Oilers fans should soak in Stanley Cup moment win or lose

Ice District parties bring back 2006 Whyte Avenue memories

An Oilers fan talks to a reporter on Whyte Avenue in 2006.

No matter what happens in the Stanley Cup final, Edmonton Oilers fans should soak in the moment win or lose.

You never know when a time like this will come again. Of course for the Oilers, this is their first time in the Stanley Cup final since 2006, when the fell 3-1 in a series deciding Game 7 to the Carolina Hurricanes.

After two games of this year’s Stanley Cup final, it is likely the enthusiasm from the Oilers faithful has lost some steam. The Oilers traveled to Sunrise, Florida, for the first two contests of the NHL championship series dropping a 3-0 decision on Saturday in Game 1 and a 4-1 decision in Game 2 on Monday to the Florida Panthers.

The series now shifts to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4 to be held on Thursday and Saturday respectively at Rogers Place at 6 p.m. local time on both nights. With the stellar play of Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and the frustration the Oilers are having breaking through on the scoreboard, there is a potential those two upcoming contests could be the last games of the series.

Oilers fans hang out at a pub on Whyte Avenue in 2006.

For me personally, I have for a long time been one of those that has elected to not concern myself with the makeup of the Oilers roster or getting into debates on who should be the second line centre, the third line right-winger, on the third defensive pair or other things like that. If the Oilers win or lose, I don’t treat it like it is life or death, and I’ve long ago realized the sun comes up tomorrow no matter the result of the game.

The way I treat wins and losses from the Oilers might have come from the aftermath of the 2006 run. After falling to the Hurricanes in Game 7 of that year’s Stanley Cup final, the “Decade of Darkness” started for the Oilers where they missed the post-season for 10 straight years.

With all that said, I do come away very happy when the Oilers win.

Throughout the Oilers post-season run in 2024, the most heartwarming sights for me have been seeing the video of the Ice District in downtown Edmonton on TV broadcasts. That area has also been dubbed the “Moss Pit,” named after beloved long time Oilers dressing room attendant Joey Moss who passed away at age 57 in 2020.

Oilers fans cruise Whyte Avenue in 2006.

When I see video from the Ice District, I mostly see lots of young adults out having the time of their lives. The parties look like pure fun.

The images from those videos take me back to reliving the fun that happened on Whyte Avenue during the Oilers run to falling to the Hurricanes in Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup final. Back in 2006, I was at the right young adult age to be able to go out and enjoy the fun on Whyte Avenue, which was also known as “The Blue Mile.”

Living in Medicine Hat at the time, I made it to Edmonton at least on three occasions to take part in the festivities on Whyte Avenue, which was a strip filled at the time with various bars and nightclubs. 

The final trip was for the Game 7 loss, where I went to the watch party at the Oilers long time former home in the Northland Coliseum before venturing out to Whyte Avenue.

A trio of Oilers fans share a laugh on Whyte Avenue in 2006.

Back in those days, Rogers Place hadn’t been built yet, and there was not gathering epicenter by the Northlands Coliseum like the Ice District that exists now.

While the Oilers ultimately lost that night in Game 7 in 2006, the party on Whyte Avenue was still great as the people that went out wanted to hold one last celebration for the run that was. Back in 2006, it was a surprise to have the Oilers in the Stanley Cup final, because they hadn’t been to a conference final since 1992 or to the Stanley Cup final since last winning it in 1990.

I remember that party provided a chance to put a bow on how good that run was. You did get to enjoy some adult fun.

There were also some rowdy episodes that occurred on Whyte Avenue during the 2006 run, but those episodes didn’t occur on my visits there. With that noted, the Edmonton Police Service did have bigger presence along Whyte Avenue during the final game nights of the Stanley Cup final and there were some pretty rough arrests where the police were trying to make a show of force.

The Edmonton Journal from June 20, 2006.

On the final night, I saw the increased police presence, and I did witness two tough arrests. With that said, I didn’t think the police presence took away from the fun that was had on that night.

Those that went out still got to live out one great final party chapter that provided a final and lasting memory of that run.

When I see the video of the festivities out at the Ice District with the current generation of young adults, it makes me wish I was that young again. They might not know it yet, but they are making memories that they will always carry with them.

Now, it would be great to see rally back to win the Stanley Cup. Still for Oilers fans, they should try their best to enjoy the moment right now, because you never when they will get back to the Stanley Cup final again. Missing out would definitely be no fun.

Berries game night experience a blast, other notes

Ryan Olchoway sets to unload a pitch for the Berries.

The Saskatoon Berries have turned Cairns Field into the place to be during the spring and summer in “The Bridge City.”

The Berries are playing through their debut season in the Western Canadian Baseball League, and the game day experience might be one of the best you will find in minor league baseball. They have numerous promotions going on throughout the game, brought in numerous new concession options that feature items with Saskatoon Berries in them, sell a locally made beer with the team name on it that has a Saskatoon Berry taste to it and added a cool jumbo video board in the outfield next to the scoreboard.

The club’s mascot in Barry The Bear helps create a positive vibe that you can feel throughout the park. The Berries have produced the perfect spot where you can go out and enjoy quality high level baseball on a hot summer day or night.

They also have a small store at Cairns Field, where you can pick up their wonderful merchandise. They have the best merchandise you will see from any sports team anywhere.

Of course with the Berries being a first year team, the wins have been a little hard to come by. After 13 games, the Berries have posted a 5-8 record and sit fifth in the WCBL’s East Division. At the moment, they have won their last two straight.

A look at Cairns Field during a Berries home game.

They will face a big challenge in their next two games taking on the Medicine Hat Mavericks, who top the East Division with an 8-4 mark. The Mavericks have been one of the WCBL’s top five teams for most of the past 22 years. The two sides go at it on Wednesday and Thursday at Cairns Field with a 7 p.m. start time on both nights.

