Under Further Review – October 31 Edition – Douglas Smith with Editor Bill Morphy. Special thanks to our regular contributors including Jordan Moss, Ian MacPhee, Dave Kittle, Ted Tait, Frank Sullivan, Peter Hucul, Glen and Bill Myles, Howard Steiss, Rob Wagner and John Dancause.
Spanning the digital ether to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… This is Under Further Review.
Glad to be back after a month-long adventure in Portugal. Coming up this week, we have plenty of notes from around the National Hockey League. The Dodgers are champs. The Seahawks are chumps and Aaron Rodgers takes his lumps.
Canucks Notebook – We should send a set of pom-poms to all the would-be hockey experts who excluded the Canucks from their list of potential Stanley Cup winners. Postmedia columnist Steve Simmons named nine teams he deemed capable of winning the Cup. The Canucks were not among them. Why are they so overlooked? East coast bias perhaps? As contributor Jordan Moss pointed out, it may have more to do with the uncertain status of goalie Thatcher Demko.
The key to post-season success in the National Hockey League is roster depth. No team wins the Cup without a deep roster. However, under the salary cap system, that’s getting increasingly difficult. Executives around the NHL have noted how thin rosters are right now. Just look at the fourth lines and third pairings of some of the contending teams. The Canucks are building depth. It will be key as the season unfolds.
Despite some shaky early season results, the Canucks have a chance to be a lot better than last season. It’s going to take time with so many new faces in the lineup. The additions up front have added juice to the attack. The additional speed will ultimately allow the team to play with more pace. A lot depends on which version of Elias Pettersson shows up to play. Pettersson just scored his first five-on-five goal since last March. He’s now the fifth highest-paid player in the league. He had better play like it.
Trading the LTIR contract of Tucker Poolman prior to the start of the season has allowed the Canucks to toll cap space. You will remember they were unable to do that last season and it cost them at the trade deadline when they couldn’t add a scoring forward. The Canucks could have as much as $5 million in cap space at this year’s deadline which would allow them to acquire a much-needed puck-moving defenceman. Erik Brannstrom has done a nice job but he’s not a guy who can play up in the lineup. Mike Matheson of the Montreal Canadiens is the type of player the Canucks will target. He’s 30-years old and earning $4.88 million with one more year left on his contract after this one.
NHL Notebook – Nearly every pre-season prognosticator had the Edmonton Oilers as Cup favourites. Since when does reaching the Cup Final one year guarantee success the following year? Still, the Oilers were the sexy pick. Everyone seemed to ignore the fact the Oilers are missing Ryan McLeod, Dylan Holloway and Warren Foegele off last year’s squad. Three speedy forwards with good size. This year’s Oiler team looks slow. The PK has suffered. McLeod and Foegele were part of the unit along with Cody Ceci and Vincent Desharnais. Yes, there’s lots of time for fixes but this is not the same Edmonton team.
Adding injury to insult, it looks like Connor McDavid will be out 2-3 weeks with an ankle sprain. The Oilers had better hope its not a high ankle sprain. Those injuries can take forever. Crawling out of the hole just got tougher.
It’s looking like the Oilers made a huge blunder in allowing Holloway and Philip Broberg to walk away to St. Louis. Broberg is already becoming a big presence (6’4″, 212-pounds) on the Blues blueline. He’s playing on the Blues top pairing with Justin Faulk. How can you let a 23-year-old defenceman who was the eighth-overall pick in the 2019 draft just leave for nothing? Massive mistake. As crazy as it sounds, you would have been better off to buy-out Darnell Nurse in order to keep Broberg and Holloway.
It’s time to turn up the Concern-O-Meter in Toronto. The Core Four has produced one playoff series win in seven years. Do you really think anything will change this season? From the early returns, the prospects look bleak despite the coaching bump.
Every time the team is challenged, they come up short. The Leafs have lost eight straight regular season games to the Boston Bruins. Brad Marchand has made a career out of making the Leafs his personal cabana boy. The poor Leafs have lost six straight game sevens including four in a row to the Bruins.
If the season ended today, the Leafs would be a playoff bubble team. They are 26th in the NHL in expected-goals-against. When the Matthews line is not on the ice, the Leafs are hemorrhaging. Sorry, one-line teams don’t win in the NHL. The power-play is missing in action. The Leafs are desperate for a defenceman who can quarterback the power-play. Good luck finding one. Anthony Stolarz has been the team’s best player. Not a good sign.
Don’t tell me the glare of the Toronto market doesn’t inflate a players value. Pierre Engvall left the Maple Leafs for Long Island, landed a seven-year contract, and was cut after one season. Defenceman Justin Holl went to Detroit as a UFA. He was handed four years and over $10 million and was cut after one season.
