Raiders take big step playing full campaign in 2021-22

The Raiders get pumped up before their playoff game last Wednesday.

The Prince Albert Raiders’ biggest victory in the 2021-22 campaign might have been the fact everything felt normal by season’s end.

When the Raiders began the 2021-22 campaign, they were still traveling down an unknown highway that had some images of familiarity. After playing through a four-game pre-season schedule in September of 2021, the Raiders hosted the Regina Pats on October 1, 2021 at the Art Hauser Centre in the regular opener for both sides.

For the Raiders, they would be hosting their first regular season game since March 6, 2020, when they dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic would proceed to get its grips on North America to go along with the rest of the world. The 2019-20 WHL campaign was officially brought to an end on March 12, 2020.

No WHL playoffs were held in 2020 or 2021, and the Memorial Cup tournament to crown a CHL champion was nixed in both of those years too.

Reece Vitelli led the Raiders with 51 points.

Teams in the WHL had an abbreviated 2020-21 campaign. The Raiders took part in 24 regular season games in 2020-21 playing in a bubble environment in Regina against the league’s other four teams located in Saskatchewan and two clubs from Manitoba.

When the Raiders stepped on the ice to play the Pats on October 1, 2021, no one was certain the 2021-22 campaign would be played to a conclusion. The Raiders raised a banner for finishing first in the WHL’s East Division before falling 3-1 to the Pats in that contest played before 2,578 spectators at the Raiders storied 2,580-seat home rink.

As far as first impressions went, fans in “Hockey Town North” had to note this wasn’t the same Raiders team they last saw in person hit the ice in 2019-20 that topped the East Division with a 36-18-6-4 record. This was definitely not the same Raiders that finished first in the WHL’s regular season standings in 2018-19 with a dominant 54-10-2-2 record and went on to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup as league champions in the post-season.

It was obvious the Raiders roster was in a transition type reload state. With that said, fans were just happy to have the chance to watch Raiders hockey at the Art Hauser Centre that night during the loss to the Pats.

There were no guarantees the Raiders would get in all their regular season games.

Ozzy Wiesblatt was a holdover from the 2018-19 WHL title winner.

Since March 12, 2020, it has been hard to almost impossible in some cases to grade how any team in the WHL has performed due to all the twists and turns and adjustments that had to be made due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For a two-week period at the start of this past January, positive COVID-19 tests caused major disruptions causing rescheduling that saw games go on for two weeks after the original April 3 end date of the regular season. The Winnipeg Ice and Brandon Wheat Kings also postponed a number of home games originally schedule in January and the first half of February due to capacity restrictions that were brought into Manitoba to combat COVID-19.

Still, the Raiders and the WHL were able to navigate all those hurdles to date. The Raiders played a completed 68 game regular season posting a 28-35-4-1 regular season record to finish eighth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and capture the conference’s final playoff berth.

Prince Albert proceeded to fall 4-1 in a best-of-seven first round series to the Winnipeg Ice, who finished first overall in the WHL regular season standings with a 53-10-3-2 mark and were rated second in the final CHL Top 10 rankings. The Raiders campaign ended with an 8-2 loss to the Ice in Game 5 of their series on Friday in Winnipeg.

Nolan Allan anchored the Raiders back end.

Credit goes to general manager Curtis Hunt and head coach Marc Habscheid and his coaching staff for their efforts ensured the Raiders remained a team that could make the post-season. In the process, Habscheid moved into fifth place on the WHL’s career head coaching regular season wins list current sitting with 582 victories.

Credit goes to business manager Michael Scissons and the office staff for fact the Raiders averaged 2,334 spectators over their 34 home regular season games and 2,605 spectators for the team’s two home playoff dates.

During the ups and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Raiders office staffers took on unforeseen roles at various times to ensure there was a product on the ice and game days did happen.

At lot of good things happened on the ice for the team as well. The Raiders closed the regular season winning two straight must win games in order to qualify for the WHL Playoffs.

