Young ones leaders in protests against racism in Saskatoon

Protesters march at the “Justice for George Rally” on Thursday in Saskatoon.

    “I understand that I will never understand. However, I stand.”

    I wish I could say I thought that up.

    That is a message I’ve seen on a handful of social media accounts of young friends usually aged 18 to 24 over the last handful of days as protests against racism continue across North America and dare I say the world.

    The demonstrations were triggered due to the death of African-American George Floyd on May 25 after he was arrested by police in Minneapolis, Minn.

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

Young adults made up most of the crowd at the “Justice for George Rally.”

    Four officers were fired over the incident including Chauvin, and at first, Chauvin, who is Caucasian, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter over Floyd’s death. The charges against Chauvin were increased to second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday.

    The three other officers - Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao – were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

    Being a middle aged person who can get jaded from time to time due to seeing my share of bad happening to good people in this world, I thought this would be another one of those things that would blow over, which is awful to admit. I didn’t think it would get the momentum that it did.

Some of the protesters who took a knee at Kiwanis Park - North.

    That changed on Tuesday after I opened up my person Instagram account in the morning. The first thing I saw on my newsfeed was a post from Ryan Fontaine, who was a star goalie for the Prince Albert Northern Bears female under-18 team from 2015 to 2018.

    Her post was a blacked our screen with the hashtag phrase #blackouttuesday.

    The next thing that crossed my mind was, “Wow, I didn’t know she was engaged with that.”

    Right after seeing that posts, I saw similar posts from Parker Kelly, who is an alumnus of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders and forward with the AHL’s Belleville Senators, and Tristen Robins, who is a star centre with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades.

A protester with a bike takes a knee at Kiwanis Park - North.

    As I continued to go through all my social media accounts, I found similar posts from current players from the Raiders, Blades, six time defending CJFL champion Saskatoon Hilltops, defending WWCFL champion Saskatoon Valkyries, members of various teams of the SFU18AAAHL, from the various University of Saskatchewan Huskies teams in U Sports and Saskatchewan based players who play in the NCAA.

    At that point, I decided to follow the lead of my young friends on my social media accounts hoping to be a show of support that they were doing the right thing.

Thursday’s “Justice for George Rally” in Saskatoon had a massive turnout.

    Clavet product Willow Slobodzian, who stars on defence for the Cornell University Big Red women’s hockey team, was constantly upgrading her Instagram story feed with education items regarding racism and news items about what various people were trying to do to address the issue.

    One of the best social media posts came from Jadyn Pingue, who finished up his five-year career playing linebacker for the Hilltops being named the CJFL’s most outstanding defensive player. On Thursday, Pingue, who is African-American, put together a well written post about black men building up other black men.

    The post included a strong portrait type picture of Pingue.

View this post on Instagram

WE are BLACK MEN!..... We BUILD .... We NEVER TEAR DOWN other BLACK MEN! .... We have felt the pain of being torn down and we have decided we will be deliberate about building others! All too often, we men find it easier to criticize each other, instead of BUILDING each other UP. With all the negativity going around let's do something POSITIVE!🌟 Upload 1 picture of yourself...ONLY YOU. Then tag as many brothers as you need to do the same. Let's BUILD ourselves UP, instead of tearing ourselves down. Be PROUD of who you are, PEACE & LOVE. 🖤✊🏾🙏🏾✊🏾🖤 COPY AND PASTE 🖤 📸: @dankaroundtheworld Agency: @masalamodeltalent

A post shared by 𝑷𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑼𝑬 (@pinguexo) on Jun 4, 2020 at 4:47pm PDT

    I found out later on Thursday the care and passion for this issue wasn’t limited to young athletes on my social media feed.

The crowd at the “Justice for George Rally” begins to march again.

    At 6 p.m., I saw two different newscasts doing live video of a rally against racism, where everyone was gathered at Saskatoon City Hall. I decided to head downtown to check things out.

    When I got to downtown, I met up with the rally as it had moved to the Saskatoon Police Station. I was floored by how many people I saw.

    A couple of reports said the gathering included about 2,000 people, but it seemed larger than that. The next thing I noticed was how young the crowd seemed to be.

    I estimate that at least 95 per cent of the people at the rally were aged 18 to 24, and it seemed like a lot of those were U of Saskatchewan students and students from out of town universities, who were home for the summer.

Thursday’s “Justice for George Rally” contained a diverse cultural crowd.

