off season

shits been good.

baskie had his surgery recently and is on the road back to being ready for next season.
i thought about renting ice time so we could all play some shinny or something, but i havent yet.

CHAMPS!!

we won! it was a slaughter. it was 8-0 with about 10 left in the 3rd period so they forfeited and we are officially champs.

now we get to defend the title next year. i cant wait

semis game

i've been slacking... yes, i know. its been a week since we won our semi finals game and now its on to the finals. one week away and if all goes according to plan we will be the champs for the summer league of 2010 and back next year defending our title.
good game baskie, you're a pro.

more to come??

PLAYOFFS!!!

ok, so... first game of the playoffs was yesterday. our first series we are against the titans. the same titans that we beat twice in the regular season by a combined score of 14-1. yea... those titans.

Stabs got a goal the first shift and it seemed as though we were gonna breeze through the game.
for some reason though we didnt hit mesh after that for a long ass time. we were outplaying them and we knew we were the better team but sometimes shots would go wide or we would get fancy and something would happen to mess a guy up or for some other random reason we weren't scoring goals.
thats ok though, we were facing the titans and they're trash.

no big deal, stouty got a nice goal in the second and gave us more momentum. the titans came back and scored on a weak goal but we werent worried at all and knew what we had to do.
stouty came back in the 3rd period and got another goal and then finished off his hat trick 6 min later. natural hat trick too, fancy shit stoute. nice work.

johnston got a goal late in the game after i had a nice chance and he deserved that one. he had a bunch of chances all game and finally converted.

good game minivans. lets smash the titans again this upcoming sunday.

special mention to Stabs. he got hit with a slapshot right in his junk near the end of the game and had to actually leave the game. thats tough as hell. im sure the next few days are gonna suck for him.

been a bit slaking lately... been slacking a bit lately., there ya go

so yea, its been 2 weeks i think. last week we played the bullets to end off the season. shit was goin well until jason scored to put us up 5-1 and he dared to celebrate his goal. they scored 3 quick goals and suddenly it was 5-4. we came out with a win though and ended the regular season with a 7-5 win and with a 8-5 record. not too shabby, second place going into the playoffs.

game #12

been loafting on this post-game wrap up. not really sure why, its not like i been working at all this week. i got all week off, ive just been too damn lazy to do this. oh yea! and we lost 4-1 to a team we should have beat... that might be one of the reasons ive been avoiding this.
we were missing kevin johnston, brawley jr. and Stabs. we were also pretty much missing hackett, stouty and baskie too because they had already played 5 games of ice all weekend at a tourney, including 2 or 3 on sunday alone so we couldnt really expect them to play hard, i was just happy they came out to the game at all.

ok, so we were able to kind of keep up in the game considering we were missing players and im not going to lie, it wasnt al absolutely terrible game for us considering the outlying factors so im not too bitter. im actually more glad if anything that we lost to the Whalers because when, and i do mean WHEN, we meet them in the finals this year they will have all this confidence that they can beat us again and we wont be the same team they played in sunday. we will be completely rested and ready to slaughter them. i cant wait.

anyways, 4-1 was the final score for the Whalers, brawley got the only goal for us and some plug on their team wearing striped socks got 2 goals. im gonna heckle that idiot HAAARD next time we play the Whalers.

thats all for now, big weekend comin up tomorrow.
party at kotchies the entire time, with kegs and shit. gonna be epic as hell.
then come sunday we're startin the playoffs i think. this convener is f*cking pathetic. its thursday and he still hasnt put up the results from the games on sunday, or any of the new games this sunday coming up. what a dip shit

anyways... PEACE!!!

cannot stress how important this sunday's game is

huge, big, giant, massive playoff implications. minivans aint no second seeded team, and you know that.

more to follow...

Game #11 AKA all out chaos

ill make this short and sweet. not because i dont have the urge to write about the game, but because thats exactly what yesterday's game was... short and sweet.

we were playing Belair ING, the same Belair that we played last year and stabs fought a guy and dropped him in about 4 seconds and i'm going to go out on a limb here and say that they probably dont like us and after last nite they hate us even more.

the game started out pretty well, from the start of the game we knew we had a bigger bench (they had a full line plus like 3 extra players, total) and we knew we could control the game by just taking time, looking for passes and making them work to try to stop us.
by the second shift of the game we knew this was probably going to be a slaughter and we would be the ones doing the slaughtering.