After star defenceman Kaiden Guhle was traded to the Edmonton Oil Kings on December 1, 2021, Nolan Allan, who was selected in the first round and 32^nd overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, assumed the role as the main force in the back end for the Raiders.

Landon Kosior, who is a 19-year-old veteran, broke out as an offensive defenceman collecting 45 points on 18 goals and 27 assists appearing in all the Raiders 68 regular season games.

Tikhon Chaika emerged as a legit solid starter.

Overage centre Reece Vitelli, who became the Raiders captain after Guhle was traded, had his most memorable season in the WHL. Vitelli topped the Raiders in scoring with 51 points coming off 25 goals and 26 assists, and all those statistical totals were career highs.

Overage defenceman Remy Aquilon provided a steady presence on the back end and posted career highs in goals (three), assists (24) and points (27).

Left-winger Evan Herman, who was playing through his 19-year-old campaign, showed he had a nose for the net leading the Raiders with 28 goals to go along with 19 assists appearing in all the Raiders 68 regular season games.

Rookie 18-year-old import netminder Tikhon Chaika, who is from Minsk, Belarus, emerged as a solid legit WHL starter. In 51 regular season appearances, Chaika posted a 22-21-4 record, a 2.79 goals against average, a .904 save percentage and three shutouts.

The Raiders do have a number of younger players that have the potential to take big steps in the future.

Do they have the roster that can win a WHL Championship or a Memorial Cup at the moment?

That answer to that is “no” for now. At the moment, those titles were still last awarded in 2019, and since March 12, 2020, no one could realistically determine when they would be awarded again.

The Raiders salute their fans at the Art Hauser Centre.

The immediate goal was to get on the ice and plan a complete campaign like the Raiders did.

Assuming world events don’t throw in any more curveballs, the steps to building a team capable of capturing the WHL and CHL titles can now start in a more honest fashion.

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.

Raiders thrive in do or die, clinch WHL playoff berth

The Raiders celebrate a second goal from Keaton Sorensen (#20).

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Prince Albert Raiders centre Keaton Sorensen credited team business manager Michael Scissons for making sure the playoff party was on.

On Saturday night, the Raiders had just dumped the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings 5-1 to the delight of the standing room crowd of 2,935 spectators at the 2,580 Art Hauser Centre to close the regular season schedules for both clubs. The Raiders had done their part to take care of business to earn a WHL playoff berth.

With the Raiders victory finalized, they just needed the Winnipeg Ice to defeat the Pats at the Brandt Centre in Regina to clinch a post-season berth. The Ice were actually tabbed as the home team in Saturday’s regular season tilt with the Pats.

The Raiders celebrate their playoff berth clinching win.

That contest in Regina was originally scheduled to be played one day earlier in Winnipeg, but it was moved to the Pats home rink due to challenges with extreme weather conditions in the Winnipeg area.

Following the Raiders win on Saturday, captain Reece Vitelli was being presented with the team award for leading the Prince Albert squad in regular season scoring. Vitelli piled up 51 points on 25 goals and 26 assists in 65 appearances with the club.

Reece Vitelli, right, receives the Raiders top scorer trophy.

On the Raiders bench, Scissons was monitoring video of the end of the game between the Ice and the Raiders on his mobile phone. The Raiders saw Winnipeg star centre Matthew Savoie score into an empty net with less than 40 second to play to cement a 6-4 final in favour of the Ice and that meant for “Hockey Town North” the party was on.

“(Raiders business manager Michael) Scissons there had the game open on his phone,” said Sorensen, who had two goals and was a plus-three in the plus-minus department in the Raiders win. “I think we saw Winnipeg score the empty netter there to make it 6-4.

“The boys were all fired up on the bench.”

Evan Herman scored twice for the Raiders on Saturday.

The Raiders whooped it up as they headed to their dressing room. Having bested the Broncos in Swift Current 4-1 on Friday night, the Raiders had won basically two straight do or die games to improve to 28-35-4-1 to lock up eighth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and clinch the conference’s final playoff berth.

