Does a reality check wait as pro sports ramps up in N.A.?

A Sidney Crosby card.

    Business is hitting a higher gear for pro sports in North America as we are only days away from seeing Sidney Crosby and the NHL crew play actual games.

    Actually, we are just three days away from that moment. On Tuesday, Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins face their archrivals the Philadelphia Flyers in an exhibition tilt in Toronto, which is the NHL’s hub city for all Eastern Conference action.

    Following that contest, the Toronto Maple Leafs will battle the Montreal Canadiens in Toronto.

    Out in Edmonton on Tuesday which will be the hub city for Western Conference teams, the Edmonton Oilers take on their archrivals the Calgary Flames.

    The post-season official begins on Aug. 1 with five contests that will open the play-in round, which contains eight series that are best-of-five in length.

    The NHL was last in action with five regular season games on March 11. On March 12, the league suspended play due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

    Now about four-and-a-half months later, the 2019-20 NHL campaign is set to resume with games played in arenas without fans in Toronto and Edmonton. The players and team staffs are being kept in nice hotels away from the general public in a bubble type situations.

    The NHL isn’t the only circuit that has gotten going. Major League Baseball held its opening day on Thursday with a pair of games. The New York Yankees downed the Nationals in Washington 4-1 in a game that was shortened to six innings due to weather and the host Los Angeles Dodgers thumped the San Francisco Giants 8-1.

A Carey Price card.

    In Canada on Friday, there was some excited online chatter as the Toronto Blue Jays slipped past the Rays in Tampa Bay 6-4 in the opening regular season game for both those clubs.
    The Blue Jays will be playing the majority of their home games at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, N.Y., after they were unable to get approval from the Government of Canada to get around COVID-19 restrictions to host games in Toronto.

    The WNBA regular season tipped off Saturday with six games at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. That circuit is set to play its entire campaign at that facility.

    The Canadian Elite Basketball League started its month long Summer Series tournament with a pair of games at the Meridian Centre in St. Catherines, Ont., marking the first professional sports action in Canada since March 11. The entire CEBL tournament will take place at the Meridian Centre.
    On July 30, the NBA resumes its regular season with a pair of games at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida.

    NFL players are slated to report to training camps on Tuesday.

A Bo Horvat card.

    The NASCAR Cup Series season and UFC cards have been going full speed ahead since May.

    Those in the amateur sports world in Canada and United States will have their figures crossed looking to see how life unfolds in North America’s pro sports world.

    If these pro sports circuits can finish their seasons with as few hiccups as possible, it increases the optimism the amateur sports world can get going more in full swing.

    In Saskatchewan, sports like golf, baseball and softball are taking part in meaningful competitions on the amateur side.

    If action in the North American pro sports circuits gets derailed by a surge of positive COVID-19 tests, that scenario could cause action that is already going on the amateur sports world to get rolled back. A surge in positive tests is possible as the amount of new COVID-19 cases in the United States seems to increase by an average of 60,000 a day at the moment.

    In Germany, the pro soccer Bundesliga restarted on May 16, and Bayern Munich won an eighth straight league crown. The Bundesliga officially wrapped up on July 6, when Werder Bremen played Heidenheim to a 2-2 draw in a relegation game and avoided being knocked out of Germany’s top professional tier.

    The Bundesliga proved what could be done if focus is maintained regarding virus testing and medical protocols.

    Even with the success the Bundesliga had and the momentum the pro sports circuits in North America have, there is still uneasiness on the amateur side of sports in North America.

A Brendan Gallagher card.

    This past Monday, the Southwestern Athletic Conference postponed all fall sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic including football, and it is an NCAA Division I conference. The SWAC still aims to get football going with a seven-game conference schedule for football starting with an eight-week training period in January 2021.
    The QMJHL has started to adjust its plans for the 2020-21 campaign. That circuit will shorten its regular season from 68 to 60 regular season games with the regular season slated to start Oct. 1. The league’s 18 teams will be split into three divisions of six clubs each and squads will only play in-division games.

    At the moment, fans of professional sports in North America have to be pumped action has already started to happen or will happen. In Canada, there will be lots of excitement for the NHL as the Oilers, Flames, Leafs, Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg Jets will all be part of the play-in round.

    Still, could there be a COVID-19 reality check waiting around the corner that could bring everything to a halt?

    That is the big fear as things play out.

Winterton will always be linked to Raiders, other notes

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The Raiders are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of former Team President and Wall of Honour inductee Doug Winterton. The organization offers its condolences to Doug's family and friends.