first goal, kells fired a shot from the point that stayed along the ground, stouty was in front and tried to tip it in but he got tied up by the defender and the ball rolled by him, jason came by and picked it up, took his time to shoot it and CHEESE!!!!
second goal was like a minute later, then we got 2 more by the end of the 1st to make it 4-0.
start of the second and about a minute in and stouty gets tangled up with some plug on their team and i guess this guy is a hothead or something because he immediately drops his gloves and rips off his helmet and wants to go toe to toe with stoute. the refs jump in and calm this idiot down and they both get unportsmanlike penalties and whatnot and we play on.
exactly 7 minutes later at 1:33 of the second period and all hell breaks loose.
brawley and some fat defensive player on their team who cant run or play to save his life get tangled up in their end and i know brawley said something to this guy because he goes nuts and starts raining down blows on brawley. thats not a good thing for them when we got Stabs AKA "The Human Cannonball" AKA "The White Ray Lewis" on our team and he books it over to the fat guy and throws a massive flying haymaker at him and then its on like donkey kong. their goalie rushes in and attacks brawley and all this goes on for about 7 seconds before both refs and the convener of the league rush in to stop the fights.
now, at this point im thinking to myself "ok, so we might have a guy kicked out but lets just get this shit settled and get back to playing, ive had 3 wide open looks in front of the net just sitting there by myself and i cant pick a damn corner! i know i can get a goal today, i just need 1 more chance, this goalie is trash"
so the refs seperate the players and start sending guys to their respective penalty boxes and then as the fat defenceman is walking by on the way to the box kells says something to him about his black eye, which was a nice shiner that he had just received from being filled in by stabs. anyways, kells says something and buddy losses it again and tries to rush towards kells and the ref grabs him and he pushes the ref and for a minute there i thought he was gonna clock the ref in the face but the other ref jumps in and manhandles this fat idiot. at that point one ref had had enough and decided that no matter what, the game was over.
it was also over because since their crazy goalie got the boot the players on Belair didnt want to play anymore.

final outcome = 2 game misconducts for their team, 1 for the goalie and 1 for the fat defenceman.
1 game misconduct for stabs.
4-0 victory for the minivans
game over at 1:33 of second period

"game called due to not enough players due to game misconducts" is what it says on the website.

not the prettiest of wins but we'll take it.

dissapointed that we couldnt play on, i wanted that goal. oh well. winning is the only thing that matters and we got the W last nite.

big big big game next sunday. minivans vs whalers at 6pm.
this is huge because whoever wins pretty much clinches 1st place for the regular season and i think they might have a bye through the first round of the playoffs. the bye isnt too important but i want to end the regular season in 1st place and i intend on doing that.



nice shutout baskie

playin this week at 6pm and i might miss it. pretty bummed out about that.

that is all

quick note

Heavy Beavy actually took a few shots today and they werent just worm burners either. at one point he pinched right in from the point, walked in and fired a shot at the goalie then got his own rebound and fired a second shot.
he's gonna score sooner or later.

Game #10

another game another hard fought win for the Minivans.
today didnt pan out as we had expected. we still got the W but this game was wayyy too close in the first 2 periods.
we had control of the ball for most of the game and very rarely allowed the other team to gain our zone or get shots on Baskie but we couldnt seem to find the back of the net for the first 20 min of the game.
first period was an onslaught by us, lots of shots but they were all directed right at the goalie. he was making some decent saves but for the most part we were giving him the saves by not aiming our shots more accurately.
second period was much of the same. lots of good passing and cycling the ball by us but no cheese. we were definitely dominating the titans though and they were scrambling to stop us.
into the third and we finally turned things around.
im pretty sure brawley got our first goal but im looking at the game sheet right now and the time keeper is an idiot and im seeing 3 different brawleys on here when theres only 2 on the team.
so brawley gets the first off a nice pass from stabs, followed 20 seconds later by a goal by stabs.

then with 1 minute left in the game vernoy let off a shot from the point that made it through to the back of the net and then 7 seconds later travis scored.
it was a pretty nice goal by travis, he won the faceoff and rushed forward and caught the defenders off guard and suddenly it was a breakaway. beauty

anyways, the conclusion is that we won 4-0 and we are now 6-4 on the year.

no boxscore yet, might make it later if i feel like it.
good game team, Bel Air next week

PEACE!