    I noticed some in the crowd were members of Huskies teams. It was visible to see the crowd contained high school students too.

    I later found out the rally was organized by Braydon Page, who is an African-America young man, and the rally was called the “Justice for George Rally.”

    On a Facebook page, Page invited people from all cultural backgrounds to attend. Canada has had challenges to say the least with racism issues with First Nations, and there were a number of signs in the crowd that referenced that fact too.

    The crowd that gathered was as culturally mixed as I’ve seen from any gathering in Saskatoon.

The protesters at the “Justice for George Rally” near Saskatoon City Hall.

    The young ones were passionate too, and it was obvious they believed they could make a difference.

    They had a Kevin Garnett “Anything is possible!” feeling to them.

    It was a feeling I could relate to thinking back to my university days at the University of Regina from 1995 to 2001.

    Most in the crowd were wearing protective masks due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has engulfed the world and certainly North America since around March 11.

    The crowd knelt at the police station for eight minutes and 46 seconds, which was the time Floyd was pinned on the ground before he died.

The crowd at Saskatoon City Hall shouts a number of chants.

    The crowd proceeded to do a march looping south to Midtown Plaza before heading east on 22^nd Street to Kiwanis Park – North. Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark marched with the young crowd too.

At the park, the crowd once again took a knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

    After that knee, the march returned to city hall, where the people took another knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

    The rally continued for a bit with speeches and chants including “black lives matter,” “I can’t breathe” and “no justice, no peace.”

At least 2,000 turned out for Thursday’s “Justice for George Rally.”

    The whole event was peaceful. The Saskatoon Police Service ensured streets were blocked off, when the crowd marched.

    A few police officers took a knee with the protesters at the police station. I think they came away being impressed with the youngsters too.

    When it comes to the issue of racism, it felt like the young adults and the teenagers that took part in the “Justice for George Rally” were the adults in the room.

    All of us in the older generations bluntly haven’t got the job done on this front, if the past two weeks have shown us anything.
    For myself, I am ill-equipped if I tried to put together a column regarding racial issues.

In Saskatoon, the young generation leads in the protests against racism.

    Back in my university days, I saw my friends from different races and cultures as buds. Looking back, I think I had a naïve quality that everyone would somehow live together in harmony.

    The protest that took place on Thursday night in Saskatoon was ultimately a civil rights type rally.      In my lifetime, that was the first time I saw one of those live and in person.

    It was cool to see the young people take the initiative to lead the way. The rest of us would be wise to follow.

    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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Roughriders win fourth straight in crazy fashion, CFL just insane

Samuel Eguavoen scores TD for the Roughriders on Saturday.

    Even when the road boos feel like cheers, the Saskatchewan Roughriders have to go through their share of drama to earn victory.

    On Saturday at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg, the Roughriders jumped to a 20-17 halftime lead in unfathomable fashion against the host Blue Bombers in front of a packed crowd of 33,134 spectators. As the teams departed to the dressing rooms for halftime, a vocal number of people in attendance booed the host side off the field, and it was apparent Bombers fans were the ones unloading the boos.

    With 68 seconds remaining in the first half, the Bombers were holding a 17-13 lead and had the ball at the Saskatchewan seven yard line with a first and goal. Bombers starting quarterback Matt Nichols tried to throw an ill-advised underhanded pass upfield, and the ball landed right in the gut of Roughriders linebacker Samuel Eguavoen.

    Eguavoen ran the ball back 103 yards the other way for a Saskatchewan touchdown, which gave the visitors a 20-17 lead. The Roughriders first touchdown of the contest happen to come off a 97-yard interception return by defensive end Willie Jefferson.

    By halftime, Saskatchewan had scored two touchdowns off interception returns that totalled 200 yards. In any football game, that sort of occurrence is unthinkable.

    When a team gets booed off the field by its own fans, it usually feels as good as cheers for the visiting side.

Willie Jefferson scored a touchdown for the Roughriders on Saturday.

    Even with the Bombers fans giving their team the raspberries, the Roughriders weren’t able to win easy. Saskatchewan increased its lead to 26-17 by the end of the third quarter only to have Winnipeg take a 27-26 advantage opening the fourth quarter scoring 10 unanswered points.

    Brett Lauther closed the contest booting his fifth and six field goals of the game to give the Roughriders a 32-27 victory.

    Now riding a four game winning streak, the Roughriders improved to 7-4 to sit with the second best record overall in the CFL, if you go off winning percentage. The Bombers fell to 5-7 having dropped their last four in a row.

