Demise of Saskatoon Express just plain old sucks

The final Saskatoon Express.

    I never thought the last story I ever wrote for the Saskatoon Express wouldn’t make it into the outlet’s print edition.

    Actually, I believed I would be contributing more stories to upcoming editions of the weekly paper well into the future. This is a common thought at the time when a media outlet ceases operation.

    On the morning of May 13, I was typing out a story on Saskatoon Valkryies linebacker Emmarae Dale from a hotel room in Prince Albert for what was supposed to be the upcoming edition of the Express.
    I was in Prince Albert to cover Game 7 of the WHL Championship series that night between the host Prince Albert Raiders and the Vancouver Giants for this blog and for The Canadian Press.

    I was trying to finish the story on Dale before the lunch hour arrived.
    When the lunch hour did arrive, I had the story on the Western Women’s Canadian Football League standout player ready to be sent into the Express office along with a photo package.

    I opened my email to discover my urgency wasn’t needed.
    A message was sitting my inbox from Express editor Cam Hutchinson that was only five minutes old.

The seniors guide produced by the Saskatoon Express.

    The message thanked me for the stories I wrote for the Express over the years and said the weekly had officially closed its office doors.
    I was caught off guard, because I was expecting the Express to close up shop any time soon.
    The publication was moved into a nice new office space in the north end of the city.

    Plans had been in development for me to work in a closer partnership with the Express, and some of the steps in that plan had already been executed.

    I wasn’t surprised, because this type of things happens on a regular basis in today’s volatile media industry, especially in Canada.

    The story on Dale meant for the Express appeared in my blog and can be found by clicking right here.

     At first, I compartmentalized the demise of the Express, because I was so involved with the WHL final and the Raiders run to the Memorial Cup tournament. Prince Albert won the series deciding Game 7 of the WHL final that night 3-2 in overtime with Dante Hannoun picking up the winner.

Emily Clark on the Saskatoon Express cover.

    Before going to that game, I put posts up on Facebook and Twitter linked to Hutchinson’s farewell column for the Express.
    When you motor around Saskatoon now 18 days later, you wouldn’t even know the Express existed for an eight-year run.
    All the yellow bins that held the print versions of the paper have been picked up.

    If you try to connect to the Express’s website, most links come up with an error message. The Express’s Facebook and Twitter social media lines have gone untouched for about a couple of weeks.

    In the Lawson Heights Mall, I found copies of the seniors’ guide that was produced by the Express.
    That was the only sign I could find in town that the Express even existed.

    Hutchinson wrote in his column that advertising dollars were drying up. The final edition of the Express was covered in an advertising wrap and about 35 percent of the interior of the publication contained ads.

    I am speculating here, but I believe there was a fear in this volatile economy that ad revenue would dry up.
    Most of the people who had money invested in the Express were older veterans from the newspaper industry who were nearing retirement age, at retirement age or past retirement age.

Julia Flinton on the Saskatoon Express cover.

    Again, I am speculating, but I think that played a lot into the decision to close up shop. Eventually, people would like to have the option to roll into the sunset and not work.
    Still, the fact is the Express is no more.
    The thing that hurts the most is Saskatoon lost a media voice that was an alternative from the mainstream outlets.

    Hutchinson did a great job of rounding up what I call were the “outlaws” or media members that were often cut loose by the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

    Due to the connections these media members had, the Express as a weekly was a vehicle that could keep the mainstream outlets accountable in their coverage, especially if they are owned by chains.

    You can bet the big local managers with companies like Postmedia, which owns the StarPhoenix, have to be doing fist pumps, because a competitor went down giving them more of a free rein.

    The Express’s demise reinforces the notion for chain media companies that they wait out local competitors and watch them close when they run out of steam.

    Because the mainstream outlets in Saskatoon are shadows of what they were 19 years ago, there are tonnes of stories in Saskatoon not being covered.

A Saskatoon Express story featuring Kaitlin Willoughby.

    When the Express was around, the mainstream outlets had to check it out to see if there was anything pressing or big that was missed.

