The Rod Pedersen Show has hit with #CFLsim

Virtual Cameron Judge does a sack dance on a big TV screen.

    The crew with The Rod Pedersen Show appears to have hammered a home run with a CFL simulation broadcast.

    On Friday night, The Rod Pedersen Show ran a Facebook Live broadcast of a virtual clash between the host Saskatchewan Roughriders and the visiting Montreal Alouettes. The virtual showdown played out on a Doug Flutie’s Maximum Football video game, and it occurred when the regularly schedule regular season game was supposed to happen between both sides.

    At the moment, real life CFL action has been sidelined due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic has no bearing on simulation games.

    Actually, #CFLsim games have been shown for a least a couple of weeks now on Twitch.tv.

    The Rod Pedersen Show elected to broadcast Friday’s game featuring the virtual Roughriders and reported picking up over 9,000 views are Facebook Live.
    Rod Pedersen provided the play-by-play of the broadcast, and Darren Dupont took on colour commentator duties.
    The action was swift and very enjoyable thanks to the outstanding efforts by Pedersen and Dupont. 

Virtual Nick Marshall makes an interception on my TV screen.

    Their commentary kept you glued to the broadcast that ran about 94 minutes in length.

    Pedersen was the Roughriders play-by-play voice for 20 years before Derek Taylor took on that role before the start of last season.

    With all due respect to Taylor who is a good and talented guy, it was refreshing to hear Pedersen doing a call of a Roughriders game, even a virtual one. For people in Saskatchewan, Pedersen’s call provided a feeling of normalcy.

    Dupont was ace on colour thanks to his knowledge of Canadian players, who played at the U Sports level.

    The broadcast began with the real Teagan Littlechief singing the Canadian national anthem. Littlechief is a regular anthem singer for real Roughriders games along with a number of other teams in Saskatchewan.

    She has developed a healthy fan following due to her spectacular rendition of O Canada.

    The virtual Roughriders came away with an 8-3 victory.

    The fans a virtual Mosaic Stadium cranked up the noise, when the Alouettes had the ball.
    After watching the game, one had to wonder if Roughriders receiver Mitchell Picton is the toughest player in the virtual CFL.

Friday’s #CFLsim game brought fun to this big TV screen.

    He handled most of the Roughriders punt return duties on Friday and was viciously erased on every return.

    Every time he touched the ball, Picton took the equivalent of a Ray Lewis hit or worse. Picton, who is an alumnus of the University of Regina Rams, got up each time and kept playing hard.

    Honestly, half the shots Picton absorbed on Friday would have eliminated fellow Rams alum in the ultra-tough Jason Clermont from the contest.

    Virtual defensive back Nick Marshall was a stud for the Roughriders and made as many big plays as the real life Marshall does.

    Viewers also learned virtual Roughriders linebacker Cameron Judge has an interesting sack celebration.

    The Rod Pedersen Show also showed comments from viewers who would make criticisms that are as colourful that occur during real life Roughriders post-game phone in shows.

    During the shutdowns that have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual simulations of sporting events have proved to be popular.

    The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League developed a healthy following showing its junior A league playoffs via a virtual format. It is also a great way for these leagues to keep themselves on the forefront of people’s minds.

Darren Dupont, left, and Rod Pedersen commentate on a big TV screen.

    There have been virtual showings of NASCAR races from various NASCAR circuits too during the pandemic.

    For those that turned into Friday’s #CFLsim broadcast from The Rod Pedersen Show, they would have been very entertained. Checking out future broadcasts is a definite recommendation.

    During a time when it seems like there is so much bad in the world, The Rod Pedersen show gets huge kudos for Friday night’s fun viewing.

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

-------                                     

    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.

Labour Day Classic weekend good, not great as it once was

Mosaic Stadium set for the national anthem on Sunday.

    On the surface, it looks hard to complain about the Labour Day Classic weekend in Regina, but the weekend as a whole has shown cracks in its lustre.

    On Sunday, the Roughriders got a walk off game-winning, 26-yard field goal from kicker Brett Lauther to pull out a 19-17 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Mosaic Stadium. Lauther and punter Jon Ryan proceeded to lead a charge of teammates to Pil Country in the south end zone for a celebration.

    Most of the sellout crowd of 33,356 revelled in the host side’s victory outside of the sizable contingent that came out to cheer for the Bombers. A number of fans from Winnipeg, Man., make it out to Regina for the annual Labour Day Classic.

Roughriders fans check out the pre-game party at the armory.

    The Roughriders also managed to sneak in a handful of extra bodies as sellout crowds at Mosaic Stadium were usually capped at 33,350 before Sunday’s contest.

    The game itself was a good defensive battle, and the game day presentation around the contest is a spectacle. The Roughriders have done an outstanding job with their game day experience since moving into their new stadium in 2017 and for a sizable chunk of years before that at their long time home in Taylor Field.

    Still, the weekend as a whole seemed to be a bigger event at one point in time not so long ago.

