WHL blessed to see lots of Tigers’ McKenna

A Gavin McKenna card.

Getting a Gavin McKenna hockey card from an Upper Deck 2023-24 CHL series box can make anyone feel like a kid again.

In recent years, the WHL has had the good fortune of cycling through a special generation of players talent wise that you have to get out and see. Many of those are currently in the 19-year-old age group that includes Riley Heidt of the Prince George Cougars, Brayden Yager of the Moose Jaw Warriors, Tanner Molendyk of the Saskatoon Blades, Gracyn Sawchyn of the Edmonton Oil Kings, Lukas Dragicevic of the Prince Albert Raiders and Andrew Cristall and Caden Price of the Kelowna Rockets.

McKenna, who is the superstar left-winger of the Medicine Hat Tigers, is the leader of younger class of elite players in the WHL. He leads the league in scoring with 48 points coming off 15 goals and 33 assists to go with a plus-20 rating appearing in all the Tigers 25 regular season games.

In 102 career regular season games, McKenna, who stands 6-feet and weighs 165 pounds, has recorded 53 goals, 110 assists and a plus-23 rating. Those statistics are incredibly impressive when you realize McKenna won’t turn 17-years-old until December 20.

Thanks to his late in the year birthday, McKenna won’t be eligible for the NHL Entry Draft until 2026. That means the Tigers will get to have McKenna for his 18-year-old season.

For folks on the WHL circuit, you still have about two thirds of the current regular season and the post-season plus the entire 2025-26 campaign to see McKenna. When the 2026 NHL Entry Draft comes around, there is a high probability that McKenna will be selected first overall and his time in junior hockey will come to an end.

McKenna’s rise was an unexpected one as he was born and raised in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. With the support of his parents Willy and Krystal, Gavin started traveling to hockey camps and tournaments at age eight. The parents knew that their son needed to be challenged and the competition in Whitehorse was limited.

Gavin McKenna recorded 97 points last season for the Tigers.

The people of Whitehorse and the business community fundraised to allow McKenna to attend these camps and tournaments. McKenna would move away from home to Kelowna, B.C., to play for the Rink Hockey Academy’s Under-18 Prep Team for his 14-year-old campaign. In 35 regular season games with the Rink Academy team, McKenna piled up 23 goals and 42 assists for 65 points.

He was selected first overall in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft by the Tigers. In his 15-year-old campaign in 2022-23, McKenna suited up for the South Alberta Hockey Academy Under-18 Prep Team located in Dunmore, Alta., which neighbours the southeast border of Medicine Hat.  

In 26 games with the SAHA squad, McKenna recorded 37 goals and 38 assists for 75 points. He was named the most valuable player of the Canadian Sport School Hockey League’s under-18 circuit.

McKenna also played in 16 regular season games with the Tigers in 2022-23, and he recorded four goals and 14 assists in those outings.  In the 2023 WHL Playoffs, he recorded one goal playing in all four of the Tigers games as they were swept by the Winnipeg Ice in a best-of-seven first round series.

As a full-time rookie last season, McKenna finished 12^th in WHL regular season scoring with 97 points coming off 34 goals and 63 assists. He set a new Tigers record for most points by a 16-year-old breaking the old mark of 95 points set by Al Conroy way back in the 1982-83 campaign.

McKenna captured the Jim Piggott Trophy as the WHL’s rookie of the year, and he was named CHL rookie of year too. This past August, McKenna helped Canada win gold at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup under-18 tournament piling up 10 goals and 10 assists in seven games. That sent him into the current campaign with the Tigers riding a sizable amount of momentum.

Gavin McKenna has 163 points in 102 career regular season games.

Of course, McKenna is going to draw comparisons to the WHL’s most recent phemon in Regina Pats alumnus Connor Bedard, who is skating in his second NHL season with the Chicago Blackhawks as a 19-year-old. The combination of the level of play, maturity and fandom that Bedard received during his time in the WHL was something you never saw in the WHL before.

If McKenna could reach the all-around levels Bedard did as a major junior player, it would be outstanding. With that said, I would never put that type of pressure on McKenna.

McKenna has to write his own story and make his own path in major junior hockey. Right now, he is doing just fine.

Hockey community morns passing of Hasenfratz

Mike Hasenfratz, left, officiates a WHL game on March 25, 2000.

Over the weekend, retired WHL and NHL referee Mike Hasenfratz passed away, and those that knew him remembered his as their favourite referee and one of the game’s great characters.

Hasenfratz, who was 58-years-old, was raised in Regina. While working in the WHL, he was selected to represent the league working the 1995 Memorial Cup in Kamloops, B.C., and the 1998 Memorial Cup in Spokane, Wash.

He claimed the Allen Paradice Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s Official of the Year in his final campaign on the circuit in 1999-2000.

Hasenfratz started working in the NHL the next season making his debut on October 21, 2000 working a game between the New York Islanders and the host Washington Capitals. He would work 705 career regular season games through the end of the 2013-14 campaign.

Just past the middle of his NHL career, Hasenfratz missed two seasons as he recovered from life-threatening heart surgery. From 2011 to 2014, Hasenfratz wore number-two to signify his second chance and what he called doing the second best job in the world after playing.

Rod Pedersen, who is the former play-by-play voice of the WHL’s Regina Pats and Prince Albert Raiders, recalled some good character memories on his site. Those can be found by clicking right here.

Hasenfratz’s final season in the WHL was the first season I covered the circuit in 1999-2000. Being in my first season and still learning the ropes of the league, I didn’t talk to Hasenfratz, and that was my loss.

I was amazed at how well he handled games between the Regina Pats and Moose Jaw Warriors, who were heated archrivals. Back in Hasenfratz’s days, games between the Pats and Warriors included lots of extra-curricular activities and escalate to complete mayhem. He always had a good handle on those contests.

I got a photo of him talking to Brett Lysak of the Pats and Shawn Skolney of the Warriors after a skirmish during a WHL regular season game played on March 25, 2000 at the Pats home rink in the Agridome, which is now known as the Brandt Centre. When Hasenfratz went to the NHL for the 2000-01 campaign, I thought it was cool I had a picture of a referee who was in the NHL.