The management of the Saskatoon Entertainment Group, which owns the Berries as well as the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades and the NLL’s Saskatchewan Rush, made the astute move of hiring Joe Carnahan to be the Berries head coach. Carnahan had a storied playing and coaching career with the WCBL’s Swift Current 57s.

He was a played on three league championship teams with the 57s and guided them to three more league titles as head coach. Carnahan is putting the pieces in place that should allow the Berries to reach lofty heights on the field one day.

Still, the first year Berries team in the current day battles really hard. With how outstanding the game experience is at Cairns Field, Berries home games provide a great time at the park watching baseball.

• The Saskatoon Entertainment Group has a big store on the north end of Saskatoon, where people can buy Saskatoon Blades, Saskatchewan Rush and Saskatoon Berries merchandise. The store, which is called “The Fez,” is located at 105-2803 Faithful, Avenue. The store is open from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For those looking to make purchases online, the link to get to making online purchases is right here.
• On Thursday, the Saskatoon Blades traded 20-year-old left-winger Vaughn Watterodt to the Victoria Royals in exchange for 19-year-old centre Ben Riche. Watterodt, who was a Blades fan favourite, recorded eight goals, 14 assists and a plus-eight rating in the plus-minus department in 59 regular season games with the Blades in the 2023-24 campaign. Riche played 67 regular season games split between the Moose Jaw Warriors and Royals this past season recording 15 goals and 20 assists for 35 points.
• On Saturday, the Saskatchewan Roughriders opened their regular season downing the Elks in Edmonton 29-21. If Roughriders veteran starting quarterback Trevor Harris can stay healthy, they might be able to be a surprise team in the CFL this year after missing the post-season the past two years. Early on, it feels like the Roughriders are better throughout their playing roster. Rob Vanstone, who is the team’s senior journalist and historian, puts out tonnes of great stories on the team. Those stories can been found on the Roughriders website www.riderville.com.
• On Sunday, I had new content appear on the Howe Happenings blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a piece on Muriel Gieni, who has set Canadian masters record in track and field on at least 60 occasions. That story goes into Gieni’s journey through the sport and can be found by clicking right here. I also put together a photo roundup that was highlighted by the Saskatoon Berries first ever WCBL home game and showed the busy happenings of baseball, football, softball and track and field. That post 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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If you knew Skinner in the WHL, it is easy to cheer for him

Stuart Skinner raises the Ed Chynoweth Cup in 2018.

“Skin-Ner.”

Inevitably, that would be something Stuart Skinner heard every time played goal in an opposing WHL rink. In suiting up for three-and-a-half seasons with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and a half campaign with the Swift Current Broncos from 2014 to 2018, someone in an opposing rink would inevitably get up and bellow out “Skin-Ner” is his or her best imitation of Simpsons character superintendent Gary Chalmers.

During the 2018 WHL Playoffs as Skinner was backstopping the Broncos to a WHL championship win, he was asked about that heckle. The star netminder, who was 19-years-old at the time, took that noise with some amusement.

“I’ve been around it for four years,” said Skinner at that time. “I hear it every place I go.

“I like it. I think it gives more energy and kind of gets me pumped up.”

These days Skinner, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 230 pounds, is a 25-year-old professional goaltender who has played last season and the current campaign full time in the NHL for his hometown Edmonton Oilers. He has backstopped the Oilers to their first appearance in the Stanley final since 2006.

The Oilers currently trail the best-of-seven Stanley Cup final series 1-0 to the Florida Panthers. Game 2 is set for Monday in Sunrise, Florida (6 p.m. Saskatchewan time, Sportsnet West).

Back in his WHL days, Skinner was good natured and had a good youthful energy to him. It felt like nothing ever got to him, and he had a lot of fun handling the big moments. In 207 career regular season contests played between the Hurricanes and Broncos, Skinner posted a 104-72-15 record, a 3.22 goals against average, a .908 save percentage and 12 shutouts.

It seemed like he was made for the big moments. He was also made for fun moments too like on March 18, 2016, when he scored an empty-net goal for the Hurricanes in a 9-3 home ice victory over their biggest rivals the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Stuart Skinner dives on a puck for the Hurricanes in 2017.

The packed crowd of 5,320 spectators at the Enmax Centre broke into a thunderous ovation as Skinner made sure to do the goal scorer’s flyby of his team’s bench. At that point in time, not too many people saw someone do a goal scorer’s flyby dressing in full goalie gear.

Skinner was a key reason the Hurricanes went on a long playoff run in 2017 and the Broncos captured the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions in 2018.

In the 2017 WHL Playoffs, Skinner backstopped the Hurricanes to the WHL Eastern Conference Championship Series for the first time in nine years. They fell in the conference title series in six games to the Regina Pats.

During the 20 contests the Hurricanes played in the post-season, Skinner posted a 10-10 record, a 3.09 goals against average and a .916 save percentage.

On January 9, 2018, Skinner was dealt to the Broncos in a blockbuster deal as Swift Current was loading up for a potential long run through the post-season. 

With Skinner holding the fort in goal, the Broncos won their first WHL championship since 1993. In 26 games in the WHL Playoffs, Skinner posted a 16-10 record, a 2.20 goals against average, a .932 save percentage and six shutouts.

Skinner’s sixth shutout was a 31-save beauty as the Broncos claimed the WHL Championship Series win a 3-0 win over the Everett Silvertops in Game 6 before a sellout crowd of 2,890 spectators at the then Innovations Credit Union i-Plex in Swift Current.

At the Memorial Cup tournament that was hosted in 2018 in Regina, the Broncos were playing on fumes at the event that crowns a CHL champion. They were trying, but it was noticeable the battles they went through in the WHL post-season took their toll.

Stuart Skinner (#74) got the Hurricanes to a conference final in 2017.

While the Broncos lost all three of their games at that event, Skinner posted a .902 save percentage. In a round robin clash against the OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs, Skinner made 54 saves trying to steal a game the Broncos would ultimate lose 2-1.