A post shared by Prince Albert Raiders (@paraidershockey) on Jul 22, 2020 at 1:41pm PDT

    It is hard to imagine going to a Raiders hockey game in Prince Albert without Doug Winterton in attendance.

    Whenever the Raiders do resume playing home games with fans at the Art Hauser Centre in a world that is caught in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic, Winterton won’t be sitting his is seat located in the first row of the west end of the facility a couple of sections north of goal on that side of the building.

    He sat in that spot of the Art Hauser Centre next to his wife, Joan, for as long as anyone can remember.

    This past Monday, Doug Winterton passed away of natural causes at age 91. He was born on December 23, 1928 and moved to Winnipeg at age 21, where he met Joan.

    They lived in Manitoba and Alberta before settling in Prince Albert in 1972.

    Upon arriving in Prince Albert, Winterton became involved with the Raiders, who were still playing in the Junior A ranks in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League at that time, and the Cooke Municipal Golf Club.

    Winterton served as the Raiders secretary for seven years and was the club’s president from 1978 to 1980. He was a charter member of the Raiders booster club, and he and Joan were billets for a lengthy stretch during the club’s time in the SJHL.

    Doug Winterton’s involvement and support of the Raiders continued when the club moved to the major junior hockey ranks joining the WHL in 1982.

    This past season, Winterton could still be found volunteering his time to help out in the media and scouts lounge even after he celebrated his 91^st birthday. He was inducted to the Raiders Wall of Honour on September 27, 2013.

    Winterton could tell you stories about the Raiders recalling the team’s entire history for hours and hours. While he had fond memories of the Raiders past, he was really proud of the players coaches and staff of the organization in recent years.

Doug Winterton enjoyed watching the Raiders win the WHL title in 2019.

    When Brayden Pachal, Sean Montgomery, Parker Kelly, Cole Fonstad, Spencer Moe, Zack Hayes, Max Martin and netminder Ian Scott first began playing together in 2016-17 going through growing pains as youngsters posting a 21-44-5-2 regular season record, Winterton saw something special.

    During that 2016-17 season, he would tell anyone that came into the Raiders media and scouts lounge about how much he enjoyed watching how hard that group worked and how much that group was improving as the campaign went on. Winterton said he believed that group of players could do something special.

    On May 13, 2019, Winterton was in his seat to see that core group of eight players help the Raiders as veteran team members win the WHL title. The Raiders claimed Game 7 of the WHL Championship series with an epic 3-2 overtime win over the Vancouver Giants with Dante Hannoun scoring for the Prince Albert side in the extra session.

    Doug and Joan were on their feet cheering and stayed to witness the on-ice post-game celebrations with the Ed Chynoweth Cup for a lengthy amount of time.

    Doug Winterton will be remembered as one of the Raiders most passionate supporters. In spirit, you get a sense he will still be a fixture at their games.

• On Thursday, the Prince Albert Raiders announced they have signed CHL Import Draft selection Uladzislau Shyla to a WHL Standard Player Agreement. Shyla, who is from Minsk, Belarus, was selected by the Raiders in the first round and 45^th overall in the CHL Import Draft held on June 30. The 17-year-old, who stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 147 pounds, had 10 goals and nine assists in 55 games for Belarus’s under-18 team this past season.
• Veteran Regina Leader-Post sports columnist Rob Vanstone was featured in a CTV story in his quest to lose weight and improve his health. CTV’s sports reporter Claire Hanna produced an uplifting piece and that story can be found by clicking right here.
• On Thursday, 15-year-old Brooklin Fry won the Saskatchewan women’s amateur golf championship at The Legends Golf Course in Warman. The Shell Lake product posted a 7-over-par 223 to take the title. Fry, who is set to enter her rookie season with the Prince Albert Northern Bears female under-18 hockey team, had won the Saskatchewan junior girls’ golf title on July 16 in Swift Current. The Saskatchewan men’s mid-amateur golf championship also wrapped up at The Legends Golf Course on Thursday with Danny Klughart of Prince Albert taking that title for a second straight year. On Friday, Saskatoon product Ty Campbell captured the Saskatchewan men’s amateur golf championship at The Legends Golf Course.
• On Friday, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, who is from Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Que., announced he was opting out of the NFL season due to the COVID-19 pandemic via Twitter. The 29-year-old is the starting right guard for the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. He has played for the Chiefs since 2014. Duvernay-Tardif graduated from McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine in May 2018 with a doctor of Medicine and a master of surgery. He began working at a long-term care facility in April in Montreal and remained in that role through June. Duvernay-Tardif has decided to continue to work in the health care system and is waiting for another role. Before joining the Chiefs, Duvernay-Tardif played in the U Sports football ranks for the McGill University Redmen.
• Gregg Drinnan continues to do an ace job rounding up how the COVID-19 pandemic has hammered the sports world in his Taking Note blog. His latest offering 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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Will some sports be left out in 2020-21 due to COVID-19?