some biased schedule making

i was looking over the schedules of other teams. no i wasnt, who am i kidding. kotchie was and called me to rant about it so i figured i would give him due credit for making a startling discovery.
we're in second place right now, trailing only the Ajax Whalers by one point. im not too worried because i know we can beat the Whalers and every other team in the league, the thing that really bothers me, and kotch, is that they have had an obscenly easy schedule this year compared to us.
they've played 4 games against teams that have combined for 1 total win. and they play one more game vs. the titans near the end of the year.
Us (the Minivans) on the other hand have played the bullets twice, roof daddies twice, pylons once, whalers once, and 3 shit teams. and to top it all off we play the bullets again at the end of the year and before that we play Belair. im not too worried about Belair but the fact that by years end we will have played a total of 5 games vs. A teams and a total of 3 games vs. bottom of the standings teams just doesnt seem right.

oh well, we'll just need to win the next 3 games by playing the same way we always play and who cares if we had the hardest schedule out of the teams that can actually compete. it jsut shows that we can win no matter who we play.





unless its the roof daddies.

game #9 - summer league

wow, i knew this was going to be a hard game but THIS??
rematch vs the best team in the league, the Roof Daddies and they had a short bench today so at first i thought we actually stood a chance vs them... AHAAHAHA, think again gummsley.
we started off well enough, good first shift and we were running hard but they're good, really really good.
it spiraled downwards after that. first goal for them was with 2:40 left in first frame, second goal for them was 2 min later. third goal for them was 1 min into the second frame. after that we actually pulled up our socks (so to speak) and outplayed them for approximately 1 minute. we got 2 really quick goals and suddenly it was 3-2 and we were feeling pretty good considering we were 1 goal away from a tie game.
that feeling didnt last very long as they scored a 4th, then 5th, then 6th. you get the gist of it, im not going to give a play-by-play of us getting slaughtered.

final score

Roof Daddies 9
Minivans 4

we really left baskie out to dry on some of those goals and he played his ass off all game. the thing i noticed about them is that they dont run all that much, pretty much not at all. they play pure stretch passes and it works wonderfully for them, dont get me wrong they run and caught us on odd man rushes but they dont run when they dont need to, we run all game. we need to do that because if we got slaughtered by a total of one line and 3 subs, thats 8, count it, 8 players to our 13 then theres something we could be doing that would make us play better and be like them.

Positives we can take from getting our asses handed to us.
- Roof Daddies are no longer in the sunday night league so now we have the opportunity to run shit
- Cow scored again, good job buddy.
- We played well at some points in the game and still managed to get 4 goals against them without Hackett playing
- Stouty is turnin into a star on our team and playin well with Kevin. he had 2 goals and an assist today
- our defence did decent today considering we were also missing Kotchie

Box Score

Number	Name	G	A	PIM
8	Iain Anderson		2
86	Adam Beaven
98	Andrew Cowin	1
69	Keith Gummer		1
11	Kevin Johnston		1
14	Brett Kelly
24	Jason Megit
52	Chris Stabellini			2
66	Brett Vernoy
7	Brian Stoute	2	1
9	Adam Brawley	1	2
19	Ryan Brawley		1

even more game notes:

- i was on for one goal and that was right as someone was coming off and i was getting on the floor so i wont count that. actually maybe i was on for 2 goals, but not many
- brawley scored twice but only got credit for one goal. his first goal was a BEAUTY! first of the game, he gets the ball to the right of the net and just sat there and waited for the goalie to fall on is face before roofing it on the roof daddies goalie
- cowin is in the running for the MVP of the year award of the Minivans. im gonna have to get a trophy made up because he definitely deserves recognition for the hard work he's putting on for this team
- almost forgot, we had younger brawley for hardly any of the game. he works till 7 and showed up for the 3rd period and pretty sure his first shift he proceeded to set up his brother for our 4th and final goal. maybe if we had his from the beginning we would have scored more.

- cant wait till next sunday

Next Opponent
Titans, Sunday July 11th, 8pm

quick update

apparently beavans shot actually went in the net. that means in my books he has a goal, thats 1 more than me so far this year. atta boy heavy beavy

game #8 - summer season

wow, i said this game was gonna be a doozie and i sure as hell wasnt kidding.
we were missing both brawleys today as well as ross left the team so we had stouty playing for us and some guy named Travis Hendry. Travis is SICKKKK, only way i can describe his play. he's so good that hackett actually passed the ball to him, and i know that hackett usually only does that if he knows someone can finish. it shows that he had confidence in Travis's play and let us watch some pretty good chemistry.
forward lines were:
1. stabs, kevin, stouty
2. hackett, hendry, cowin
3. jason, iain, me

all three lines had a really good game tonight and it showed on the scoresheet.
the start of the game was pretty slow, we were controlling but didnt really turn up the intensity until about 5 left in the first.
the first line to start off the scoring was line #2. hackett and hendry were able to play the ball around and that gave cowin time to get in front of the net and he banged in a rebound i think.
nice goal from a good line.