In the professional ranks, Skinner would face a whole different challenge. 

He was selected by the Oilers in the third round and 78^th overall by the Oilers in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. The Oilers signed him to three-year NHL entry-level contract on May 14, 2018.

Skinner spent his first two seasons as a professional playing in the Oilers minor league system. He made his first NHL start in the 2020-21 campaign, and played 13 games for the Oilers in the 2021-22 campaign before becoming a full time member of the team in 2022-23.

He has put up some good numbers so far in his NHL career. In 123 career regular season games with the Oilers, Skinner has posted a 72-36-10 record, a 2.69 goals against average, a .909 save percentage and four shutouts.

If you know someone who plays in the NHL for a Canadian team, it is advised to not look at the Platform-X social media line. That goes double if the person you know is a goalie for his hometown Canadian team.

While Skinner was a finalist last year for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year, it seems like some of the Oilers supporters in the social media world expect Skinner to be Patrick Roy right now. When struggles have come Skinner’s way, some Oilers fans will basically post their team would be better off with anyone else in goal.

Stuart Skinner helped bring a WHL title to Swift Current in 2018.

In the WHL, those who play for their hometown teams are viewed that much bigger of being a hero when they succeed in good times and take seemingly twice the harder criticism in the bad times. Those extremes are seen in a larger way at the NHL level.

The Oilers dropped Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final 3-0 on Saturday in Florida despite holding a 32-18 edge in shots on goal. 

Skinner stopped 15-of-17 shots sent his way. He had no chance on the two goals the Panthers scored on him, and the Florida side sealed the win with an empty-net tally.

Still, you are going to hear voices about how Panthers star netminder Sergei Bobrovsky is going to put Skinner in his back pocket in this series. Bobrovsky was sensational making 32 saves for the shutout in Game 1, where the Oilers likely would have had seven or eight goals on any other netminder.

For those that knew Skinner during his WHL days, the soft spot in the heart for him is always there. If the Oilers ultimately don’t win this series, you hope the there won’t be an effort by some fans in Edmonton to run him out of town.

If that materializes, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Vegas Golden Knights and their brilliant general manager Kelly McCrimmon swoop in to pick him up.

Right now, it would be preferable if the storybook situation plays out here. 

Stuart Skinner will try to add a Stanley Cup win to his resume.

That would see the Oilers become the first Canadian based team to win the Stanley Cup since the 1993 victory by Roy and the Montreal Canadiens, and Skinner materializes as the ultimate hometown hero in the Alberta capital city along the way.

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.

Out of here for rest of July

I’m hoping to get a little more down time the next few weeks.

Time seems go by faster and faster the older I get.

I kind of underestimated how fast this past winter sports season would go by. Going into the 2021-22 winter campaign, I didn’t really know what to expect.

A year ago in July of 2021, it seemed like restrictions regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could come and go seemingly at a moment’s notice. After there wasn’t much of a winter sports season in 2020-21, I wasn’t sure what to expect in 2021-22.

I have to admit I did not follow through with the original plan in my head. Originally, I was thinking about making just weekly or twice weekly posts on this blog and sitting back and seeing how the sports world in Canada would play out.

I expected there would be pauses and schedule alterations due to positive COVID-19 tests and there were.

It was still in the realm of possibilities that sports seasons that start in Canada might not be completed. To my knowledge, all seasons in the 2021-22 winter campaign were played to a conclusion.

At the professional level, I was pretty certain the NHL season would be completed as the Stanley Cup was awarded in 2020 and 2021. In a 2021-22 campaign that still had its wonky parts, the circuit finished a regular season where every club played a full schedule of 82 games.

The regular season was followed by on exciting post-season. There was still a fairly late finish as the Colorado Avalanche captured the Stanley Cup in Game 6 of the NHL title series by a 2-1 score against the host Lightning in Tampa Bay on June 26.

The Avalanche became “the team” by beating “the team” in the Lightning, who won the Stanley Cup the two previous years.

Hockey in the major junior ranks had an even later finish. In the Memorial Cup championship game held on June 29, the host Saint John Sea Dogs downed the OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs 6-3 to take the CHL title. The Sea Dogs bowed out in the first round of the QMJHL playoffs but used the time off to be able to finish first in the preliminary round standings with a 2-0-1 record at the Memorial Cup tournament before claiming the event’s championship game.

The one loss came in overtime by a 4-3 score to the WHL champion Edmonton Oil Kings. The Oil Kings win ended a 14-game skid by the club that was the WHL champion at the event.

It was great seeing the Hilltops back in action last season.

Before the Oil Kings win, the last time a WHL champion posted a win at the Memorial Cup came back on May 29, 2015, when the Kelowna Rockets hammered the host Remparts 9-3 in Quebec City, Quebec, in a semifinal contest.

The Oil Kings weren’t able to make the playoff round with their 1-2 record getting edged for third place in the preliminary round standings and the tournament’s final playoff berth by the 1-2 Hamilton Bulldogs.

Hours before the tournament started on June 20, the CHL announced a new points system would be used for the preliminary round standings that saw three points given for a regulation win and two for a win in overtime. The Bulldog advanced to the playoff round due to the fact their win came in regulation, and it came against the Oil Kings to boot.

The overtime format was changed for the preliminary round too. Overtime in the preliminary round would be 20 minute periods played in a sudden death three-versus-three format.

The merits of those changes can be debated, but the timing of the announcement of when those rules were changed was awful. If the CHL was going to change rules in the Memorial Cup format, they should have been announced before the 2021-22 season started.

If the rule changes were announced during the event starting with next year’s tournament, the CHL would have come away with a way better look there.

With all that said, I didn’t find myself on the perimeter watching the 2021-22 winter sports season play out. 

Opportunities arose to get back into covering games of the CJFL powerhouse Saskatoon Hilltops in a beat writer fashion and the WHL, where I focused around covering the Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatoon Blades.