It’s a risky game when it comes to spending big money on goaltenders. The goalie graveyard is littered with expensive mistakes. Check the list. There’s Philipp Grubauer in Seattle. Cal Petersen in L.A. Jack Campbell in Edmonton. Joonas Korpisalo in Ottawa. Ville Husso in Detroit. Those are just the names that come to mind. There’s probably more.
It’s early but you can be sure there will be buyer remorse with some of the free agent signings this summer. Look no further than Nashville where the Predators dished out big bucks for Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei. How about Boston where Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov have barely moved the needle?
You have to love Jaromir Jagr. He’s 52 and playing his 37th pro season. Helps that he owns the Czech team (Kladno) he’s playing for. It’s one way of ensuring you have a spot in the lineup. Jagr says he lost 20 pounds over the summer just to get ready to play another season which he insists will be his last. The guy is remarkable. Jagr remains the NHL’s second-leading all-time scorer.
Jagr finished his NHL career with 1,921 points. Sidney Crosby began this season in tenth place on the all-time list with 1,596 points. Sid just signed a new three-year contract so it seems he will continue playing for a while yet, perhaps into his 40’s. Last season, Crosby put up 94 points at age 37. If he continues at a similar pace, there’s a chance he could overtake Jagr and finish his career as the NHL’s second-leading all-time scorer.
Looking ahead to the Four Nations tournament in February, the makeup of the Team Canada defence corps is coming into view. On the left side, Devon Toews, Shea Theodore and Josh Morrisey look like good bets. On the right side, Cale Makar and Alex Pietrangelo are locks. The final spot will be a battle between Evan Bouchard, Noah Dobson and Brandon Montour.
Did you know that there are only four visor-less players left in the NHL? Can you name them? The answer is Ryan Reaves of the Leafs, Nashville’s Ryan O’Reilly, Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars and Zach Bogosian of the Minnesota Wild, the only defenceman in the NHL playing without a visor.
It’s about time the Anaheim Ducks started showing some progress. Their rebuild is taking forever. When Pat Verbeek took over as GM, the team already had a stockpile of young talent including Troy Terry, Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish, Jamie Drysdale, Olen Zellweger and goalie Lukas Dostal. Since then, Verbeek has drafted Leo Carlsson, Pavel Mintyukov, Tristan Luneau and Beckett Sennecke. He also traded for Cutter Gauthier. That’s a boatload of talent. So far, it hasn’t translated into on-ice success. Shows you rebuilds are not linear.
Just as the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs were hoping this would be the year the young squad started to show progress. So far, it’s not happening. Yes, there have been injuries. The team lacks speed up front. They need another top-six centre to take the pressure off of Nick Suzuki. We’re still unconvinced about the goaltending. The Canadiens are also finding out it’s very hard to rely on a host of young defencemen. It’s a tough league for young D.
Can someone please explain why Alex Mogilny is not in the Hockey Hall of Fame? He finished with over 1,300 career points? Don’t understand it.
Seahawks Notebook – Let’s get right to it. There is nothing I like about this team right now. Nothing. Pete Carroll was supposed to be the problem but what now? All the same issues are reoccurring. Seattle has lost four of their last five and it’s pretty obvious why.
The Seahawks had 11 penalties on Sunday, a season high. It was the fourth time in the last six games they have taken nine or more penalties. Where’s the discipline and accountability? You have players fighting with each other on the sideline. The quarterback loses his cool and is flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. Where’s the leadership? Former Seahawk K.J. Wright, in a recent interview, said “When I look at this team right now, no brother is holding the other brother accountable.”
Seattle used to be the toughest (and loudest) place to play in the NFL. Not anymore. The Seahawks are 19-19 in their last 38 home games. Far more seats are being sold to opposing fans. That was never the case. Fans are holding onto season tickets and selling them off as a side hustle.
The new coaching staff appears to be lost. You have a rookie head coach with only two years of NFL experience as a defensive coordinator. The OC had never coached in the NFL. The highest rank previously held by the new DC was as a position coach. The new special teams coordinator apparently only got the job because his last name is Harbaugh. His experience amounts to working for his dad at Michigan.
And we haven’t even talked about the offensive line. That’s been a sore spot for a decade. They brought in center Connor Williams at the end of training camp. He was recovering from an ACL tear. On Sunday, Williams was single-handedly responsible for a pair of gaffes that negated a pair of potential touchdowns. Both guard spots are turnstiles. The starting right tackle is a rookie seventh-round pick. No wonder the Seahawks can’t run the football. For comparison, the middle of the Kansas City Chiefs offensive line features three players who may all end up in the NFL Hall of Fame. The Chiefs haven’t lost a game in 305 days.