Rest easy Hasenfratz. You will be remembered fondly by many.

Dunne first queen of NCAA’s NIL game

It can be argued Olivia “Livvy” Dunne is the most famous NCAA athlete in the present day.

The 22-year-old Louisiana State University Tigers gymnast has set the bar of what can be made in the NCAA’s guideline regarding name, image and likeness. Since 2021 when NIL guidelines changed, a piece run by the New York Post on September 13 reports Dunne has made an estimated US$9.5-million.

She gained extra notoriety last season when the Tigers won their first NCAA national team title in program history.

Dunne, who is in her “super senior” season fifth year with the Tigers, has over 5.4-million followers on Instagram and 8.1-million followers on TikTok. With her social medial following, she has become attractive to companies looking for endorsements of their products.

The Westwood, New Jersey, product has endorsement deals with Grubhub, Vuori, Bodyarmor and American Eagle Outfitters. In July of 2023, Dunne partnered with Bayou Traditions to launch The Livvy Fund, which is a program that will connect female student athletes at LSU with top brands to secure NIL endorsement deals.

Dunne also made the media outlets swoon in the United States by dating Paul Skenes, who is a star right-handed pitcher for the MLB’s Pittsburgh Pirates and is an alumnus of the LSU Tigers baseball team. Skenes was named the National League’s Rookie of the Year for the 2024 MLB campaign.

Thanks to what Dunne has been able to make through NIL for the short time it has been around, she has changed the overall sports world in North America. She is the NCAA’s first “Queen of NIL.”

As a ripple effect, the hockey world in North America is coming to grips with the changes in the NCAA’s NIL guidelines. Looking at social media, it appears a lot of people in the hockey world just look at the hockey world and don’t realize forces outside their sporting world can affect their world.

On November 7, the NCAA Division I Council voted to abolish old rules that classified CHL players as professional. Starting on August 1, 2025, players from the CHL’s three major junior circuits in the WHL, OHL and QMJHL will be eligible to play for NCAA Division I teams. Basically, CHL players will maintain NCAA eligibility as long as they have not signed an entry-level contract with an NHL team.

Under the old rules, the NCAA kept major junior hockey players out on the basis of getting a monthly stipend that has never hit $1,000 a month in Canadian dollars. That was how the NCAA classified CHL players as professional.

A class-action lawsuit was filed on August 13 in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, N.Y., challenging those bylaws. That lawsuit now becomes a mute thing.

The rules that had existed before really put undue pressure on young players mainly from Canada to make a decision if they would play for a major junior team or join the junior A ranks to keep their NCAA eligibility alive. As far as the development process goes, players will be able to make decisions more naturally and benefit from having more freedom with their path through the game in attempting to make the NHL.

 Still, those rules are causing major shockwaves in hockey. Junior A teams in Canada banked on being able to get good players who still wanted to protect their NCAA eligibility by not playing major junior. Now, that is a non-factor.

Also, the British Columbia Hockey League elected to leave the junior A Canadian Junior Hockey League in 2021. It officially became an independent circuit going rogue on May 1, 2023 when the BCHL elected to not renew its agreement with Hockey Canada. As a result, anyone associated with BCHL teams lost their sanctioning by Hockey Canada.

This past January, five teams formerly from the junior A Alberta Junior Hockey League joined the rogue BCHL in the Blackfalds Bulldogs, Brooks Bandits, Okotoks Oilers, Sherwood Park Crusaders and Spruce Grove Saints.

Now, there has been shake ups with players trying to get their Hockey Canada sanctioning back and return to Hockey Canada sanctioned leagues. The fate of the BCHL and the five Alberta teams that joined that circuit is up in the air.

Also, there are concerns U Sports men’s hockey will no longer get the CHL recruits it once did.

No one knows for sure how exactly hockey will shake out in North America.

With the money Dunne made from NIL, it was impossible to keep CHL players out of the NCAA.

Meta’s war with Canadian power holders is ugly, other notes

Meta is continuing to duke it out with the Government of Canada and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

Back on June 22, 2023, the Government of Canada passed The Online News Act (formerly Bill C-18) in order to get money from Meta, which is the parent company of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, and Google for displaying active links from mainstream media outlets in Canada. To me, this still is a bizarre law, because you are trying to collect a tax from an entity that is providing a free service. The links on the Meta and Google platforms directed users to the sites of mainstream outlets.

This would be like a neighbour cuts you lawn and cleans your driveway of snow for free to be a good person, but now you want that neighbour to pay money for the privilege to cut your lawn and clean snow from your driveway. That is how I see this law.

Plus, this regulation appeared to not be targeted at the Platform-X (formerly Twitter) social media channel or other search engines like Yahoo or Webcrawler. There must have been a view on those fronts that you can’t draw blood from the stone. Again, that is how I see it.

Anyways, I saw an update story on this front produced by The Canadian Press last Friday. Since The Online New Act came into force, Meta has been blocking links to all mainstream media sites around the world on its platforms for Canadian users.

In Canada, users of Facebook and Instagram have used a workaround sharing screen shots of news articles, pictures of hard copies of news articles or copying text of articles in their posts from mainstream outlets.

The Canadian Press story stated, “The Liberal government maintains the company (Meta) could still fall under Online News Act, but that would be up to the CRTC to determine.”

Last month, CRTC granted Google an exemption from the act under an agreement that will see Google pay out $100-million to Canadian news outlets.

When I went through that story from The Canadian Press last Friday, my mind was transported back in time to classroom sessions during my days at what was then known as the University of Regina’s School of Journalism and Communications talking about late Canadian philosopher and communication theorist Marshall McLuhan.

McLuhan coined the phrase, “The medium is the message.”

That means if you control the medium you control the message.

From how I read The Canadian Press story from last Friday, the Government of Canada overseen by the Liberal Party and the CRTC have concerns over people sharing screenshots of stories or pictures of physical stories from mainstream outlets on Facebook and Instagram. Now, this has gone far beyond taxing links or putting charges on links.

To me, this is about the Government of Canada putting control of the Facebook and Instagram social media platforms in the hands of the CRTC. Since its formation in 1968 and morphing into its present form in 1976, the CRTC is known as not being user friendly and exerting its power in a forceful way. The CRTC has operated that way no matter which political party has formed the Government of Canada.