    Even when the wins are piling up for the Roughriders, it feels like they are always facing challenges. Saskatchewan’s starting quarterback Zack Collaros was forced to leave the game early in the fourth quarter after taking a big hit from Bombers defensive back Jeff Hecht.

    Collaros, who had found his stride in the current campaign, was placed under concussion protocol. He missed four games earlier this season due to a concussion injury.

    Roughriders star defensive back Ed Gainey went down a short time later with a leg injury.

    If both players miss any significant time, that alone might halt the Roughriders winning streak.

Zach Collaros left Saturday’s game due to injury.

    At the moment, it is too early to tell if either will play this coming Saturday, when the Roughriders host the Ottawa Redblacks (6-5) at 7:30 p.m. at Mosaic Stadium.

    Still, the Roughriders found a way to win namely due to the fact their defence came up with all sorts of big plays. The Roughriders defence forced Nichols and Bombers backup quarterback Chris Streveler to throw a combined five interceptions.

    Jefferson and Eguavoen had sacks to go along with the interceptions they respectively returned for touchdowns. Defensive back Loucheiz Purifoy had nine tackles and two interceptions to aid the Roughriders cause.

    Running back and former University of Auburn Tigers star Tre Mason paced the Roughriders offence carrying the ball 20 times for 117 yards and catching two passes for 13 yards.

    While the Roughriders latest win came via a crazy fashion, the CFL showed on Saturday how insane it can be.

    The Hamilton Tiger-Cats won their third in a row downing the Argonauts in Toronto 36-25. Hamilton improved to 6-5 to sit in a tie for first place in the East Division with the Redblacks. The Argonauts fell to 3-8 with the loss.

    Tigers-Cats starting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli completed 18-of-25 passes for 307 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. This season, Masoli has passed for 300 or more yards nine times to equal a team record for most 300 yard passing games in one season set in 2013 by Henry Burris.

    In Edmonton, the host Eskimos downed the Calgary Stampeders in a classic CFL shootout 48-42. The Stampeders, who remain first overall in the CFL with a 9-2 mark, committed seven turnovers and still had a chance to win that contest.

HC and GM Chris Jones and the Roughriders have won four straight.

    The Eskimos, who improved to 7-5, led 21-7 at one point in the first quarter and were up 48-28 going into the fourth quarter and almost ended up losing.

    The Stampeders scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and had receiver Juwan Brescacin been able to hold on to a Hail Mary pass on the final play of the fourth quarter, Calgary would have likely escaped with victory depending if the possible ensuing convert was successful.

    Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell completed 25-of-46 passes for 491 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions in that loss. Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly connected on 30-of-44 passes for 397 yards, three touchdowns and one interception in the win.

    In the CFL, it doesn’t matter what record a team has entering any particular contest. Each team has enough playmakers to pull out victory on any given night.

    That is the enduring aspect that helps to make the CFL great and days like Saturday’s triple header are intriguing to watch.

“Cool cops” want it that way

Remember those #lipsyncchallenge videos from last month? Well our community asked us for one, so we're delivering! Thanks to everyone who made this possible, especially the sworn & civilian staff that volunteered their time https://t.co/Rnj49eaxYq #yxe #CommunityEngagement pic.twitter.com/2Viypz0gP5

— Saskatoon Police (@SaskatoonPolice) September 7, 2018

    I have to give you the reader a big thanks if you are reading this right now after seeing the above tweet.

    The Saskatoon Police Service gave the public a really sweet and fun video here. Down in the United States, police forces down there had been putting together videos on lip sync challenges.

    After receiving requests from some in the community to possibly get involved, the Saskatoon Police Service dropped this video on their Facebook page at 10 a.m. on Friday. It is a lip sync video to the song “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys.

    Within about two hours, the Facebook post of the video had over 83,000 views. At about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, the video has piled up over 1.4-million views on Facebook and over 20,000 views on YouTube.

    The video is great because it shows the members of the Saskatoon Police Service in a lighter and humorous mood. Actually, the members of the Saskatoon Police Service are pretty good when it comes to socializing with the public, and the video helps make them feel that much more approachable.

    The YouTube post of the video is below.

Schlenker earns full time NHL referee spot, other notes

Chris Schlenker waves off a goal in the 2016 WHL playoffs.

    Chris Schlenker earned another huge milestone recently in his career as a hockey referee.

