Toronto FC’s Tosaint Ricketts scored his first MLS goal Wednesday, a game-winner against Real Salt Lake. The Canadian forward, who recently signed with the Reds, is one of 40 Canadians who have got onto the field for an MLS or NASL team so far this season. Last year, in between the two leagues that count Canadians as domestics on Canadian sides …

The Ottawa Fury has not only won three NASL matches in a row, the club is spiking in terms of minutes on the pitch it is providing to its Canadian players.

In Saturday’s win in Jacksonville’s 40-plus C heat (with the humidity), the Ottawa Fury gave 464 of a possible 990 minutes playing time to Canadians. Canadian Carl Haworth scored the second goal of the game in a 2-0 win. And, with that, Ottawa not only leads all NASL and MLS teams in terms of giving minutes to Canadians, the Fury …

So, despite all the good Canadian news from the Whitecaps, after the team's two matches this past week, its season-long average of minutes played by Canadians per match dipped below 90. That means the Whitecaps average less than one full 90 minute session for a Canadian player per game. And that puts them far behind the four other Canadian MLS and NASL sides.

In Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Colorado, the Whitecaps didn’t have a Canadian in the starting lineup, and didn’t have a Canadian come off the bench, either. That’s not the only depressing news when it comes to minutes played by Canadians in the major North American leagues. The Montreal Impact only had three minutes played by a Canadian this past weekend — Patrice Bernier in a substitute role.

“If we finish in the same position next year, third from the bottom, I’ll be out of a job,” said Miller. “No one needs to tell me that.”

On Monday, FC Edmonton’s brass brought in each of its players for face-to-face end-of-season meetings. And, on Tuesday, the club announced the status of all its players who were under contract at the end of the 2013 season.

Canadian striker Michael Cox could not come to terms with FC Edmonton on a new deal and will look for other opportunities in 2014.

Striker Michael Cox is likely done for the season. With concussions, both winger Massimo Mirabelli and left back Lance Laing are off the trip. Centre back Mallan Roberts continues to nurse a heel injury. Midfielders Gagan Dosanjh and Shaun Saiko have both suffered flare-ups of long-term injuries.

Now, 1-1 is one of the most common scorelines of all in soccer (more on that later). But, still, to see it repeated five times, against five different opponents, is a longshot of longshots. Some of the opponents would be better, some would be worse. Some would have a higher-than-average goals-per-game standard, some would be below the league average. The opponents would be variables, not constants. Yet, to see a team play them all to 1-1 draws over the course of five consecutive weeks, home games and road games, is mind boggling.