    The Express carried stories in arts and sports that often were overlooked elsewhere or wouldn’t become stories unless the big local managers at the mainstream outlets took an interest in them.
    The weekly contained writers that typed out political columns you would not likely see in mainstream outlets as well.

    The Express provided a vehicle to showcase some of my stories on the Saskatoon Stars of the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League.

Kirby Dach on the cover of the Saskatoon Express.

    The Stars won four of the last five SFMAAAHL titles and earned berths at the Esso Cup female midget AAA nationals in each of those runs.

    Global did stories on them. If it wasn’t for Global and myself doing stories on the Stars, their exploits would have been ignored.
    They have produced players that have skated in Canada’s national team system too.
    The most traction the Stars had in mainstream outlets came in the 2017-18 campaign, when they fell in the Esso Cup title game to the St. Albert Slash 2-1.

    Even looking at the sports scene, there is so much I am not able to do as a solo person with my blog.
    The high school sports scene in Saskatoon is barely covered, and it was a staple of coverage for years in mainstream outlets.

    For minor sports at that level, they are usually the first to get cut because they draw the most jealousy complains by irate parents, who often confront the big bosses at mainstream outlets. The complaints usually revolved around one school getting more coverage than other schools or one minor sports team getting more coverage than other minor sports teams.

A Saskatoon Express story featuring Ashley Messier.

    The big bosses realize if those sports aren’t covered, they don’t deal with irate parents and have more hours in their day to focus on other things.

    I’ve often written stories on the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team and hockey teams.
    When I’ve tried to do stories on the other Huskies teams on top of that, I find my time gets too taxed, and those teams I don’t write about deserve props too.

    In Saskatoon, the WHL’s Blades and the CJFL’s Hilltops aren’t covered to the extent they should be even with the work of my blog added in.

    In a naive way, I was hoping to work with the staff at the Express and hopefully try to better bridge gaps in the coverage.

Cianna Lieffers on the Saskatoon Express cover.

    The Express helped me work with sports scenes that I didn’t have any links to like the local stock car scene at the Wyant Group Raceway.

    Another thing I found disappointing with the demise of The Express was the lack of reaction.
    My initial social media posts on Facebook and Twitter drew no reaction.
    The Express Facebook page had three readers write in with their sympathies.
    I was told by lots of people in the community they loved checking out the Express, because they finally got to see a well put together print publication again.

    I have been met with lots of surprise over the past two weeks when I tell people the Express is no more.

    The Express offered lots of support to this blog. I admit I will have to deal with a hole not having that support there.
    Overall, I enjoyed working with the staff at the Express. Hutchinson, who is a long time friend, and general manager Dan Senick are gems.

The Saskatoon Express office all closed up.

    If they ever wanted me to work together on another media venture, I would be all for it.

    At the moment, I am still feeling disappointment the show isn’t going on.

    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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United States top guns in women’s hockey

4 Nations Cup shows Canada has some work to do

The U.S. team skates away with the 4 Nations Cup.

    At the moment, women’s hockey on the world stage belongs to the United States.

    If the 4 Nations Cup tournament that wrapped up last Saturday in Saskatoon did anything, it reinforced the U.S.A. is still great. The U.S. posted a perfect 4-0 record at the event held last Tuesday to Saturday at the SaskTel Centre that featured the senior national women’s teams from Canada, Finland and Sweden.

    In Saturday’s final, the States claimed a sound 5-2 victory over Canada. During the gold medal match, the U.S. transitioned up and down the ice better than Canada did and looked more polished on the power play and penalty kill units even with Canada scoring a power-play goal.

    The U.S. can play physical, but their finesse style of play was really something to behold. They have a really fine hockey team.

    The U.S. victory in the gold medal final doesn’t come as a surprise. They have taken the last four world championship tournaments and captured gold over Canada at the last Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, held this past February.

Brianna Decker is the veteran leader for the U.S.