second period started out decent enough, we kept the pressure and were able to pot one 1:30 into the frame. this time it was hackett from kells and it was a pretty nice goal.
2 minutes later at the 6:33 mark of the second johnston got a nice feed from stabs and made no mistake about it and rifled it by the goalie, beauty of a goal.
right after that jason looked and me and iain and said "now its our turn to get a goal", and sure enough our next shift we converted. i dont remember it exactly but i know that we were working behind their net hard and managed to get the ball and im pretty sure i passed it to iain, then he fed it over to jason who was in front and he popped the ball between the goalie's legs.
by then it was 4-0 and we knew that we had the game. not gettin cocky or anything but this team couldnt do anything, they had no chemistry and when we would gain their zone they would sit there and let us cycle the ball for days.

next up it was stouty's turn to snipe cheese. he did it at the 2:12 mark of the second off a passing play from kells and hackett.
and finally to end the frame kevin got another goal with 0:53 left in the second with assists going to stabs and stouty.

for the third it was 6-0 and the refs decided to run the clock, good choice because this was getting out of hand. we kind of slowed down on the attack and played more ball control and wasted time. stabs got called on a high stick with about 8 left in the third and it was a 4 minute so we got to check and see how our penalty kill would match up against them. i actually liked the penalty because we dont get very many so we need to practice the kill and be able to keep the ball out of our net during those times.
we played well and they didnt get a goal. then kotchie got called on an interference near the end of stabs penalty so we were 5 on 3 for about half a minute and were able to control them and give baskie some backup.
we got one more goal with 1:31 left in the game and then cruised to victory.

Minivans 7
Roadrunners 0

box score

Number	Name	G	A	PIM
8	Iain Anderson		2
36	Adam Baskie
86	Adam Beaven
98	Andrew Cowin	1
69	Keith Gummer		1
17	Andrew Hacket	1	3
11	Kevin Johnston	2
14	Brett Kelly		2
11	Matt Kotchie			2
24	Jason Megit	1
52	Chris Stabellini		2	4
66	Brett Vernoy
7	Brian Stoute	1	2
8	Travis Hendry	1

almost forgot to mention.

- iain had a great game, i like having him play forward because he knows what he's doing with the ball and makes some nice passes to spring me so i can in turn feed him juicy passes once we gain the zone and he's open.
- cowin is still lighting up the league and getting madddd points.
- ross left the team, not sure why but i miss him already. he has that extra speed that was able to help us. stouty has taken his place and i have to say, if i ever wanted anyone to replace ross it would be stoute. he doesnt have the explosive speed but he has really really good hands and him and kevin know each other so well that they can produce goals.
- baskie had another shutout, what a surprise. if the roof daddies were in the right division he would be the best goalie in the league.
- i made some nice plays today, gained the zone a few times and set up jason and iain with nice scoring attempts. ive been slowing the ball down more lately and taking my time, its paying off.
- heavy beavy almost got a goal today, but more importantly, he shot the ball pretty well and made the goalie make a save. good stuff adam.

roof daddies next week, gonna be a different story from last time we played them.

special mention

Iain Anderson is a pro. good player and im glad we got him on the team.





