Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on their 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV in Miami! Not too many people saw that one coming.
Thoughts on the game? Where'd you watch it? Hopefully you enjoyed it because it's the last football game you'll see live until June. Lots of guys (and gals) I know will be going into football withdrawal for the next little while and when you combine that with the sub-minus 20 temperatures around here right now, the winter blahs have officially set it.
More football in a moment but we'll open today's column with hockey...
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The Regina Pats certainly are making things interesting down the stretch. The hockey club came back from a 4-2 deficit Saturday night to rally and beat the Kootenay Ice in overtime. Jordan Eberle set up one goal with two minutes left, tied the game with 0:55 left, and assisted on the overtime winner.
Sometimes this team makes it awfully tough to cheer for them and I don't blame the dozens of fans who headed to the exits with five or so minutes remaining. However apparently the Pats used it as motivation.
"We saw people getting up and leaving," said Pats assistant coach Shaun Sutter on the postgame show. "We were booed and we were heckled but we hung around and got it done. It seems nobody but our players and staff believes we can get into the playoffs but we're going to fight tooth and nail until this is all over."
With the win the Pats closed the gap for the final playoff spot to five points with 16 games to go. They finished their homestand at 1-0-0-3, meaning they earned five of eight points. It's another crazy week ahead as the Pats visit Brandon tomorrow, host Calgary Wednesday and visit Red Deer Friday and Edmonton on Saturday. That's a REAL crazy schedule.
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Pats coach Curtis Hunt was under fire last week for playing his top guns too much, particular Jordan Eberle who leads the WHL with 39 goals. So in Friday night's 5-4 shootout loss to the Blades, we put a clock on him in the press box. The result? Eberle got 24:00 of ice-time which INCLUDED overtime.
Before Saturday night's Pats game, I compared Jordan's 24 minutes to the top players in that afternoon's NHL games and this is what we found:
Jordan Staahl 23:24
Evgeny Malkin 20:00
Sidney Crosby 21:00
Tomas Plekanec 22:13
Brian Gionta 21:00
Scott Gomez 21:00
So basically Eberle's not playing any more than any team's top stars and many feel the criticism is ridiculous.
"I don't know any coach who would play Eberle any less than Curtis does," Pats colour commentator Al Dumba said on Saturday's pregame show. "When I coached the Pats I told Jason Smith, Nathan Dempsey, David Wilkie and Jeff Friesen to stay out there until I told them to come off and we went all the way to the East Final."
'Nuff said.
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Molleken's Men tried to goon it up in the Pats-Blades game Friday night but the Pats were having none of it. It was retro night as far as Saskatoon's style of play went, but nobody seemed to have a problem with it.
"It was 1980s WHL hockey!" mused Pats coach Curtis Hunt. "Hey I just wish somebody would've told us! We thought maybe we'd draw some penalties in the first period by taking punches to the head and not retaliating but that didn't happen. Hey that's fine. We manned up and stayed out of it. You know why the rabbit's not afraid of the bear? Because he's quicker and he's smarter."
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Do you believe the Pats will make the playoffs?
If you don't, you'd be wise to book your seats on the Major League Tours bus-trip to Edmonton now to catch two Oilers games in late-March (against San Jose and Detroit). If the Pats wind up missing the playoffs, that trip will sell out in minutes as Regina hockey fans will want to watch Jordan Eberle make his Oilers debut. The trip includes two nights hotel accomodation, two Oilers games and a day at West Edmonton Mall. Click on the Major League Tours add at the top left of this page for the info.
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Who got to meet Wayne Gretzky at Friday's Kinsmen Dinner in Saskatoon? I'd be interested to hear your stories.
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Speaking of that dinner, Rider President Jim Hopson got people excited when he mentioned something about the Riders' 2010 training camp being in Saskatoon. I've been told by the football club that Jim's comment was something to the effect of "my intention is to hold training camp in Saskatoon this season" and people took it and ran with it.
While it's likely the team will wind up there, nothing's officially been announced yet.