A campus rec game at Merlis Belsher Place on March 14.

    As the shutdown measures due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic enter a 12^th week, even the greatest optimist in the sports world has a tough thought cross the mind.

    Will there be a winter sports season in 2020-21 let alone a sports season in the summer of 2020?

Of course, UFC and NASCAR have returned to action in North American. UFC runs in a continuous fashion, while NASCAR resumed its 2020 campaign in May with a very hectic schedule.

    Still most sports leagues and organizations in North America have remained shuttered since a mass wave of shutdowns occurred on March 11 and 12.

    For myself, I last attended a live sports event on March 12, when the Saskatoon Contacts fell 5-3 to the Moose Jaw Warriors in Game 3 of a best-of-five Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League series at Merlis Belsher Place. The Warriors swept the series 3-0, but with Hockey Canada cancelling all its sanctioned activities starting on March 13, the Moose Jaw side would not play any further games.

    That was the last competitive hockey game held at Merlis and will likely be the last such contest held there for some time. After hosting University of Saskatchewan campus recreation games on March 14 and 15, Merlis was closed up.

    It now sits as a COVID-19 field hospital in waiting with 250 beds, and that facility is expected to stay that for the foreseeable future likely up to a year.

The Warriors and Contacts go at it in Merlis on March 12.

    It is now June 1, and this will mark the 81^st day without a competitive sporting event being held in Canada. While professional leagues like the NHL and NBA are deep into plans about returning to action and local baseball and softball organizations in Saskatchewan are hoping to hold games in July, no dates for any games have been set.
    On Friday, MLB teams released over 200 minor league players due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    As the days without sports keep accumulating, one wonders how long this could possibly go on?

    First, I wonder how deep the fear factor regarding COVID-19 pandemic goes and that will affect the return of sports?

    HIV/AIDS has been considered a pandemic for decades, but orders haven’t gone out making it illegal for humans to have sex.

    I admit I am not a scientist, but my mind keeps drifting to two theories about how COVID-19 started.

    It seems the largely accepted theory is that COVID-19 mutated naturally before it finally became a virus that could infect humans. Proponents argue that the virus likely originated in a bat and found its way to a number of intermediate hosts before jumping to humans. This jump seems to have occurred in China.

    The world has had lots of pandemics arise from developments in nature, but this is the first one that has caused humans in most areas of the globe to shutdown all non-essential parts of the economy and activities. There is a fear factor here, but it doesn’t make all the dots connect.

    The other theory is that COVID-19 is a “gain of function” experiment gone wrong.

Facilities like Athletic Park in Medicine Hat, Alta., will sit empty.

    In a “gain of function” experiment, a researcher takes a virus and makes it a superbug in a lab. The researcher proceeds to develop medical defences against this superbug.

    It is viewed this type of research keeps humans one step ahead of nature. There are critics against this type of research, who often ask what happens if one of these superbugs escapes the lab?

    The Wuhan Institute of Virology lab in the Jiangxia District, Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province was working on “gain of function” type experiments. It has strong ties to the Galveston National Laboratory in the United States, the Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie in France and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Canada.

    It is speculated COVID-19 escaped the lab in Wuhan.

    While most researchers lean towards the theory of COVID-19 jumping from animals to humans naturally, both theories are just that – theories. In science terms, they haven’t been proven as laws, so that leads to questions about them being true.

    The theory of the “gain of function” experiment gone wrong seems to connect the dots better regarding the shutdowns that have occurred across the world.

    You can almost see the question of fear of, “What did we do?”

    Then in the panic of battling the unknown, you shut everything down.

    If the “gain of function” gone wrong theory is true, you can’t see anyone admitting to it. If that was the truth and it became public, it would likely cause 10-times more fear than there is now.

Mosaic Stadium in Regina will be devoid of action for a while.

    There would be a call for questions to be answered and a wider call to end “gain of function” type of research.

    No matter where the fear came from, it is obvious it is there from medical officials and governments. How they deal with the pandemic can be widely debated.

    As for the sports world, that fear will affect its attempts to start up again, and most other aspects of society will have to deal with that fear as well.

    Since the shutdowns in North America occurred on March 11 and 12, one constant most governments have done is issued limits on mass gatherings often to less than 30 people.