To me, the CRTC with its regulations stunted the growth of the broadcast industry in Canada during the best days of the mainstream media in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s with regulations all in the name of protecting Canadian culture.

I remember a friend once saying to me the CRTC operations like the Joseph Stalin era Soviet Union.

Looking at how the CRTC has operated in the past, Meta should fight every way it can when it comes to allowing the CRTC to have control of its social media platforms.

Once again, McLuhan was right, “The medium is the message.”

• Last Saturday , the Universite Laval Rouge et Or downed the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks 22-17 in the U Sports national football championship - the Vanier Cup. The contest was played before 9,500 spectators at Richardson Memorial Stadium in Kingston, Ontario. Rouge et Or kicker Felipe Forteza hit a Vanier Cup record six field goals for Laval in the win. The old record of five field goals was set on numerous occasions with Laval kicker Vincent Blanchard being the last to hit five field goals in 2022. Forteza hit 6-of-7 field goal attempts last Saturday as the Rouge et Or won without scoring a touchdown. The Rouge et Or have won 12 Vanier Cups since their formation in 1996, and they’ve won more Vanier Cups than any other team. Legendary Rouge et Or head coach Glen Constantin picked up his 220^th career head coaching win in regular season and post-season play with the Vanier Cup victory. The all-time leader in career head coaching victories in U Sports football, Constantin has a 220-39 career record as the Rouge et Or head coach.
• On Wednesday, the CHL announced Kelowna, B.C., was chosen to be host of the 2026 Memorial Cup tournament that determines a CHL champion. The event will be the 106^th edition of the Memorial Cup. The Rockets last hosted the Memorial Cup in 2004, when they won the tournament as the host team after falling in seven games in the WHL’s Western Conference Championship Series. Kelowna was to host the 2020 Memorial Cup tournament that was cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The CHL’s release can be found by clicking right here.
• The Medicine Hat Tigers, Brandon Wheat Kings, Lethbridge Hurricanes and Spokane Chiefs all submitted bids to host the 2026 Memorial Cup that was awarded to the Kelowna Rockets. Myself and lots of observers felt the Tigers had the best roster to be able to host that event in 2026. James Tubb of the Medicine Hat News provided the Medicine Hat reaction to not getting the 2026 Memorial Cup, and his piece can be found by clicking right here.
• On Wednesday, the Moose Jaw Warriors traded 18-year-old netminder Dimitri Fortin to the Prince Albert Raiders for a sixth round selection in the 2028 WHL Prospects Draft. Fortin has a 1-2 record, a 5.26 goals against average and a .863 save percentage in five appearances for the Warriors this season.
• On Wednesday, the Everett Silvertips dealt Julien Maze to the Regina Pats for Cole Temple in an exchange of 2007-born forwards. Maze posted six goals, 13 assists and a plus-16 rating in 21 games with the Silvertips this season. Temple posted four goals, eight assists and a minus-five rating in 22 games with the Pats this season.
• Is it me or does it seem like every third commercial during the broadcast of a sporting event in Canada is an electric car commercial? That includes when Canadian broadcasters are able to override the commercials on sporting broadcasts on United States networks like broadcasts of NFL games.
• The one time recently I got to see the United States commercials for the broadcast of an NFL game on a United States network I noticed there were no electric car commercials. There was a commercial for a hybrid car and the commercial showed someone filling the hybrid with gasoline on three different occasions. A voice over at the end said that model of vehicle was available as an electric car.
• Marshall McLuhan – “The medium is the message.”
• The difference in car commercials I saw between Canadian and United States sports broadcasts can be attributed to the fact activist Steven Guilbeault is one of the most powerful ministers in the Governement of Canada as the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Before being elected to the Federal Government in 2019, Guilbeault built a career working for Greenpeace and likeminded environmental organizations similar to Greenpeace. With Greenpeace, Guilbeault was convicted of mischief in 2001 for climbing the CN Tower in Toronto and unfurling a banner. In 2002 while working with Greenpeace, Guilbeault and Greenpeace members went to the home of then Alberta Premier Ralph Klein and his wife Coleen to put up a banner and install a solar panel. Coleen was home alone and got terrified fearing she face a home invasion and grabbed a broom for defence. The Kleins didn’t press charges but did get a restraining order. Don Braid of the Calgary Herald wrote a column of Guilbeault’s past antics, which can be found by clicking right here.
• For the record in the political realm, I am not a fan of either United States president-elect Donald Trump or Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at this point in time. I am sure saying that would put me in the “asshole” category of many and open the door to be buried by both extreme right and left wingers. There was a time I thought having Trudeau become the Prime Minister of Canada was a good thing. That changed when Guilbeault was elected as a Liberal MP in 2019.
• I hate writing about politics. I hate it when it becomes a sizable piece in my sports posts as I am a sportswriter and photographer by trade. Since 2020, politics has affected my line of work at a more increasing rate, so some of my rants will come out every now and then.

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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Berries’ “Field of Dreams”

Beck hits for cycle in Game 1 romp of WCBL East Division final

Carter Beck hits his triple to complete hitting the cycle on Sunday.

“Perfect.”

That was the fitting description for what took place for the Saskatoon Berries in Game 1 of the WCBL’s East Division Championship series. With a crowd of 1,559 spectators packed into Cairns Field on what was the most beautiful Sunday afternoon you could ever see in Saskatoon, the host Berries romped to a 14-1 win over the Moose Jaw Millers Express.

The Berries will try to close out the best-of-three set in Game 2 on Monday at 7 p.m. at Ross Wells Stadium in Moose Jaw. If the Express are able to rebound and win Game 2, a series deciding Game 3 will be held on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Cairns Field.

Carter Beck jets around second base on his way to a triple.

In Sunday’s Game 1 win, it seemed like everyone who took the field for the Berries had a highlight moment. The Berries most well-known star was their biggest star, and he stole the show.

Centre-fielder Carter Beck hit for the cycle going 4-for-5 at the plate with three runs batted in. For those not familiar with baseball terms, hitting for the cycle meant Beck, who is from Carnduff, Sask., collected a single, a double, a triple and a home run in one game. It is one of the most difficult statistical feats to accomplish in baseball.

