Supremacy...

On Wednesday night in Orleans we played Top Gun, and before the game I would be willing to bet that on both teams (because I know that we were) guys were looking at this game as the game that would establish who the best team in the league was at this very early part of the season. 

On the first shift of the night, a little less than thirty seconds into the game we struck first.  Jake busted over the blue line and rifled a shot toward the net that their goalie got a piece of, but somehow dropped at his feet where Jake, who was following his own play, tucked the puck past in for the first tally of the night.  Here's the funny thing about that, I had no idea that we scored, I actually thought that the opposing goaltender had actually caught the puck initially, so I had turned around to grab a drink from my water bottle.  I missed the face off following the goal as well...  I have to say, that is the first time that I have ever missed my team scoring a goal during a game.  

Jake had an unbelievable night, he scored all of our goals, back checked his ass off and all he got to show for his hustle was a black eye.  While cutting through the middle of the ice in the defensive zone, and putting move after move on just about every one of Top Guns players that were on the ice at the time, one of them decided to throw a hip check at Jake, which threw him for a loop, literally.  He ended up landing on his head, which dazed the fuck out of him.  After the game he kept asking us what happened, that he couldn't remember anything about the incident...  He needed help getting back to the bench because he couldn't keep his legs under him...  

Now here is the thing about throwing a check like that in a league like ours.  It's bullshit.  Plain and simple, you just don't do it.  Most of the guys don't wear shoulder pads because it is a no checking league, a little contact yes, but a check like the one that Jake took, no.  A guy doesn't expect to be hit like that for obvious reasons, so when it does happen, the results are usually devastating...  Jake missed roughly the next ten minutes of the game, and by the time that we all managed to get ourselves out of the locker room he had a black eye.  Now, don't get me wrong, I like a physical game, but that hit crossed a line.  I can guarantee that the next time that we play them, the guy that threw the hit better have his head on a swivel, because payback is a bitch.

I know that I have said it before about this years Summit team, but shit, we are a complete team.  There are no holes, no weak links.  The guys played a complete game again Wednesday night, though I did see a few more shots than I did the previous game.  That Top Gun team can play, and overall, they are a pretty young team, so they have the legs to keep coming at you...  They did manage to score one on a two on one, it was actually a nice goal, a bang-bang play, firing the puck high on my stick side...  At the time, that goal closed the gap to 2-1, but the boys came right back to put us ahead by two a few minutes later off of a scrum in front of the net...

When the dust settled, it was 4-1 good guys, running our record up to 3-0-0.  My GAA in the OMHL is 1.33, with 1 SO.  Overall this winter, 5-2-1 with a 2.25 GAA and 1 SO.

Our next game in the OMHL is against the Land Ho at 8PM...  Should be a good one.

Doggin' It...

We played our second game of the season against the Black Dog monday night, and shit, that is one hell of a fucking team.  They do everything right, everything.

Anyway, we not only had our full compliment of players, we actually had 13 guys monday night, which works, but almost everyone bitches about it.  (Now honestly, that irritated the shit out of me and here's why;  The guys that bitch the loudest about it are the guys that are the least reliable in terms of showing up, on game night, so seriously, shut the fuck up or show up consistently)  I will say this bout having 13 guys monday night, at the end of the night, the guys that were tired, (and most of them were) were grateful that there was an extra line on the bench to pick up the slack and a few shifts.  And it's not like that extra line was made up of guys grabbed off the street to fill sweaters, it was a line of guys who can play.  If it wasn't for that extra line, we would have run out of gas with ten to fifteen minutes to go in that game and would have gotten ourselves laughed out of the rink. They would have slaughtered us.

That being said however, we still lost, and it wasn't a pretty game overall, but we hung with them the entire game.  We just, as a team, line by line, didn't have it together.  Guys were missing passes where there were clear passing lanes, passing up opportunities to shoot (you don't shoot, you don't score, you don't score, you can't win...  It's a simple fundamental principal).  And honestly, I think that the extra bodies screwed everyone up just a bit...  It seemed to both help us, and hurt us.  