    In recent days, those limits have been pushed in many places in the world especially in the United States due to protests against racism stemming from the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 25. Floyd, an African-American, died after being arrested by police.

    Video has surfaced with Floyd being pinned on the ground with a police officer identified as Derek Chauvin driving his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck.

    Four officers were fired over the incident including Chauvin, and Chauvin, who is Caucasian, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter over Floyd’s death.

The SaskTel Centre has sat unused for a lengthy stretch.

    In Canada, there was a protest against racism in Toronto on Saturday that drew 3,500 to 4,000 people. On Sunday, a protest against racism occurred in Vancouver that drew 3,500 people.

    Also on Sunday, another protest was held against racism in Montreal, which police later declared as illegal and included acts of violence.

    With people wearing protective masks to guard against COVID-19, one wonders if Canada’s criminal mask law will come into play with the Montreal protests.

    The mask law introduced by the Government of Canada in Bill C-309 that became law on June 19, 2013 bans the use of wearing masks during a riot or other unlawful assembly, and those convicted could face up to 10 years in prison.

    Canada’s Criminal Code, Section 351(2) covers “Disguise with Intent” that makes it an indictable offence to wear a mask or disguise to commit and indictable offence.

    These protest stories have actually pushed COVID-19 coverage to the back of news reports.

The Canalta Centre sits empty in Medicine Hat, Alta.

    With large gatherings occurring for the sake of having a protest, it will be interesting to see if that actually pushes the bar to actually allow mass gatherings in other walks of life or how these events will affect the interpretation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    For the sports world, teams and leagues are at the mercy of medical health officials when it comes to getting going again. I could see the United States going ahead with sporting events a lot quicker than Canada, because sports is a billion dollar industry in the United States.

    Outside of hockey, Canada just doesn’t have the same attachment to sport despite having elite athletes on par with those in the United States.

    It is possible some sports might get going and others don’t.

    Last Thursday to Saturday, the six time defending CJFL champion Saskatoon Hilltops had a fundraising bottle drive, but they didn’t canvas neighbourhoods at the advice of health officials. They received items at three different drop off points, with director and volunteers accepting recyclables wearing gloves and masks.

    Team supporters could arrange for pickup from team officials, but the recyclables had to be left on the curve or an outside walkway.

People in Canada rallied for the Raptors NBA title win in June of 2019.

    Businesses can tell you all about hoops health officials make you go through. Many stores have arrows to guide traffic flow, social distance indicators for checkout lines and hairstylists have to get dressed like they will perform open heart surgery.

    When you see medical health officials keep putting up hoops like this, you wonder how long it will be until sports will comeback in Canada.

    One thing sports can do is create unity in communities. Just remember the Toronto Raptors run to the NBA title a year ago.

    If you’ve seen mainstream media news reports regarding protests over the last few days, society needs a lot of help in the unity department right now.

Huskies mourn passing of the “Voice of the Rutherford Rink”

For many, many years Bruce Gordon has been the voice and wit booming around first Rutherford and then MPB. Huskie hockey has truly lost a part of what makes it so special with the passing of Bruce. We will miss him and our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time. pic.twitter.com/qpYGJ1TIvl

— USask Huskie Men's Hockey (@HuskiesMHKY) May 31, 2020

    He brought part of the charm of the old rink into the new rink.

    When the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team is next introduced to the ice for whenever their next home game will be played during these COVID-19 pandemic times, the “Voice of the Rutherford Rink” won’t be making that call.

    On Friday, Bruce Gordon, who has been the public address announcer for the Huskies men’s hockey game since 1985, passed away of natural causes.

    Born in 1961, Gordon’s involvement with the Huskies began in 1979, when he was the team’s radio play-by-play voices as the Dogs surged to prominence in the era when Dave King was the team’s head coach.

    Gordon became the team’s public address announcer in 1985 and also served as the chief of off-ice officials.

    With his bilingual humour, he added a flare to Huskies men’s hockey teams home games that stood the test of time and was unmatched.

    When the Huskies men’s and women’s hockey teams left their old home in the ancient Rutherford Rink for Merlis Belsher Place before the start of the 2018-19 season, Gordon remained the public address announcer for the Huskies men’s hockey team. He performed that role for the Huskies for their only two seasons at Merlis to date before passing away.

    In the book “Dogs On Ice: A History of Hockey At the University of Saskatchewan,” Gordon stated how much the team meant to him.

Bruce Gordon’s last game was the Huskies Canada West title win on Feb.29.

