PWHL buzz heartwarming

A PWHL post on Platform-X.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League is hot.

The new professional women’s hockey circuit had an outstanding first six days, which has created a lot of buzz. On New Year’s Day this past Monday, the first PWHL regular season contest was played at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. The host Toronto side dropped a 4-0 decision to New York before a sellout crowd of 2,537 spectators.

On Saturday at the Xcel Energy Centre in Saint Paul, Minn., the host Minnesota side drew a professional women’s hockey record crowd of 13,316 spectators to a 3-0 home opening win over Montreal. That broke the mark of 8,318 spectators that turned out Tuesday at TD Place in Ottawa to see the host side fall 3-2 in overtime to Montreal in the PWHL’s second ever contest.

It would be safe to say that women’s hockey has had a strong following since the sport made its debut in the Winter Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. The United States 3-1 victory over Canada in the gold medal game of that women’s hockey tournament cemented the rivalry between those squads as real.

Since that tournament, the rivalry in women’s hockey between Canada and the United States is one of the greatest in all sports.

Women’s hockey has flourished since that time. Numerous elite level women’s hockey programs exist in the university and college ranks in Canada and the United States.

With those elements present, there shouldn’t have been any doubt an appetite would exist for professional women’s hockey specifically in North America. A year ago at this time, the women’s game at the professional level in North America was broken into two groups in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association and the Premier Hockey Federation – formerly the National Women’s Hockey League.

Kaitlin Willoughby in action for the Huskies in 2017-18.

That all changed on June 30, 2023. In the 14 months leading up to that date, the PWHPA had been working with the Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises in a bid to launch its own league. Walter’s firm purchased the assets of the PHF on June 30, 2023.

That started the unified group down the road to hitting the ice with the six-team PWHL.

After the circuit hosted its first five games over six days starting on January 1, it feels like the honeymoon period is on. At this point, the PWHL keeps hitting homer after homer and everything is great.

On the media front, I’ve covered the women’s game since 1997 spanning the gamut going up and down of casual follower to heavily involved follower. 

Since moving to Saskatoon in the summer of 2014, I covered the women’s game especially in Saskatchewan fairly heavily until the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic gripped the world causing shutdowns and stoppages in the world in North America starting on March 11, 2020.

When all sports in North America started to proceed more regularly in August of 2021, life took me away from covering women’s hockey like I did before the pandemic shutdowns happened. I’ve covered the sport only casually since that time.

Still, I am happy for everyone involved with the PWHL. I wanted to highlight a handful of those involved with the circuit, and the names might not be ones you would be expecting. For those that have followed my work, some of these names will come as no surprise.

Emily Clark meets a group of youngster in November 2018.

First, I was happy for New York head coach Howie Draper. When New York blanked Toronto 4-0 on New Year’s Day, Draper became the first person to collect a head coaching win in the history of the PWHL.

The 56-year-old put a tonne of time into the women’s game being hired as the inaugural head coach of the University of Alberta Pandas Women’s Hockey Team on September 1, 1997, and he was the only head coach the team had known until joining New York’s PWHL club on September 15, 2023.

Draper guided the Pandas to eight U Sports championships and 14 Canada West Championships. No program has won more U Sports or Canada West titles in women’s hockey than the Pandas.

He piled up 667 career wins as Pandas head coach and got to serve in various roles with Hockey Canada’s women’s program.

U Sports women’s hockey is often overshadowed by women’s hockey in the NCAA Division I ranks. In my opinion across each of those circuits as a whole, the coaches on the U Sports teams are as good or a step better than the coaches on the NCAA Division I squads.

Draper getting the first PWHL head coaching win feels like it validates that opinion.

Sophie Shirley in action for the Stars in 2014-15.

I’m happy for Toronto forward Kaitlin Willoughby. Willoughby is one of the all-time greats for the Prince Albert Northern Bears under-18 AAA team and the U of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Hockey Team. She played for Canada twice at the FISU Winter Universiade.