In my head, I was thinking the mainstream media in Canada wanted to get out of covering the sports world unless it was the NHL, so I wasn’t thinking opportunities would come in that realm. I find in the overall populous in Canada sports isn’t a big thing unless you are involved in sports with the NHL being the exception to that thought.

I also had an opportunity to get back into covering the University of Saskatchewan Huskies teams in a bigger way. I wasn’t expecting that to come up.

The Oil Kings won the WHL title in 2021-22.

The opportunities to cover the Hilltops and the WHL came up first, so I decided to go with those routes. Out of all the leagues in Canada, I thought U Sports would be the one where their season wouldn’t be played to completion. Fortunately, I was proved wrong on that front and U Sports did play its season to conclusion.

The other decision to just focus on Hilltops and WHL was to limit covering stops and starts and possible cancellations due to COVID-19 positive tests. The WHL had to pause its season for almost all the first two weeks of January due to an abundance of positive COVID-19 tests.

 Following the WHL season, I thought I was going to go for a rest, evaluation and reset period. I elected to cover the Saskatoon Valkyries in a beat writing form as they won their seventh WWCFL title, because my relationship with that team has always been outstanding.

I decided I didn’t want to miss out, because they had a lot of returning players that were around from the 2019 squad before the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions occurred. I enjoyed getting to know the first and second year players this past Valkyries season too.

Now that Valkyries season is done, I’ve decided take a break from creating content for this blog for the rest of the month of July. On the weird part, the break from writing this blog won’t be primarily due for rest and recharge reasons.

At the moment, I am working on a project on the side. I need to sacrifice time in other areas to focus on that project.

In August, I’m hoping you will all get to enjoy seeing the results of the project I am working on.

I hope to get some rest and recharge time in too. Actually, it disappoints me to see my two mountain bikes have been sitting in storage this year waiting to be tuned up for use. I haven’t used them yet.

When August comes, I will be back covering the Hilltops in a beat writing form. I suspect the upcoming 2022-23 winter sports season will see me focusing on the Hilltops and WHL.

I figured I need to focus, because even with the opportunities that have come my way, almost everything in Canada’s sports scene is not being covered outside the NHL, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Toronto Blue Jays, Toronto Raptors and the MLS teams in Canada’s three big cities.

It was so much fun seeing the Valkyries in a seventh WWCFL title.

By the amount of releases and news that comes my way in the sports world for Canada, I have to say that everything is happening now. Everybody in some way is searching for attention.

I will never close the door with regards in potential directions I could go. I do have to weigh how involvement in Canada’s sports scene affects and accompanies everything else in my life, and I find I do that a lot more than I ever had before in my life.

For now, it is time to sign off for a bit. I’ll see you all in August.

Rabbit’s return big for Blades, other notes and observations

Ashley Callingbull, left, and Wacey Rabbit. (Photo courtesy Saskatoon Blades)

The Saskatoon Blades made a big splash bringing Wacey Rabbit back to his first and long time WHL home.

On June 27, the Blades announced that Rabbit was returning to the team as an assistant coach. His wife, Ashley Callingbull, joined the Saskatoon Entertainment Group, which is the parent company that owns both the Blades and Saskatchewan Rush, as an ambassador.

Rabbit, who is 35-years-old, played centre for the Blades starting as an underage call up way back in 2001-02 and the following four seasons through to the conclusion of the 2005-06 campaign, when he was the team’s captain. The Kainai First Nation, Alta., product played in 259 career regular season games with the Blades posting 80 goals, 106 assists and a plus-seven rating in the plus-minus department.

During his overage season in 2006-07, Rabbit started the campaign playing for the Providence Bruins of the AHL. After his WHL rights were traded to the Vancouver Giants, Rabbit was returned to the major junior ranks.

Rabbit finished his WHL career with the Giants appearing in 30 regular season games posting 11 goals, 25 assists and a plus-13 rating. He helped the Giants advance to the WHL Championship Series, where they fell in seven games to the Medicine Hat Tigers. Following that series, he helped the Giants win the Memorial Cup as the tournament’s host team.

Rabbit proceed to play 14 seasons in the minor professional ranks and retired from the game as a player on August 26, 2021. Last season, Rabbit was an assistant coach and skills development coach for the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the junior A British Columbia Hockey League.

Callingbull, who is 32-years-old, is an actress, model, motivational speaker and international celebrity who has over 1.2-million followers on Instagram. The Enoch Cree Nation, Alta., product became the first Canadian and Indigenous woman to win the Miss Universe title on August 29, 2015.

The Blades had a coach vacancy to fill when it was announced on June 20 associate coach Ryan Marsh was leaving his position to become an assistant coach with Schwenninger Wild Wings in Germany’s top professional league.

Rabbit was a fan favourite during his time with the Blades and is one of the all-time most enduring players for the team’s fanbase. When a coaching role came open on the team, Blades management made the first move to contact Rabbit about returning to the club in a coaching role.

Rabbit said in many media interviews he wasn’t looking for jobs in the WHL, but when the Blades came calling, he said that was the team was going to say yes to. Rabbit has always considered Saskatoon as a second home.

Both Rabbit and Callingbull have been active with regards to Indigenous outreach throughout their adult lives, and they plan to continue that work in Saskatoon. Both have been outstanding role models for Indigenous youth.

For the Blades, bringing Rabbit back was a home run on so many levels and some levels that might not even be comprehended at the moment.

Blades management deserves huge applause for having the vision and making the approach to bring Rabbit and Callingbull to the team. This will likely be a move that has a huge positive impact on the community beyond what happens on the ice surface at the rink.

