Lions rookie QB showing his potential
In honour of the Washington Capitals, here’s something else you have to wait for a long time to be good, the Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports.
One of Wally Buono’s core philosophies is his third-string quarterback has to project as a starter and, over the years, Buono has employed Henry Burris, Dave Dickenson, Casey Printers, Buck Pierce, Travis Lulay, Mike Reilly and Jonathon Jennings in that role.
Ricky Lloyd started the
B.C. Lions’ training camp as the fourth quarterback on the team’s depth chart.
Friday night in Calgary, he came off the bench and threw three touchdown passes in the Lions’ 36-23 pre-season win over the Stamps.
Buono was asked what he saw in the 25-year-old Minnesota State product.
“You want to find out if you can win with your quarterbacks and we found that out,” he answered.
“(Lloyd) took his opportunity. Calgary wasn’t playing generic defences. They were blitzing and he handled it well. He’s built other opportunities for himself.”
Lloyd, in fact, goes into Friday’s pre-season game against Winnipeg as the Lions’ No. 2 pivot.
Cody Fajardo, who went into the Calgary game as Jennings’ backup, suffered an undisclosed injury and will be gone for a couple of weeks.
Lulay is still recovering from off-season knee surgery and is still likely a month away.
Jennings will get the majority of the reps Friday night at B.C. Place but Lloyd will see playing time.
“You can’t buy the kind of experience (Lloyd) is going to get,” said Buono.
Alex Ovechkin has one hand on the Stanley Cup and the other on the Conn Smythe but to appreciate the full impact of his post-season, we call your attention to a play late in the first period of the Caps’ Game 3 win on Saturday night.
With the game scoreless, the Knights’ Nate Schmidt walked into a slapper from the high slot which looked like trouble for the Caps. Ovechkin, who’s never been confused with Guy Carbonneau, not only blocked the shot, he blocked it in a modified goalie stance which wasn’t as stylish as it was courageous.
“You see your leader, the guy who isn’t exactly paid to do those things, it makes everyone want to do the same,” said the Caps’ Devante Smith-Pelly afterwards.
At 32, it finally seems to have dawned on Ovie that he doesn’t have to score goals to alter the game. This spring, he’s dragged the Caps into the fight with his physicality, with his effort, with his mere presence and the unrestrained joy with which he’s played.
And his team has responded. For as great a player as he’s been — and you can easily make the case Ovechkin is the greatest pure goal scorer in NHL history — there has been something missing from his resumé.
His credentials for the Hall of Fame had long since been established but to stand with the game’s true immortals, he needed a championship moment.
The Caps are now two wins away from that moment. Funny, I find myself cheering for Ovechkin in a way I never have before.
The CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game can make for riveting entertainment but the 2012 game in Kelowna was largely forgettable. The big attraction was Nail Yakupov, who would go first overall in that summer’s draft. The best player, as things turned out, was either Minnesota defenceman Matt Dumba or Pittsburgh goalie Matt Murray.
But the one player you couldn’t take your eyes off was Plymouth Whalers forward Tom Wilson, then in the middle of a nine-goal, 27-point season. Wilson was all over the ice that night, playing like his hair was on fire, hitting everything that moved, fighting with Dalton Thrower.
That summer the Caps took him with the 16th-overall pick, ahead of a number of more accomplished players and Wilson is still playing the same way. He’s a menace and, unless he’s on your team, you likely despise him. But he does leave a mark, literally and figuratively.
Given his ball-striking performance at The Memorial last week, when he led the field in strokes gained from tee to green, it seems like just a matter of time before Tiger Woods wins on the PGA Tour.
But it’s funny about golf at its highest level — if you can’t putt, you can’t win and Tiger couldn’t roll it into the ocean from a pier at The Memorial.
He finished 72nd in putting in the field of 73. He missed seven putts inside five feet on the week.
In the 2006 season, he missed nine all year.
The U.S. Open is coming up and you’d like to think Woods has a chance. But the history of golf is riddled with Hall of Fame players — Ben Hogan, Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson — who lost their putting stroke later in their career and never made it back.
Tiger is 42. He’s proven he can still compete. He hasn’t proven he can still win.
And finally, over the last 21/2 years, Johnny Manziel has been charged with domestic violence, gone through rehab and been diagnosed and treated for bipolar disorder. At the risk of stating the obvious, he’s a divisive figure whose on-field talent has only been exceeded by his penchant for self-destruction.
He’s also in the CFL now and while his motivation is a return to the big league down south, there is something about his place with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats that is consistent with the Canadian game.
Historically the CFL has always been the place which offers opportunity for players who’ve either burned through their chances in the NFL or fallen through its cracks.
Most times, these stories have ended badly. But there’s also been a Doug Flutie or Warren Moon, someone who used the opportunity to reinvent himself.
The odds are against Manziel. But he’s been given the same opportunity that Flutie and Moon — and Lawrence Phillips and Dexter Manley — were given. He can change his life. He can rewrite his story. It’s what the CFL has always offered and a few good men have taken advantage. Now it’s Manziel’s turn.
You just hope he understands how important this is and treats it accordingly.