Trouba likely to come slinking back

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/09/2016 (3298 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Steve Lyons: Hey. Welcome back. Hope you had a good break after your whirlwind tour of the World Cup of Hockey. Apparently it’s still going on — if they do it again, I would suggest it needs to be a tad shorter. Seems like it’s been on for a month.

And now we have NHL exhibition games going on at the same time. That’s a little much.

Big news out of Jets training camp on the weekend — Jacob Trouba demanding a trade. What do you think will happen — will he ever play again for the Jets?

 

Paul Wiecek: I was watching that Canada-Europe World Cup game Tuesday night. Canada was clinging to a 2-1 lead in the third period and I was thinking to myself that I’d never been more bored watching Canada play in a final. I’m not sure the event is too long — I’m not sure how it could be much shorter. But the timing is definitely off. People have moved on to the NHL and the Blue Jays at this point. And I don’t think there was any doubt in the first place that Canada was much the best and was going to run the table. Plus, a Canada-Europe final is not exactly dripping with history now is it?

As for Trouba, my prediction is he comes slinking back sometime in late November when it becomes clear he’s going to have to either play for the Jets this season — and on whatever side of the ice Paul Maurice damn well chooses — or he’s not going to play at all. The Jets are going to listen to trade offers, but if there was a deal to be done it would have been done long before this thing went public. It just gets tougher to get a deal done now, especially since the Jets aren’t parting with Trouba unless they can get another top-four defenceman in return. What GM in his right mind is going to part with his own top-four defenceman to take a flier on a 22-year-old malcontent who will just pick up his puck and go home if he doesn’t like what side you have him playing on? I’d argue Trouba’s trade value has never been lower than it is today, thanks to his agent.

And here’s the thing, time — and timing — is on the Jets side. If the two parties don’t cut a deal by Dec. 1, Trouba has to sit for the whole season. That would be bad for the Jets, but it would be way worse for Trouba. He’d lose a year’s income, a year of playing time towards becoming a UFA and whatever contract he does eventually sign would be diminished because there’d be all kinds of question marks about a guy who just sat out a whole year. The Jets as a franchise are here for decades to come; Trouba’s got a much shorter window as a player to make as much money as he can while he can.

Only an idiot would choose to sit out a whole year. Although only an idiot would go public with a trade demand when he’s an RFA and has no leverage.

 

Steve Lyons: It seems to me the Jets would want a live body back in any trade, and as you said what team is going to do that given the present circumstances.

I don’t see the Jets dealing him for more draft picks — they are up to their ears in those right now.

Read a story online this morning about how this same scenario came up in Phoenix a few years ago with another Kurt Overhardt client, Kyle Turris. The Coyotes eventually buckled and sent Turris to Ottawa for David Rundblad (Who?!) and a second-round draft pick. There’s no way Chevy is that dumb.

And speaking of dumb — and the Jays — what the heck were they thinking getting into a beanball battle with the Yankees the other night. Kinda late in the season to finally be retaliating for what they perceive to be a season-long trend of pitchers pitching inside too often.

Listen, it’s no secret I like watching the Jays and have cheered for them since the Expos fled to D.C., but man they make it hard to like them sometimes.

How about Mark Teixeira later barking ‘blown save’ at Jason Grilli — sweet. I don’t like your Yankees much, as you know, but I don’t mind Teixeira and to see him flip the bat after his ninth-inning dinger tied the game and then to taunt Grilli — well, funny but that made me smile. Karma’s a –itch isn’t it?

 

Paul Wiecek: That’s the most fight I’ve seen out of the Yankees since 2009. A huge payroll but no heart — or starting pitching — in the Bronx. So now that the season is lost they decide to show some fight? Spare me. The Yankees need to fire Cashman and Girardi. And then I’d bring in that home improvements guy, Mike Holmes, and give him the keys to the franchise. Those clowns need a complete teardown, right to the studs.

Baseball fights are ridiculous in the first place. They’re more choreographed than your average ballet — and your average ballerina is tougher. Those women spend their entire careers up on their toes, but Jose Bautista misses a month when he stubs his? And now Jays reliever Joaquin Benoit is out in the middle of a playoff race because he slipped and tore his calf while jogging in from the bullpen so he could pretend to fight? That might be the most Blue Jays thing that ever happened.

Baseball players are the softest of the four major North America sports — by a mile. The only athletes that come even close are those ridiculous European soccer players who pretend they got shot every time someone trips them. At least they still play soccer when it rains.

 

Steve Lyons: How about a football player playing baseball? Did you see that Tim Tebow hit a home run today on the very first pitch he faced as a pro baseball player — an opposite field jack no less.