• Saskatoon Blades left-winger Brandon Lisowsky was selected in the seventh round and 218^th overall on Friday by the Toronto Maple Leafs on the final day of the two-day NHL Entry Draft held in Montreal, Que. Last season in his 17-year-old campaign, Lisowsky appeared in all the Blades 68 regular season games posting 33 goals, 25 assists and a plus-one rating in the plus-minus department.
• In the CHL Import Draft on July 1, the Saskatoon Blades selected 17-year-old defenceman Tomas Zizka, who is from Zlin, Czechia, in the first round and 37^th overall. Zizka, who stands 6-feet and weighs 170 pounds, played last season with the Lidingo Vikings J18 squad posting one goal and 13 assists in 31 games. He also played 11 games for Czechia’s under-17 team collecting four goals. Zizka joins 18-year-old fan favourite Belarusian right-winger Egor Sidorov as the Blades two import players. Due to Russia’s invasion attempt and war with Ukraine, Sidorov is residing in Saskatoon for the foreseeable future.
• The Prince Albert Raiders didn’t make any selections in the CHL Import Draft held on July 1. They will return Belarusians in goaltender Tikhon Chaika and left-winger Vladislav Shilo as their two imports. Both are heading into their 19-year-old seasons. Both Chaika and Shilo are residing in Prince Albert for the foreseeable future due to Russia’s invasion attempt and war with Ukraine.
• On July 2, Bret “the Hitman” Hart turned 65-years-old. Hearing that, it is another sign that time is passing way too fast. When it comes to sport entertainment’s pro-wrestling especially if you reside in Canada, Hart will always be, “The best there was, the best there is and the best there ever will be.”
• Jorde Chartrand is the unknown Canadian idol. The 19-year-old right handed pitcher and Weyburn, Sask., product has been playing with Softball Canada’s National Women’s Team. She has been training and playing on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds for a number of years. She has a good following inside the local Saskatchewan softball community, but with Canada’s downsized mainstream media particularly when it comes to covering sports, Chartrand isn’t well known outside the sport. That is too bad, because she is an outstanding role model athlete that excels in the classroom as well as the field of play. Don’t be surprised if she pops on the media radar in a future Olympics.
• The Saskatoon Cubs will host the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League under-18 AAA championship tournament July 22 to 24 at Cairns Field and Leakos Field. If you have never seen a Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League game, you are missing out. In Saskatoon, it is still kind of a hidden gem. As the SPBL regular season heads into the home stretch, the Cubs top the under-18 AAA standings with a 19-4 record.
• The prestige and reputation of Hockey Canada has taken a major hit over the past four months. On April 20, a woman, who is now 24-years-old, filed a $3.55-million lawsuit in London, Ont., against Hockey Canada, the CHL and eight unnamed CHL players over an allegation she was sexually assaulted by the players. The alleged sexual assault was said to occur a hotel room after Hockey Canada gala and golf event in London, Ont., in June 2018 and members of Canada’s 2017-18 gold medal winning world junior team were alleged to be among the eight players. The allegations have not been proven in court. Hockey Canada quietly settled the lawsuit in May. The Government of Canada started looking into Hockey Canada’s handling of the lawsuit in June. That included a meeting with the House of Commons standing committee on Canadian Heritage, where Hockey Canada executives were grilled and came out not looking good including then Hockey Canada CEO Tom Renney, who retired on July 1. After that meeting, the federal government froze fund they were putting into Hockey Canada. A number of major sponsors have frozen their funding to Hockey Canada. This story isn’t leaving the news cycle, so expect developments to keep coming.
• From what I heard, Kevin Waugh, who is a Conservative MP representing Saskatoon-Grasswood and is a former CTV sports reporter, was one of the key figures that pushed for the federal government to look into Hockey Canada’s handling of quietly setting a lawsuit regarding sexual assault allegations with a now 24-year-old woman. Waugh was concerned that the stories produced by TSN’s Rick Westhead weren’t getting traction in the rest of the mainstream media, so he wanted to bring the federal government into the picture. Ultimately, Waugh might be looked upon for playing a sizable role in finding out the truth and creating accountability over this matter.
• Regarding Hockey Canada’s handling of quietly settling a lawsuit regard sexual assault allegation with a now 24-year-old woman and the fallout that is still coming, you have to wonder if those holding leadership positions in Hockey Canada will be able to survive in those positions. In a strange coincidence, Hockey Canada announced on April 20 that CEO Tom Renney was going to retire effective July 1, 2022. That April 20 announcement was the same day the alleged sexual assault lawsuit was filed in court in London, Ont. With that noted, somebody in Hockey Canada’s leadership could have fallen on the sword taking ultimate responsibility over the handling of the lawsuit in being in a leadership position in the organization. That type of act could have prevented a funding freeze from the federal government and sponsors.
• The most powerful person in sports entertainment’s pro-wrestling is being dogged by sexual misconduct allegations. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published a story saying Vince McMahon, the famed CEO of WWE who stepped down from his role on June 17, paid four women US$12-million total over the past 16 years to hide numerous allegations of sexual misconduct. This story came out after the Wall Street Journal reported on June 15 that McMahon, who is 76-years-old, paid out a US$3-million to hide an alleged affair with a former employee, who reportedly was hired as a paralegal in 2019. The WWE’s board of directors was investigating the US$3-million payout, and McMahon stepped down from his CEO role due to that investigation. McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie McMahon, is serving as interim CEO and interim chairwoman after serving as the company’s chief brand officer. The US$3-million payout was part of the US$12-million payout in the Wall Street Journal’s latest story. This story has been picked up by most of the major mainstream media outlets in the U.S. It is possible this could end Vince McMahon’s involvement in sports entertainment’s pro-wrestling scene.
• Today on Saturday, July 9, I had new content appear on the Howe Happenings blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a feature story Parker Frey, who is the ace pitcher of the Saskatoon Cubs under-18 AAA team. The piece on Frey can be found by clicking right here. I also created a new photo roundup of the sweet cool moments happening on the Complex grounds that 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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Lightning are the team to beat in the NHL

Expect Stanley Cup to reside in Tampa Bay once again

A Victor Hedman card.

All players and staffers with the Tampa Bay Lightning can do the Ric Flair strut followed by the trademark, “Woo!”