    Canada’s last win at a major tournament championship game against the U.S. was at the 4 Nations Cup in 2014 held in Kamloops, B.C. The U.S. has won the last four consecutive 4 Nations Cup tournaments. 
    At the moment, it doesn’t appear the U.S. is going to fall off the mountaintop any time soon. Their team is stocked with a great group of veterans like captain Brianna Decker, Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Hannah Brandt, Amanda Kessel, Kacey Bellamy, Emily Pfalzer and netminder Alex Rigsby.

    Besides the veterans, the U.S. showcased an impressive crop of youngsters like Sydney Brodt, Melissa Samoskevich, Cayla Barnes, Mikaela Gardner and Maddie Rooney.

    While women’s hockey between U.S. and Canada is one of the greatest rivalries in sports, it is hard to place a villain card on any of the U.S. players, if you are a Canadian hockey fan that meets the U.S. players.

    The members of the U.S. team came off very genuine and gave a feeling of being good persons. They are quietly confident but not arrogant. They also play with heart.

    When you have those intangibles on top playing the sport soundly on a technical level, your hockey team becomes incredibly tough to beat.

Hannah Brandt is one of the U.S.’s veteran standouts.

    In another twist that Canadians might not realize, the U.S. players value having success in the head-to-head games with Canada just like the Canadian players do. Victories in those contests are meaningful and are the things dreams are made of.
    That realization was seen in the face of Brodt, who is a 20-year-old right-winger playing in her first games ever with the U.S. senior women’s team at the 4 Nations Cup.

    Last Wednesday in the preliminary round encounter with Canada, Brodt scored with winning goal with 1:48 remaining in the third period to break a 1-1 tie and give the U.S. a 2-1 victory. The winning goal came against legendary Canadian goaltender Shannon Szabados, and Brodt lived through that moment in just her second game with the U.S. senior national women’s team.

    During a post-game interview after that contest, she had a huge smile and a warm glow was radiating from her face.

Sydney Brodt turned heads at the 4 Nations Cup.

    Brodt said she scored due to being in the right place at the right time.

    Still, you could almost sense she was still processing what happened and might have been in disbelief about what actually took place, because it was a dream moment that came in her second game with the U.S. senior women’s national team.
    The U.S. players likely have an even bigger bond after fighting for and successfully receiving better compensation from U.S.A. Hockey in late March of 2017. Actually, it appears that episode resulted in an even stronger U.S. women’s program overall with a larger “all in” buy in from everyone.

    At the moment, the U.S. has set an incredibly high bar for Canada to get up to. The roles were reversed for a lengthy time between the two rivals, when Canada held the upper hand through much of the 1990s and the 2000s.

    While it may sound strange, Canada might not be that far out in reaching that bar. Veteran bench boss Perry Pearn guides Canada’s senior national women’s team as head coach, and the 67-year-old has seen it all during his time in the game.

Hilary Knight is still at the top of her game with the U.S.

    Pearn seems to have a good handle on the technical side of things on what Canada needs to do to counter what the U.S. does in its game. Following the gold medal loss last Saturday, Pearn mentioned technical areas the Canadian side improved in from the preliminary round encounter. He said small breakdowns snowballed to result in the sound U.S. win.

    Pearn said he believed his side didn’t quit, and he was correct in all of his assessments.

Canadian fans saw what they expected to see from veterans like Marie-Philip Poulin, Natalie Spooner, Brianne Jenner, Rebecca Johnston, Melodie Daoust, Laura Fortino and Szabados.
    What was most impressive was the effort Canada received from its youngsters, who were arguably the team’s best players at the 4 Nations Cup. 

U.S. women’s hockey victory celebrations are a common sight.

    Offensive defender Jaime Bourbonnais, who recently turned 20-years-old, played in her first week with Canada’s senior women’s national team, and she looked like a veteran already. Of course, everyone took notice of the rocket shot power-play goal she ripped past Rigsby in the gold medal final.

    Canada received sound performances from the likes of Sarah Fillier, Loren Gabel, Kristin O’Neill, Micah Zandee-Hart and Emerance Maschmeyer.