“It is awesome,” said Sorensen. “It is what we work for all year - all the hard work.

“It has all paid off to get there, and now we have to carry it on to the playoffs.”

The last time a WHL playoffs were held the Raiders took the title back in 2019. The WHL post-seasons in 2020 and 2021 were nixed due to challenges associated with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world.

Sloan Stanick had two assist for the Raiders on Saturday.

Star right-winger Ozzy Wiesblatt is the only member on the Raiders current roster who played as a main roster player on the 2019 WHL title winning team, and he is out for the rest of the campaign due to an upper body injury. All the players current suiting up for the Raiders in games didn’t play for the club in the 2018-19 campaign outside of left-winger Evan Herman, who skated in three regular season contests, and standout defenceman Nolan Allan, who played in seven regular season games.

“We’re a team that everyone has to pitch in,” said Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid, who has the fifth most regular season coaching wins in WHL history. “We had some different games and different guys stepping up.

The Art Hauser Centre faithful cheer a Raiders goal.

“We just found a way. That is what we have been doing all year. Beginning of the year was tough.

“We’re in a point of transition and weren’t very good for a while. Playoffs seemed like a distant dream I guess for us, but Raider pride. No matter what, we expect to win, and we found a way in.”

Saturday’s game with the Wheat Kings got off to a tight checking start where the Raiders held a slim 2-1 edge in shots on goal after the first 10 minutes of the contest.

Shortly after the middle part of the frame, Raiders right-winger Carson Latimer blew down the right, slipped past a defenceman and tried to go five-hole on Wheat Kings rookie netminder Carson Bjarnason. Bjarnason swallowed up the shot to deny the scoring chance.

Landon Kosior controls the puck in the offensive zone for the Raiders.

At the 11:31 mark of the opening frame, the Raiders broke through on the scoreboard. Raiders Right-winger Sloan Stanick broke down the right wing on a rush and passed the puck across the face of the Brandon goal to Herman, who popped home his 27^th goal of the season to give the hosts a 1-0.

Herman said the opening tally got the Raiders in a confident groove but added the fans kept the excitement level high for the players.

“I think in front of these fans there is no settling down,” said Herman. “They are the sixth and seventh player on the ice.

Tikhon Chaika made 19 saves for the Raiders on Saturday.

“We got that first one, and I think it was just a little bit of a breather for us to settle down and get our feet under us to play the way we have to play to get the win.”

The open frame did have its physical moments too including Wheat Kings left-winger Brett Hylund crunching Latimer into the boards behind the Brandon goal late in the period.

At the 7:42 mark of the second, the Raiders pushed their lead out to 2-0 on a great individual effort by Herman. The product of The Pas, Man., blew down the left wing getting behind all five Brandon skaters.

Herman cut across the front of the Wheat Kings goal and tucked home his second tally of the night. After the puck went in, Herman contacted Bjarnason and the netminder’s head hit the post of the goal.

Keaton Sorensen scored twice for the Raiders on Saturday.

The speedy forward received a minor for goaltender interference on the play. Herman’s goal went to a video review, and it was upheld as good.

Bjarnason was helped off the ice by the Brandon training staff and didn’t return to the game. He turned away 12-of-14 shots to take the setback in the Wheat Kings net. Star overage goaltender Ethan Kruger played the rest of the way for the Wheat Kings turning away 17-of-20 shots set his way.

Herman wanted to avoid contacting Bjarnason when he scored his second goal.

Carson Latimer scored in the third period for the Raiders.

“I was just trying to use my speed to get the puck to the net,” said Herman, who posted 28 goals and 18 assists appearing all of the Raiders 68 games. “That was unfortunate whatever happened, happened.”

Habscheid said Herman’s play has been important in helping the Raiders make the playoffs.

“He has been good,” said Habscheid. “He really has been.

Evan Herman celebrates scoring his second goal for the Raiders.

“He was around for the (2019 WHL Championship) year. He didn’t play, but he was around. He saw what was going on in the building and the culture inside the room.