Two of those extra bodies the the brothers from the team that I play with in Orleans.  They were a little surprised with the speed and tempo of the game, but of course for their first game in the DMHL, we happened to be playing (who I happen to believe, and who most people consider) the best team in the league.  There really isn't another team in the league that is on the same level with the Black Dog, a distant second would more than likely be Advance Embroidery... (who we have the pleasure of playing next Monday night), I would say, that from what I have seen so far, that a lot of the teams are relatively close in terms of overall skill level.

I seem to be straying from the topic at hand, the actual game.

Like I said before, we didn't have it, we made bad choices in our defensive zone, and even worse choices in our offensive zone.  Bad pass after bad pass, after passing up a good shooting opportunity to make yet another bad pass which would create a turnover that would give the opposition a clean scoring chance.  We did a terrible job of getting the puck out of our end, a terrible job of clearing the front of the net and taking (it's a no check league, not a no contact league) the body on their forwards as we spent all night letting them walk right in uncontested for a clean scoring opportunity.  I had a lot of work monday night, saw a lot of shots...  Games like that are both good and bad.  Good because I love all of that action, and it's easier to get into the zone when you are playing in a game where you are getting shelled, but bad because it means that we are doing a lot of things wrong at both ends of the ice.

They scored first in a screen shot that I never got to see, and then again on a broken play in front of the net off a rebound (the fourth or fifth rebound from a barrage of shots, none of which I could manage to get a glove on to get a whistle...)  We managed to get one back, shortly after their second goal, but they managed to pick up their third goal on yet another perfectly placed screen shot that just ticked off the inside of the right post and into the net...  The good news is that we scored the next two (and also had one called back) to tie the game, but on another poor defensive zone play where we did not manage to clear our own zone, move the puck forward and make some sort of transition into something that resembled an offensive threat, which ultimately resulted in a goal for the bad guys.

The final was 4-3, and even though I spent this entire blog bitching about what a bad game it was on our part, overall, it was a good, fast, hard game, we gave everything that we had to give.  Whatever the guys had in the tank, they gave it, and left it all out there on the ice.  I was happy with the effort, but unhappy with our end result.  I'm usually a very sore loser, but because I feel like I played one of my better games, the loss was a little easier to swallow.

We play Advanced Embroidery next monday night at 10.  The loss last night runs our record to 2-2-1 in the DMHL, and my overall record to 4-2-1, with a 2.41 GAA with 1 SO.

Perfection

So we played our second game of the very young season in the OMHL against the Chiefs, a perennial powerhouse.  Now, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I REALLY like how we look after our first two games.  Our first game was a grudge match, plain and simple, we wanted to kick the shit out of those bastards after the bullshit from the summer, we wanted to remind them that they won't have the same success over this season that they had over the summer season. (The Jailhouse lost again last night just in case anyone was wondering...)  Every single player in our locker room, to a man, before the puck dropped last week wanted to crush them, give them a lesson in humility...  And we did.

Enough about last week.

This week, against the Chiefs, we were perfect.  Absolutely perfect.  The guys played their hearts out in front of me, they forechecked, back-checked, they were tenacious, they dug in the corners, they blocked shots, and made all of the right plays.  Smart, heads-up hockey, from buzzer to buzzer.  I think that I may have seen ten shots, maybe less.  Our defense was absolutely flawless, impenetrable.  The guys were amazing last night out there on the ice in the defensive end.

As for our offense, it is fucking clicking.  The line of Jake, Rob, and Josh dominated.  They were relentless, they cycled well down low, threading passes to each other with amazing precision.  Even our defense got in on the act with a nice goal, and some very nice assists.  One goal in particular stands out to me, Jeff, playing D on the right side was about ten feet inside the blue line when he received a pass, and with pressure from the opposition mounting, threaded an amazing pass to Josh, who one-timed a quick little snap shot past the Chiefs goaltender, everything about that play was perfect microcosm of how the game went for us last night.  We were short a man last night, and had to move one of our regular D up front, and he scored twice, right now, everything is clicking for us.

Like I said before, it's early in the season, incredibly early, but I like the look of our team very much, and we are basically the same team, minus two players, that played all summer together.  The guys are comfortable with each other, they play off of each other perfectly, and they are getting to the point where they know where everyone is going to be on the ice.  The D knows when they can slide down from the point and take a chance on potting one, and the guys up front recognize those situations, and are able to get the puck to the right place at the right time for our defense men.  