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By the way there was considerable discussion on the blog this weekend about training camp being in Saskatoon. It's NOT a cash-grab. Jim simply wants to reward Rider fans in northern Saskatchewan and feels this is the best way to do it. Truthfully I'm not pumped to go there for one simple reason; it's like a three week road trip and when you got kids at home relying on you for rides to and from school and their activities, it becomes a massive headache. If I was single with no kids, training camp in Saskatoon would be a dream.
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The CFL must be loving all the off-season media attention it's getting with the coaching carousel going round and round. It got another gigantic heave yesterday with the Sportsnet report that the Argos are going to hire Jim Barker as their new head coach. What exactly is going on in these interviews with Greg Marshall anyways? Why does he interview, then never get the job? I'd be interested to know that.
Paul LaPolice fired his defensive and special teams coordinators on Friday and word is he's looking at Bomber receivers coach Bob Dyce to be his offensive coordinator but he's also received permission to talk to Rider QB coach Jamie Barresi. And of course yesterday the Winnipeg Sun reported LaPolice also plans to interview Kavis Reed for the D.C. job in Winnipeg.
And in a weird twist, Rider coach Ken MIller has asked for, and received, permission to speak with Dice about the O.C. job here. Whew! The Calgary Stampeders are also looking for an offensive coordinator to replace George Cortez.
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John Lynch surmised on the weekend that perhaps former Rider hoggies Mike Abou-Mechrek and/or Andrew Greene might make good candidates for the vacant Rider offensive line coaching job. Luckily Abou-Mechrek is now an Investors Group co-worker of my partner Al Dumba so during the Super Bowl, Al shot Abou a text asking him about it.
"I'm not old, crusty or fat enough yet to become a coach," was Abou-Mechrek's reply. As for Drew, well, we'll have to look into that this week.
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Another announcement coming down the pike soon will be about the Riders' new assistant General Manager. A friend of mine in the league asked me to put a good word in for him with Kenny on Friday but when I did, Miller said they've all but filled that position. They've identified the guy and are now negotiating his deal.
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You may want to know that EA Sports has simulated the last seven Super Bowls and predicted the winner correctly in six of them. That includes the Saints yesterday, although they had the score at 35-31 with the Saints scoring on a last minute drive to win. That's darn close for a video game, since Porter's late 74-yard INT return sealed the win for New Orleans.
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The Who? Really? THE WHO?? Kenny Chesney was AT the game but they had THE WHO sing at halftime? That's a joke.
Honestly I was driving to my brother's at halftime so I missed the performance but hopefully they come up with a better act for Super Bowl XLV in Dallas next year. George Strait perhaps?
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We caught the American commercials on CBS HD at the Press Box yesterday but it was so jammed you couldn't hear them. Any thoughts on those ads? On Saturday the NFL Network ran a program rating the best Super Bowl ads of all-time, hosted by Jim Nantz. Here were the top three:
1 - Budweiser's ad where a bunch of Clydesdale, other horses and livestock gather in a meadow for a game of pick-up football and a sheared sheep streaks through the middle of their game.
2 - E-Trade where the toddler tells us how easy it is to buy stock through E-Trade, then throws up all over himself. And...
3 - Pedigree Dog Food's ad where people try to train animals to be pets, like a yak or a boar with no success. The message is "why not adopt a dog?"
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Weird things about the CBC telecast of Super Bowl:
- No cameras set up in the French Quarter in New Orleans.
- No shots of Kim Kardashian. Was she hiding?
- No shots of the Mannings. Did I miss them?
Perhaps I did. There was lots going on.
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Speaking of the Press Box, they've got all you can eat Soup N' Salad today for just $7.99.
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And the new Walmart Supercentre opens on Wednesday in Harbour Landing. It looks great!
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Don't forget Sportsline tonight at 6:00 on 620 CKRM and HAVE A GREAT WEEK!
RP
Kootenay (34-17-3-5) at Regina (23-25-3-4)