    “When Dave King asked me to help with Huskie hockey, it was like I had died and gone to heaven,” said Gordon. “I have been treated so well.

    “The Huskies are a class organization, everybody shows appreciation for the work we do. I love the game, and I love being part of this organization and its loyalty. I buy into the values that say ‘nobody is going to outwork is.’

    “Ultimately, it’s not what I have done for the program, it is what the Huskie program has done for me.”

    The last game Gordon worked as the Huskies public address announcer was on February 29, when they downed the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 3-1 in Game 2 of the Canada West Championship series before a record crowd of 2,667 spectators at Merlis. The Huskies won the Canada West title that night sweeping the best-of-three series 2-0.

    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.

Sunday fun day with NASCAR

Any type of live sports makes COVID-19 pandemic life better

Kevin Harvick leading a NASCAR race on my TV.

    I think I just became a fan of Kevin Harvick.

    The 44-year-old race car driver from Bakersfield, Calif., dominated my television screen on Sunday as the NASCAR Cup Series returned to action after pausing 10 weeks due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Sunday’s race would be the fifth of the 2020 season for the Cup Series.

    Driving his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Harvick posted his 50^th career victory on NASCAR’s top circuit taking The Real Heroes 400 held at the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. He led for 159 of 293 laps and became just the 14^th driver to win 50 career Cup Series races.

    Over the past eight days, folks were able to follow live sports in North America thanks to UFC and NASCAR. It was a welcome development.

    UFC got the ball rolling holding three fight cards at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena without fans. The first was UFC 249 held on May 9 and a pair of fight night cards followed on Wednesday and Saturday.

It was great to have a NASCAR Cup Series race on TV.

    I didn’t watch any of those cards live, but I ended up catching the highlights and post-fight interviews on a TSN channel. While Mixed Martial Arts is not something I watch on a regular basis, it was great to see highlights on major Canadian sports networks of something that happened that day.

    It felt normal to see Robin Black on TSN doing analysis after those fight cards. Way back on Aug. 23, 2015, I covered the UFC Fight Night card that was held at the SaskTel Centre, and Black was in town working that event.

    While I was new to that world and only in it for a short time, Black and I hit it off right away, and he pretty much took me under his wing. I tried to soak up as much of his insight as I could, and he was a huge help in guiding me through why fights would unfold as they did.

    Still, I was looking forward to seeing NASCAR’s top level return to action once I found out there would be a live race on Sunday. I covered local level stock car racing during my time in Medicine Hat, Alta., from 2004 to 2014 and a handful of events at the Wyant Group Raceway in Saskatoon.

Jimmie Johnson is coming right into the living room.

    The Wyant Group Raceway is usually home to an annual NASCAR Pinty’s Series stop, which is of the minor league circuits that prepares drivers for the NASCAR Cup Series.

    I admit I wouldn’t even consider myself a casual follower of NASCAR. I am one of those that will watch it once in a while and knows when the Daytona 500 is on.

    With that noted, any time I watch any type of car racing I love it.

    Of course, Sunday’s race at the Darlington Raceway wasn’t your normal race. There were no fans in the stands, and it seemed like everyone on the track that appeared on television were wearing protective masks.

    Prior to Sunday’s race, the last time drivers were in their cars came 71 days prior on March 8 at the Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.

    NASCAR is not holding practices or qualifying for the first four races back except for the qualifying of the Coca-Cola 600, which will be held this coming Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.

The NASCAR field comes down a straightaway on my TV.

    Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were new safety protocols including health screenings, social distancing rules and mandatory masks. Some the racing teams had personnel that would normally be at the track performing their roles remotely at other locations.

    Considering the drivers were basically coming in cold without having raced in real cars for an extended time, the race itself was fun. Outside of seeing people in protective masks and noticing there were no fans in the stands, I thought the race proceeded like normal and the quality of the driving was high.

    I got excited when there was a driver I knew in veteran Jimmie Johnson, who has won the NASCAR Cup Series title seven times, jump into the lead during the early portion of the race. My heart dropped when Johnson’s day ended after he crashed into the wall after rubbing with another car before 100 laps were in the books.
    Shortly after the race passed 100 laps, Harvick jumped into lead and remained in front of the field for seemingly the rest of the race.

Kevin Harvick is on his way to victory on my TV.

    It felt like everything he did on the track was clean including when he entered and exited the pits.

    Harvick crossed the finish line with a healthy edge on second place finisher Alex Bowman, who was driving his No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Hendrick Motorsports, and third place finisher Kurt Busch, who was driving his No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Chip Ganassi Racing.

