that believe the peaceful protests during the U.S. national anthem show disrespect for the United States flag and military. The peaceful anthem protests were never about the United States flag or military.

    That same scenario goes for Canada and the Canadian flag and military.

    The two sides seem to keep escalating each other up, where you have fans burning jerseys or other team gear. The fact Trump, who started all this in the first place, keeps stoking the fire on this subject also doesn’t help.

    For myself, I will support anyone that feels moved to the point they believe it is necessary to make a peaceful protest during the national anthem in the United States or Canada like what has happened in the last five days. If someone wants to just stand at attention during the national anthem in the United States or Canada, I support that action too. Freedom of expression is a right in both countries.

    In the amateur sports world, I know a large number of teams who are serious when it comes to standing at attention for the national anthem, and it has become part of something those teams have always done. If they do anything else, it feels weird. Those teams should feel free to continue what they have always done.

    Had Trump not stoked the subject up last Friday, the divisiveness that followed would not have happened.

RIP Hugh Hefner (1926-2017)

A 2010 documentary on Hugh Hefner.

    On Wednesday, Hugh Hefner, who was the founder of Playboy magazine, died at the age of 91 at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California.

    Due to Hefner’s age, his passing isn’t a shock. It still feels surreal due to the impact he had on culture in North America and the world during his life. It seems everyone likes to relive the joke that they checked out Playboy for the articles as opposed to the naked female centerfolds, but Hefner’s life impact expanded beyond that publication.

    Before Playboy was published, talking about sex in North America was locked in the puritan sense in that you didn’t talk about or acknowledge it at all. He helped society break free from that where the attitude toward sex became more free.

    What often doesn’t get discussed is that Hefner had a huge impact in advocating for free speech, civils rights and social justice causes, and he was way ahead of his time in advocating for those things on a number of fronts.

    Back in 2010, filmmaker Brigitte Berman produced the documentary entitled, “Hugh Hefner Playboy, Activist and Rebel.”

    The film does a fantastic job of telling the story of Hefner’s life. The majority of the interviews are with his supporters, but there are also interviews from his detractors and went into detail about the adversities he faced.

    Hefner spoke freely about his adversities. His supporters note Hefner always carried himself like a gentleman.

    The best part of the film was it was shot when Hefner was in his mid-80s, and he was still really vibrant. Judging from social media posts from people that were close to him, age finally caught up to Hefner on the health front in recent years. If you find a copy of Berman’s documentary, it is a must to check out in my opinion.

    I believe Hefner made the world a better place and did a great job in living life to the fullest.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.