    No matter what, the Labour Day weekend in Regina is always busy. It is the place to be in Saskatchewan on Labour Day weekend.

Bombers fans chill at Wayne’s World.

    A boat competition took place on Wascana Lake on Saturday.

    Usually the Regina Dragon Boat Festival takes place at this time, but it wasn’t run this year as Regina hosted dragon boat nationals in July. The Regina Dragon Boat Festival returns to its normal slot next year.

    The Shake the Lake concert rock festival took over the Conexus Art Centre on Friday and Saturday.

    For people coming in from out of town for the Labour Day Classic football game, it seems in recent years they arrive on Saturday to go to the Roughriders Fanfest in the morning, party later on that night and depart for the home after the game on Sunday. For the out of town folk that do stay Sunday night, they seem to keep a low profile.

    At one point in time, a sizable contingent from out of town arrived in Regina on Friday night. Parties and various concerts or functions happened Friday, Saturday and after the game on Sunday night that had some sort of tie in with the football game.

    The heyday for this type of action seemed to run from 2005 to 2014. I have attended the last 12 straight Labour Day Classic games in Regina and 19 since 1996 and the last time I saw a sizable contingent stay after the game and fill the Dewdney Avenue strip was 2014.

“The Golden Boy” fires up the Bombers fans at Wayne’s World.

    This year I arrived in Regina on Saturday and went out that night. I noticed it was busy out on the town and the presence of people wearing Roughriders and Blue Bombers gear was there.

    It wasn’t like in past years. Most people wore regular clothes you would wear on a night out, and people wearing team gear of the Roughriders and Bombers were in the minority.

    From 2005 to 2014, it seemed like everyone that went out on Labour Day Weekend was wearing some sort of gear from either the Roughriders or Bombers.

    On Sunday, I went out and took part in pre-game festivities in the three hours before the game. After the game, I did take a couple of Halls cough candies to get my voice back from cheering.

Roughriders fans came game ready with fun jabs for their rivals.

    I visited at the stadium for an hour and went to finish an unrelated Labour Day Classic sports story.

    After finishing the sports story, I drove by the Dewdney Strip at around 10 p.m., and it was fairly dead. I opted not to try and find a party and drove back home to Saskatoon.

    In past years after the Labour Day game on Sunday, the restaurants and nightclubs would be full right up to 2 a.m.

    After the Labour Day Classic in 2000, I remember being on Broad Street where two nightclubs in Lauderdales and Barts on Broad existed at the time across the street from each other. There were massive lines to get into both and a party on the street.

    One Roughriders fan was slow driving down the street in a hearse done up in Roughriders colours and signs on the vehicle said the Bombers were somehow located in a coffin inside the vehicle. 

Cody Fajardo (#7) fires a pass downfield for the Roughriders.

    This type of over the top but still good fan thing isn’t seen as much anymore.

    In a weird bit of scheduling, Regina’s two post-secondary football teams in the CJFL’s Thunder and U Sports’ University of Regina Rams were both playing regular season games on the road for this year’s Labour Day weekend on Saturday night.

    The Thunder beat the Rifles in 52-45 in overtime in Winnipeg. The Rams thumped the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 46-16 in Vancouver, B.C.

    For the longest time, the Rams would always try to start the U Sports campaign playing the University of Manitoba Bisons at home on the Saturday night before the CFL Labour Day Classic clash on Sunday. Winnipeg fans that came for the Bombers game usually went to the Bisons versus Rams game on Saturday night and spend a tonne on concessions.

RB William Powell (#29) follows his blocking downfield.

    In 2016, the Thunder hosted the Rifles in a very successful game at Leibel Field on the Saturday night before the Labour Day Classic.

    Those post-secondary games on the Saturday night usually acted as a primer for the CFL contest on Sunday.

    It seemed weird that both the Thunder and Rams would be scheduled to be on the road this weekend.

    Kudos go out to Rod Pedersen, Darren Dupont and the crew from The Rod Pedersen show for organizing the inaugural Rod Pedersen’s All-Star/Celebrity Football Game at Leibel Field on Saturday night. The touch football game was a fundraiser for Regina Minor Football and the Regina Riot of the Western Women’s Canadian Football League.

    Team White downed Team Green 30-28 and a fun time was had by all.

The Roughriders charge into Pil Country to celebrate their win on Sunday.

    The 2010 Labour Day Classic weekend might have been the most busy as the Roughriders were celebrating their 100^th anniversary. Throughout the weekend there seemed to be countless events going on throughout Regina that had a tie in with the CFL contest.

    There was a time around 2013 the Labour Day Classic used to sell out two hours after Roughriders put single game tickets up for sale usually on June 1. In recent years, the game hasn’t sold out until about two to four days before game day.

    The Labour Day Classic weekend is still good, but it is no longer that lost weekend of three nights of parties that it once was. The three nights of craziness might be something that doesn’t return.

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

-------

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

Oilers’ McDavid lights it up in pre-season win in Saskatoon

The Oilers salute the crowd at the SaskTel Centre.