thats all for now sports fans

game 7

BAHHH and Humbug. thats all i can say about today's game.
we started off not that bad, had the bullets on the defensive and we were controling the pace of the game for the most part. we were getting opportunities in their end but couldnt get very many shots and any shots they got were stopped by Baskie.
the game was tied for the most part up until about 4:30 left in the 3rd but we were definately getting enough chances and open shots in the latter part of the 1st and for alot of the second. we were setting up plays and getting of good shots but their goalie was keeping them in the game and keeping us off the scorecard.
brawley and kevin finally connected for a nice goal in the 3rd. kev lasered a beauty pass right to the stick of a streaking brawley at the side of the net and he deflected it in. it was nice because kevin was close to the blue line and went far side right on the tape of brawleys stick and he finished.
after that we kept up the good play and we were able to keep the ball out of our zone for the most part. thats until they pulled their goalie.
1 extra man, we had 3 chances to get the ball out of our zone and 3 different players failed on the clearing attempt and that really hurt us. they cycled the ball around from the far right to the far left then right to the extra man who was just barely outside of the blue line and he blasted a slapshot into the back of the net. the refs dropped the ball on that play, the other team was offside when they gained the zone. the only reason i know this is because it was right in front of our bench and every single player on our bench witnessed it as well. oh well, sometimes the refs make mistakes. no big deal.
so they tie it up with 20 seconds left in the game and we go into OT.
in the OT it was 4 on 4 and we were holding the ball well and making most of the offensive rushes. we had some really good chances but couldnt finish.
getting good chances means taking a risk and having one of the D men pinch in. that was the case with 1 min left in OT and vernoy got an errant pass right onto his stick but bobbled the ball and couldnt get a shot off. then the same thing happened to Stabs and the bullets got the ball and caught us and made us pay. 3 on 1, and they're coming down on a natural forward (kevin). he did the right thing and played the pass and the guy with the ball took a shot at a diving Baskie that got saved but the rebound went right back to him and Baskie was out of position and it was a simple flip shot over the sprawling goalie for the win.

its ok, we got one point and we're still second in the league.
i made some good plays today so im happy. almost got a goal with brawley. i went for a pass in the air and hoped that he could deflect it in but was late on reacting. i had one single bad giveaway which pissed me off but other than that i was solid. well... in my opinion anyways.

we were missing ross today, if we had him playing we would have won because he can really tire the teams down with his full throttle speed playing style.
it was nice having jason back, his ankle is better now.
we were missing kells because his ankle is acting up but he was on the bench with us helpin out.
c

game #6 - summer

another game done, another tough team we played, and yet another victory for the minivans. we're 4-2 now, and we're won 3 in the row. this is starting to look alot like last summer. we started out 1-3 and then rang off 9 straight wins. im getting ahead of myself if i think we can win another 6 in a row considering sooner or later we're going to be playing the roof daddies again and we need to play our asses off to beat them. they beat Bel Air today 7-0 and thats the 2nd place team in the league. wait, correction, that WAS the 2nd place team in the league. our victory and their loss means we're second in the league now, trailing only the roof daddies.
the roof daddies and the minivans are the only teams in the league with a positive plus minus for the season. its kind of pathetic the fact that the daddies have scored 34 goals and had 4 goals against in 6 games. like... do they enjoy just slaughtering teams every week? i dont think they should be in our league or division, they are too good and should be playing with better teams. oh well, who knows. we can beat them if we really try.

ok, onto the game.
the first period was pretty quiet, a few chances either way. i had some really good shifts and didnt make any mistakes when clearing the ball or gaining the zone. it was pretty back and forth, which is ok, but ideally we are going to need to control the pace of the games we play if we want to really shine.

second period started off pretty much the same, baskie made some key saves for us when he needed to but for the most part the ball was either in the neutral zone or in their end. getting near the end of the second period kev johnston gained the zone on the right, walked to the top of the faceoff circle and pulled off a textbook toedrag to open the goalie up then he rifled the ball through the goalie's legs, into the hole he had just created with his move. the move was textbook, any hockey coach would love to use video footage of that to show his team and to teach them how its done. i know i learned it from seeing it in use and work. good goal kevin.

third period was really fast paced and we were able to keep up and get some good chances. first minute into the period it was stabs, ian and me breaking into the zone. ian had the ball on the right and stabs was at center and i was slightly over on the other side, ian passed it over to stabs and he fired it past the goalie's blocker side, low to the ground and in. i got an assist but i didnt touch the ball that play, no big deal. points dont mean shit to me anyways, wins mean everything.
after that the whalers really picked it up and there were moments where i thought they were going to get right back in the game but Baskie played like the great goalie he is and shut the door on any chances they got. near the end of the game there was about 3 minutes left and hackett was on and i could tell he wanted to put the game away and was probably going to stay on till he scored or till the end of the game. it came as little surprise to me that hackett scored with 1 minute left in the game. thats just what he does, and its awesome to have him on the team.

whats even more hilarious is that he had a wide open breakaway with no one within 20 feet of him with 25 seconds left and walked in on the goalie and got stopped like 5 times. i was surprised he didnt light the lamp for a second time. its all good though, we won.

lots of penalties today for both sides. we were able to kill off 8 penalties and baskie got a well deserved shutout today.
i didnt mess up once on clearing attempts when the ball would be in our zone and come up the boards to me. im glad i didnt flop and i got a few nice chances right in front of their net. on of them was a nice shot right in the slot thanks to a beauty pass from hackett.
ian was playing forward today and he's a nice addition to our forwards. he can really create chances and make plays.
cowin had a good game and i fed him a pass right in the slot that he could have gotten a goal on. kells played solid, so did vernoy and beavy.
everyone played solid, and thats why we got the W.