    The Canadian team does have the ingredients to turn the tables on the U.S. in the future.
    It also should be noted that, while women’s hockey on the world stage has been traditionally a two-horse race between Canada and the U.S., you still have to be aware that the Russian women’s team is starting to make some noise and could be poised for a rise.

    Women’s hockey on the world stage does have some interesting storylines developing. With that said, the United States are the top guns until someone finally beats them in a major tournament final.

Attendance 4 Nations Cup elephant

There were some empty seats at the SaskTel Centre at 4 Nations Cup.

    The biggest elephant in the room at the 4 Nations Cup was hard to ignore.

    When you caught games at the SaskTel Centre, it was hard to not see the empty seats, and only the rink’s lower bowl, which is believed to seat around 5,800, was open. No official attendance figures were released for the event.

    Crowds in games that didn’t involve Canada were sparse, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say those games might have reached 1,000 people. The lower bowl did fill up more, when Canada played especially for the preliminary round and gold medal game clashes with the United States.

Swedish supporters cheer on their team at 4 Nations Cup.

    Still, it was easy to navigate your way through the rink during the games between Canada and the U.S., and spots where groups of seats sat empty were noticeable. For the gold medal game, it would be safe to say the lower bowl was about 70 per cent full.

    To be fair, attendance at sporting events across Canada appears to be down unless you are an NHL team. Attendance at sporting events in Saskatoon has generally been down from past years except for those heading to University of Saskatchewan Huskies hockey games to see the brand new Merlis Belsher Place.

    The obvious is just being stated here, and there are no quick solution. It seemed like most of the people that are involved with female hockey in the province did turn out to see some part of the 4 Nations Cup. 

    With the four competing teams featuring players that played in the last Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, held this past February, it would have been great to see more casual type fans out at the games.

Lieffers aces tough call in bronze medal game

Referee Cianna Lieffers was in position call Finland’s bronze medal winner.

    Saskatoon area based referee Cianna Lieffers had a highlight moment nailing a critical call during the 4 Nations Cup.

    In the third period of the bronze medal game last Saturday, Finland and Sweden were locked in a 2-2 tie. Finland went ahead 3-2 at the 8:36 mark of the frame during a frantic moment of action.

    During the scoring play, Finnish centre Tanja Niskanen drove hard to the Sweden’s net and was hacked down by a Swedish defender and slid into netminder Maria Omberg.

    Omberg managed to keep the puck out of the goal with her glove hand, but it sat loose in the crease of the net.

Cianna Lieffers worked a number of games at 4 Nations Cup.

    Finnish left-winger Annina Rajahuhta pounced on the loose puck knocking it into the goal to put Finland in front.

    There was a short protest by Sweden due to the fact Omberg couldn’t react to the rebound, because she had Niskanen sitting on top of her, but the winning tally stood up.

    Lieffers, who is originally from Cudworth, Sask., was the referee nearest to the play, and the 24-year-old got the call right. The goal had to stand, because had Niskanen not been knocked down by a Swedish defender, she wouldn’t have crashed into Omberg.

    Besides getting that part of the call right, Lieffers was in perfect position behind the net to see Rajahunta score. Lieffers called the goal immediately.

    That marker ultimately stood up as the winner in a 4-2 victory for Finland.
    Lieffers skated away with the satisfaction of getting a tough call correct, when emotions were running high in a game where the winning side claimed a medal.

Injured Clark hit with the biggest untrue rumour

 

Emily Clark injured her left leg.

  It appears the highest level of women’s hockey can be hit by the rumour mill like the NHL and WHL.

    Arguably the biggest untrue rumour of the week involved Saskatoon product Emily Clark. Clark is a 22-year-old forward with Canada’s senior national women’s team and an alumna of the Saskatoon Stars female midget AAA team.

    She helped Canada win a silver medal at the Winter Olympics held last February in PyeongChang, South Korea.

    She missed the 4 Nations Cup having injured her left leg while playing for the University of Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey team of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Her injury occurred in the opening minutes of a Badgers 4-2 home win on Oct. 13 against the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.