As rookie pro who turned 24-years-old in the 2018-19 campaign, Willoughby helped the Calgary Inferno win the Clarkson Cup as champions of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.  

While Willoughby received rookie minutes, it was said that she did really well that season and needed to be elevated up the roster to play more minutes.

The CWHL folded after the 2018-19 campaign, and the PWHPA was formed in the aftermath. Willoughby hung in with the PWHPA for the next four seasons, and it would have been easy at any point during that time for her to focus on her nursing career and play the game at the recreational level.

She kept at it and is playing in the PWHL’s inaugural season at age 28.

I’m happy for Toronto forward Emily Clark. Clark grew up in Saskatoon as a hockey star, and she is an alumna of the Saskatoon Stars under-18 AAA team.

Jaime Bourbonnais in action in November 2018.

She is a well-known veteran on Canada’s Senior National Women’s Team. She is idolized by many young female players in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan and dare I say across Canada. Clark holds her hockey roots in her heart and enjoys when she can give back to the game in her hometown.

I’m happy for Boston forward Sophie Shirley. She was one of the greatest hockey discoveries I ever made when I saw her piling up points as the 15-year-old sophomore star with her hometown Stars.

Shirley has put up points everywhere she has gone in hockey and owns three NCAA Division I championship rings playing for the U of Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Hockey Team. 

She is still 24-years-old, and I can still see her reaching new heights in the game with this avenue.

I’m happy for New York offensive-defender Jaime Bourbonnais. I first met her at the 4 Nations Cup when it was held in Saskatoon in November of 2018. 

She was 20-years-old at that time and then one of the youngest players on Canada’s Senior National Women’s team.

Bourbonnais’s positivity was infectious, and the mood of any room she stepped into got a whole lot better. When it comes to hockey, I have a soft spot for offensive-defenders, and Bourbonnais plays that role so well it is easy to drift into just being a fan.

I’m happy for New York offensive-defender Brooke Hobson. As captain of her hometown Bears squad that won the Saskatchewan Female Under-18 AAA Hockey League title and advanced to the Esso Cup national championship tournament in 2016-17, Hobson was both confident and kick ass.

Brooke Hobson for the Bears in action in 2017.

When the Bears swept the Hartney, Man., based Westman Wildcats 2-0 in a best-of-three female under-18 AAA Western regional playdown series at the Art Hauser Centre, the spotlight fit Hobson just fine. 

With the Bears trailing Game 2 of that series 6-3 in the third period, Hobson potted a pair of goals that started a 7-6 comeback win.

She has a rocket shot from the point that seemed gifted to her by a Higher Power. Hobson worked hard to get all the good things that have come her way in hockey.

I’m happy for TSN broadcaster Claire Hanna. Hanna has always been a strong advocate for women’s sports.

She also has street cred having been a star libero with the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds Women’s Volleyball Team winning three U Sports titles. 

Hanna was once a player in Canada’s national team program for volleyball.

Covering a circuit like the PWHL has been one of Hanna’s dreams. If she had Taylor Swift’s bank account, Hanna would be one of the owners of the circuit.

I’m happy for play-by-play broadcaster Daniella Ponticelli. The former play-by-play voice of the Huskies Women’s Hockey Team, Ponticelli was on the call for the PWHL’s first two games.

Ponticelli is best known for calling both hockey and football at a high level as a play-by-play voice, and it feels she was born for the moment to call PWHL games.

Howie Draper works the Pandas bench as head coach in Jan. 2023.

Again, everything about PWHL’s first six days was sensational. Here is a cheers to the continued success of the newest women’s professional hockey league.

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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Inconsistency only consistency in COVID-19 pandemic

Yours truly with a standard COVID-19 vaccination picture.

“How the (explanative) did you get your shot already?”

That is a familiar refrain you might find in the comments sections on social media post when someone from Saskatchewan posts a picture of having received their COVID-19 vaccination. In Saskatchewan, it is common for people to post pictures on social media after they receive their first COVID-19 vaccination shot along with a circular green sticker.