“He is a key guy, because he knows what it is all about. He didn’t play, but he knew what it was all about and dragged the guys into the fight.”

Just 88 seconds after the Raiders went up 2-0, they were checking hard on the penalty kill, and one of the Wheat Kings fanned on a point shot and the puck slid to the blue-line. Sorensen jumped on the loose puck and sped down the right wing on a two-on-one short-handed break.

Chad Nychuk controls the puck in the D-zone for the Wheat Kings.

Sorensen reached the right faceoff circle in the Brandon zone and snapped home his first goal of the contest stick side on Kruger to put the Raiders up 3-0 on the short-handed tally.

“Everybody on the penalty kill there was being aggressive,” said Sorensen. “Everybody was doing their job.

“I guess the puck kind of squirted out. I pounced on it or something. I guess I got a two-on-one there, and I didn’t really see the pass across.

“I just gave it a shot, and it went in.”

The Wheat Kings stopped the bleeding for a bit just over two minutes later. Wheat Kings left-winger Brett Hyland collected a rebound at the left side of the Prince Albert net from a shot taken by linemate Jake Chiasson and fired home his 13^th marker of the season to cut the Raiders lead to 3-1.

Vladislav Shilo had a pair of assists for the Raiders.

The Raiders proceeded to put the pedal to the medal and sealed victory in the third. The host side went up 4-1 at the 4:14 mark of the third, when import rookie left-winger Vladislav Shilo passed a puck from the right boards across the face the Brandon goal and the pass was tipped home by Latimer.

Sorensen rounded out the game’s scoring potting home a loose puck in the crease of the Brandon goal for his second tally of the night to increase the Raiders advantage to 5-1 with 4:05 remaining in the frame.

The final 10 minutes of the third period got fairly feisty and chippy, but the extracurricular action didn’t change the outcome of the game.

Import rookie netminder Tikhon Chaika made 19 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. Stanick and Shilo each had two assists for the Raiders.

Dallyn Peekeekoot played a high energy game for the Raiders.

The Wheat Kings, who finish sixth in the Eastern Conference with a 35-28-3-2 mark, now face the Red Deer Rebels, who placed third in the Eastern Conference with a 45-19-2-2 record, in a best-of-seven first round WHL playoff series. Game 1 is set for this coming Friday at 1 p.m. at the Peavey Mart Centrium in Red Deer.

The Raiders will the Ice in a best-of-seven first round WHL playoff series. The Ice topped the WHL with a 53-10-3-2 record, so the Prince Albert side will be sizable underdogs in that series.

Game 1 is set for this coming Friday at 7 p.m. local time at the Wayne Fleming Arena in Winnipeg.

“That is what we’ve been striving for all year,” said Herman about making the WHL playoffs. “Now that it is finally here, I think the energy in the room right now is pretty cool.

The Raiders salute their faithful at the Art Hauser Centre.

“We work so hard all year just to get to this point. Now we’re gearing up and looking forward to getting going and making a good run here.”

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.

Demise of traditional Raiders logo tough for P.A. faithful

A hat with the Prince Albert Raiders traditional logo on it.

It was a day the faithful of the Prince Albert Raiders franchise hoped would never come, but its arrival maybe did seem inevitable.

About a week ago on Friday, October 1, the Raiders unveiled new regular home and away jerseys along with a new alternate uniform. The alternate was styled after the regular jerseys the Raiders wore from 1982 to 1996 that included the team’s traditional Arab on skates logo.

One day later at 9:29 p.m. Saskatchewan time, the WHL issued a statement saying the league and the Raiders had agreed to discontinue the jersey and the brand immediately.

“On Friday night the Prince Albert Raiders unveiled an alternate third jersey, which was inspired by a highly successful era in club history,” said WHL commissioner Ron Robson in the statement. “We recognized the dated design is insensitive and offensive.

“After consultation with the Prince Albert Raiders, this uniform and brand will be discontinued effective immediately. On behalf of the WHL and the Prince Albert Raiders, we regret this uniform design was approved and sincerely apologize for any harm it may have caused.”