In Major League Baseball, there have only been 347 occurrences where a player has hit for the cycle with the first coming from Curry Foley of the Buffalo Bisons on May 25, 1882. The MLB’s Toronto Blue Jays have been in existence since 1977, and they’ve had only three players hit for the cycle with Kelly Gruber being the first back on April 16, 1989.

Carter Beck slides save into third to complete a triple and the cycle.

Beck got things started for the Berries on Sunday leading off the bottom of the first with a double. Second baseman Grant Sommers came up to bat second and drove Beck home with a double for the host side’s first run of the game.

In the bottom of the fourth with a man on, Beck, who is 19-years-old, hit a two-run homer to put the Berries up 8-0 at that point in the contest. Beck followed up hitting a single in the bottom of the sixth, and he would later score on a sacrifice grounder to first hit by catcher Ethan Menard to push the Berries advantage out to 10-0.

Kolt Davis threw the final four innings for the Berries on the hill.

In the bottom of the seventh with a man on, Beck, who stands 6-feet and weighs 190s pounds, drove an opposite field shot from the right side of the plate that curved away from the Millers left-fielder. Beck hit the afterburners rounding first and second base at lightning speed and slid head first safe into third base for his cycle-completing triple that drove in a run.

Sommers proceeded to drive Beck home with a single to complete a four-run inning that saw the Berries lead stand at 14-0. The Express scored their lone run in the top of the eighth.

The Berries outhit the Express 19-6 on the afternoon. Sommers and third baseman Jaden Lamothe were both 3-for-4 at the plate for Saskatoon. Shortstop Anibal Rivera was 2-for-4 at the dish for the Berries, while left-fielder Nolan Sparks and Menard with both 2-for-5 at the plate.

Grant Sommers throw to make a put out at first for the Berries.

Saskatoon also shone on defence. In the top of the seventh, Express designated hitter Joe Osborn hit a dying quail into right field that looked sure to drop for a base hit. Berries right-fielder Jalen Freeman dove from a full sprint head first to make the catch to rob Osborn of the sure hit bringing the faithful at Cairns Field out of their seats to a joyful and appreciative cheer.

The hitting and defence brought a trademark ear to ear grin from Berries head coach Joe Carnahan.

The pitching was also on once again for the Berries like it was for their three-game East Division semifinal series win over the Medicine Hat Mavericks. Left-hander Jacob Hadden got the start for the Berries and picked up the win throwing five innings and striking out four batters, while scattering four hits and one walk.

The Berries faithful salute their team at the end of the game on Sunday.

Right-hander Kolt Davis entered the game throwing the final four innings for the Berries striking out one batter, allowing one earned run and scattering two hits and three walks.

Berries pitching coach and former MLB hurler Andrew Albers has taught the young ones well.

For Berries fans, this was the classic great baseball where you relaxed in the stands with the loaded hot dog and downed a can of the Berries team beer brewed locally by 9 Mile Legacy Brewing. What might be piling on for Moose Jaw supporters, Berries beer kicks the butt of any Miller product on the market.

Dominic Archila, left, and Kolt Davis mark Sunday’s win.

The kids that came out had the best time ever whether it was watching the game, playing on recreation structures set up behind the stands or taking part in promotional games. Of course, the highlight was rounding bases following the conclusion of the game high-fiving or hugging Berries mascot Barry The Bear at home plate.

What went down on Sunday afternoon at Cairns Field was a site that was dreamed about when the facility was totally revamped under the watch of the Gordie Howe Sports Complex Management Corporation starting in April of 2018 when the park’s old grandstand was knocked down, and later the Sask Entertainment Group announced on March 29, 2023 it had purchased an expansion WCBL franchise to begin play in May of 2024.

Carter Beck (#20) enjoys Sunday’s win with his teammates.

Berries are the baby of team president Steve Hildebrand, who is best known as the associate general manager of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades, and he really, really wanted the team to be a success. It is safe to say everyone linked with the Berries dreamed of an afternoon like the one that came to pass on Sunday, but know one though that scene would come this quickly for the first-year club.

With their home win in Game 1 of the WCBL East Division Championship Series on August 11, 2024, the Berries’ “Field of Dreams” became a reality.

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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Beware of online sports streaming site scams

Scammers want money from Aden Bowman Collegiate Bears supporters.

This in one of those cases where it should be common sense, but common sense isn’t that common anymore.

Please SHARE this post. If you don’t normally share anything I write, please SHARE this one.

If an online sports streaming site looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true. I am finding particularly with Facebook that someone will create a post being at a sporting event, and within a few minutes to perhaps a day, a link will show up in the comments section saying you can watch that event by clicking on this link.

If you click on that link, you can be sure nothing good will happen. If you are asked once you are in that link for credit card or banking information, you can then expect your credit card or bank account will be cleaned out.

If that happens, good luck in recovering funds. Usually, they go to an entity outside of Canada, and at that point, the police departments in Canada can do very little to help you. At that point, you have to deal with any insurance channels you have on your credit card or bank accounts.

Countries like Russia and China have office towers full of computer techs that work to cause havoc with online networks in other countries. That will include scams that drain your credit card or bank account to fund a foreign government. There are numerous other countries outside of Russia and China that engage in these types of activities too, and if a country gets on bad terms with Canada, you can expect that country’s hackers will target Canada’s online network to create havoc.

Often if you click on this link, you will go somewhere that will do something malicious to your computer system or your phone. There are cases where you will go to porn site that will implant something really bad on your computer or phone.

Again, if a link looks suspicious, it likely is suspicious. It is common sense in the online world, but that sense doesn’t appear to be common.

If a link to a site is posted on a social media page and the account posting it has less than 10 followers or is less than two months old, that should be a warning sign. If the link posted on a social media account doesn’t go to a known media company like CBC or TSN or a sports league like the NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL, that is a warning sign.

I have found it is common for these malicious links to be in the comments section of a Facebook post be it a personal page or pages operated by sports organizations. Often, those creating the links target Facebook pages of minor sport organizations, especially not for profit ones that have limited resources to have someone moderating their social media lines.