    The alum of the WHL’s Regina Pats and Prince Albert Raiders was promoted full time to the NHL ranks as first reported by Scoutingtherefs.com on Aug. 31. Schlenker was brought on as a full-time professional referee to work games in both the NHL and AHL before the start of the 2016-17 season.

    He made his professional debut on Oct. 17, 2015 working an AHL game between the Toronto Marlies and the Albany Devils. On Oct. 24, 2016, Schlenker made his NHL debut in Montreal as the host Canadiens took on the Philadelphia Flyers.

    The 34-year-old product from Medicine Hat, Alta., has worked 59 NHL games since become a full-time professional official. He refereed in the AHL’s 2017 Calder Cup finals.

    During his days as a player, Schlenker, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 198 pounds, was a tough defensive defenceman. From 2000 to 2005, he appeared in 284 WHL regular season games split between the Pats and Raiders posting 25 goals, 67 assists and 718 penalty minutes.

    After playing less than a season of professional hockey in Germany, Schlenker joined the Medicine Hat Police Service and became a member of the K9 unit.

    As a member of the police service, Schlenker took up officiating. He quickly worked his way up the hockey ranks and won the Allen Paradice Memorial Trophy as the top official in the WHL following for the 2015-16 season. He worked the WHL finals and the Memorial Cup that season as well.

    At that time, Schlenker completed his fifth season as a hockey referee.

    Now entering his eight season as a referee, Schlenker has built a reputation for being solid at that craft. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he spent a number of seasons working in the NHL ranks.

• The Saskatoon Blades downed the Prince Albert Raiders 4-3 after a tiebreaking shootout in a WHL pre-season match at The Legends Centre in Warman, Sask., on Saturday night. Kirby Dach, Michael Farren and Brad Goethals netted singles for the Blades in regulation, while Spencer Moe, Kody McDonald and Lane Kirk replied with singles for the Raiders in regulation. Goethals and Farren had the only tallies in the tiebreaking shootout. Koen MacInnes made 35 saves over 65 minutes in goal for the Blades (5-0). Donovan Buskey turned away 33 shots in goal for the Raiders (0-2-0-1).
• The University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team blanked the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns 5-0 in a neutral site U Sports pre-season tilt at the Fairview Arena in Swift Current, Sask., on Saturday night. Nicole Fry, Kennedy Brown, Bailee Bourassa, Shyan Elias and Leah Bohlken all had singles for the Huskies. Jasey Book and Camryn Drever split the shutout in goal for U of S.
• On Friday night, the U of Saskatchewan Huskies football team improved to 2-0 downing the U of Manitoba Bisons 48-46 in a shootout in Winnipeg. Huskies quarterback Kyle Siemens completed 24-of-35 passes for 306 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. The Bisons fell to 0-2 following the U Sports regular season contest.
• The U of Regina Rams stomped the U of Alberta Golden Bears 51-13 in a U Sports regular season football clash in Edmonton on Friday night. Rams quarterback Noah Picton completed 32-41 passes for 449 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. The Rams improved to 1-1, while the Golden Bears fell to 0-2.

    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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Brain cramps do in Blades, Pats cash in with 7-3 win

Sam Steel (#23) and Evan Fiala (#47) were part of Wednesday’s drama.

    The Saskatoon Blades need to play just a little bit smarter.

    For one of the few times this season, the Blades hurt themselves with unforced errors that piled up. The errors prevented “the Bridge City Bunch” from having a chance to have any success against the Regina Pats on Wednesday night at the Brandt Centre.

    The Pats, who are hosting the Memorial Cup in May, cashed in on the Blades mistakes to the tune of a convincing 7-3 victory before 5,454 spectators.

    The bulk of the problems for the Blades came in the second after Pats winger Nick Henry scored at the 4:43 mark of the frame to give the host side a 3-1 edge.

    Shortly after that goal, Blades 18-year-old defenceman Jake Kustra took a tripping penalty by hacking down one of the Pats players along the boards. It was a penalty that didn’t need to be taken, but the Blades killed that infraction off.

    That kill was followed by Saskatoon left-winger Gage Ramsay getting dinged for playing without a helmet. His helmet came off with the play deep in the Regina end, but the 19-year-old decided to drive to the net instead of skating to the bench.

    By now, everyone in the WHL should know you have to skate immediately to the bench, if your helmet comes off during play, and Ramsay was penalized during a moment when his side wasn’t even on the defensive.