The release said there would be no further comment from the WHL or the Raiders.

All items that contained the traditional Raiders logo were removed from the team’s online store this past Monday.

It is safe to say in Prince Albert that statement was met with dismay. In Prince Albert, that Raiders logo was revered and loved. Originally designed during the 1973-74 campaign when the Raiders were still playing in the junior A ranks in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, the sight of that logo flooded back memories of some of the franchise’s greatest days to the people in Prince Albert.

A Raiders pennant from the 1980s.

While the logo wasn’t on team’s jerseys at first, it was in use by the squad for four Centennial Cup championships for junior A national supremacy in 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1982. During those junior A years, the front of the Raiders jersey had the team named spelled out on it often accompanied by the number the player wore.

The traditional Raiders logo became the front crest on the team’s jersey, when the Raiders moved up to the major junior ranks and began playing in the WHL in 1982-83.

The Raiders won the Memorial Cup as CHL champions in 1985 wearing that jersey, and the team usually sat in the top five in the overall WHL standings wearing that jersey.

That jersey was worn by Mike Modano and Dave Manson, who are the club’s two more famous NHL grads. The Raiders have retired both of their numbers.

Various team stars like Dan Hodgson, Dave Pasin, Emanuel Viveiros, Pat Elynuik, Dean McAmmond, Jeff Nelson and Chris Phillips all wore that jersey.

That logo and jersey were used pretty much for the whole duration when Terry Simpson was with the Raiders as head coach or held the dual role of head coach and general manager from 1972 to 1986 and in 1989-90. Simpson will forever be a legend in P.A.

The Raiders wore that logo developing their image as being both a skilled and tough team. They could play the run and gun style, get down in the trenches or take part in a flat out brawl, if the opponent wanted things to go that way.

The back of a Raiders jacket circa late 1980s early 1990s.

They developed the romantic image of being the franchise “where honour still matters.”

At the other end of the spectrum, there are circles outside of Prince Albert that greet the Arab on skates logo with dismay. In those circles, the Raiders traditional logo was seen to be depicting a violent Muslim man or that all people from the Middle East are violent terrorists.

When the WHL posted a link to the statement nixing the traditional Raiders logo on Twitter, there were lots of people who piled on voicing displeasure or being offended by the logo.

For people in Prince Albert, it felt like those who voiced their displeasure were from outside the northern Saskatchewan centre, which caused the nixing of the logo to be that much tougher to take.

On Oct. 2, it seemed the displeasure with the traditional Raiders logo first popped up on a blog-type site called the Queens Citizen. The WHL issued its statement discontinuing the Raiders alternate jersey and traditional logo brand about six hours later.

It is common that voiced opposition to something does get rolling from a blog-type site, where questions start to quickly come from mainstream media outlets and sponsors.

While this may sound strange to people in Prince Albert, a lot of people outside of Prince Albert have never seen the Raiders traditional logo and don’t associate that logo with the team, because it has been 25 years since the hockey club used the Arab on skates logo as its main emblem. That factor also helps fuel outrage with regards to the Raiders traditional logo.

It is likely this is what happened with regards to the Raiders alternate jersey and their traditional logo brand, and the WHL and the Raiders took a temperature read. From that temperature read, a decision was made to get ahead of the story, which saw the WHL issue the release that it did.

The Raiders 1985 Memorial Cup championship team.

Looking back over the last seven days, the move worked. Outside of the initial outrage on social media, the story over what was the cancellation of the Raiders alternate jersey and traditional logo quickly went away.

During these social media times, it does feel like people in general have shorter attention spans, and the social media outrage mob quickly moves on to the next thing to get outraged over.

The Raiders faithful and the people in Prince Albert were left to digest what happened and work through how they felt about what happened once the mob moved on.

With that noted, the Raiders did get into hot water over their traditional logo before. In late 2014, the Raiders unveiled a new mascot named “Boston Raider” which was patterned heavily after the old logo.