4-2 now, next week we're playing the bullets again. we beat them 3-1 the second game of the year but they had a short bench. no drinking this upcoming saturday night. hang out, eat some food. maybe have one beer watching the jays game but no excessive drinking. gotta be ready for a big game.

good game team.

oh yea, almost forgot. Ross Smiley has only one speed, overdrive.
all i ever see him doing on the floor is running his ass off and never stopping till he gets on the bench. most hustle on the team for sure

also good hustle coming from Stabs

HEY STABS!!!

hit mesh

game #5 summer season

wow, what a game tonight. not exactly what i expected but i'll take it. we came out against a team that had underperformed in the past and definately wasnt the same team that lost to the titans 2-0.
we came out strong and kept the pressure on them and managed to get the 1st goal at the 7:14 mark of the first period. cowin AKA Bufyglien was in front of the net and somehow managed to pot a goal on a pass from ross smiley AKA Mr. "hustle his ass off all day", and put us ahead. it was a nice confidence boost for the team but as much as we hustled our asses off after that goal we couldnt seem to get another one to go ahead 2-0.

on to the second period, it was relatively quiet for them. we were controlling the ball but couldnt get decent shots on net. be it due to the shot blocking skills they had or the fact that when guys would get the ball they would hesitate a little too long or hold onto the ball a little too long waiting for a perfect opportunity and end up losing it to them. they had a few odd man chances but we're good at getting back on the back check and shutting them down. not to mention baskie is great in net.
they got a goal on an UGLY shot/deflection in front of our net on a powerplay and tied the game up 1-1 with 2:46 to go in the second and that deflated our sails somewhat. a quick line change solved that. next line out was Stabs, Brawlett and me and we won the face off, played it into their zone, brawlett brought it around the left side and almost behind the net and i was wide open and he was looking to pass it so he fired it in front and it went off Stabs leg and in. not the prettiest goal but its not like we wouldnt take it.

in the third period i could tell we were starting to get outplayed just a bit but its all good. that shit happens from time to time and we manage to pull through.
they were getting some good chances but so were we and it was still 2-1 for us so nothing to worry about. until about the 4 minute mark of the 3rd that is. they got it into our end and the communication broke down somewhat at they had a guy wide open in front of our net and sniped a goal to tie the game up again. it wasnt really anyones fault. me and stabs were covering our point men, it was just a brain fart by someone that resulted in a goal. no big deal.
2 minutes later johnston started a rush and gained the zone, then sat at the blue line for about 5 seconds and no one even made a move to go after him to pressure him so he just wound up and rifled a slapshot right by their goalie on the ground and we were back on top 3-2 with 2:44 left in the 3rd. a minute later hackett potted a goal to put us ahead 4-2. i cant remember how he scored but it was at the 1:44 mark of the 3rd and we were feeling pretty good at that point.
we played hard till the end, i keep saying "play to win, dont play not to lose" and it kind of works.
ross took a penalty with 34 seconds left in the game on a dive by a kid on their team. the same guy that stabs fell on earlier in the game and this dude proceeded to run over to the ref after a whistle and whine to him, to no avail. the ref knew he was being a pussy and didnt want to hear it. for some reason he gave ross a penalty on a dive and the ended up scoring with 1 second left to make the game 4-3 but too little to late. we won and now we're over .500 for the first time this year.

overall it was a good game, we got the W and thats all that really matters.

special mention to ross, he was running his ass off all game and hustling hard. whether it be on the forecheck, backcheck, breakout, or just running to the bench for a change. he had a really good game and it paid off, he got an assist and helped us get a win.
another special mention to cowin. 2 game goal scoring streak and he had 2 points today. more than me, and im pretty sure he now has more goals in 5 games than he did all last season in the winter.
good game by baskie. he kept us in the game and gave us a reason to play hard and win.
jason rolled or sprained his ankle halfway through the game and didnt leave the bench, which is probably what i would have done. he stayed there and stayed with the team and provided moral support that we needed in the dying minutes of the game when we werent leading.