    Things continued to pile up on the ensuing kill. Veteran Blades right-winger Josh Paterson crossed the red-line with the puck, but he didn’t clear it into the Regina zone. Instead, he had the puck stolen from him by Pats captain Sam Steel.

    Steel transitioned the play up ice to offensive defenceman Josh Mahura to create a two-on-one. Mahura fed a nice pass across the front of the Saskatoon to goal to left-winger Jesse Gabrielle, who scored on the backdoor chance to give the Pats a 4-1 edge at the 10:51 mark of the second.

Gage Ramsay took a costly penalty by playing without a helmet.

    The Blades went back to the kill a short time later, when rookie defenceman Randen Schmidt took an interference penalty behind the play.

    The Pats scored on that ensuing power play to go up 5-1 on a snipe from left-winger Jared Legien, and things got worse from there for the visitors.

    Blades captain Evan Fiala proceeded to drive Legien hard into the boards behind the Saskatoon net, which started a scrum. Steel skated in to face Fiala, and Fiala got his stick up and cross checked Steel in the face. Fiala then ended up in a fight with Pats centre Matt Bradley.

    Bradley came away with a fighting major.

    Fiala was accessed a major for fighting, a major for cross checking and a game misconduct. The cross checking major will trigger an automatic review by the WHL office for a possible suspension on Fiala.

    At that point, the Blades were done in with their self-inflicted damage.

    Saskatoon did try to battle back. Right-winger Max Gerlach scored inside of the final minute of the second and added his second of the night 32 seconds into the third to cut the Pats lead to 5-3.

    Just 41 seconds after Gerlach’s second goal, Pats right-winger Cameron Hebig scored on a point drive through a screen to put the hosts up 6-3. Hebig would get his second of the night short-handed at the 12:31 mark of the third.

    Mahura and Czech import defenceman Libor Hajek had singles for the Pats in the first period, while Chase Wouters had the lone reply for the Blades in the opening 20 minutes.

    Steel had five assists to surpass 300 points in his WHL career. In 237 career regular season games, Steel has 107 goals and 196 assists for 303 points.

    The Sherwood Park, Alta., product seems to have developed some good chemistry playing with Hebig, who was acquired by the Pats in a deal with the Blades before the WHL’s trade deadline on Jan. 10.
    Hebig, who had an assist to go along with his two goals, went past 200 points in his WHL career. In 244 career regular season games split between the Blades and Pats, Hebig has 91 goals and 111 assists for 202 points.

    The Pats were 3-for-6 on the power play, while the Blades were 1-for-7 with man advantage. Saskatoon has won four of the six head-to-head meetings with Regina this season.

    Overage netminder Tyler Brown made 38 saves to take the setback in goal for the Blades. Brown was acquired by the Blades in a deal with the Pats that included Hebig before the WHL’s trade deadline on Jan. 10. Brown has made two starts for Saskatoon, but the Blades had less than stellar efforts in both those outings resulting in lopsided losses.

Cameron Hebig scored twice for the Pats.

    For the Blades, it would be good to get Brown his first win with the team to ensure the results of his first two starts don’t become some sort of mental hurdle.

    Ryan Kubic turned away 26 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Pats, who improved to 25-20-5 to sit in the first wildcard spot in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a six point edge over the Blades. Saskatoon has a game in hand on Regina.

    The Blades fell to 23-23-2-1 to sit in the second wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference with a four point edge over the Prince Albert Raiders (18-20-7-2). The Raiders have two game in hand on the Blades.

    Wednesday’s encounter provided a lot of footage for Blades head coach Dean Brockman and his staff to use for teaching purposes. 

    It is hard to give any opponent in the WHL multiple gifts and expect to come out on the winning end of things.

    The Blades return to action on Friday, when they host the Edmonton Oil Kings (13-27-5-2) at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

Blades take part in impressive school visit

Jackson Caller, left, and Evan Fiala speak to students on Monday.

    On Monday, the Saskatoon Blade captain Evan Fiala and his defensive partner Jackson Caller made one of the more serious school visits I have ever seen.

    Fiala and Caller visited Silver Heights School along with Saskatoon Police Service officers Mike Johnson and Kelly Rainville as part of Project Face-off. With this program, those four visited East Hastings in Vancouver, B.C., which is one of Vancouver’s roughest neighbourhoods.