Saskatchewan residents can receive those stickers at the place they got their vaccine poke from.

As people in younger age groups received their first COVID-19 vaccine shot in Saskatchewan, comments shows up from time to time from a person in another Canadian province saying they still have to wait a bit before getting their first shot.

That right there shows the many inconsistencies that have shown up during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which has gripped the world.

The first cancellations and restrictions in North America regarding the COVID-19 pandemic started to take hold way back on March 11, 2020.

Since the point, it has been the norm to see inconsistencies when it comes to dealing with the pandemic. Going hand in hand with the inconsistencies is people losing their minds with them.

Why can people, who are traveling within Canada, arrive at one province like Saskatchewan and be able to freely visit and then go to another province like Manitoba and have to quarantine for 14 days?

With North America having dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic for over 14 months now, you would think people would get used to the fact there are inconsistencies. Still, people seem to not disappoint in showing how emotional they can be and get worked up over the inconsistencies.

Mosaic Stadium pictured during the 2019 Labour Day Classic.

One of the most glaring recent ones occurred on Friday.

In Ontario, the City of Toronto cancelled all major in person events for a second straight summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That cancellation period runs through to and includes the Sept. 4-6 Labour Day weekend.

The population of the metro area of Toronto is over 6.1-million.

On that same day during a sitting at the Government of Saskatchewan legislature, Premier Scott Moe encouraged the province’s residents to get vaccinated, because if the province accomplishes its vaccination targets, the hint was dropped that the 33,356 seat Mosaic Stadium could be used for events.

“That’s how later this summer we are going to fill that stadium in this town,” said Moe.

Saskatchewan has a population of over 1.1-million.

Moe has talked to the media this week about seeing football fans flock to Mosaic Stadium this summer. Of course, Mosaic Stadium is home to the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, and those hints had some in Rider Nation jumping up and down believing that there is no doubt their team is going to play.

At the moment, the CFL season is scheduled to begin on August 5. The circuit wasn’t able to navigate a way to get on the field in 2020 due to the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic presented with public health orders and travel restrictions.

In reality, the start of the CFL is far from a guaranteed thing. It is conceivable that Saskatchewan as a province could be in position to host something like a CFL game at the end of August, but the rest of Canada won’t be in that position.

Jess Moskaluke performs in 2016.

Judging by mainstream media reports, Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout appears to be very efficient, which is allowing “The Wheat Province” to do a lot better in that department than most of the rest of Canada.

If Saskatchewan gets to that place where it is possible to host events at Mosaic Stadium at full capacity at the end of August, you might likely see a Jess Moskaluke concert but not a Roughriders football game.

Of course, there will likely be a handful of Roughriders diehards that will be planning how the entire nine-team CFL can play out of Saskatchewan using Mosaic Stadium and Saskatoon’s the Griffiths Stadium and Saskatoon Minor Football Field in that scenario.

Griffiths Stadium has been able to hold over 8,000 spectators in its current configuration, while SMF Field can seat a crowd of 5,000.

Actually, Saskatchewan might hit the position where hockey at all levels including the WHL, the junior A SJHL, and the under-18 AAA male and female ranks returns to game action before any other area in Canada does.

That might go for all sorts of sports and entertainment activities.

The Atlantic provinces might get to those things earlier as they have been able to have an “Atlantic Travel Bubble” at times during the pandemic.

Still, a lot of Saskatchewan residents don’t seem to comprehend is that the rest of the world doesn’t unfold like it does in “The Land of the Living Skies.”

There are some that believe Saskatchewan’s vaccine rollout and COVID-19 restrictions are mirrored in the rest of Canada, and that is far from the case.

It seems people can’t grasp the continuing inconsistencies when it comes to dealing with the pandemic.

Unfortunately, you likely have better odds of winning the main jackpot for the Lotto Max lottery than seeing those inconsistencies go away.

The Regina Pats salute a Brandt Centre crowd in 2017.

Like it or not, the inconsistencies are here to stay.