I first ran across this about May of 2022, and the hackers targeted the social media accounts of the Saskatoon Valkyries and other WWCFL teams.

Due to the fact a lot of these sports organizations don’t stream their games, hackers will attempt to leave their malicious sports streaming links in the comments sections of the posts made by these sports organizations. Even some that have streaming services like Saskatoon Minor Football get these malicious sports streaming services links placed in the comments sections of their posts too.

I’ve seen that happen with the sports of minor baseball and minor softball too in Saskatoon. I also once saw one of these links on a post on the Facebook account of the SFU18AAAHL’s Saskatoon Stars.

These hackers are directly preying on parents. They know parents are so invested in their kids in sports they will do anything to see their kids games they can’t be at.

The hackers create sites to take money from these parents, and they love it when parents just pour open their wallets with “donations.”

I am making this post now because in Saskatchewan we are heading on to a week where the high school sports scene is heading towards football championship games. In Saskatoon, the Holy Cross High School Crusaders will play host to the 6A provincial final on Saturday, while the Aden Bowman Collegiate Bears will head to Weyburn for the 5A provincial final on Saturday.

The parents and followers of the Crusaders and Bears teams will be TARGETS by these hackers. These hackers really like Saskatchewan high school sports because streaming services are hit and miss on this front.

I have found these malicious sports streaming links often don’t appear for posts with Canada’s three leagues under the CHL umbrella in the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL or teams in U Sports. Those entities have well-known streaming services for their games. The same goes for the CJFL, but I have found malicious sports streaming links on CJFL posts.

I have found some tactics that work that prevent the frequency of these links. If you want advice on that front, please feel free to send me a direct message or email.

Online fraud with the sports industry is nothing new. I would say for at least 10 years fraud in selling fake sports merchandise has occurred.

Full disclosure, I almost fell for one of those sites in 2018. I decided to sleep on the purchase I was going to make.

The next morning I decided to do research to find out where the supposed “company” I was going to do a purchase with was located. I eventually tracked an address down to Russia. The site for that supposed “company” was eliminated a long time ago.

I’m glad I didn’t hit the purchase button, but I can see how easy it is to do.

I wish I didn’t have to write this post. It is taking away time from writing a feature story for the Prince Albert Daily Herald on University of Alberta Pandas forward Abby Soyko, working on a Saskatoon Hilltops feature on defensive tackle Craig Torgerson for my blog and working on Howe Happenings content for the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I will still be completing all of these pieces, so watch for them.

Anyways, I am posting all of this because the idea of not talking about this subject is doing nothing. I want to use this as a reminder that these online malicious sports streaming sites are out there. I might post periodic reminders about this.

During my life when I have done work on the new side for media companies and even the sports side, I have taken part in seminars put on by police departments regarding fraud, where you learned things in an enjoyable way. They were good, and I remember one RCMP seminar was really good at helping you learn to spot counterfeit money.

One thing all these agencies said is usually only 1-in-10 persons falls for a fraud scam. Unfortunately, that 1-in-10 ratio brings in tonnes of money for fraudsters. You can get money from a lot of population with a 1-in-10 ratio.

Sometimes it is hard to find out how widespread this is too. If someone is taken for $40,000 by a fraud scam, they usually don’t want to talk about it over the shame of being taken by a fraud.

It might not be with money, but we all get taken by a fraud at some point in our lives. If you have avoided that, that is great to hear.

Again, please be aware of malicious online sports streaming sites. They will give you more than you bargained for, if you let them.

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.

Expect Huskies to reset in chase for U Sports championship

Bailee Bourassa leads the Huskies to U Sports nationals.

The Canada West Championship series didn’t go their way, but the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Hockey team still has a chance to claim an even bigger prize.

On Sunday and Monday, the Huskies traveled from Saskatoon all the way to Charlottetown, P.E.I., for the U Sports elite-eight women’s hockey championship tournament. The Huskies were given the fifth seed on Sunday in the quest for the Golden Path Trophy.

They will open the tournament taking on the Ontario University Athletics champion Brock University Badgers on Friday at the MacLauchlan Arena. The game will be webcast on cbcsports.ca and CBC Gem, or fans can listen to the call from Huskies Women’s Hockey play-by-play voice Daniella Ponticelli on HuskieFAN.ca at 12 p.m. Saskatchewan time.

The U Sports championship tournament opens on Thursday with the event’s first two quarter-final contests.

The Huskies head to U Sports nationals having to reset after being swept 2-0 by the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the best-of-three Canada West Championship series. Heading into the Canada West Final, the Huskies were 4-0 in the post-season having swept a pair of best-of-three playoff series on the road.

Both the Huskies and Thunderbirds already locked up berths to the U Sports championship tournament due to advancing to the Canada West Final.

In Game 1 of the Canada West Championship series held on March 11 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in Vancouver, B.C., the Thunderbirds jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period with Grace Elliott, Mia Bierd and Ashley McFadden netting singles.

Sophie Lalor had 10 points in 20 regular season games.

From the point, the Huskies found themselves chasing the game. Shay-Lee McConnell scored a short-handed goal for the Thunderbirds in the second period to round out the scoring in a 4-0 victory.

Huskies star goaltender Camryn Drever made 39 saves in that Game 1 loss. Thunderbirds rookie netminder Elise Hugens made 13 saves to pick up the shutout victory.

In Game 2 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on March 12, the Huskies and Thunderbirds went to overtime locked in a 0-0 tie. Just 98 seconds into overtime, Thunderbirds forward Chanreet Bassi scored the contest’s only goal in a 1-0 victory for the host side that allowed UBC to capture the Canada West title.

Drever made 34 saves to give the Huskies a chance to steal the win in that contest. Hugens made 14 saves to pick up a second straight shutout victory.

The Huskies head into their U Sports quarter-final having posted an 11-7-2 record in the regular season and a 4-2 mark in the post-season. The Badgers posted a 7-5-3-1 record in regular season play and a 3-0 mark in the post-season.

The most exciting thing about the U Sport championship tournament is the fact it is played in a single-elimination format. Anything can happen in a single game situation.

With Drever between the pipes, the Huskies have the goalie that can win them three straight games to capture a U Sports national title.