    The four shared their experience of their visit and talked about the importance of making correct decisions in life and surrounding yourself with good supportive people. They mentioned a few of the people they met in the East Hastings neighbourhood weren’t your stereotypical “bad guys.” They said a number of the people in East Hastings were persons who once had good lives and ended up in that position due to a major life setback.

    Besides that observation, they talked about the disgusting settings some of the people were living in, which included seeing really large rats.

Mike Johnson, left, and Kelly Rainville talk to school students.

    Before the four spoke, they showed a video of them touring East Hastings to the students.

Fiala and Caller told the students they were able to stay on their paths to the WHL due to focusing on hockey and hanging out with friends that had similar aspirations. They said that helped give them the discipline to stay away from people who wanted to do something not wise and other possible not wise situations.

    In this now the 19^th season I have covered the WHL, I have seen a few school visits, but this is the first one I went to involving the Blades. The stories and the subject matter was heavy, but it was delivered in an impactful way.

    After the presentation, four little girls came up to Fiala. One played hockey with one of the local Huskies Prospects teams, and she excitedly said she wanted to follow through with her dream of playing for the Saskatoon Stars Female Midget AAA team on day. It was a pretty sweet moment considering Fiala’s younger sister, Joelle, is one of the Stars star forwards.

    The Blades made tonnes of these community appearances over the season and worked hard to stay connected with the community. Monday’s visit to Silver Heights School was a perfect example of that.

Back in the Express with Johnston

Kieran Johnston will run at the K of C Indoor Games.

    I was back in the pages of the Saskatoon Express this week with an advancer story for the Knights of Columbus Saskatchewan Indoor Games that was focused around Kieran Johnston.

    The 22-year-old is in his second season with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Track and Field team. Johnston told a story about what it was like to race Ashton Eaton, who won the decathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Eaton would win the decathlon title again at the 2016 Olympics.

    Johnston raced Eaton at the 2015 K of C Indoor Games and admitted to be star struck.

    Besides talking about that race, Johnston discussed how he stepped away from sports all together for a time and came back once he realized he missed the sports. The graduate of Saskatoon’s Evan Hardy Collegiate shared what his hopes were with the Huskies this season.

    The story on Johnston can be round 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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Blades set to hit another homer with home opener

Team to honour former captain with return of the Pac-Man

Dave Chartier, left, speaks to reporters about Bruce Gordon.

    On an emotional level, the Saskatoon Blades appear to be set to match the spectacle of last year’s home opener at this year’s home opener.

    Almost a year ago, the Blades opened the 2016-17 campaign with “Thank You, Mr. Hockey Day” where the club saluted hockey icon in the late Gordie Howe and interred his and the ashes of his late wife, Colleen, at the base of the Gordie Howe statue that resides in front of the SaskTel Centre.

    This year in a campaign where the Blades return to their famous Pac-Man look from the 1980s to the early 1990s, the club will honour a former captain who wore that logo and made a lasting impact on Saskatoon after his hockey days. 

    When the Blades open their regular season schedule on Friday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre against the Swift Current Broncos, the blue and gold will honour Bruce Gordon, who was well-known for his career with the Saskatoon Police Service that spanned 28 years, in a pre-game ceremony.

One of the Blades team pictures featuring Bruce Gordon.

    The Marsden, Sask., product came to the Blades in a trade with the Medicine Hat Tigers early in the 1980-81 campaign, and the grinding winger quickly became the Saskatoon club’s captain. He would leave the major junior ranks following the 1981-82 campaign having collected 17 goals, 53 assists and 552 penalty minutes in 112 regular season games with the Blades.

    Following his time playing hockey, Gordon moved on to build a distinguished career with the police starting out on regular patrol, becoming a detective sergeant in the sex crimes unit and then to major crimes. Gordon became well-known for cracking cases that appeared to be unsolvable.

    At age 50, he retired from policing to study law at the University of Saskatchewan with the goal to become a defence lawyer. Gordon graduated from law school last spring, but on June 8, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. On June 29, a special ceremony was held at the Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon to call the 54-year-old to the bar.

    This ceremony is traditionally held in autumn, but an exception was made in Gordon’s case to hold the ceremony earlier due to his cancer diagnosis.

Bruce Gordon’s old Blades uniform on display.

    The Blades announced their plans to honour Gordon, who also coached minor hockey and volunteered at local road races, during a press conference on Monday at the SaskTel Centre. A fitting trio of characters who have character were brought in to speak at the presser who all have links to both the Saskatoon Police Service and the WHL.