    Apparently, there were a couple of fans at the event that didn’t believe the injury news. There was talk that Clark had become pregnant down in Madison, Wisconsin.

    It wasn’t the largest rumour out there, but it was something that was heard around the rink. Of course, it is not true.

    It also seem crazy that rumour got any traction at all. Clark made appearances at the Saskatoon Blades home game on Nov. 1 and the Stars home game on Nov. 3, and she had a walking boot visible on her left leg in both of those appearances.

    Players in the NHL and WHL are often dogged by various untrue rumours that are out there. By human nature, it is going to happen at the highest level of women’s hockey.

    Pretty much the best way for a player to deal with those rumours is to debunk them with teammates and have a chuckle over what you hear.

Media hit and miss at 4 Nations Cup

U.S. team members pose for media pictures with the 4 Nations Cup.

    During the 4 Nations Cup, it was easy to see the effects of the budget cut era of the Canadian media industry.

    A decade ago, an event like the 4 Nations Cup would have attracted a sizable medial gathering. In the current budget cut era of the Canadian media industry, the media presence was hit and miss at the 4 Nations Cup.

    During the first day of games, most of the outlets from Saskatoon cycled through to make an appearance. After the first day, there was an average of one or two media people at the early game that didn’t feature Canada.

    Canada’s clash with Finland last Friday night drew maybe only four media members. All the Saskatoon outlets were represented in the two encounters that featured Canada playing the United States.

    The only out of town members covering the event appeared to be one representative from The Canadian Press and one from the International Ice Hockey Federation outside of the crew that was involved with TSN.

    Still, it was good TSN showed the Friday night clash between Canada and Finland and Saturday’s two medal games on television.

    In 2016, the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity released a study regarding the connection between women and sport in Canada. A couple of the facts revolved around media coverage.

    An analysis was done on Canada’s primary national sports networks in English and French in 2014. The study said only four per cent of the coverage on those networks was dedicated to women’s sports and over half of that number was dedicated to coverage of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Media members work to get pictures of the U.S. team celebrations.

    A study was done on the Saturday sports section front pages in two of Canada’s highest circulated national newspapers from June 2008 to May 2010 and June 2013 to May 2015. Over those time frames, 5.1 per cent of the coverage was dedicated to women’s sports.

    Of course, that study only considered a small sampling size of the print industry.

    With that noted, TSN’s coverage of the 4 Nations Cup goes towards the time the media in Canada spends covering women’s sports.

    I covered all eight games at the 4 Nations Cup for my blog, because I wanted to. With the 4 Nations Cup being a toured in event, I didn’t expect to get many page views, because with being based in Saskatoon, I spent a very small amount of time covering international women’s hockey.

    That coverage is usually limited to local area athletes heading off to play for national teams or attend national team hockey camps.

    My only post that did well was a feature on Team Canada offensive-defender Jaime Bourbonnais. The page views for the rest of my 4 Nations Cup posts were some of the lowest page view totals I have had since starting this blog in late August of 2014.

    During the overall history of my blog, the majority of my top viewed posts involve women’s sports and female athletes, so the audience is there.

    Unfortunately, female sports still face an uphill battle with regards to media coverage. Female sports teams and athletes have to run with and make miles with seemly any coverage that comes their way, and if the coverage is deemed good, you have to really get the most out of it.

    It is almost like when the rock band Bon Jovi started out. If there was a ladder hanging over the crowd, someone in the band climbed it.

Personally, 4 Nations Cup was a great time

Team Canada celebrates Jaime Bourbonnais’s power-play goal.

    On a personal side, I have to say I enjoyed covering the 4 Nations Cup in Saskatoon.

    It marked the first time I have covered an international women’s hockey tournament featuring senior national teams. The players from Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden were super to deal with. They all came off and genuine and likeable.

    The staffs from all the competing teams were great to deal with. The communications staff at Hockey Canada were super to work with.

    During the tournament, it was cool to see so many people attend games who are involved with female hockey in Saskatchewan. I enjoyed seeing a number of faces from all over the province during games at the SaskTel Centre.
    Most of the rink staffers from games involving the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades were out reprising their identical roles at 4 Nations Cup. They allowed the game day experience to go on seamlessly.