    It feels like a fire hydrant could get 40 points playing on a line with Connor McDavid.

    The Edmonton Oilers phenom sent a partisan crowd of 10,387 spectators at the SaskTel home happy on Wednesday night netting a pair of goals and an assist. McDavid’s efforts allowed the Oilers to blank the Carolina Hurricanes 4-0 in an NHL pre-season contest.

    Wednesday’s contest was the second last pre-season outing for the Oilers, who close out their exhibition schedule on Saturday by traveling to Vancouver to take on the Canucks. At still the young age of 20, McDavid is a known commodity having won the Hart Trophy last season as the NHL’s most valuable player and the Art Ross Trophy as the circuit’s leading scorer. 

    During the off-season McDavid signed an eight-year $100-million contract extension with the Oilers that kicks in after his entry-level contract expires at the end of the 2017-18 campaign.

    He doesn’t have to prove anything in a contest that doesn’t affect the Oilers fate when it comes to the regular season or playoffs.

    With all that in mind, McDavid still went out and gave a top level effort, and the superstar centre brought the fans to their feet on numerous occasions. Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said the support of the spectators was justified.

    “He (McDavid) has earned that right,” said McLellan, whose team improved to 6-1 in the pre-season. “The people respect him for the player that he is and the performance that he puts on night in and night out.

    “It would have been easy for him to go through the motions and take the night off, but that is not the type of player here is. Every time he puts the gear on, he wants to lead his team. He wants to get better as a player.

    “He is a good example for all of our players, and I am sure for a lot of the young players that are in the building here tonight in Saskatoon. He shows up every day to get better.”

    After Zack Kassian scored for the Oilers on a wraparound just 1:49 into the first period, McDavid went to work.

    He was the man that helped start the tick-tack-toe passing play that resulted in an Oilers power-play goal from left-winger Milan Lucic at the 13:16 mark of the opening frame.

    From the right corner boards, McDavid found Draisaitl down low by the left corner of the Carolina goal. McDavid’s pass seemed to have eyes as the puck found a lane through a maze of bodies to get to Draisaitl, who is a former member of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders.

The Oilers and Hurricanes scrum it up late in the third period.

    Draisaitl fed a pass across the face of the net to Lucic, who calmly corralled the puck and plunked it into an open cage.

    The Oilers weren’t able to increase their edge until the final 10 minutes of the third period, when McDavid really left the SaskTel Centre crowd in awe.

    With the Hurricanes working on a power play, McDavid was sprung on a breakaway. Carolina netminder Cam Ward looked like a deer in the headlights as McDavid closed in. The first overall selection in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft gave a little juke and snapped home a shot to the low left corner of the Hurricanes goal to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead.

    Shortly after that marker, McDavid scored his second of the contest on an individual effort coming down the left side of the offensive zone to make the score 4-0 in Edmonton’s favour.

    Late in the third, McDavid was going in for another scoring chance, when he was hauled down by Hurricanes defenceman Jake Bean. McDavid had a step on Bean, and the crowd was hoping for a penalty shot only to see Bean given a minor infraction for hooking.

    McDavid exploded offensively playing on a line with grinder Patrick Maroon on left wing and highly touted rookie prospect Kailer Yamamoto on right wing. Yamamoto, who turns 19 on Friday, starred the past three seasons with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs and was selected in the first round and 22^nd overall by the Oilers in the NHL Entry Draft held last June.

    On Wednesday night, Yamamoto picked up one assist, but he seemed content just to pass the puck to McDavid and watch McDavid go. McDavid was happy he gave the fans reasons to cheer.

    “It always nice to see the love for the Oilers,” said McDavid, who had 30 goals and 70 assists in leading the NHL in scoring last season. “Anywhere we go in Canada, the fans are so passionate wherever across Canada.

    “It is special to see the Oiler fans here tonight.”

    Laurent Brossoit made 30 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Oilers. Ward turned away 18 shots taking the setback in net for the Hurricanes (4-2).

    Defenceman Eric Gryba, who is from Saskatoon, came to the Oilers from the Ottawa Senators in an off-season trade in 2015, and he has seen McDavid play since his NHL arrival. Gryba is always impressed with how well McDavid is received no matter where the Oilers go.

    “It is never surprising at all,” said Gryba. “There is a reason he gets that kind of reception, and it is obviously well deserving.”

Tweet of the night

And Oilers' GM Peter Chiarelli. (@StanksSports) pic.twitter.com/ADYmetXLBK

— Darren Dupont (@darrendupont) September 28, 2017

    The local media had some fun at the NHL pre-season game on Wednesday night with Darren Dupont posting tweets of possible doppelgangers.

    Dupont posted a picture of CTV’s Pat McKay and said everyone rubbing shoulders Oilers centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who was scratched that night. Dupont proceeded to snap a picture of me and tweet out they were also rubbing shoulders with Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli.

    I had a good laugh, when I saw the pictures during the second intermission. It is always good to have fun at the rink, and the rink should always be a great place to be.

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