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 backtracking on age cap welcome development in COVID-19 world

Yol Piok heads downfield after a big catch for the Huskies.

    It was a headache that wasn’t needed in the U Sports world.

    When the dust settled, it was good cooler heads prevail in the U Sports ranks with regards to the age cap rule for football.

    Under the age cap rule, players who turn 25 before Sept. 1 age out of U Sports football. Football players have seven years to complete their five years of eligibility in U Sports upon graduating from high school.

    On Monday, U Sports announced a review had been launched with regards to the eligibility policies relating to football. The anticipated completion of the review is slated for February of 2021.

    U Sports stated that due to the time frame of the review, it will provide a one-time exception to Policy 40.10.4.3.1.1 permitting all currently eligible student-athletes to participate in the 2021 football season even if they exceed the current policy before the start of the 2021 campaign.

    To put it in simple terms, any athlete that turns 25-years-old before Sept. 1, 2021 will be eligible to play in the 2021 U Sports football campaign.

Colton Klassen piles up the yards after the catch for the Huskies.

    This is important due to the fact U Sports cancelled all its fall national championships due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic back on June 8.

    The football cancellation included the Vanier Cup national title game and the semifinal contests in the Mitchell Bowl and Uteck Bowl. The Vanier Cup had been contested in every year starting with 1965.

    The Canada West Conference, Atlantic University Sport and Ontario University Athletics have all nixed plans to play regular seasons in 2020-21.

    The Reseau du sport etudiant du Quebec (RSEQ) is the only conference under the U Sports umbrella holding out hope of having a regular season in football in the 2020-21 campaign.

    Back on June 8, U Sports said student-athletes without U Sports national championships this season will not be charged eligibility and will remain eligible for athletic scholarships. At the time, there was no word regarding the age cap for football.

    That all changed on July 9, when  TSN broadcaster Farhan Lalji reported over Twitter that U Sports had voted against extending the age cap rule for football by a year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Kyler Mosley (#85) secures a catch for the Rams.

    That initial tweet caused a surge of stories to come out of various media outlets in the mainstream and non-mainstream that were almost all of the uproar variety.

    University of Alberta Golden Bears head coach Chris Morris stepped down as the head of both a university football coaches’ committee and a technical subcommittee over the initial decision regarding the age cap.

    With U Sports announcing its review of football eligibility and giving a one-time exception to the current age cap policy, it allows around 300 athletes to know their U Sports football careers won’t come to a sudden end due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    On the University of Saskatchewan Huskies front, that means star utility offensive player Colton Klassen, running back Jace Peters, receiver Yol Piok, offensive right tackle Nick Summach and receiver Joseph Trumpy will all be eligible to play in 2021.

    On the University of Regina Rams front, that means linebackers Robbie Lowes and Cody Peters, defensive lineman Cameron Cross, fullback Colton Hippe and receivers Sam Mike and Kyler Mosley can suit up in 2021.

Nick Summach (#62) leads a running play downfield for the Huskies.

    Of course, U Sports announced their decision in a way via political speak to try and show they weren’t reversing course on the original decision to hold firm with the age cap.
    At this moment, it is a waste of time to get emotionally worked up with regards to the political speak.

    Ultimately, U Sports made the right decision. Those that couldn’t play their final season of U Sports football due to the 2020 campaign being cancelled will be able to hit the field in 2021. That is the big thing right now.

    The overall work in progress debate of eligibility for football in U Sports is something that can be worked on over the next seven or so months.

    When the COVID-19 pandemic ends, it will be a huge benefit to U Sports to return as many veteran players as possible in every sports league under its umbrella. The familiarity will be needed in an attempt to bring back fans.

Bubble visit will be short for some NHL teams, other notes

A Carey Price card.

    For eight NHL teams, their restarts will be a just blip on the radar.

    On Saturday, the NHL begins its 2020 playoffs with a 24-team tournament playing in the bubble cities of Edmonton and Toronto. The Western Conference teams play in Edmonton, while the Eastern Conference teams skate in Toronto.