one more special mention to Heavy Beavy. he actually took a slapshot today and it made it to the net. all my harrasing him to shoot when he has it actually paid off and sooner or later he's gonna snipe a beauty goal. hopefully.

good win today team. next week we play the Whalers at 8pm. HUGE game. like... MASSIVE!!!

game 5 preview

we're playing the roadrunners on sunday. this should be fun

game #4 update

i got the game sheet in front of me now. so now im about to re-trace my steps... words? yea, that sounds better. re-trace my words just a bit and give accurate information for once.
1 goal in the 1st period, scored by the lionel messi of our team (mr. ross smiley) and unassisted. that one was scored 2 min into the game and i guess we kind of let up a bit after that because we didnt get another till the second. but no fear, we got 4 in the second, in about 4 mins. one by cheese (k-johnston) from hackett, another by ross after a BEAUTYYY feed from behind the net right to his stick by hackett. a sick snipe by brawley, on the shorthanded, thanks to a decent pass by me. and by decent i mean absolutely stellar and i didnt mean to do it at all. then one by stouty on a tape to tape pass by hackett.
third period was fast paced too, another goal by brawley from stouty and hack, and then 2 by cowin, but he only got credit for one.

on a side note: stabs needs to buy a new stick. worth alot of money. last time he did that he had the stick for 4 games before it broke and he had a goal in each game. he must have fired the ball over the net 4 times this game and i could here he was gettin pissed every time.
i messed up on our shorthanded shift. right after my beauty pass and its my fault that baskie got scored on at all in the game. totally my fault, i should have been covering the man that got the goal. i was kicking myself after it happened, i cost baskie a shutout.
ross is like liquid lightning, on rocket powered roller blades, on shoes. he's that fast.
cowin played great, hes like Byfuglien in front of the net and pisses goalies off.

next week: road runners. we played them last year and i cant wait to play them again. we can beat them, im not worried. its no big deal.

oh yea, and since im going to a cottage this weekend i might not have an amazing game on sunday. ahh, who am i kidding... i will. with my amazing line of jason and ross we RUNNN TINGSS!! or we just run with the ball and shoot and score. either way

oops

my mistake. i said that we won 8-1 yesterday...
we won 9-1

Game #4 of summer season

PWNED!!! thats all i can say about the team we played yesterday. i had my facebook status as "village arena, 6pm, be there or dont" and anyone that had actually taken the time and interest to come out to watch the game would have witnessed an absolute clinic being run by the minivans. it was more like a practice or a scrimmage for us.
we had stouty playin on our team because brawlet had to work. we were also missing kells because he was away somewhere, but that didnt really phaze us in the least. a goal in the first 2 minutes pretty much dictated what the pace of the game was gonna be for us.
our lines were playing really really well and we were able to keep the titans on their asses the entire game.
ross had a great game, he was hustling his ass off all game and really causing trouble for the titans in their own zone. he lit the lamp twice. cowin had a great game bothering the defence in front of their net and also scored 2 goals. stouty got one thanks to a beauty pass by johnson. johnson got one thanks to a beauty pass from stouty.
brawley got a nice shorthanded goal off a beauty behind the back pass by me that i totally didnt mean to do. i ant remember the rest of the goals right now so ill add more when i get home and have the scoresheet in front of me.
final score, 8-1 for the minivans. baskie had a good game, shitty that he didnt get a shutout.


more to come

p.s. Stabs couldnt finish yesterday

we play at 6pm on sunday. pickering village arena vs. the titans. they got the same record as us. 1-2. we gotta get a win here

week off

Yea so its the May 24 weekend. no game yesterday (today is monday). lookin forward to playing next week, we need a W. need need need need NEED one.

Game #3 - Summer Season

We played a really good team yesterday. probably the best team in the league and got beat thoroughly. one upside we can take from this is that they got their first 2 goals quick into the game and then only got one more the remaining 25 minuted of the game. they are fast, great at passing and really aware of whats going on on the floor. one of the benefits of being together 5 years and having players that play in the US on university teams during the school year.
we need to shoot more and practice breaking out of our zone. we also need to be faster with our passes and accurate.