Due to a national uproar, the mascot was mothballed shortly after being unveiled.

That had to foreshadow that the day may indeed come where the Raiders traditional logo would be nixed for good.

Back in 2014, CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes arrived in Prince Albert when the “Boston Raider” mascot episode occurred. It is safe to say the CBC comedy show wasn’t going to put Prince Albert in a very good light.

Due to the fact the WHL and Raiders got ahead of the story, no TV programs like This Hour Has 22 Minutes ventured to Prince Albert to make the city look bad, and uproar had to be judged to be a lot less than it was in 2014.

Brayden Pachal wears a throwback Raiders uniform on Feb. 15, 2019.

It was smart for the WHL and the Raiders to not say anything further, because it was impossible to win no matter what you said. All that could be accomplished was an unsatisfying tie or going out and digging a deeper hole.

In the years since 2014, the Raiders quietly brought back the traditional logo on merchandise in the team’s gift store inside the club’s home rink, the Art Hauser Centre. Those items were always big sellers, because of the good memories it brought back for locals in Prince Albert.

The staff in the Raiders business office saw the logo made locals happy, so they kept bringing it back. The Raiders even wore jerseys that mirrored those worn from 1982 to 1996 for two games in their 2018-19 WHL Championship season.

Despite the fallout over the traditional logo, the Raiders have one of the best business offices in the league with Michael Scissons as business manager and Cliff Mapes as executive director of business operations leading the way.

The Raiders have one of the best hockey operations staffs in the WHL led by Curtis Hunt as general manager and Marc Habscheid as head coach.

Over the longer stretch of time, the Raiders have the people in place to keep the franchise in a good spot.

The fact that the traditional logo has gotten nixed doesn’t negate all the great things the Raiders franchise has done. 

The Raiders wear throwback uniforms on Feb. 15, 2019.

As time moves on, this episode might be a blessing in disguise helping the Raiders franchise move forward.

When it comes to the core of everything, the Prince Albert Raiders are still the franchise “where honour still matters,” and the faithful that follow the team are still good people. Those are things that are always good to remember.

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.

New Gainer – marketing genius or marketing bomb?

Gainer looks like he had a hell of a rough long weekend and then had to report to work on Monday. #newgainer #notafan pic.twitter.com/RwhmNqDSp9

— Michael Scissons (@mrscizz) July 2, 2019

    It is the biggest gopher controversy since the Calgary Stampeders “Gainer ban” in 2006.

    Back in 2006, the Stampeders hosted the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a CFL west semifinal playoff game on Nov. 5 of that year. Early in the week leading up to that contest, the Stampeders said the Rider Cheer Team was allowed to come, but Gainer, who was the Roughriders lovable mascot, was banned.

Classic Gainer at the 2018 Labour Day Classic.

    The Stampeders thought Gainer would do too good of a job of exciting Rider Nation causing the Calgary side to lose their home field advantage.

    About a couple of days later, the Stampeders recanted saying Gainer wasn’t banned from the facility, but he could not be on field level. Gainer could come to the game, but he had to sit in the stands.

    Politicians even got into the fray with then Alberta Premier Ralph Klein issuing a press release stating he supported the Stampeders “Gainer ban,” noting he appreciated the team’s efforts to keep Alberta free of “imported pests.”

    A number of Roughriders fans attended that game wearing buttons or messages on their clothes that said, “Free Gainer.”

    The odd person came to the facility dressed as the gopher mascot.

    The Roughriders ultimately won that contest 30-21.

    In the current day, that gopher controversy looks small compared to the one in the present day.

    On Monday during a 32-7 regular season home opening victory over the Toronto Argonauts at Mosaic Stadium, the Roughriders unveiled a new trimmed down Gainer to the shock of those in attendance and those seeing pictures on social media platforms.

    It was more surprising considering classic Gainer appeared at a wedding reception two nights earlier on June 29 at Mosaic Stadium.