I know, he’s playing Instructional League ball, but still. Maybe he can be a true-life Roy Hobbs.

Didn’t Mike Holmes play for the Bombers? Different guy, right? Ha ha

Big test for the Blue and Gold this week — even bigger than last week vs the Stamps, I would suggest.

No more winning streak and needing to rebound from a heartbreaking loss. I think we’ll see what this team is made of on Friday against the Eskimos.

Paul (Willy) Williamson, our Autos/Homes/Travel editor who sits beside me here at the office, just handed me his prediction — Bombers 27 Eskimos 14. Willy has been pretty bang on this year — 8 and 2 in his last 10.

I’m not so sure — the Eskimos looked pretty good beating the Lions last week.

Two Edmonton teams in town Friday night — the Oilers play the Jets at the MTS Centre as well.

I say way more people tune in to the football, amirite?

 

Paul Wiecek: Yeah, that Jets game was almost unwatchable Tuesday night. Even by the low standards of pre-season hockey, that was just awful. But Friday night will be interesting. I’m guessing Patrik Laine will be in the lineup by then and that is going to attract a lot of attention away from what has the makings of a great Bombers game. And if Connor McDavid plays Friday night, look out. He was ridiculously other-worldly good for North America at the World Cup. This might finally be the year the Oilers parlay all that young talent into a playoff contender.

But I love the CFL this time of year. The kids head back to school, the leaves start falling. the nights start getting cold — and the CFL games all start to matter. This is a huge game for the Bombers and not just because it comes against a division rival. The last thing the Bombers want to do is follow a seven-game winning streak with a two-game losing streak and have some doubts start to creep into that locker room. I’m with Willy — I think they win.

How about Kent Austin, though? That guy is easily one of the most disagreeable men I’ve covered and the news today that he’s been fined $10 grand and banished from the sidelines for the next game for slapping that official’s hand last week is exactly why I don’t know anyone who actually likes the man. I heard a good idea down at Bombers practice today — instead of banning Austin from the sidelines, they should allow him to stand down there but forbid him from smirking. Every time he smirks, another $10 grand. One of two things would happen — he’d either go broke or have a stroke by the third quarter.

 

Steve Lyons: I covered the 1989 Grey Cup in Toronto for the Free Press when Austin led the Riders to victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

I grew up in Regina, went to my first CFL games in the Riders Rookies section at Taylor Field and was um a bit of a Riders fan at times. I was glad to see the Riders win that day — they had not won since 1966 — but I was not so happy for Austin. Tom Burgess came off the bench in the second half to throw two TD passes against the Eskimos in the West Final to get the Riders into the Cup, but then Austin got the start in the final game.

Burgess bounced back the next year quarterbacking the Bombers to a Cup title in 1990 — also against the Eskimos. Hey, maybe the Bombers need Burgess in town Friday night. I’ve said it before though — Matt Nichols reminds me of Burgess.

It will be interesting to see what kind of crowd is at IGF Friday night. The week after a sellout for the Banjo Bowl, only 26,000 showed up for the game against the Argos. I got a couple of emails asking we do something calling out the supposed ‘Best Fans in the CFL.’

 

Paul Wiecek: I had tickets to the 1989 Grey Cup, but I got hired by the Free Press the week before and I obviously wasn’t going to ask for time off. Missed one of the greatest Grey Cup games ever and ending up eating a plane ticket and a ticket to the game. On the plus side, I am still stealing a cheque from the Free Press 27 years later.

You were a Riders fan? I’ve heard a lot of shocking confessions from you over the years and that one is right up there. I’ve always kept my love of the Carpenters — it’s true, Rainy Days and Mondays do always get you down — a secret. But after your shocking confession of a love for green, my soft spot for awful 70’s ballads doesn’t seem so shameful all of a sudden.

 

Steve Lyons: I was actually more of a Stamps fan as a kid growing up in Regina. There was a player for Calgary named Rudy Linterman — he wore No. 17 and he had this long blonde hair out the back of his helmet. In the 70s, that was super cool. The Riders used to let kids run on the field after a game and we would ask the players for their chin straps — Linterman gave me his once. I met him years later when I was attending a football dinner of some sort in Calgary — surprisingly he didn’t remember me.

I know this is kinda work chatting with you, but it’s getting late in the day and I have a section to put out. Gotta go.

See ya at the game Friday night. Oh, the Bombers game.

 

Paul: Chin straps. I forgot about that. I had one for years that some Eskimos lineman gave me.

Let’s ask around after the game Friday night. I got dibs on Westerman’s.