Blades enter hostile territory with Brandt Centre faithful

Pats aim to ride energy of raucous home crowd

The Pats and Blades resume their playoff series in Tuesday.

The Saskatoon Blades won’t be taking any sledgehammers to the ice for the resumption of their playoff series with the Regina Pats.

Entering their best-of-seven WHL first round playoff series with the Pats, the Blades had the role of favourites having finished fourth overall in the WHL with a 48-15-4-1 mark and being rated 10^th in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The Pats finished sixth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 34-30-3-1 record.

In the first two games of the series played at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, the Pats claimed a 6-1 victory in Game 1 on Friday and 6-5 triumph in overtime in Game 2 on Sunday. Pats 17-year-old phenom centre Connor Bedard was in on eight of the Pats 12 goals posting five goals, three assists and a plus-four rating in the plus-minus department. The North Vancouver, B.C., product was named the WHL’s player of the week for the week end on Sunday.

The series resumes in Regina with Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively at 7 p.m. each night at the Brandt Centre. The Pats home rink can be one of the toughest buildings to play in during the WHL Playoffs, especially if the Regina faithful believes their team can do something special.

Going into the atmosphere, the Blades will be viewed as WWE villains by the Pats faithful. With that in mind, Blades head coach Brennan Sonne doesn’t think his club has to do anything out of character.

Connor Bedard has eight points in two post-season games.

“I don’t think that is on our mind,” said Sonne. “We’re not going to be Triple H or anything like that – The Undertaker.

“That is my era – “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. I think we’re just going to go in there and try and be as gritty and competitive as we can.”

The sledgehammer was the preferred weapon of Triple H to use in the storybook world of the WWE Universe. Sonne prefers to see his squad display more of that playoff battle they showed in their overtime loss in Game 2, where they outshot the Pats 47-19.

“There are a whole bunch of different words you can use a lot of synonyms – grit, desperate, playoff mode, competitive,” said Sonne. “Whatever one you want to use, that is our main focus.

“That is the main thing we have to bring now. There are adjustments we need to make obviously special teams wise here and there. The main thing is us being gritty like we were tonight.”

The experience of what lies ahead isn’t lost of the Pats best player, who is also the best junior aged hockey player in the world. Bedard can’t wait to get on the ice to see the Brandt Centre’s post-season atmosphere.

Vaughn Watterodt has a goal and three assists in two playoff games.

“I’m pretty fired up,” said Bedard, who squad could be playing before a sell out crowd of 6,499. “I’ve watch some highlights and games from obviously the runs that the Pats have had in their great history.

“For us, it is a lot of guys that haven’t experienced that in our own building. We’re super excited for that. Our fans have been unreal all year, so we’re pretty grateful for them every night.

“We’re pretty excited to see what they bring when they come on Tuesday.”

Tuesday’s game will mark the first time the Pats have played at home in the post-season since falling 3-0 in the title game of the 2018 Memorial Cup 3-0 to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on May 27 of that year. The experience of playing at home in the post-season will be a new one for all the current Pats.

“It is going to be my first experience playing in a playoff game at the Brandt,” said Bedard. “We’re pretty excited for that.

“We’re focused on what we have to do and how we’re going to play. Obviously, the fans are always going to give you an extra kick when you are playing in front of them for sure.”

Blades RW Egor Sidorov and Pats RW Ty Spencer battle for the puck.

Pats all-time great head coach and general manager John Paddock has seen a number of memorable nights in the post-season at the Brandt Centre including the Pats journey to the WHL Championship Series in 2017, where they fell in six games to the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Pats topped the WHL standings in 2016-17 with a 52-12-7-1 record and had a huge home backing when they advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2015 and 2016.

Paddock is expecting the atmosphere for Tuesday’s game will also be a memorable one.

“It will be loud and good,” said Paddock. “It is an old arena that basically needs to be replaced, but the seating capacity of it and how it was built is as good as there is in junior hockey.

“You can get 6,400 people in there in a tight area, so it is a great building to play in. It is a great building for fans to be in when it is a full house for sure.”

As for the Blades, Sonne said his side is just focused on getting a win on Tuesday to start extending the series. He said his team gained some belief with how they played in Sunday’s overtime loss.

Intensity between the Pats and Blades could continue to heat up.

“We’re just saying ‘that’,” said Sonne. “‘That.’ If we can outshoot a team 47-19 with that kind of work and compete, why would we panic?

“That is how I feel. Let’s do that. That is what we need to do, and we will be OK.”

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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Never underestimate WWE house show fun

My iconic photo of Liv Morgan signing an autograph for a young fan.

If you want to find out how wide spread the reach of the WWE is, just post a photo of Liv Morgan on Instagram from a house show.

On October 2, I attended the Sunday Stunner WWE house show at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon as a ticket buyer. Before that night, the last WWE house show I attended was back in August of 2009, when I reviewed one for the Medicine Hat News that was held at The Arena in Medicine Hat.

The last previous time I attended a WWE live event as a ticket buyer was way back in late 1993 held at the old Winnipeg Arena, where the main event was a WWE title match between The Undertaker and then champion Yokozuna. Life often makes it hard to keep up with interests the older you get.

With all that noted, I went to the house show on October 2 in Saskatoon just to have fun. Morgan at the time was the WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion, and she was on for the second last match of the night.

