Photo credit: Facebook Saskatchewan Roughriders
It’s my Parting Shot for some Weekend Short Shots…..
Since the last time, prior to right now, that the Saskatchewan Roughriders won the first four games of a C-F-L season was the last time they won the Grey Cup in 2013, there are many in Rider Nation who are expecting nothing less than that in 2024! Right?!
Maybe not as attendance was just under 24-thousand. On-field performance will dictate crowd size for future weeks. And, there are still a lot of doubting Thomases in the province. Plus, the rising cost of living plays a factor, as does a home game being played on a week night. But, there are a lot of people interested in the Green and White in the province, supposedly, so 23-9-23 has to be concerning!
Based on post-game talk, you’d swear that head coach Corey Mace and offensive co-ordinator played the game. Their game plans and adjustments to said game plans were top drawer, but it was the players who executed – so a shout-out to Shea Patterson, Marcus Sayles, Samuel Emilus, Rolan Milligan Junior and the rest for their efforts!
I posted the following on the social media site formerly known as Twitter last weekend, but it bears repeating now – congratulations to Saskatoon Blades goaltender Evan Gardner on being selected in the 2nd round, 60th overall, by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the N-H-L Entry Draft lasr Saturday! The culmination of a massive spike of a rise in calibre of play in his rookie W-H-L season. As great as Evan was in 2023-24, in my humble opinion, the quality of Bridge City Bunch team in front of him greatly helped his meteoric rise in prospect rankings! The longer a team goes in the playoffs, the more chances for a prospect to be viewed! Evan made the most of his chances!
And, while I’m on the topic of Blue and Gold players getting deserving opportunities, in addition to the drafted Blades, how about left winger Easton Armstrong plus defencemen Ben Saunderson and Charlie Wright getting invites to N-H-L rookie development camps with Nashville, Columbus and Seattle, respectively! Simple awesome!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!