    The first round features eight play-in series that are best of five in length and will feature 16 out of the 24 teams in the post-season. The other eight teams will be playing round robin games against each other for playoff seeding for what is termed the official first round, where the 16 remaining teams will play in eight series that are best of seven in length.

    At the moment, the final day for the qualifying round of games is Aug. 9. That means eight teams will have left or be leaving their bubble cities on Aug. 10 to head into the off-season.

    Those clubs will have been back together for the period of a month considering training camps began for the 24 NHL teams taking part in post-season play in July 10.

    The NHL paused its 2019-20 campaign on March 12 due to the world falling in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pause, it was decided the circuit would try to finish the 2019-20 campaign with a 24-team playoff tournament starting on Aug. 1.

    For the teams that will be eliminate in the play-in series round, the modified playoffs provided a month reprieve for what is an extend off-season. Those players went four months without being together, got together for a month and then resumed off-season activities until possibly going to training camp for the 2020-21 campaign.

A Jonathan Toews card.

    At the moment, the 2020-21 campaign is slated to start with training camps opening on Nov. 17 depending how the pandemic plays out.

    Actually, the 24-team tournament is going to go by very rapidly reducing the number of teams that are staying in the bubble cities.

    After the play-in series wrap up, the 16 remaining teams begin the official first round of the playoffs on Aug. 11 and action in that round is expected to be wrapped up by Aug. 24 eliminating another eight teams. Those eight clubs will have been together for a month and a half.

    For the clubs that advance to the quarter-final round, the conference finals and the Stanley Cup final, the post-season will feel like more of a marathon grind.

    For the teams that are eliminated in the play-in round and the official first round, the post-season provides just a quick reprieve away from off-season activities.

    Even a hub city will be eliminated as the playoffs progress. The conference finals are slated to open on Sept. 8, and all action in that round and the Stanley Cup final will be played in Edmonton.

    Of course, only four teams will still be in action when the conference finals round takes place.

    For most players in the NHL, the playoffs will end seemingly as quickly as they began. For a lot of fans, they might find the post-season will go by in the blink of an eye assuming there are no complications from the COVID-19 pandemic.

• If you haven’t seen it, this story from CBC Saskatchewan raised a tonne of uproar this week. On Tuesday, Fiona Odlum and Bonnie Allen from CBC released a story that said five hockey teams from Saskatchewan with players aged seven to 12 traveled to Winnipeg for a tournament that ran July 16 to 19. The Government of Saskatchewan has said there is to be no interprovincial travel for sports teams. A number of the Saskatchewan hockey teams that attended the Winnipeg tournament changed their name, concealed the identity of players and told parents not to post anything on social media. One team coach that was contacted said he was on a fishing trip at the time of the tournament, but the CBC story stated there was a photo that showed that team coach was indeed in Winnipeg. The CBC story can be found by clicking right here.
• On Thursday, CBC’s Alex Soloducha wrote a story about how Saskatoon attorney David Samuel trained to get into the best shape of his life, when COVID-19 cases began popping up in Canada. After someone infected with the virus passed through his law office, Samuel is now battling the COVID-19 virus. The CBC piece on Samuel can be found by clicking right here.
• In the MLB, the Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies haven’t return to action since completing a three-game series against each other this past Sunday in Philadelphia. That series opened the respective regular seasons of both clubs. The season was stopped for both clubs after a COVID-19 breakout on the Marlins roster. As of Thursday, 17 players and two coaches from the Marlins had tested positive for COVID-19. The Phillies have had one coach and one clubhouse staffer test positive for COVID-19 as of Thursday. Both teams aren’t slated to play again until this coming Tuesday, when they are scheduled to face each other in Miami.
• On Thursday, Patrick Johnston of the Vancouver Province reported the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks gave a written termination notice to 49 people employed on a full-time basis in its business operations staff on Wednesday. It is estimated roughly 200 people work in the Canucks business office. Johnston’s story can be found by clicking right here.
• On Tuesday, Gregg Drinnan put together another round up about how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the sports world in his Taking Note blog. As usual, Drinnan provides a sobering reality check. His piece can be found by clicking right here.