    The trio included Dave Chartier, who was one of Gordon’s former teammates with the Blades and a former partner with the police service, and he talked about his deep friendship with the hard-working forward. Long time veteran Blades assistant coach Jerome Engele, who was a former Blades defenceman from 1966 to 1971 and built his own distinguished career with the Saskatoon Police Service, also delivered a short but heartfelt tribute. Both Chartier and Engele are retired from the police service.

    The third member to speak was Patrick Nogier, who played goal for two seasons in the WHL from 1985 to 1987 split between the Kamloops Blazers and Broncos and is still an inspector for the Saskatoon Police Service, and he spoke about Gordon’s never give up characteristics.

    Chartier was a 17-year-old rookie defenceman when he became teammates with Gordon in 1981-82, when the latter was embarking on what would be his final season in junior hockey. They developed a lifelong friendship and actually live next door to each other in the current day.

Inspector Patrick Nogier speaks about Bruce Gordon.

    Chartier will be one of a number of former teammates on hand for Friday’s festivities including Brian Skrudland, Daryl Stanley, Todd Strubey, Roger Kortko and Ron Dreger. Dennis Beyak, who is the voice of the Winnipeg Jets and the Blades assistant general manager during Gordon’s years, will be the emcee for the ceremony. Jackie McLeod and Daryl Lubiniecki, who both had long runs in the roles of head coach and general manager of the Blades, will also be on hand.

    During the presser, Chartier recalled one of the many recent talks he had with Gordon.

    “I asked him if he was scared,” said Chartier. “He said he was not scared.

    “He was just sad. He was sad for things that he won’t see his grand kids (and) his great relationship with his wife (Chris). It doesn’t surprise me one bit that he said he is not scared.

    “As a young guy going to training camp, I saw the determination and the lack of fear that he had as a leader for the Blades.”

    Engele spoke about how members of the police service are held to a higher standard than what is expected of the general public and that the Blades players are expected to hold themselves at a higher level away from the rink and treat everyone with respect. 

Long time Blades assistant coach Jerome Engele talks about Bruce Gordon.

    He said Gordon fit those expectations perfectly.

    “Bruce (Gordon) was a very good example of that as a police officer,” said Engele. “You couldn’t ask for a better person to work with - a harder working person.

    “I would call him a police officer on the ice. He was a hard-nosed hockey player who did his job and worked extremely hard.

    “You would put him more in terms of a plumber level player when he was on the ice. When he was on the ice, he carried a lot of respect.”

    Nogier, whose son Nelson played defence for the Blades from 2012 to 2014, worked with Gordon in the sex crimes unit for a couple of years. The former netminder spoke that the members of the police service think of Gordon when evaluating potential new officers noting the former Blades captain’s integrity and work ethic.

    “When we are looking to hire new prospective young individuals that want to join our police service, we are looking for people that bring certain characteristics with them,” said Nogier. “We look for the person that we know is going to be put into a situation and take those situations on head on.

Blades president Steve Hogle outlines the festivities for Friday night.

    “I heard that there was only six degrees of separation from talking about the sporting world and the policing world. What I’ve learned that when it comes to hockey there is only 1.5 degrees of separation when it comes to that.

    “When I met Bruce (Gordon), I knew quite quickly that this was an individual that for obvious reasons had all those characteristics.”

    Besides former teammates, police officers from Saskatoon and Regina will be attending Friday’s game along with lawyers, triathletes and cross fit athletes. Gordon completed as a triathlete and also took part in ironman competitions.

    During Friday’s game, the Blades will be raising money for cancer research at the Royal University Hospital with the auction of a Kelly Chase signed jersey, the sale of “Be Like Bruce” t-shirts and the proceeds from the night’s 50/50 draw.

A display of some of the Blades Pac-Man jerseys.

    “He (Gordon) exemplified at the rink what a teammate was all about,” said Chartier. “He didn’t want any glory.

    “He took care of each and every one of us. I think we all owe him the respect of coming back this Friday and saying thank you.”

    Blades president Steve Hogle expects few tears will be shed during the festivities on Friday night for Gordon.

    “Everybody he came into contact with was absolutely blown away about how he put others first,” said Hogle.

    “The impact he has had on people is made obvious to us by the reaction that we’ve seen with the alumni, with the police, with the triathlon community, with the legal community, with the cross fit community and they are all rallying and coming out on Friday night.”