After getting a pinfall win over Sonya Deville, Morgan circled the ring and went up the entrance way signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans. I took a picture of her with the camera on my mobile phone signing an autograph for a young fan at ringside.

I thought the photo was cool one, so I posted to Instagram with a share to my Facebook account. When I got home after the show, I posted the photo to Twitter.

Liv Morgan gets a pinfall win over Sonya Deville.

After I posted the photo to Twitter, I already noticed a copy of that photo was already taken from either my Instagram or Facebook feed and shared on various different WWE fan accounts on both Instagram and Twitter going viral in the process. My actual own Twitter post of the photo had 44 retweets and 518 likes.

I didn’t watermark the photo, because I wasn’t thinking about it potentially getting lifted off one of my social media accounts. I also wasn’t working the event as a photographer utilizing my digital SLR cameras I would use to shoot the hockey and football games I cover.

When the dust settled, I was just happy that a whole tonne of people enjoyed that photo I took with my mobile phone camera.

Overall, the house show was the best two-and-a-half hours I spent on the entertainment front in a long time. The fact I was in the second row from ringside also helped with the experience, because you get a great opportunity to interact with the WWE talent.

With that said, I would have enjoyed attending that event regardless of where I sat. Still, I was really happy with the $147 in Canadian funds I spent on my seat that was in the second row from ringside.

Sonya Deville became one of my favourites in the WWE.

WWE live events now have a different feel from the ones I used to attend from my childhood through to my teenage years from the mid 1980s through to the early 1990s. In those days, I remember a large part of the crowd consisting of the beer drinker who wanted to see blood, which was an old school style pro wrestling fan.

As strange as this sounds, the WWE card in Saskatoon on October 2 was the most clean thing entertainment wise I’ve gone to in the last 20 years. The majority of the audience was a mix of the comic book buying more geek type crowd and parents who brought their children. From my seat, I was pretty much surrounded by parents with their children.

Out of all the events I’ve been to in the last 25 years including the massive amounts of sports events I’ve worked, the alcohol that was consumed at the Sunday Stunner event in Saskatoon was very limited. It was by far the driest event I’ve been to in the last 25 years.

Plus, everyone in attendance was aware that WWE live events are shows with storylines that lead to decided outcomes. When I went to WWE live events in my youthful years from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, matches were played out like they were athletic contests with undecided outcomes.

Knowing that the October 2^nd WWE live event in Saskatoon was a show with storylines that had decided outcomes, the heckles that happened were in good taste and fun.

Sami Zayn addresses the crowd in Saskatoon on October 2.

I thought the best lob I shouted out was for Deville. In the United States, Deville runs a donut making company with long time best friend Mandy Rose, who is WWE NXT Women’s Champion. The company is called DaMandyz Donutz.

After Deville entered the ring, I shouted out, “DaMandyz Donutz for everyone.”

Deville was working her match as the heel or bad gal. She immediately went into her bad gal character pointing at me and yelling for me to shut up.

When the crowd started booing her after her tirade, Deville broke character leaning in to where I was to thank me for the shout out for her donut making company and added an I appreciate you comment too.

That is one of the best parts of a house show is the WWE talent can interact with the crowd in a way they can’t if the event is a live broadcast event like a taping of WWE’s weekly, RAW, NXT or Smackdown shows or a pay-per-view event.

After Montreal, Que., product Sami Zayn was done his two matches for the night, he went out of character giving a great speech to the crowd saying the show they did the night before in Regina and that night in Saskatoon were the first time in his life he had visited Saskatchewan. Zayn talked about how great Canadian WWE crowds were and thanked the fans in attendance for their support.

One of the biggest rushes of energy for me came when Calgary, Alta., product Natalya came out for her match with B-Fab. Natalya is the niece of pro-wrestling icon Bret “The Hitman” Hart, and the Hart family’s ties to Canada run deep.

Natalya sets to blow a kiss to some friends at ringside.

Hart famously won the WWE title for the first time on October 12, 1992 at the SaskTel Centre, which is still viewed as one of the building’s all-time greatest moments.

Natalya can often act as a coach in the WWE’s women’s division and B-Fab was working her first main roster matches during the stops in the two Saskatchewan centres. After Natalya gained a submission victory with the “Sharpshooter,” she helped B-Fab, who had an outstanding performance, up and the two hugged.

That is the other great thing about house shows is WWE talent can try different things to see how the crowd reacts as a test to see if those things could be used for a broadcast event. That included the members of Maximum Male Models trying to hit members of Hit Row with a loaded fanny pack when the referee wasn’t looking.

Still, the night belonged to the kids. I got a kick out of how excited the two little guys that were sitting next to me got during the main event when Drew McIntyre landed his “Claymore Kick” and tag team partner Sheamus connected his “Brogue Kick” on members of Imperium.

That helped the team of McIntyre and Sheamus to take victory in that bout. On a side note, the members of Imperium are spectacular as heels, especially in a house show setting.

With all that said, the joy of those two kids seeing their heroes in McIntyre and Sheamus prevail was priceless.

Sheamus meets the fans after his WWE match in Saskatoon.

Hart once said pro wrestling should be something you should be able to bring your kids to. “The Hitman” would have loved the WWE show in Saskatoon on October 2 because lots of kids who are young and young at heart had a great time.

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.