Of course, the Lightning players and staffers handle things in more of a classic humble manner traditionally expected winners in professional hockey that is without bravado and swagger. Flair does attend Lightning games, so maybe that is the team’s way of bringing in bravado and swagger.

Still when it comes to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, to be the team you have to beat the team.

As the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, the Lightning are the team. It feels like it is going to take a supernatural effort to pry the Stanley Cup away from Tampa Bay’s grasp.

On Wednesday, the best-of-seven Stanley Cup final starts in Denver, Colorado, with Game 1 (6 p.m., CBC). The host Colorado Avalanche, who finished second overall in NHL’s regular season standings with a 56-19-7 record, face the Lightning, who finished eighth overall with a solid 51-23-8 mark.

The Avalanche won the NHL’s Western Conference title, and they are the team on the rise that has seemingly arrived.

The Lightning won the NHL’s Eastern Conference crown, and they are chasing history as the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.

A Steven Stamkos card.

Tampa Bay is trying to win the Stanley Cup for a third consecutive year, which is something that hasn’t happened since the New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup four straight years from 1980 to 1983. Those storied Islanders squads were going for a fifth straight title before grudgingly giving way to the revered Edmonton Oilers in 1984 and the start of their dynasty run.

The Lightning are still in their prime. They have a dependable core of players who are used to willing their club to victory in Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev, Patrick Maroon, Ryan McDouagh and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Through three rounds of the playoffs, the Lightning made seemingly all the extra effort plays when it comes to blocking shots or winning one-on-one battles for the puck. Those extra effort plays are added in addition to the fact they play the game on a systems front seamlessly and often flawlessly.

On top of that, the Lightning have gotten Hockey Hall of Fame level goaltending from Vasilevskiy.

Teams that get all those things inevitably win Stanley Cups.

In the Lightning’s case, the fact they’ve won the last two Stanley Cup titles, and they go all out in the shot blocking department and winning one-on-one puck battles can create “shock and awe” doubt in opponents.

An Andrei Vasilevskiy card.

When opponents see the effort the Lightning still put out after having won the Stanley Cup in each of the past two years, opposing teams have to question themselves in where they are in the “how bad do you want it” department.

You begin to see why the Lightning are the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions and the other 31 teams in the NHL are not.

Veteran Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois and long time head coach Jon Cooper have built a team for sustained success and not to be a one-year wonder club.

If the Lightning knock off the Avalanche to win a third straight Stanley Cup, BriseBois and Cooper have to be locks for the Hockey Hall of Fame.

If the Lightning capture a third straight Stanley Cup title, the debate begins on which players from their team will be locks for the Hockey Hall of Fame. Stamkos, Hedman and Vasilevskiy have to be the non-debatable locks for the Hockey Hall of Fame, if the Lightning win a third straight Stanley Cup.

Had Stamkos, Hedman and Vasilevskiy played on a NHL Canadian team their entire careers, they would be talked about like hockey royalty.

Put it this way, Avalanche 23-year-old star Cale Makar has been mentioned quite a bit among Canadian mainstream media as the best all-around defenceman in the NHL. The graduate of the junior A Alberta-based powerhouse Brooks Bandits is deserving of big praise.

A Nikita Kucherov card.

The best all-around defenceman praise came after the Avalanche swept away Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Championship Series.

However, it can be argued the 31-year-old Hedman is a better all-around defenceman than Makar. To be honest, Hedman might be the best all-around defenceman in the NHL.

With Hedman playing his entire NHL career dating back to his first season in 2009-10 with the Lightning, he hasn’t received much attention from Canadian mainstream media outlets until the Lightning reach the Stanley Cup final.

When the Lightning play in the Stanley Cup Final, an acknowledgement is made of, “Wow! I didn’t realize Victor Hedman was that good.”

Actually had Hedman played his entire career for the Toronto Maple Leafs, you could almost see Toronto media outlets making the case that Hedman was the greatest defenceman to ever play in the NHL.

That leads to another intangible the Lightning have. They don’t get phased when things go south for a game or adversity rises up.

Back in the first round of the current NHL Playoffs, the Lightning lost Game 1 of their best-of-seven series to the Maple Leafs 5-0 in Toronto. There was talk that the Lightning were finished and the Maple Leafs would be Stanley Cup champions.

An Alex Killorn card.

The Lightning seemingly had the collective confidence and calm knowing that was only one game and the Stanley Cup is not won in the first game of an opening round series. The Lightning took out the Maple Leafs in seven games claiming Game 6 by a 4-3 score in overtime in Tampa Bay and prevailing 2-1 in Game 7 in Toronto.

During the Game 7 win over the Maple Leafs, the Lightning lost Point to a lower-body injury. Without their high-scoring centre, who plays a strong two-way game, the Lightning swept the Florida Panthers, who finished first overall in the NHL regular season standings with a 58-18-6 record, in a second round series and took out the New York Rangers in six games in the Eastern Conference Championship Series.

In Game 1 against the Rangers in New York, the Lightning fell 6-2. The Rangers followed up by posting a 3-2 victory in Game 2 to take a 2-0 lead in the series to once again start banter that the Lightning were dead.

Four straight wins later by Tampa Bay, and the Rangers were making plans for which golf courses they would hit in the off-season. 

After the Lightning took Game 5 in New York by a 3-1 score, numerous Rangers fans were waving white flags on social media channels.

Regarding Point, the Lightning say they expect him to return to action in the Stanley Cup final.

A Brayden Point card.

The Avalanche will provide a stiff challenge to the Lightning. With players like Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Andre Burakovsky, Gabriel Landeskog, Devon Toews, Valeri Nichushkin, Erik Johnson, Josh Manson, Darren Helm, Pavel Francouz and Darcy Kuemper, maybe the Avalanche will be the answer to the Lightning like the Oilers were to the Islanders back in 1984. If the injured Nazem Kadri makes it back, the Avalanche will be even more of a challenge to deal with.