    The tribute for Gordon is more than justified. You would be hard pressed to find anyone else that wore the team’s old Pac-Man logo that went on to have bigger impact on the Saskatoon community than Gordon did.

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

Louttit’s book a must read

The cover of Ernie Louttit's book

            Wow!

For someone who admitted he had fears about writing a book about his career because he wouldn’t do justice to the written word, retired Saskatoon Police officer Ernie Louttit crafted a page turner.

Louttit’s book titled “Indian Ernie: Perspectives on Policing and Leadership” is his collection of stories from his time with the Saskatoon Police Service. He doesn’t hold back in telling stories you wouldn’t believe a police officer would encounter on the beat.

He was hired in 1987 as only the third native officer in the Saskatoon Police Service’s history, and he officially retired as a sergeant on Oct. 29, 2013. During that time, he gained the nickname “Indian Ernie” and became one of the most respected officers by the public in the Saskatoon Police Service.

He spent most of his career patrolling the streets of Saskatoon’s west side, which has traditionally had to deal with poverty and terrible social conditions. The area centred around 20^th street, and it has been known as alphabet city, Harlem of the prairies and the hood. During the course of Louttit’s career, conditions in that neighbourhood got better.

            For anybody that is entering policing as a career, Louttit’s book is a must read. Even if you are not entering policing as a career, it is still a must read just to get a glimpse of what a police officer goes through.

            While you will be able to take many lessons from the book, one of the big themes Louttit passed along is the message that the Saskatoon Police Service as a whole has improved over the years.

            In the first chapter, Louttit tells about the first time he encountered a “shoot or don’t shoot” situation during the start of his third year with the Saskatoon Police Service. The situation revolved around a domestic dispute at an apartment, where a man had a woman straddled on a mattress in a bedroom.

The man was trying to shove a knife into the throat of woman, who was keeping the blade away from her neck with her fingers. The two were married.

            During the ordeal that ensued to arrest the man, Louttit was at one point in the process of pulling the trigger on a .38 revolver to shoot the suspect, but no shots were fired.

            After the arrest, Louttit wrote about how this case began to fall apart in the courts. There were other people in apartment, and no one took statements from them. That fact was brought up in a preliminary hearing, and Louttit said he didn’t have a good answer for the Saskatoon Legal Aid defence lawyer on why no statements were taken from the other people in the apartment.

            Louttit wrote, “No detectives were ever assigned to assist me, and no detectives offered to help or to provide me with advice. No one from the administration asked if I was all right. I knew I had a long road ahead of me with the Saskatoon Police Service.”

            The charges were stayed at the trial in this case, when the wife failed to appear.

By the last chapter of the book, Louttit described shifts from his final years with the force as a sergeant. Some of those stories included days that were spent at the station.

From those stories, you gathered how much more of a tuned machine the Saskatoon Police Service had become with a big sense of teamwork, where Louttit was checking in and helping other officers where he could. At times, the checks with other officers just included leaving words of encouragement and asking how they were.

In between those two chapters, Louttit goes through all the ups and downs of the years on the job. One story included Louttit tracking down a pedophile at a hotel in a style worthy of Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Other stories included amazing acts of bravery Louttit saw committed by his co-workers, who stopped various individuals from committing suicide.

He also talked about his role of checking into the case of the 1990 death of Neil Stonechild and the inquiry that followed regarding how the case was handled about 13 years later.

The Stonechild Inquiry came during one of the most turbulent times of the Saskatoon Police Service, when it was under scrutiny for the “Starlight Tours.” In early 2000, two men were found frozen to death near the outskirts of the southwest side of Saskatoon.

Shortly after those discoveries, a man named Darrell Night came forward with an accusation that he had been driven out of town by two officers, dropped off in subzero temperatures and made to walk back to the city on his own. Two constables were convicted of unlawful confinement over that case.

Also in early 2000, Lloyd Dustyhorn was found frozen to death near his home shortly after being released from police custody for public intoxication.

Louttit wrote about the grief and pressure members of the Saskatoon Police Service worked under from 2000-05, which included calls for the Service to be replaced by the RCMP.

Though out all the ups and downs, Louttit’s genuine sense of love for his co-workers is evident on the pages of his book despite the challenges the Saskatoon force encountered over the years.

He closed with writing almost a passing the torch style paragraph that said, “I also know that those men and women can do their job without me, and it kind of makes me sad – in a good way. They do not need me. They’ve got it covered. Enough said.”

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