You can feel the excitement among the guys, everyone seems to know their role, and everyone, so far, has excelled at his respective roll.  The mood in the locker room pre-game is always light, and we're always joking around, staying loose before we head out to the bench.  But the guys clearly know when to bear down and get serious, and in the first two games, they've been very "details" oriented.  We have depth at every position, in fact, we haven't even seen a few of the guys that are on our roster play yet, a 23 year old defense man, and a 40 year old veteran forward, who are expected to be regular players for us.

Right now I am full of optimism and excitement, I like how things are shaping up for us, and I love how the guys are playing right now, but how could I not, we're 2-0-0, and have scored 14 goals, with only 3 goals scored against us... 

Like I said though, it's early.

It wasn't pretty but...

We had our fourth game of the season in the DMHL, and even though we won, it was ugly, and at times a little embarrassing.  I really can't figure that team out over there, but my best guess is that we completely lack an "identity" (due to the lack of sponsorship/team jerseys = team unity maybe).  Well, that and the fact that we almost never have the same line up week to week, which made an attempt to correct by trying to get the Brothers playing for us.  I was voted down on that point for last week, but we'll see about this week coming up because we're going to be playing the Black Dog team, (defending league champs) and we can't be short for that game, because we won't be able to play and ugly game and pull out a win like we did this past Monday night.

We played Northern Lumber the other night, who have improved somewhat since the summer.  I think that a lot of us (all of us) looked at this game as a "bye," that we could just phone it in and we'd still be fine...  We jumped right out of the gate with two quick goals and then seemed to ease off a bit, and as soon as we did they turned up the heat on us.  At about the halfway point of the game, maybe a little past that, the score was tied two all.  

The first of their two goals really fucking pissed me off, it was a broken play coming out of the corner of the right wing boards that I was able to make a couple of decent saves on, well until my center, who is a fucking grinder and hustles the entire time he's out on the ice for every single shift he takes, back-checked the just barely loose, almost tied up by me, puck into the net.  He has two goals in two games against me.  Not cool.  I can't remember the second goal, which means it was a good goal on their part, that they earned it, otherwise it would have pissed me off and stuck out in my mind.

We turned the pressure back up immediately though and scored two quick ones.  We had a little defensive brain fart and gave up a breakaway where I found myself in no-mans-land...  I was caught in between charging out at the puck, which was about ten steps ahead of my opponent, and holding my ground.  Hindsight being 20/20, I should have buried the little fucker, because he ended up scoring stick side.  He made it look about as easy as taking a piss in the snow...  

From that point on, the game was pretty even, they pulled their goalie in the last minute, but couldn't win a face-off, which essentially gave us the win.

So in the DMHL, we are 2-1-1, with 13 goals for, and 10 against, giving me a GAA of  2.50, (with an overall record of 3-1-1 and a GAA of 2.60 including the OMHL).  I'm happy, but I feel like, at least in Dennis, we can do more, be a better team, but to do that, we need to be more consistent, and play hard for 50 minutes, not 40...

WInter Wonderland...

So the winter men's league season is underway, and between the two teams that I play for we are 2-1-1, and even though it's early, I can very happily say that in four games my GAA is a tidy 2.50.  Like I said though, it's early, so I'd better savor it now because there is a very good chance that it is not going to stay that low.

The two teams that I play on basically skate year round.  Most of us have no down time, giving us an early advantage when the winter leagues start back up again.  In our first four games, we haven't had any cupcakes, that's for sure.  We played the Tony Kent Men's League Champions our first game back, the runner up our second game, a solid Chapin's team our third game, and in the Orleans Men's League, our first game was against the Summer League Champions (that game turned out to be a bit of a laugher though, welcome to winter league).  So like I said, we've seen some very solid competition early, and if both teams keep playing the way that we have been early we could end up in a very good position at the end of the season.

The Orleans team has it's roster pretty well set, we lost two guys to retirement, but picked up three guys in their early/mid twenties, which adds to an already solid team that made it to both the winter and the summer league finals.  The Dennis team however is a bit of a work in progress...  There has been some talk about adding a pair of brothers (from the team that I play for in Orleans) to our Dennis team.  I am of the opinion that the addition of the pair will make that team very, very dangerous, and will help to cement our lines, bringing a familiarity and consistency to games.  