Classic Gainer makes a last ride at Taylor Field in 2016.

    The new Gainer had a much different head too displaying a huge smile and bright white, green and black coloured eyes. The green colour in the eyes was the most jarring site, and classic Gainer’s eyes had always been all black.

    The new mascot sparked about 80 per cent outrage, while about 20 per cent said they either liked the new mascot or it was growing on the. The percentage of people that like the new Gainer seems to be going upwards at a snail’s pace.

    Complaints range from the new mascot looking either crazed or drugged out.

    It appears the Roughriders are going to stick with the new Gainer. You had to expect there would have been a contingency in place for a backlash.

    While this may sound crazy, the change in Gainer might ultimately be a move of “marketing genius” by the ’Riders. Yep, you just read that correctly, “marketing genius.”

After some deep soul searching and weighing the pros and cons - I have decided to be PRO-GAINER AF.

We all evolve.

Gainer lost MAD weight & went #MichaelJackson on his face.

If it makes him happy - I am happy.

His 💚 remains epic as ever.

I support the #IntenseAFGainer pic.twitter.com/gYbq3IM7If

— ●■fakeGAINER ●■●■●■●■ (@fakeGAINER) July 3, 2019

    Gainer is the most iconic mascot in the CFL, and arguably the most famous sports mascot in Canada. He ranks up there in fame department with Youppi!, who started as the mascot of the MLB’s Montreal Expos and is now the mascot of the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens, and Calgary Flames mascot Harvey the Hound.
    The Roughriders were looking to tweak their game day experience.

Classic Gainer gives kids “fives” at Taylor Field in 2016.

    The biggest way to shake things up on that front was to change the look of Gainer, because that was still thought of as being unconceivable, despite the fact we seemingly live in a world where all manner of crazy things can happen.

    There is a phrase in marketing that there is no such thing has bad press. In an era where attention cycles seemingly last less than 30 seconds at a time, new Gainer has been in the news cycle for days.

    Actually, a large number of social media posts related to new Gainer could make up comedy hour, if you read them all. They will keep you laughing for hours on end.

    Michael Scissons, who is the business manager of the WHL champion Prince Albert Raiders, started things off on Monday night with a beauty tweet that said Gainer looked like he had a rough weekend.

    Scissons said in a story in paNOW.com he believes people will get used to the new Gainer in time.

    New Gainer has drawn the approval of the two most famous Gainer parody accounts on Twitter in “Fake Gainer” and “Bitter Gainer.”

Luc is my spirit animal. https://t.co/xI8wkzFFye

— Bitter Gainer (@BitterGainer) July 4, 2019

    Some people might check out Saturday’s home game at 8 p.m. against the Calgary Stampeders to see what all the fuss is about.

    Still, this move could prove to be a “marketing bomb” by the Roughriders.

    Out of all the things in the game day experience, Gainer was the one thing that didn’t need to be changed. That increases risk in the public relations gamble when you actually do change Gainer.

Classic Gainer was always popular with the ladies.

    Seeing the lovable and plump classic Gainer was something you always expected to see from the Roughriders brand.

    For myself, I prefer classic Gainer, but changing the mascot won’t affect my decision to attend Roughriders games at home or on the road.

    Fans need those familiar points that link them with the experience of cheering for a team, which never seem to change.

    It is like going to a hockey game and hearing “The Hockey Song” by Stompin’ Tom Connors or “Clap Your Hands” by the Beau Marks. It is like seeing the “White Out” during a Winnipeg Jets NHL playoff game.

    While many on social media noted their kids liked the lovable classic Gainer, it feels like the female fan base loved the classic Gainer more than the new Gainer. That includes the 18-year-old millennials who recently graduated high school to seniors who are young at heart.

    They seem to have the urge to hug classic Gainer.

    Time will tell if new Gainer grows on Rider Nation.

Classic Gainer doing his thing at Mosaic Stadium in 2017.

    With the passage of time, it will become clearer if this was an act of “marketing genius” or a “marketing bomb.”

    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.