Camryn Drever, right, is a clutch post-season performer.

Before joining the U Sports ranks, Drever was the star goaltender for the St. Albert Slash, and she backstopped them to two straight Esso Cup titles as national under-18 AAA hockey champions in 2017 and 2018. She earned a reputation as a clutch player in those runs.

While the offensive dried up for the Huskies against the Thunderbirds in the Canada West Final, they have for the most part been able to get enough scoring by committee through the regular season and the first four games of the post-season to pull out wins.

Huskies lone fifth-year player in forward Bailee Bourassa topped the team in regular season scoring with 11 points coming on seven goals and four assists playing in all the Huskies 20 contests. Bourassa returned to the Huskies after deciding to pursue her master’s degree in nursing and took on the role as the team’s captain.

She will be playing her final U Sports games this weekend, and with all that she has done for the team, it would cool if the Huskies team could help her graduate on a big high note.

Forward Abby Shirley is the Huskies lone fourth-year player and she led the way in post-season scoring with five points coming on three goals and two assists in six games. She also had nine points in the regular season coming off five goals and four assists appearing in 18 games.

Bourassa and Shirley are the only players remaining on the Huskies roster from the last time they went to nationals back in the 2017-18 campaign.

Third-year forward Kennedy Brown has emerged as one of the Huskies newest heroes during the post-season. In the Huskies six post-season games to date, Brown has four points coming on three goals and one assist. Out of Brown’s three goals, two of them have been game winners.

Sophie Lalor, who is a third-year forward, hit double digits in regular season scoring picking up 10 points on five goals and five assists appearing in all of the Huskies 20 regular season games. In the Huskies six post-season games, Lalor has one goal that was a game winner and one assist.

Rookie Larissa Bohlken is part of a strong group of young defenders.

Third-year defender Isabella Pozzi has been the veteran rock on the back end. On the blue-line, the Huskies have relied on a group of rookies to come through with big minutes in Larissa Bohlken, Kendra Zuchotzki, Brooklyn Stevely and Emily Holmes.

With being at nationals, the Huskies are going to have to work their way through a challenging field. 

If they win their quarter-final game, the Huskies will face the winner of the Friday’s other quarter-final between the top seeded Concordia University Stingers and the eighth seeded and host University of Prince Edward Island Panthers in one of Saturday’s two semifinals.

The Stingers were 11-3-1 in the regular season and 4-0 in the post-season, while the Panthers were 13-7-0-2 in the regular season and 0-1 in the post-season. The Stingers were the champions of the Reseau du Sport Etudiant du Quebec.

The field also contains the second seeded University of New Brunswick Reds, who are the champions of the Atlantic University Sport conference. The Reds posted a 15-3-1-2 record in the regular season and a 5-0 mark in the post-season.

The Thunderbirds are the tournament’s third seed having posted a 14-6 record in regular season play and a 4-0 mark in the post-season.

The event’s bronze medal and championship games will be held on Sunday.

The Huskies are making their third appearance and U Sports nationals since 2014 and fourth appearance all-time in team history. Current Huskies head coach Steve Kook has been with the team for three out of four runs to the U Sports championship tournament.

The Huskies aim to hold a few goal celebrations at nationals.

Kook missed the first appearance in 2004 joining the team as an assistant coach before the start of the 2004-05 campaign. He was the head coach for the appearances in 2014 and 2018 along with this season. He provides steady guidance for the team.

These trips to nationals are never a guaranteed thing, even if a team has a good season. In the three previous appearances, the Huskies medaled just once capturing a bronze in 2014.

Of course, the current campaign comes on the heels after all 2020-21 U Sports nationals were scrapped and most U Sports teams didn’t take the ice for games due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world.

If the Huskies were able to win it all, it would provide the icing on the cake for all the ups and downs they have gone through since March of 2020.

Raiders fall to Ice 3-2 in OT, stay in thick of WHL playoff chase

Reece Vitelli scored for the Raiders on Tuesday.

The Prince Albert Raiders are down to a 10-game sprint to try and make the WHL playoffs.

On Tuesday night, the Raiders dropped a 3-2 decision in overtime to the visiting Winnipeg Ice before 2,120 spectators at the Art Hauser Centre. With 15.3 seconds remaining in overtime, Ice 19-year-old power forward Jack Finley potted his 20^th goal of the season to win the game for the Winnipeg side.

With the extra time setback, the Raiders picked up one standings point. They sit ninth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with 24-29-4-1 record for 53 standings points with 10 games remaining on their regular season schedule.

The Raiders are in the thick of the race for the final two playoff berths in the Eastern Conference.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes sit seventh overall in the Eastern Conference and hold the conference’s second last playoff berth with 56 standings points coming on 26-28-3-1 record. They have 10 games remaining on their regular season schedule.

The Swift Current Broncos are positioned one point behind the Hurricanes in the standings with 55 points sitting eighth overall in the Eastern Conference and hold the conference’s final playoff berth with a 24-30-5-2 record. The Broncos have seven games remaining on their regular season schedule.

The Regina Pats are 10^th overall in the Eastern Conference with 51 points coming on a 23-29-3-2 record. The Pats have 11 games remaining on their regular season schedule.

The Calgary Hitmen sit 11^th overall in the Eastern Conference with 50 points coming on a 21-30-6-2 record. The Hitmen have nine games remaining on their regular season schedule.

On Tuesday, the Broncos won their fourth game in a row downing the visiting Regina Pats 5-3 at the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex in Swift Current.

Between the Raiders and Ice on Tuesday, the Prince Albert side jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal by captain Reece Vitelli. The Ice took a 2-1 lead scoring twice in the second with goals coming from the sticks of Cole Muir and Alessandro Segafredo.

At the 7:22 mark of the third, import rookie right-winger Vladislav Shilo netted his sixth of the season for the Raiders to even the score at 2-2 and force overtime.

That set the stage for Finley to come through with his winner.

Import rookie netminder Tikhon Chaika turned away 39 shots to take the extra time setback in goal for the Raiders. Daniel Hauser stopped 25 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Ice.