    During these crazy COVID-19 times, it was a treat to see Sunday’s Cup Series race. It made life feel more normal and increased optimism that other sports might come back sooner than later in North America.

    Thinking about the Wyant Group Raceway in Saskatoon, it would be cool, if it could get going on the local level with the same format as Sunday’s NASCAR race.

    While Shaw doesn’t have the ability broadcast local events anymore, it would be sweet if Access 7 could come up from Regina and show Saturday action from the Wyant Group Raceway live across the community channels on its network and Shaw without fans in the stands.

It would be great to have Wyant Group Raceway action on TV.

    Local golf courses in Saskatchewan are open to anyone in the public to go hit a round, but competitive provincial golf events have been held yet.

    On the racing front, NASCAR at the highest level has shown a way for stock car racing at the local level in Saskatoon to get going.

    Now we just need the medical health officials in Saskatchewan to give the green light to make it so. Dreaming and imagining what can be are always good things.

NASCAR Pinty’s Series simulation is a treat

Cayden Lapcevich in action in 2017 at the Wyant Group Raceway.

    I also learned on Sunday watching a simulated sports even can be a fun thing too.

    After the real life The Real Heroes 400 NASCAR Cup Series regular season race was held at the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, TSN showed a virtual race from the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, which is a minor league circuit to the Cup Series.

    The virtual Pinty’s Series race was computer simulated to look like action was going down at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont. The actual competitors from the Pinty’s Series were driving their cars on simulation machines at their respective homes.

    Outside of noticing the obvious computer graphics, the race looked real. I was glued to see how one of my favourite drivers in the young 20-year-old Cayden Lapcevich was doing.

    Lapcevich has made a name for himself on that circuit over the past four years.

    I watched the first half of that simulated race before going on to do other things with my day.

    Still from what I saw, I can see why people would enjoy watching simulated sporting events, when real sporting events have been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    In Saskatchewan, I know the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League has been streaming simulations of its junior A league playoffs. Those simulations seem to be attracting a sizable following and have drawn good reviews.

    On Friday, the Pinty’s Series cancelled the twin races set for July 29 at the Wyant Group Raceway in Saskatoon. It would be sweet to see a simulation held for those two races at some point in the future.

    If most live sports continue to stay on the shelves in Canada and North America, here is hoping other leagues will follow through with showing simulated games, because they do help get your mind off of what is happening in the current day with the COVID-19 pandemic.

CFL’s former training camp day passes quietly, other thoughts

Had today circled on the calendar for a while. Hoping our world will go back to “normal” asap. Missing my brothers and the grind to grey cup 2020 in Regina! Stay up rider nation 🍉🍉🍉

— Jorgen Hus (@Jhus41) May 17, 2020

    It was somber Sunday for CFL fans and anyone who has a stake in that league.

    Sunday was the day main training camps were supposed to open across the circuit. Unfortunately, the CFL’s activities have been shuttered at the moment thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Currently in North America, only the UFC and NASCAR Cup Series circuit have come back to life holding live events.

    For a number of years, the Saskatchewan Roughriders have held training camp in Saskatoon. This year, the Roughriders were going to hold their training camp in Regina, but they were supposed to come to Saskatoon this coming Saturday for their “Green and White Day” at Saskatoon Minor Football Field, which was to include a mock game type scrimmage.

    The fact that the Roughriders weren’t hitting the field anywhere for camp activities made the COVID-19 pandemic appear even more real to football fans in the province.

OG Brendon LaBatte (#57) takes part in Roughriders training camp in 2015.

    Followers of various other sports like hockey have seen those worlds come to a stop due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so they have dealt with what CFL football fans are now feeling for some time.

    On the Roughriders front, it would have been cool if fans could have been chasing down star quarterback Cody Fajardo for autographs or debate the team’s chances for topping the West Division for a second straight year or possibly winning the Grey Cup at home in November.

    Now fans of the CFL just hope the circuit survives the pandemic.

    During the final week of April, news came out that the CFL was looking for financial assistance from the Canadian federal government.

    The CFL is looking for $30-million in Canadian funds now to manage the impact of COVID-19. The circuit is asking for additional assistance for an abbreviated regular season and up to another $120-million in Canadian funds for a completely lost season.

    In other words, the CFL is looking for $150-million in financial assistance if its nine teams are unable to play the 2020 regular season and playoffs.   

    CFL fans hope the silence on the football fields for practices and games won’t become a permanent thing.

    It would be uplifting if the CFL was able to return to action in 2020.

