Rah, rah, rah … blah, blah, blah

Some of what goes with being an extreme, intense sports fan is the unconditional loyalty to a favourite team. It is such loyalty that National Hockey League fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs can well attest to.

It is 55 years and counting since the Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup. And of late, it has been the inability of the Maple Leafs to win a Game 7 on home ice against teams that Toronto finished ahead of during the regular season. How frustrating is that for the average Maple Leafs fan?

And what comes next for the Maple Leafs and their Soo Greyhounds, Ontario Hockey League alumni connection of general manager Kyle Dubas and head coach Sheldon Keefe? It sure seems as though Dubas put together an exceptional team for Keefe to work with. But for the third straight season, the Keefe-coached Maple Leafs could not get past the first round of the playoffs.

At any rate, while I am not a Maple Leafs fan and never have been, I do feel for their many followers. This seemed like the season that the Leafs would go on a playoff run that had them playing into the month of June. But again, the Leafs, with Keefe as coach, came up short. And for that, I feel bad for Dubas — and I feel bad for good friends who are Leafs fans.

I know the feeling of rooting for teams that haven’t won in a long, long time. In the NHL it is the Montreal Canadiens, in Major League Baseball it is the Detroit Tigers and in the National Football League it is the Detroit Lions.

But at least Montreal made it to the Stanley Cup finals a year ago. And at least the Tigers were an annual contender or more than a dozen years before going into a rebuild that they are showing signs of emerging from.

The Lions? Yikes, they haven’t even won a playoff game in decades. But the Lions do have the makings of a team on the rise and there are many who cover the NFL for a living who do believe that Detroit is not far removed from being a pretty good team and a contender in the NFC North Division.

When you are a fan of a team that has been at the bottom end of the standings for as long as the Lions have mostly been, it is good to have a backup plan. And for me, my playoff backup for many years now has been the Pittsburgh Steelers.

As the Lions have mostly lost for more than 50 years, the Steelers have mostly won for 50 years and almost annually make the playoffs. So, for me, the backup plan has not only come in handy but it has been frequently utilized.

What if both the Lions and Steelers both finish below .500 and miss the playoffs come the looming 2022 NFL season? Seriously, like a true fan, I am not even going there in my NFL obsessed mind.

I am already on record as saying the Lions will finish 9-8-0 in 2022 and possibly sneak into the playoffs. As for the Steelers, who are supposedly headed for a rebuild and a last-place finish in the AFC North, I am not buying it. While all of the fuss in the AFC North is around the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns, I would not be surprised if the Steelers and Baltimore Ravens finished ahead of both. Seriously.

Let us not forget that only two games separated the four teams of the AFC North in 2021 and that Cincinnati had a lot go its way en route to making it to the Super Bowl, where the Bengals lost to the Los Angeles Rams.

So, here it is, folks, the fearless fan forecast in me for the NFC North and AFC North for 2022: Lions finish 9-8-0 and give the Green Bay Packers a run for top spot and the Steelers go 10-7-0 and battle Baltimore for first place.

*****

HENDO’S HATS

By summer, he is a golf pro and instructor. Throughout the year, he is a hockey guy like few others.

A Sault Ste. Marie native known for his thoroughness and relentless attachment and devotion to the game, Jamie Henderson has three diverse roles with three different teams in three separate hockey leagues.

Henderson’s involvement in the sport goes well past his recurring role as the head coach of the Soo Jr. Greyhounds of the Great North Under 18 Hockey League.

Over the past hockey season, Henderson took on jobs with two other organizations as interest in his services led him to be hired by teams in both the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey League.

With new ownership led by Cole Jarrett and Trevor Daley having taken over operation of the Soo Thunderbirds, Henderson was brought on board by the NOJHL team in the dual role of general manager and assistant coach.

And a trust and bond with the Ottawa 67s of the OHL resulted in Henderson being hired as their northern Ontario well ahead of the 2021-2022 season.

Henderson was new to his scouting position with Ottawa when the 67’s took center Cooper Foster in the second round of the 2021 OHL priority selections draft. Foster played for Henderson and the U18 Jr. Greyhounds in 2020-2021 and moved up with him to the Thunderbirds in 2021-2022 — and was a star performer for the recently crowned NOJHL champions.

And Henderson was Jack Matier’s coach with the Soo under 18 squad when Ottawa took the big defenseman in the first round of the 2019 OHL priority selections draft.

In typical ‘Hendo’ fashion, the personable fellow spoke hundreds of words when recently asked about the 2021-2022 season and what it was like to coach one team, manage another, and scout for a third.

Condensed, his reply can be summed up with: “I love hockey and I can’t get enough of the game. Blah, blah, blah.”

And having said that, it will again be golf instruction season for Henderson as the hockey Thunderbirds return from the Centennial Cup, national junior A hockey tournament in Estevan, Saskatchewan.