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

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    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.

Age cap rule hurts U Sports football in COVID-19 times

Nick Summach (#62) leads a running play downfield for the Huskies.

    It was a tough to digest piece of news that dropped for football players in U Sports.

    On Thursday, TSN broadcaster Farhan Lalji reported over Twitter that U Sports had voted against extending the age cap rule for football by a year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. That initial tweet caused a surge of stories to come out of various media outlets in the mainstream and non-mainstream.

    University of Alberta Golden Bears head coach Chris Morris stepped down as the head of both a university football coaches’ committee and a technical subcommittee over this move.

    Of course, this became a big story in U Sports circles, because back on June 8, U Sports cancelled all its fall national championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The football cancellation included the Vanier Cup national title game and the semifinal contests in the Mitchell Bowl and Uteck Bowl. The Vanier Cup had been contested in every year starting with 1965.

    The Reseau du sport etudiant du Quebec (RSEQ) is the only conference under the U Sports umbrella holding out hope of having a regular season in football in the 2020-21 campaign.

Colton Klassen heads up field for the Huskies.

    The Canada West Conference, Atlantic University Sport and Ontario University Athletics have all nixed plans to play regular seasons in 2020-21.

    Back on June 8, U Sports said student-athletes without U Sports national championships this season will not be charged eligibility and will remain eligible for athletic scholarships. At the time, there was no word regarding the age cap for football.

    Under the age cap rule, players who turn 25 before Sept. 1 age out of U Sports football. Football players have seven years to complete their five years of eligibility in U Sports upon graduating from high school.

    Any player who would have gone into their final year of eligibility for U Sports football in the cancelled 2020 season will see their career come to an end. According to U Sports, this affects approximately 300 out of 2,335 athletes.

    On top of that, a large number of veteran players will also lose a year of eligibility under this decision.

    While discussions have come up regarding concerns of more physically mature older athletes going up against younger not as physically mature recent high school graduates, all that talk takes away from the issue in the current day.

Yol Piok heads downfield after a big catch for the Huskies

    The athletes that are getting slighted are being slighted by a factor outside of anyone’s control in the COVID-19 pandemic.

    When U Sports does resume action after the pandemic, it will be in a rebuilding state. That goes for all sports operating under the U Sports umbrella.

    On the football side, you don’t want to be casting aside veteran players, who could help trigger name recognition whenever action resumes.

    At the moment, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team is looking at not being able to return star utility offensive player Colton Klassen, running back Jace Peters, receiver Yol Piok, offensive right tackle Nick Summach and receiver Joseph Trumpy.

    In the CFL Draft that was held on April 30, Summach was selected in seventh round and 57^th overall by the Edmonton Eskimos. Klassen was picked in the eighth round and 69^th overall by the Montreal Alouettes.

    All five of those players are fairly well known in the football community of Saskatoon. Klassen is one of the best known Huskies.

Jace Peters rumbles downfield on a run for the Huskies.

    Their returns to the Huskies could bridge action before and after the stoppage due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The University of Regina Rams face the same challenges on this front. They are looking to be without linebacker Cody Peters, who should be able to play one more season but is going to age out.

    Peters had a stellar five-year career winning five straight CJFL titles with the venerable Saskatoon Hilltops. He was named the CJFL’s defensive player of the year in 2018.

    Before rejoining the Hilltops for his final CJFL season 2018, Peters attended training camp for the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders. Following his time with the Hilltops, Peters joined the Rams.

    Peters is known in the football community in Regina and throughout Saskatchewan.

    Due to the fact there won’t be a 2020 season for U Sports football thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, some U Sports football players will be making critical life decisions about whether they will continue to play football or move on to another phase of their lives.

    For recruits that just graduated from high school and were planning to join a U Sports football team as a rookie in 2020, those recruits might ultimately decide not to play and focus on other educational or working world opportunities.