The Ice have picked up points in their last 12 straight games with 10 wins, one overtime loss and one shootout loss. They improve to 44-9-3-2 and tied the 45-12-2-1 Edmonton Oil Kings for first overall in the WHL with 93 standings points.

Winnipeg has two games in hand on Edmonton.

The Ice return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Saskatoon to take on the 33-21-3-1 Blades (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Raiders get back into action on Friday when travel to Brandon to face the 28-24-3-2 Wheat Kings (6 p.m. Saskatchewan time, 900 CKBI).

Albers signs minor league deal with Mariners, other notes

Andrew Albers signed a minor league contract with the Mariners.

It looks like Andrew Albers will get to enjoy one more season throwing pitches under the sun.

On Monday, the 36-year-old left-handed pitcher and North Battleford, Sask., product signed a minor league deal with the MLB’s Seattle Mariners. After playing three seasons with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan from 2018 to 2020, Albers return to North America last season throwing in AAA baseball with the St. Paul Saints and seeing time at the MLB level with the Minnesota Twins.

At the AAA level, Albers was a starter and saw action in 18 total games posting an 8-4 record, a 3.88 earned-run average, 88 strikeouts and 11 walks.

At the MLB level, Albers made five appearances with the Twins posting a 1-2 record, a 7.58 ERA, 12 strikeouts and nine walks.

Albers, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 200 pounds, saw time with the Mariners MLB side back in the 2017 campaign. During that season, he appeared in nine games posting a 5-1 record, a 3.51 ERA, 37 strikeouts and 10 walks.

Albers is one of the true good guys to come not only out of the baseball scene but the sports scene in Saskatchewan. During this past off-season, he spent countless hours at the Indoor Training Centre on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds coaching young pitchers to help them get better at the game.

He decided to live in Saskatoon in order to train for this upcoming season and to give back to the local and provincial baseball scene.

Albers has a lot of people in the province pulling for him to have his best season yet.

• On Saturday in State College, Pennsylvania, the Ohio State University Buckeyes downed the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs 3-2 in the NCAA Division I women’s hockey championship game. The win marked the first time the Buckeyes won the NCAA Division I women’s hockey title. Nadine Muzerall turned the Buckeyes into a powerhouse after becoming the team’s head coach before the start of the 2016-17 campaign. In the semifinal round, the top ranked Buckeyes took out the fifth seeded Yale University Bulldogs 2-1. The Yale roster contains rookie defender and Saskatoon product Emma DeCorby, who is an alumna of the Regina Rebels female under-18 AAA team. Minnesota Duluth downed the Northeastern University Huskies in the other semifinal 2-1. The Huskies roster contained veteran defender Brooke Hobson, who is an alumna of the Prince Albert Northern Bears female under-18 AAA team. Hobson has now exhausted her NCAA eligibility. In the quarter-final round, the Huskies downed the University of Wisconsin Badgers 4-2. The Badgers roster contains Saskatoon products, forwards and sisters Sophie and Grace Shirley, who are alumnae of the Saskatoon Stars female under-18 AAA team. In the first round, the Syracuse University Orange fell 4-0 to the Quinnipiac University Bobcats. The Orange roster contains forward and Saskatoon product Anna Leschyshyn, who is an alumna of the Stars.
• Ilya Usau, who is an alumnus of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders, signed an NHL entry-level contract with the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday. The 20-year-old forward from Minsk, Belarus, spent this past season with Dinamo Minsk in the KHL posting nine goals and 17 assists in 40 regular season games. Usau spent one season with the Raiders in 2019-20 recording 22 goals and 30 assists in 58 regular season games.
• On Monday, Zack Hayes, who is a former captain of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders, made his NHL regular season debut for the Vegas Golden Knights as they dropped a 3-0 decision to the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul, Minn. The 22-year-old defenceman suited up for his second NHL regular season contest on Tuesday as the Golden Knights dropped a 4-0 decision to the Jets in Winnipeg. Hayes played 272 WHL regular season games for the Raiders from 2015 to 2020 recording 15 goals, 64 assists and a plus-97 rating in the plus-minus department.
• On Tuesday, Hockey Canada announced it was moving this year’s Esso Cup female under-18 AAA championship tournament and the Telus Cup under-18 AAA championship tournament. Hockey Canada said both tournaments will be held May 16 to 22 in a centralized location in Alberta. Host centres were not named for either event and no reasons were given for the move. The Prince Albert Northern Bears were supposed to host the Esso Cup from April 17-23. The Sydney Mitsubishi Rush were supposed to host the Telus Cup in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, from April 18 to 24. The Bears and Rush are slated to play in the host team spots, when the Esso and Telus Cups are played in their new Alberta host centre or centres.
• Moose Jaw Warriors centre and Saskatoon area product Brayden Yager, who is playing his 16-year-old sophomore season in the WHL, has 54 points on 32 goals and 22 assists in 56 games this season. He broke the Warriors record for most goals by someone in their 16-year-old season of eligibility. The old record of 29 goals was held by Theo Fleury set back in the 1984-85 campaign. Fleury went on to become one of the NHL’s most famous star players most notably with the Calgary Flames.
• A total of five WHL teams were listed in the latest CHL Top 10 rankings that were released on Tuesday. The Edmonton Oil Kings were ranked first, the Winnipeg Ice were rated second, the Kamloops Blazers were listed fifth, the Everett Silvertips were ranked sixth and the Portland Winterhawks took the seventh spot.
• Left-winger Arshdeep Bains and centre Ben King of the Red Deer Rebels have become the front runners to win the WHL scoring title. Bains, who is in his overage season, leads the WHL scoring with 94 points coming off of 34 goals and 60 assists appearing in all the Rebels 60 games. King, who is in his 19-year-old season, sits second in the scoring race with 93 points coming off 47 goals and 46 assists appearing in all of the Rebels 60 games. Saskatoon Blades veteran star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic, who had led the WHL in scoring at times this season, sits third in the WHL scoring race with 87 points coming on 35 goals and 52 assists.

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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Will Rams “all in” Super Bowl win set a trend in sports?

A miniature Los Angeles Rams helmet.

Will teams all over the sports world strive to be like the Los Angeles Rams?