Also, we're looking for some serious sponsorship for the Dennis team, as I think that we're all tired of looking like a bunch of bums.  Only half of the guys have jerseys that match, no one has matching socks and most nights we have to wear those stupid fucking yellow pennies because we don't match to begin with, so why not make us look even more ridiculous?  Anyway, we've been working on a few different things sponsorship-wise.  Hopefully something will pan out soon.

Next week, it's a ten o'clock game against Northern Lumber on monday, and a nine o'clock game Wednesday against the Chiefs...  Both games should be good tilts.

Rest

Rest.

That's what I thought that I was going to be getting in these next few weeks, with the gap between the summer and winter leagues.  However, it looks like that won't be the case.  My phone started ringing yesterday with guys asking me to play for them in their leagues, in their playoff games.  I have a hard time saying "no" when it comes to hockey, I always have, and I always will.

I will manage to get some rest though.  I won't be playing five straight days anytime in the near future (or at least in the next two weeks).  I need the rest, desperately.  Yesterday morning everything hurt, everything ached...  Perhaps that's just my bodies way of reminding me that I really am not as young as I think I am.  I recognize that I can't do all of the things that I could do when I was younger and just expect to bounce back right away, "Five straight days of hockey, no fucking problem..."  I wish that was still the case.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not half dead over here, but I'm not sure if I am half alive either...

The funny part about trying to get a little rest is, well, I hate it.  Yeah.  I fucking hate not playing hockey.  When I don't play I feel like something is missing from my day.  I hate not being in a rink, going through all of my absurd pre-game rituals and superstitions...  I miss competing, I miss that camaraderie among the guys, giving each other shit endlessly...  I realize though, that I do in fact need the rest, my body is screaming at me to take a few extra days off.  I hear it, and I will, but there is a funny thing that happens when you get older, it takes longer to get back into the swing of things.  The more time I take off, the longer it will take for me to get back into that grove again...

Just the same though, I do need the rest, but I'll be honest, I can't fucking wait to get back into it once the winter league gets going again.  

You win some, you lose some...

Well, it was, hmmm, what was it exactly?  

A good game?  No.  A bad game?  No.

I was dirty, it was chippy, their mouths were non stop, and they proved that they are hands down, the team with the least amount of class in ANY league that I have ever played in.  The end of the game turned into a bench clear with about forty seconds to go, and in an effort to prove what little class they had, they started yelling at our fans in the stands.

Seriously.  Yelling at mothers, girlfriends, sisters...  Classless.  One of their players actually picked up the puck and threw it at one of our wingers.  Who the fuck does that?  Classless. They weren't even going to line up and shake hands, as has been the custom for decades in hockey.  They have one player on that team that I respect, I called him over to shake his hand, and it was then that they realized that they should in fact line up and shake hands.  When the goaltender from the losing team is the first guy, in the middle of a bench clearing tussle (because it wasn't a brawl) to extend his hand and say, "Good game," that's when you know that its time to man up, to stop being a bunch of little punks and return the afore mentioned sentiment.  

(For people who know me, for my teammates, for the players on the teams that I compete against, they know that I am fiercely competitive and may just be one of the biggest sore losers on the planet.  I accept that about myself, I hate to fucking lose, at anything, to anyone. Ever.  For me, when someone says, "It's just a game, and that I shouldn't care about losing" needs to fuck off.  There is only one kind of person in the world that is ok with losing.  A loser.)  

Just the same, I love the game of hockey, I respect the game of hockey and its traditions.  The line, the hand shake, it's one of hockey's greatest.  You spend an hour kicking the shit out of each other, and then, at the end, you line up, and shake hands, and say "good game" whether you want to or not.  At the end of a game like that I'd rather line up and tell them all to fuck off and punch them all in the teeth sure, but that's not our team, that's not the way that we play.  So we manned up, we shook the hand of the team that beat us, because when that final buzzer sounds, that's what you do.  And we did.

So we didn't win.  I wanted to sure, our team wanted to, but we didn't pull it out last night.  

Winter League starts in 3 weeks...