The Seahawks can’t run. The Seahawks can’t stop the run. They are 29th in rushing. They are 29th in rush defense. Nice combination. Against the Bills, Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet combined for 16 yards on 12 carries. The Bills ran for 166 without breaking a sweat.
It’s not surprising, the Seahawks pass the ball 67 percent of the time which is tops in the league. Clearly, an indictment of their inability to run the football. On the other side of the ball, Seattle has allowed opposition running backs to rush for at least 118 yards in six of their last eight games. Good teams use play action. The Hawks don’t. The Seahawks are dead last in the NFL in play action percentage at just 12 percent. They are also at the bottom in defending play action. Signs of a bad football team.
If you are a long-time reader of this column, you will know we have been a big supporter of Seahawks GM John Schneider. There’s no excuse for his failure to address the trenches. What fan wants to watch a team that gets physically manhandled every Sunday?
The Seahawks have enough playmakers to tease us once in a while. At best, they are middle of the pack. For years now, the Seahawks have deluded themselves into thinking they are a Super Bowl contender. They are not. A loss in their next game against the always-tough L.A. Rams and the Hawks are in last place in the division.
It’s time for a reality check. The Seahawks need to get serious about a rebuild. They are not one more off-season or one more good draft from being a contender. The sooner they realize this, the better.
NFL Notebook – Let’s throw a pity party for Aaron Rodgers. He says he’s in a dark place. The only place Rodgers is in is LAST place. The Jets can’t even beat Jacoby Brisset and the woeful New England Patriots. Wasn’t Rodgers supposed to be the saviour in New York? The Jets have won two games in two seasons with Rodgers at quarterback. Only cost them $75 million. We’re so upset. The attention-seeking Rodgers is the Paulina Gretzky of the NFL.
No team has wasted more money on a quarterback than the Cleveland Browns. Deshaun Watson is out for the season with a torn Achilles and the Browns are searching desperately for an exit plan. Since arriving in Cleveland, Watson has settled more sexual assault lawsuits (20) than he’s thrown touchdown passes. If the Browns release Watson before June 1, 2025, the salary-cap charge next season will be $172 million. It will be $118 million after June 1. Watson is so toxic no team would consider acquiring him so the Browns may have no choice but to keep him on the roster.
Can we stop talking about the Baltimore Ravens as a Super Bowl contender? They’ve lost games to both the Patriots and the Browns with Jameis Winston at quarterback. And forget about Lamar Jackson as NFL MVP.
Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper is generally considered the worst owner in the NFL. His record since taking over speaks for itself. You could make a strong argument that Shad Khan in Jacksonville is every bit his equal. The Jags would be better with Chaka Khan as owner.
Khan was convinced the Jags were a playoff-quality team. Makes you wonder who he’s listening to in his inner circle. Khan could have hired one of the game’s bright young minds after the failed Urban Meyer experiment but instead chose Doug Pederson. Why? Because Pederson had won a Super Bowl in Philly. How’s that worked out in Dallas where the Cowpokes hired Mike McCarthy because he had won a title in Green Bay? Neither Pederson or McCarthy have won anything since.
The Jags have ruined quarterback Trevor Lawrence whose now in his fifth season and appears completely lost. When Lawrence left Clemson as the top pick in 2021, he seemed like a sure bet for stardom. Instead, you have a turnover machine who’s been plagued by inconsistency. Lawrence has more than 60 turnovers in the last three seasons.
Not sure what’s happened to Josh Allen but he’s stopped turning the ball over. Allen threw his first interception of the season against the Seahawks. The Bills have a date with the Chiefs in a couple of weeks. That should be a good measuring stick.
Chalk it up. The Indianapolis Colts will ruin quarterback Anthony Richardson. They insisted on starting him as a rookie last season. What happens? He gets injured and is done for the season. This year, his passing percentage is a league-low 44 percent. He begged out of a game last weekend. Who does that? I would have tapped him out all the way to the locker room.
It will go down as one of the most memorable game-winning Hail Mary’s in NFL history. Jayden Daniels 52-yard touchdown to Noah Brown at the buzzer was an instant classic as the Washington Commanders shocked the Chicago Bears. In case you missed it, have a look.
https://youtu.be/eRt-eMZWmm4?si=Q8RAx8CoMnDzM-d-
What made the play even more incredible is the fact Bears DB Tyrique Stevenson was taunting Washington fans as the play was underway. And guess who tipped the ball and ended up being the goat on the play? Isn’t karma beautiful?
https://youtube.com/shorts/pkmN1vIlTw8?si=PMPtTuJU_urGpWIW
Since Kyle Shanahan took over in 2017, the San Francisco 49’ers have an NFL-high 18 losses after leading by at least ten points. That includes six losses when up by at least ten points in the fourth quarter.