Joseph Trumpy makes a big catch for the Huskies.

    Taking a year away from playing meaningful games throws a wrench into the plans of every player. They don’t need to be given any extra incentive to not play.

    On top of all that, football is the only sport under the U Sports umbrella that has to follow an age cap rule. Just from that perspective, it would be fair to eliminate the age cap rule and make football eligibility mirror that of the other sports in U Sports.

    When these pandemic times come to an end, it is likely you won’t see the U Sports football teams filled with veterans in the starting ranks who are aged 26 and 27. That was a trend in the late 1990s and early to mid 2000s.

    This time around concern has to centre on just getting the sport of football going again just like any other sport that is governed by U Sports.

NHL will provide good distraction if show goes on, other notes

The Oilers, seen here in a 2017 pre-season game, are hub city NHL hosts.

    Fan chatter on the NHL is starting to trickle through on social media lines.

    If the circuit can execute its return to play out in two hub cities in Edmonton and Toronto, it will provide a good distraction for sports fans in Canada in these COVID-19 pandemic times.

    The NHL is resuming the paused 2019-20 campaign with a 24-team playoff tournament. Teams are slated to report for training camps on July 13.

    The post-season is scheduled to begin on Aug. 1 with five games that open five different best-of-five play-in series. A total of 16 teams are taking part in the play-in round to determine eight clubs that will advance to the main 16-team post-season bracket.

    The Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars have been placed in the main 16-team bracket.

    All of the post-season games will be played in Edmonton and Toronto. Both the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs held off until Friday before making official announcements that their centres would indeed be hub cities.

    That development is convenient for Canadian sports networks that dump tonnes of resources into television coverage of these games.

    Those networks don’t have to fear dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic border restrictions between Canada and the United States due to all the post-season games being played in Canada.

    Over the past couple of days, you are starting to see a social media post two coming from fans who believe the team they support will win the playoff tournament and capture the Stanley Cup.

    If the playoffs can progress to crowning a Stanley Cup champion, fan chatter will likely increase to the point where you won’t know that a pandemic is indeed going on.

    If the playoff tournament gets derailed by positive COVID-19 tests that results in a team or teams dropping out or the post-season not get completed, the fans that want to watch the league for the distraction will likely just go silent.

    Critics that don’t want the NHL to jump back into action will likely become more vocal and might even gloat over the failure.

    For the moment, fans that just want to see games just to have a distraction have something to look forward to.

• On Wednesday, Sportsnet announced it was trimming its six-stop Grand Slam of Curling circuit to just two events next season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first slam event will be the Players’ Championship set for Toronto from April 13 to 18 in 2021. The second event will be the Champions Cup set for Olds, Alta., starting on April 27, 2021 running to May 2, 2021. The Grand Slam of Curling stops are part of the World Curling Tour seasonal calendar.
• Gregg Drinnan has been doing ace work in rounding up the havoc the COVID-19 pandemic is playing on the sports world, especially in the hard hit United States, in his Taking Note blog. His round up from Friday can be found by clicking right here, and the round up from Thursday can be found by clicking right here. The amount of positive tests, postponements and cancellations keep piling up.
• On a sobering note, the United States has hit the point where just over one out of every 100 persons in that country has contracted COVID-19 at some point this year. At the time this post went live, the United States had 3,355,646 total COVID-19 cases this year for a country that has a population of just over 331,060,000. Worldwide deaths this year from COVID-19 at 567,628 at the time of this post have passed total deaths by suicide, which sit at 566,508.
• While U Sports decision to hold firm on the football age cap was disappointing for many, Dick White, who is the U Sports interim Chief Executive Officer, is still the right person to lead that sports body through these trouble current pandemic days. White has a strong passion for U Sports and has experience dealing with tough financial times as the director of athletics for the University of Regina. Like most sports bodies in Canada, U Sports is in for a tough road ahead.
• Baseball and softball got going at the house and city league levels this past week in Saskatoon. It was a great site to see various diamonds in action around the city. Many have their figures crossed that this great development continues.

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