Friday night thoughts . . .

Some thoughts and observations that cross one’s mind while driving, driving, driving . . . from Kamloops to Brandon and back:

1. There is a lot of buzz in Saskatchewan about the possibility of building a $400-million domed stadium in Regina. Is there any chance that could be trimmed to $350 million with the savings used to repair the highway between Moose Jaw and Regina?

2. As we were leaving Brandon on Monday morning, with the 2010 MasterCard Memorial Cup over and the Wheat Kings left to lick their wounds, it really did look as though the sky wanted to weep. Was it because of the outcome of the final or was it because the event was over?

3. Thanks to Ken Buchy and Larry Gillis for being such good company on the press bench. I covered some of their athletic exploits in the Westman area and that was so long ago that we won’t mention more than that.

4. There are some unhappy people in Brandon and it all has to do with increased property taxes. Perhaps the city could use some of that money on sensors for the traffic lights, or at least some of them. In this day and age, there isn’t any need to be sitting, sitting, sitting and idling, idling, idling at a red light at 11 p.m., when yours is the lone vehicle on the road.

5. The price of a litre of regular gasoline: Kamloops, May 11, $1.08.9; Golden, May 12, $1.10.9; Medicine Hat, May 13, 97.9; Regina, May 13, $1.07.9; Brandon, May 20, 96.9; Regina, May 24, $1.01.9; Medicine Hat, May 25, 94.9; Cochrane, May 26, 90.9; Kamloops, May 27, $1.04.4.

6. There was a lineup in the drive-thru lane of every Tim Hortons we drove past in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We were in an outlet in Airdrie on Tuesday that featured 10 or 12 vehicles waiting on drive-thru and two workers inside who were anything but busy.

7. I can only recall seeing one Tim Hortons in the entire trip that didn’t have a lineup at drive-thru, and that was in Sicamous, B.C., on Wednesday. Perhaps there is a Tim Hortons outlet on the water there with a drive-thru for houseboats.

8. I’ve been around long enough to know that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And there sure is a lot of smoke coming out of Calgary, all of it having to do with Hitmen GM Kelly Kisio moving into the Flames’ front office. . . . I would suggest it isn’t so much a matter of if as when.

9. Just once, on one of those TV cooking shows, I would love to hear someone say: “Sheesh! It doesn’t smell very good in here. Must have made a mistake.”

10. During the Memorial Cup, the CHL announced that before next season arrives, all associated websites -- CHL, QMJHL, OHL, WHL and all 60 teams -- will be done up using the same template. . . . This, I‘m telling you, is a horrible mistake. What is wrong with allowing teams to use some originality, and then providing help to those who lag behind? It is going to be awfully boring going from one website to another if they all look the same. Of course, could this decision have more to do with having a standard size for national ads than anything else? . . . As well, you have to wonder how this is going to play out in the WHL, with its various market sizes. I mean, how are the Vancouver Giants going to like playing on the same template as, say, the Swift Current Broncos? . . . I also wonder how all of this relates to a decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 24. The Supreme Court, ruling in American Needle, Inc., v. National Football League, held unanimously (9-0) that the NFL’s 32 teams, according to lexology.com, “do not enjoy ‘single entity’ status under the Sherman Antitrust Act in the context of licensing their intellectual property.” . . . Now I realize that the CHL is light years from the NFL, but the CHL does include American franchises. And I’m told that after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in January, the WHL was paying particularly close attention to the situation.

11. If you‘re waiting for the WHL’s 2010-11 schedule, don‘t hold your breath. When the WHL and the managers of facilities that house teams met in Calgary in April, the only team that didn‘t have any home dates was the Portland Winter hawks -- and that is because it shares space with the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. . . . During that meeting, virtually everyone agreed that the schedule should be done and released to the fans by now. . . . Instead, the Eastern Conference will hold a scheduling meeting in Saskatoon on June 21, although a lot of the eastern team schedules already are done, with the Western Conference meeting some time after that. . . . By the way, the WHL’s annual meeting is scheduled for Calgary, June 15-16. Maybe they will address this scheduling situation during that annual meeting. Perhaps the WHL should go to the same system as the OHL, where the choice for dates is based on seniority.