Look out for the Los Angeles Chargers under Jim Harbaugh. He’s doing exactly what the Seahawks should have done long ago and that’s build a powerhouse offensive line. The Chargers top pick this year was Notre Dame tackle Joe Alt. Harbaugh could easily have chosen a skill position player. He also moved on from expensive receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. Mark it down. Harbaugh will build a physical outfit that controls the line of scrimmage.
Favourite new name in the NFL this season – Storm Duck of the Miami Dolphins. No truth to the rumour he has a brother named Peking Duck.
World Series Notebook – It was supposed to be a World Series for the ages. Two iconic franchises going to toe-to-toe. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. The Dodgers were simply the better fundamental team. The Yankees are poor defensively and on the basepaths. These things matter. Defensive blunders in the fifth inning of game five prevented the series from going back to Los Angeles.
What to make of Aaron Judge? The Yankees $360 million dollar masher had another forgettable post-season. And he’s no stranger to playoff bomb-outs. In 58 career playoff games, Judge is hitting .205 with 86 strikeouts in 220 at-bats. In the 2020 post-season, Judge hit just .133. In 2022, he hit .139. This year, Judge batted .184 in 14 games with 20 strikeouts in 49 plate appearances. He hit his first ever World Series home run last night. You might give Judge a pass if this was the first post-season where he’s struggled but the stats don’t lie.
You have to be happy for the Dodgers Freddie Freeman who was named World Series MVP. Freeman homered in six straight World Series games to set an all-time record including the walk-off grand slam in game one. With 12 RBI’s, Freeman tied the all-time World Series record set by the Yankees Bobby Richardson in 1960. He now has 17 RBI’s in 11 career World Series games.
Although he was born in California and holds dual citizenship, Freeman considers himself a Canadian. Both his parents were Canadian. His Mom, who died of cancer when Freeman was 10, was from Peterborough. His Dad was from Windsor. Freeman twice played for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic. Couldn’t meet a more solid guy.
Blue Jays Notebook – How can you not feel like the Blue Jays are a huge disappointment? They had the fourth highest payroll in the American League this season and finished with the fourth highest number of losses. As owner, Edward Rogers is nowhere to be found. It was clearly time to axe Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins, the Abbott and Costello of baseball managers, yet Rogers plans to run them back again next season.
It makes you wonder what it’s going to take for Ross Atkins to be fired as Jays general manager. Four teams – the Giants, Cardinals, Twins and Reds – all had better records than the Blue Jays this season, yet they chose to fire their GM’s.
This is a team that traded away Yusei Kikuchi, Yimi García, Danny Jansen, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Justin Turner, Trevor Richards, Kevin Kiermaier and former top prospect Nate Pearson at the trade deadline yet still has the 23rd-ranked farm system in baseball. Any noodle-headed Blue Jay fan knows the gap between the Jays and the Yankees and Orioles is cavernous. The Jays finished 219 runs behind the Yankees and 154 runs behind the Orioles in the AL East.
The front office has a ton of work to do in the off-season. The entire bullpen needs a makeover. The bullpen gave up the most home runs in all of baseball. We already know the team needs to add punch to the lineup. And then there’s the issue of re-signing Vladdy and Bo. Good luck!
Random Leftovers – For the 11th straight season, Canada leads the NBA in international representation. Canada has 21 players in the NBA this season led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, last year’s runner-up in MVP voting. France, Australia, Germany and Serbia all have six players in the NBA. All together, there are 125 international players in the NBA representing 43 different countries.
It figured to be a long season for the Toronto Raptors who are facing a full-on rebuild. Now there’s word Scottie Barnes is out at least three weeks with a broken orbital bone. Good luck winning any games without him.
The average payroll in Major League Soccer this season was just over $17 million dollars. Lionel Messi earned $20.4 million in total compensation with Inter Miami. In case you were wondering. The Toronto FC payroll was $32 million. Another example of the incompetence of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.
YouTube Music Video of the Week – After stepping away from the Rolling Stones limelight, bassist Bill Wyman formed a band called The Rhythm Kings. Back in 1997, the group made an appearance on the Dutch TV show “2 Meter Sessions”. The lineup included Peter Frampton and Albert Lee on guitar, former Procol Harum keyboard player Gary Brooker and Georgie Fame on vocals and B3 Hammond organ. Here’s four tracks off the session – ‘Melody’, ‘Green River’, ‘Stuff’, and JJ Cale’s ‘Anyway the Wind Blows.’
https://youtu.be/hT6pcmJl7xM?si=WvOGL84niBi6_QUG
Here’s a slightly different lineup performing ‘Mystery Train’ on German television in 2000.
https://youtu.be/2TeGVVFdl3g?si=hxzs07QesOWr1qaA
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