In this round between the Lightning and Avalanche, it feels like experience is going to matter, and it will play out like the 1983 Stanley Cup final where the Islanders swept the Oilers providing a big learning experience for the Edmonton side.

If the Lightning did sweep the Avalanche, that would be a surprise. At the moment, the Lightning are the two-time defending champs, and it is hard to envision them getting knocked off. They are far from being old and done.

The Lightning will be the favourites to win the Stanley Cup until someone indeed knocks them off. Look out Avalanche, because the champs are here.

Oilers playoff run was fun entertainment, other notes

A Connor McDavid card.

For the casual hockey fan, nothing beat the Edmonton Oilers running it back to the fire wagon days of the 1980s in the NHL Playoffs.

The Oilers finished 11^th overall in the NHL’s regular season standings with a 49-27-6 record, and in the post-season, they attempted to emulate their all-time great clubs from the 1980s by piling up the goals. They went on a run that saw them make the Western Conference Championship Series for the first time since 2006, when the Oilers advanced to the Stanley Cup final and fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games.

Edmonton’s venture through the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs came to an end on June 6 with a 6-5 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche that was highly entertaining. While the Avalanche to the Western Conference Championship Series in a sweep, the Oilers legitimately could have won Games 1, 3 or 4 of the series.

The Oilers run had lots of nostalgia points too.

With the Oilers being blessed with two of hockey’s best players in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, it was easy to follow the team’s exploits. In 16 post-season games, McDavid piled up 33 points coming off 10 goals and 23 assists to go with a plus-15 rating in the plus-minus department.

Draisaitl also appeared in all of the Oilers 16 post-season outings piling up 32 points coming off seven goals and 25 assists to go with a plus-four rating.

That allowed fans to dream back to the 1980s, when Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and company were putting up insane offensive numbers for the Oilers.

The Oilers took out the Los Angeles Kings in a first round series that went the distance to seven games, where the Oilers took the deciding contest 2-0. That brought memories of the playoff encounters the two sides had in the 1980s and early 1990s.

In the second round, we had Battle of Alberta for the first time since 1991 between the Oilers and Calgary Flames. The Oilers took the series in five games with storylines jumping around all over the place as much as the offence.

The rivalry had a bit of snark in it too. The Flames took the first game in Calgary 9-6, before the Oilers rolled off four straight wins. Edmonton’s victories in Games 2 and 4 of the series came by respective 5-3 final scores.

The Oilers clinched the series with a 5-4 win in Game 5 in overtime with Draisaitl setting up McDavid for the winner.

A lot of nostalgia surfaced during that series between the Oilers and Flames as fans recalled their playoff meetings in 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1991.

A Leon Draisaitl card.

In the Western Conference Championship Series, the Oilers weren’t able to outgun an Avalanche team that also has lots of offensive talent in Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Nazem Kadri.

The series began with an 8-6 victory by the Avalanche in Game 1 in Denver before Colorado closed things out with their 6-5 overtime win in Game 4.

The post-season run seemed to take heat off Oilers standout general manager Ken Holland, who faced criticism because his Oilers teams hadn’t made a long playoff run like his old Detroit Red Wings teams used to do including four Stanley Cup title wins.

Midway through the 2021-22 campaign, the Oilers made a coaching change, which seemed to spark their run to making the playoffs. Dave Tippett was out as head coach and Jim Playfair was out as associate coach, and Jay Woodcroft was in as head coach and Dave Manson became an assistant coach.

Obviously, Woodcroft and Manson have done enough that they need to be retained.

The Oilers need to get a little bit better on defence and find a way to improve their goaltending situation. In goal, the Oilers got all they could get from 40-year-old Mike Smith, but he had way too many shaky and error prone moments.

The Oilers other goaltender in Mikko Koskinen signed a two-year contract with play with Switzerland’s Hockey Club Lugano on Monday.

Edmonton has to decide if 23-year-old local product Stuart Skinner, who was a WHL star with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Swift Current Broncos, is their goaltender of the present or do they have to acquire another puck stopper.

Unfortunately across the NHL, there aren’t many goalies to go after that would be an upgrade and are sure things. Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

Sure thing upgrades are left to desperate measures like sending five first round draft selections to the Winnipeg Jets for Connor Hellebuyck.

Despite what the Oilers need to do to more forward, it was refreshing to see them make a long playoff run once again.

• On Monday, Sage Watson, who is a star 400-metre hurdler on Canada’s National Women’s Track and Field Team, announced she is taking the upcoming season off to allow her body to recover from various lingering injuries. The 27-year-old from Seven Persons, Alberta, which is just southwest of Medicine Hat, has represented Canada at the last two Summer Olympics.
• On Monday, the Saskatoon Blades announced they signed 15-year-old forward Hudson Kibblewhite to a WHL Standard Player Agreement. The Blades selected the Vernon, B.C., product in the second round and 35^th overall in the WHL Prospects Draft held this past May 19. Last season with Rink Hockey Academy Kelowna’s under-15 prep team, Kibblewhite piled up 61 points coming off 19 goals and 42 assists.
• On Monday, Softball Canada announced 19-year-old right-handed pitcher Jorde Chartrand, who is from Weyburn, Sask., was one of 20 athletes named to the Women’s National Team roster for the organization’s 2022 Celebration Tour and the Canada Cup International Softball Championship, which runs June 20-26 in Surrey, B.C. The Celebration Tour helps commemorate the bronze medal win by Canada’s women’s team at the 2020 Olympics, which were actually held last year in Tokyo, Japan. The tour includes a stop at Bob Van Impe Stadium on July 1 for a doubleheader against Czechia starting at 1 p.m. Chartrand, who has played and trained in Saskatoon, is coming off her first season playing for the University of Central Arkansas Bears women’s team in the NCAA Division I ranks.
• On Monday in Madison, Wisconsin, Canada downed the United States 3-2 in the gold medal game of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Women’s World Championship tournament. Canada built a 3-0 lead and held on for the one-goal win at the LaBahn Arena. Ava Murphy had a goal and an assist for Canada, while Jocelyn Amos scored the winner. Mari Pietersen made 29 saves to pick up the win in goal for Canada.
• A hidden gem in Saskatchewan might be the action in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League. The play at all levels in that league is strong. The action in the under-18 AAA division is stellar. On Wednesday in the under-18 AAA division, the Saskatoon Cubs (10-2) will face the Saskatoon Diamondbacks (8-4) on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Cairns Field in what should be a really good game. If you want to check out a contest from a curiosity standpoint, that would be a great contest to check out.
• Last Thursday, I had new content appear on the Howe Happenings blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a feature story on track and field stars Michelle Harrison and Nicole Ostertag taking on busy outdoor seasons. The piece on Harrison and Ostertag can be found by clicking right here. I also created a new photo roundup that 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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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.