The NFL’s Rams pushed all their chips to the centre of the table for the 2021 campaign. On Sunday, that move culminated in the Rams winning Super Bowl LVI in front of their hometown fans at SoFi Stadium 23-20 over the Cincinnati Bengals.

During the off-season leading up to the 2021 campaign, the Rams acquired star quarterback Matthew Stafford in a trade from the woeful Detroit Lions in exchange for standout signal caller Jared Goff, a third-round selection in the 2021 NFL Draft, a first round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft and a first round choice in the 2022 NFL Draft.

The Rams acquired Stafford with the promise that they now had the quarterback that could take them to the Promised Land.

Stafford delivered on Sunday. With the Rams trailing the Bengals 20-16 in the fourth quarter, Stafford led the Rams downfield on a touchdown drive that covered 79 yards on 15 plays and ate four minutes and 48 seconds off the clock.

The drive culminated with Stafford hitting star receiver Cooper Kupp with a one-yard touchdown toss with 1:25 remaining in the fourth quarter to put the Rams in front by the 23-20 final score.

The ensuing Bengals drive ended after Rams star defensive tackle Aaron Donald forced Cincinnati star quarterback Joe Burrow to throw and errant incomplete pass on a fourth down play. The Rams were able to run out the rest of the fourth quarter clock with Stafford taking a knee.

Stafford completed 26-of-40 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns, while throwing two interceptions. He enjoyed a championship moment that seemed impossible to accomplish with the Lions.

Back in the 2009 NFL Draft, the Lions selected Stafford first overall. He played 12 seasons for the Lions making them look more respectable than they should have qualifying for the post-season three times.

Stafford put up passing numbers with the Lions that alone should get him elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He also took a physical beating with the Lions, who never had the supporting cast to help him win an NFL title.

The Rams gave up key draft picks to get Stafford along with a quarterback in Goff who they selected first overall in the 2016 NFL Draft. Goff guided them to the Super Bowl following the 2018 season.

The NFL could see team copy the Los Angeles Rams.

On February 3, 2019, the Goff led Rams fell 13-3 in Super Bowl LIII to the Tom Brady led New England Patriots in Atlanta, Georgia. Los Angeles wasn’t able to return to the Super Bowl following the 2019 and 2020 campaigns.

Stafford was viewed as the quarterback that could take the Rams that next step to being a Super Bowl winner.

Part way through the 2021 campaign, the Rams acquired star linebacker Von Miller via a trade with the Denver Broncos. Los Angeles further stacked its roster signing star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. after he was released by the Cleveland Browns.

While a lot of the Rams roster was built through the NFL Draft that included players like Kupp and Donald, lots of football followers will focus on the trade to bring in Stafford along with the acquisitions of Miller and Beckham. Those moves allowed the Rams to win a tough NFC West Division with a 12-5 regular season record and win four post-season games to capture the Super Bowl at home.

Traditionally, the NFL has been a copycat league, so you can expect there will be teams in the short term that will attempt to do what the Rams have done.

Since the NFL is the most popular sports league in North America, the Rams road to Super Bowl success will likely make teams across the rest of the world of sports try to emulate that road to success.

In North America’s four big professional leagues in the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL, fans and speculative media will put pressure on the teams they follow to go “all in” and win right now like the Rams did. In those leagues, fans are paying hundreds of dollars in single game tickets, so if teams are viewed as not trying the utmost to win, the fans will be super mad.

For teams that do go “all in,” it seems worth it during the moment of a championship win.

If a championship isn’t won or a team has to suffer through five bad years thanks to going “all in,” fans and media will moan about the losing and criticize their teams for going “all in.”

Even in a circuit like the CFL there will be pressure to go “all in.” For most stadiums, about 70 per cent of the seats cost over $100, so fans expect a bang for their buck.

Back in 2013, the Saskatchewan Roughriders went “all in,” when they hosted the Grey Cup at their former legendary home park in Taylor Field. They didn’t need to find a star quarterback as Darian Durant was already there to fill that role.

Before the season began, they made a trade to acquire CFL all-time great receiver Geroy Simon from the British Columbia Lions. They signed defensive end Ricky Foley and defensive backs Dwight Anderson and Weldon Brown as free agents.

Will QB Cody Fajardo (#7) and the Roughriders go “all in” for 2022?

After defensive end John Chick was released by the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, the Roughriders were able to bring him in before the start of the regular season. Chick was a key member of the Roughriders 2007 Grey Cup winning team.

The Roughriders proceeded to post an 11-7 regular season record and win all three of their post-season games including a 45-23 romp over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Grey Cup played on November 24, 2013 to cash in on their “all in” move.

Saskatchewan hosts the Grey Cup in 2022 at their new home park in Mosaic Stadium. After what the Rams did in the Super Bowl along with the precedent the Roughriders set in 2013, current Roughriders management will be under a lot of pressure to go “all in” this season.

Unfortunately, that strategy doesn’t work the majority of the time as only one team in each sports league can win a championship.

In the 2012-13 season, the Saskatoon Blades went “all in” with a number of trades to win the WHL championship and the CHL’s championship tournament – the Memorial Cup. The Blades were the Memorial Cup hosts that season.

The Blades finished first in the WHL’s East Division. They were swept out of the first round of the WHL playoffs by the Medicine Hat Tigers and won one game at the Memorial Cup tournament.

The Blades proceed to miss the post-season for the next five straight years going through a rebuild after going “all in.”

The WHL’s Swift Current Broncos and Regina Pats did the same thing in the 2017-18 season. The Pats were the Memorial Cup hosts in that campaign.

The Broncos won the WHL championship that season, but went winless in the Memorial Cup tournament.

The Pats were eliminated in the first round of the WHL playoffs by the Broncos, but did make the championship game of the Memorial Cup tournament. Regina was blanked 3-0 in that championship game by the QMJHL champion Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

It took the Broncos four seasons to reach the form to be a contender for a lower seed WHL playoff berth and Pats returned to that spot slightly quicker in three seasons.

The 2017-18 Pats went “all in” and didn’t win any championships.

Still, going “all in” will likely be a short-term fad due to the fact the Rams won the Super Bowl. While the Rams had success with their “all in” venture, the risk is often way greater than the reward.

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.