• Alan Poirier, who was my first managing editor at the Medicine Hat News, put together a column on his blog “On Second Thought” that looked into a couple of theories regarding the origin and start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Poirier is a conservative thinker, but he has penned a lot of good columns that make you question why things are the way they are in a good way. He has a knack of making observations and speculations that turn out to be correct. I’ve seen a lot of his columns over the years, and I thought this one ranked near the top as one of the best. Feel free to check it out clicking right here.
• It was sad to hear Canadian Forces Snowbirds public affairs officer Capt. Jenn Casey died, when a Snowbirds plane crashed to the ground in Kamloops, B.C. on Sunday. That is a tragedy and condolences go out to all of Casey’s family and friends.
•  This COVID-19 pandemic has made me miss a lot of friends in the hockey world. In recent days, I have missed visiting with former Regina Pats general manager Brent Parker at various games in media an scouts lounges. I miss being in my spot in the SaskTel Centre press box next to Saskatoon Blades play-by-play voice Les Lazaruk. We have had a lot of good visits talking about all sorts of subjects. It was great to say “hi” to former Blades general manager Daryl Lubiniecki at a CO-OP grocery store in Saskatoon about a week ago.
• I’ve enjoyed rediscovering Madden 2008 for the Sony PlayStation 2. I’ve been using the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos for the season I am currently playing. I pretty much rebuilt the Panthers team through free agency, which included signing receiver Calvin Johnson. Over a 16-game regular season, Johnson hauled in 83 passes for 2,398 yards and 23 touchdowns. Now that was fun.

    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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Hoping Shirley cracks pro radars again with U Sports all-stars

Collin Shirley is off to play for a U Sports all-star squad.

    Collin Shirley takes being tabbed as “the other Shirley” in Saskatoon area hockey circles with a chuckle.

    At one time, Collin was a star winger for the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers. Now in his third season as a standout winger with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team, the 23-year-old’s exploits are often overshadowed by those of his 20-year-old sister, Sophie, who plays centre with the University of Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey team in the NCAA ranks.

    This week, Collin will likely take on the role as the Shirley family member that gains the most attention. He will be in Oakville, Ont., playing for a U Sports all-star squad that will face the final group of hopefuls looking to crack Canada’s world junior team as part of festivities for the selection camp for the world junior team.

    Collin will be playing for the U Sports all-star squad for a second straight year against Canada’s world junior hopefuls.

Collin Shirley has 13 points in 16 games for the Huskies.

    The camp starts Monday and runs through to Thursday. The U Sports all-stars will face the national junior team hopefuls in exhibition contests on Wednesday and Thursday.

    The world junior hockey championships run Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 in the new year in Ostrava and Trinec in the Czech Republic.

    Back in the 2012-13 campaign, Collin played on the Team West squad that was one of the Canadian entries that took part at the world under-17 hockey challenge in Drummondville and Victoriaville, Quebec.

    Still, Collin’s exploits are often being dwarfed by those of Sophie’s.

    As a rookie with the Badgers last season, Sophie, who stands 5-foot-9, collected 20 goals and 18 assists for 38 points in 41 overall games. She also got her hands on the beautiful and shiny NCAA national championship trophy as the Badgers blanked the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers 2-0 in title game of the women’s Frozen Four tournament.

Collin Shirley is popular with the hockey community in Saskatoon and area.

    Sophie has hit bigger heights as a sophomore piling up 18 goals and 20 assists for 38 points in 20 overall games.

    She has played on Canada’s under-18 women’s team, has been a mainstay on Canada’s national women’s development team and has seen limited action with Canada senior national women’s team.

    Collin and Sophie’s youngest sister, Grace, is skating through her rookie campaign with the Badgers as an 18-year-old forward.

    In the current day, Sophie yields the majority of the attention.

    Collin has solid numbers appearing in 59 career U Sports regular season games collecting 22 goals and 27 assists for 49 points. He has four goals and nine assists for 13 points this season appearing in all of the Huskies 16 regular season games helping them post an 11-3-2 record.

Collin Shirley (#11) joined the Huskies after five seasons in the WHL.

    Still, those numbers seem small, when your younger sister is lighting up the scoreboard south of the border and is skating with Canada on the international stage.

    With all that said, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Collin is quite the accomplished hockey player and a super person with a fun sense of humour. The local product is extremely popular around the minor hockey rinks in Saskatoon and area along with Huskies sophomore defenceman Evan Fiala, who resides just outside of Saskatoon in Clavet.

    When Collin, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 195 pounds, joined the Huskies for the start of the 2017-18 campaign, his return was viewed as a much welcomed and anticipated homecoming.