After Stanley Cup high by Lightning, where does the NHL go from here?

Look of 2020-21 campaign has no certainty

A Brayden Point card.

In the current day, it seems like the great feeling of experiencing the NHL’s top annual moment was fleeting.

On Monday, the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup for the second time in team history blanking the Dallas Stars 2-0 in Game 6 of the NHL championship series to take the best-of-seven set 4-2.

When Lightning captain Steven Stamkos raised the Stanley Cup after his team posed for a group picture with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, you could see in Stamkos’s eyes and his reaction in that moment at Rogers Place in Edmonton was an ultimate dream comes true.

As the Stanley Cup was passed amongst the members of the Lightning team include standout players like Victor Hedman, Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy and head coach Jon Cooper, the joy of holding up the historical professional hockey prize was as pure, natural and euphoric as it could get.

There were good tingles when you saw role players like Tyler Johnson, Anthony Cirelli, Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn enjoy the rewards for doing their party to help the Lightning reach the NHL’s peak. 

A Victor Hedman card.

On the Saskatchewan front, Saskatoon product Luke Schenn and Shaunavon product Brayden Coburn realized the top moment of their lengthy NHL careers with their first Stanley Cup win.

While it was still obvious the world was in the grips of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as no fans were in attendance and only team family members that lived in Canada were in the building, the night belonged to the Lightning. They soaked in a treasured moment in time they rightly deserved.

For a period of two months beginning on August 1, NHL fans both hardcore and casual got to watch the television broadcasts extended 24-team post-season play out in the hub cities of Toronto and Edmonton. When it was time to hold the conference championship series, all the action was condensed into Edmonton.

Even if your favourite team lost out, fans had to admit it was comforting having the NHL on television on pretty much a nightly basis. Watching games helped get the mind off of the troubles the world was going through even for a short time.

An Alex Killorn card.

Still, even as quickly as the day after the Stanley Cup final ended, the question that inevitably ran through the head was “what happens now?”

First up, the NHL Entry Draft will be held this coming Tuesday and Wednesday via video conference call from the NHL Network Studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. Free agency will open on Friday, Oct. 9 at 12 p.m. eastern time.

After that, things get murky. The NHL has not announced a start date for the upcoming 2020-21 regular season.

Speculation has ranged from December 1, to the middle and later part of that month and possibly early in January 2021. Actually, everything with regards what the 2020-21 NHL campaign could look like is all speculation at this point.

In an interview with SiriusXM NHL Network Radio on this past Wednesday night, Bettman said he was unsure what the next NHL season will look like.

“I don’t know what we are going to do yet, but we are focusing on what the issues are,” said Bettman on the broadcast. “When we know more how about those issues get resolved or are left unresolved, we’ll be in a better position to announce what are plans are and what the contingencies are.

A Tyler Johnson card.

“That exercise is going to require a few more weeks, but we are intent on playing the 2020/21 season. My goal would be to play a full season, a regular season and then go into normal playoffs. While that is our goal and our objective and I think we can do that, we need a little more time to work on the planning.

“That is something that we are going to be doing in conjunction with the players again.”

At the start of the Stanley Cup final, Bettman said attendance impacts 50 per cent of NHL revenues. Unlike a circuit like the NFL that has all its costs covered due to its television contract, the NHL needs some fans in the stands.

Outside of a few spots in the United States, mass gatherings are still not permitted in most NHL markets including all seven teams located in Canada. The border between Canada and the United States is still closed to non-essential travel and odds are high that likely won’t change until well into 2021.

During the SiriusXM NHL Network Radio interview, Bettman said there are a lot factors that are out of the NHL’s control, but he would like to get fans back inside rinks around the league.

A Nikita Kucherov card.

“We don’t know what the world is going to be like,” said Bettman. “When will our buildings as a result be open like they used to be?

“The fact is our players and our game gets an incredible energy from our sold out buildings every night. It is part of what makes NHL hockey the best in person sporting experience. We miss our fans terribly.”

It should be noted that all the buildings in the NHL aren’t sold out on a nightly basis, but attendance for the league before the 2019-20 regular season was paused on March 12 was healthy. The fans do create a good atmosphere inside NHL buildings.

Still, the biggest question is how long will the wait be before the next meaningful NHL game is played?

Could a lengthy amount of time pass before the NHL hits the ice again?

When the league does return to action, what is it going to look like?

Will the teams in Canada just be playing each other with the same happening in the United States?

A Steven Stamkos card.

After the NHL Draft ends, the league will be venturing into an unknown. It is an unknown that is already being thought of as the NHL regular season usually begins around the time the upcoming NHL Entry Draft is slated to be held.

The Lightning, who have talent all over the place, will likely become more and more thankful they reached their potential with their current generation as the days pass. As it is expected the salary cap won’t grow and could possibly shrink, the Lightning will be hard pressed to keep their roster together.

While there was security knowing games were happening on pretty much a nightly basis during the 2020 NHL post-season, the off-season the NHL is in feels a little ominous and scary.

That ominous and scary feeling likely won’t totally go away until the COVID-19 pandemic is declared over.

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.