Shannon Szabados makes a save in goal for Canada.

    Covering the tournament’s eight games over a five day period will be something I always remember, because it was unique to anything else that I have done. Now two days after the gold medal final has been played, I do have a bit of that natural down feeling, because the 4 Nations Cup is over.

    It might sound weird, but you should have that feeling if you had fun working an event. I had a great time covering the 4 Nations Cup.

    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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Canadian media loves easy NHL money

An NHL exhibition game held in Saskatoon in September.

            When it comes to sports media in Canada, it is all about the NHL.

            The only place that might not be true is Saskatchewan, where the CFL’s Roughriders are number one. In the consolidated media world that marks the landscape in Canada, the NHL is where it is at as far as sports coverage goes. As a result, coverage for all other sports ultimately suffers.

            As the media in Canada continues to consolidate, the various outlets end up looking to gain the biggest bang for the buck. The industry for all intensive purposes has been in a negative economy cycle for two decades going back to before the Internet became big, which has created the need to get the biggest bang for the buck.

When it comes to covering sports, the NHL has a huge captive audience in Canada that isn’t going anywhere. If you produce anything on that league, you can be sure someone will read it, listen to it, or watch it.

            If media outlets in Canada really wanted to, they could likely get away with just running sports stories on the NHL. In Western Canada, you would still have to acknowledge the CFL, but the NHL rules the roost.

            I remember a conversation I had with an elite level goalie coach in summer. He said there seemed to be more media than ever circling around Canada’s NHL teams. That is likely true.

            Besides having the regular print, radio and television media following the team, you have personnel from NHL clubs themselves putting together stories and videos for websites. You also have people there from the league itself putting together items for various NHL run media platforms.

            Due to the overwhelming attention the NHL gets in Canada, regular media companies are hesitant to cut back coverage in that area. It is giving you the biggest bang for your buck. If you take away coverage in this area, you will lose a big amount of followers and the advertising bottom line gets hurt.

            When cuts do come down, it is usually at the expense of all other local sports. That is seen in various mid-market centres like Kelowna, Red Deer or Lethbridge where papers that once had sports staffs of three or four are shrunk to one or two. As most know, advertising dollars are usually sucked out of those communities to the head office of the consolidated media company.

            Red Deer actually once had a Global station, but that is gone. In Kamloops, you don’t even have a daily newspaper there anymore.

            The reason it is easy to cut sports coverage on the local level is because it takes a lot of resources to go out there and keep followers. Covering things like sports at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport level or sports at the high school level takes a lot of effort to get followers and keep them. In all reality, you are catering to a niche audience that doesn’t have a whole lot of room for expansion.

            In a ratio sense, a set amount of resources that would be used to cover the NHL will yield a much greater return than the same set amount of resources used to cover sports at the local level.

             With Postmedia Network Canada Corporation’s $316-million deal announced earlier this month to buy 175 newspapers and digital publications where the bulk of the deal included former Quebecor Media Inc. assets, local sports coverage will ultimately take another hit.

            Despite the cuts, almost all those that are actually on the front lines covering the local sports scenes in their various communities work very hard at what they do. In a lot of cases, they push themselves too hard to bring those stories to light and suffer burnout.

            In Saskatoon, the work that the sports media does in the city has to be rated as outstanding. The numbers in the sports media in town have shrunk, which seems strange for centre that has witnessed a population increase of about 50,000 people in the last eight years.

            It would be nice if media companies would increase the number of front line reporters in order to bring more local sports stories to the readers, or at least get numbers up to what they used to be a decade ago. There are a lot of good athletes with great stories working hard at what they do, and people don’t realize they are there.

            Unfortunately, it costs money to bring in more reporters and add resources to cover these stories. No consolidated media company would want to do that, when you can turn to the cash cow that is the NHL to make some easy coin.

If you have any feedback on this blog, feel free to email comments to stankssports@gmail.com.