Collin Shirley has 49 points in 59 regular season games with the Huskies.

    For five full seasons, he played out in British Columbia in the WHL from 2012 to 2017 first in Cranbrook with the Kootenay Ice and then for the Blazers.

    Over three and a half seasons of that time was spent in Kamloops. The Ice franchise proceeded to move to Winnipeg, Man., before the start of the current campaign.

    Collin appeared in 344 career WHL regular season games collecting 114 goals and 119 assists. Collin’s final two campaigns in the WHL with Kamloops were very strong.
    In 2015-16, Collin was a Blazers assistant captain and piled up 37 goals and 42 assists for 79 points in 72 regular season games.

    In 2016-17, he was the Blazers captain and collected 28 goals and 34 assists for 62 points in 70 regular season games.
    He did enough to warrant interest from the professional side of the game. 

Collin Shirley is a reliable left-winger for the Huskies.

    Knowing how tough a business professional hockey can be, Collin elected to join the Huskies and major in business studies.

    In the process, Collin joined a U Sports men’s hockey league that is often severely underrated for its very high quality hockey product.

    The U Sports men’s teams are mostly filled with former major junior players who were solid contributors on their major junior clubs and a number of those players reached star status.

    Players on U Sports men’s teams still train at an elite level. Due to the fact these teams only play games on weekends, players in U Sports are more focused at refining their skills at practice sessions during the week leading up to weekend games.

    They often have more time to refine their skills than players do in major junior or the professional levels. With the work done by U Sports players in practice sessions, you see a more polished product on the ice for games.
    Players in the U Sports game improve over the course of their careers, and are usually more ready for the professional ranks at the end of their university careers than at the end of their major junior careers. Their maturity is also a lot higher as well.

Collin Shirley had 233 points in 344 career WHL regular season games.

    Often, the experience among the players with the U Sports all-stars provides a huge challenge for the hopefuls for Canada’s world junior team to deal with. Those head-to-head contests are extremely competitive.

    With the Huskies, Collin has improved as a hockey player and is a better player now than he was with the Blazers. He is a better professional prospect now than he was when he was in major junior.
    Still, it seems NHL teams are addicted to focusing their time on youngsters. Players that haven’t kicked down the door by the end of their first three-year entry-level contract are usually cycled out of the professional game.

Collin Shirley (#11) has celebrated a number of wins with the Huskies.

    A lot of players find their careers wrap up at age 23 or 24.

    That is crazy to think about considering athletes usually hit their physical peak around age 27.

    It would be cool to see if Collin can capture the attention of even one professional scout to allow him to have a realistic shot at that level.

    Taking a chance on Collin would be much less of a gamble than the large number of players that are taken annually in the NHL Entry Draft.

    If Collin gets that chance, he might be able to on the fun front overshadow Sophie in Saskatoon and area hockey circles.

“Girls Rock Night” a home run again for Blades

The ceremonial faceoff for the Blades “Girls Rock Night.”

    The “Girls Rock Night” is still a hit out of the park for the Saskatoon Blades.

    The Blades have been holding the “Girls Rock Night” promotion for a handful of years now, and they had good mix for this year’s promotion that went with Saturday’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Kelowna Rockets.

    Before the game, the team holds a pre-game empowerment speech for various girls groups.

    A number of speakers took part in this year’s speech including NASCAR Pinty’s Series Shantel Kalika. Kalika, who is from Prince Albert, has been a star racer at the Wyant Group Raceway as part of the Saskatoon Stock Car Racing Association for a number of years too.
    Her NASCAR Dodge Challenger was on display in the concourse.

    Safety Rienna Rueve and left tackle Alyssa Funk from the WWCFL champion Saskatoon Valkyries took part in the speaking festivities.

NASCAR Pinty’s Series driver Shantel Kalika, left, received big cheers.

    The speaking festivities also included Katriana Philipenko from the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s basketball team and Elizabeth Salyn, Leah Bohlken, Shyan Elias and Courtney Cormack all from the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team.

    They all took part in a pre-game ceremonial faceoff.

    The host side had 11-year-old Taylor Hanley doing some of the public address duties as well.

    The Blades attracted 4,215 spectators for Saturday’s contest, and the representation from the various girls groups was obvious. They made some pretty good noise too, which added to the atmosphere for the night.

    Saskatoon led 3-2 until Kelowna scored the equalizer late in the third and ultimately took the contest in extra time.

    The Blades may have come up just short on the ice, but they netted a win again with their “Girls Rock Night” off the ice.

    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.