Game #2 (Summer Season)

ahh, what a great feeling this wonderful monday morning. last nite we played the "second best team in the league" and controlled the pace of the game almost entirely (almost), and beat them. not only did we beat them, we sent a message to the roof daddies that we can compete with the best.
i wont get ahead of myself here, this was a close game for the first two periods, only in the 3rd did we really show what we can do. scoreless until 10 left in the 3rd, we played hard and we able to keep them out of our zone for most of the time and get shots on their net. the downside is that their goalie was wearing pads that are MASSIVE! and when i say that i mean he looked like he had bought pads that were 2 sizes too big (he probably did), and was able to cover a shitload of the net. the downside with having pads that are way too big is that you cant control your rebounds as well and we were able to use that to our advantage and get alot of second chances once we got the initial shot off.

i like the new line combinations for our team. 9 forwards makes 3 complete lines:

1. brawley, brawlett, stabs
2. johnson, hacket, cowin
3. ross, megit, gummsy

the reason why i like these lines is because its a pretty even distribution of speed and skill on each line and from what we've seen in one game, these lines are able to do the job their supposed to do.
the first line is good because we got 3 guys with dangles, 2 of them always know where the other one will be and the third has a booming slapshot and can deke and snipe cheeses when he pleases.
second line is key because its 2 amazing playmakers on a line with one of the hardest working players on our team. hack and johnson form a deadly duo and cowin is a grinder and gives it his all when hes on the floor.
line 3 is key too because me and jason have the fastest player on our team on our line. maybe even the fastest player in the league and that can come as an advantage when we see him streaking up the floor and no one can keep up with him.

OK, back to the game.
first period was relatively slow paced. yea, sure, we got a few good chances but we were still feeling out the bullets to see how they play. they didnt get very many shots or chances on our net, and that proves that our new line combinations were doing their jobs. me, ross and jason were playing well and i dont remember the ball being in our end for more than 10 seconds while we were on the floor.
second period got a little more exciting. hacket had some great chances but their goalie was able to stop each try with his pads. all 3 lines had some good chances but no one could beat the overly padded goalie. i was on with hack and cow at one point and hack gave me a beauty drop pass entering therir zone and i fired it off the goalie and he gave up a big rebound but no one was there to stuff it in the net.
on to the 3rd period. we came out strong and it paid off. first shift for line 1 was good, they kept the pressure on and line 2 was able to capitalize on that by keeping it in their end and johnson sniped a nice goal with 9:50 left and that seemed to pump our team up pretty well. the ensuing faceoff was won by us and went right back down into their end again and cowin rifled a quick shot past their goalie to make it 2-0 with about 9 left in the game. after that we knew we would have to keep up the pressure and keep playing to win and not play not to lose.
the bullets managed to get the game close by scoring a goal on an ugly breakdown in our zone, but their goalie ended their chances of a comeback by making a stupid play down in their end. we iced the ball and the ref was ready to blow his whistle when their goalie ran out to play it and ended up losing it to brawley. all he had to do was pass it to brawlet who was in front with a wide open net and he made it 3-1 with little time left. they pulled their goalie and we werent able to get an empty net goal even though we got about 9 shots from inside their blue line.

overall it was a good game, good win and we need to bring this confidence into next sunday because we're playing the Roof Daddies next week and this will be a tough game. tough, but not impossible.

on a side note, cowin had a great game and got a beauty goal. kells always makes rushes into the offensive zone and it great having a defense player that can do that and actually make plays. i got a bunch of shots but no dice. having ross back is beauty. jason had a great game and made some good plays that created scoring chances, our line is gonna get some goals soon, really soon. beavan needs to shoot every single time he gets the ball. baskie had a relatively easy game, compared to some of the games he's played when we cant do shit except watch him keep us in it.

NEXT UP: ROOF DADDIES. SUNDAY NIGHT, VILLAGE ARENA 8PM

GAME #1 of SUMMER SEASON!!

well, not the most ideal way to start off the summer season but it gives us something to work on.
we were missing hackett, johnson, and baskie for the game because they had some hockey tournament that they made it to the finals in. i really hope this doesnt become a regular occurance, if they're going to miss games all year we would be better off getting reliable players that want to play every sunday and a goalie also. really hope thats not the case.

so anyways we're back at the village arena and its changed since last summer. the benches are bigger and the penalty boxes are all enclosed now and look proper.

first period was pretty exciting. no goals, but it was back and forth and OX made some important saves to keep the game tied at 0 going into the second. the pylons scored the first goal and we responded back a few minutes later to tie it up. into the third we were playing pretty well, we only had 6 forwards to we were tired but we were still making good plays and getting it into their zone.
i had a chance to score on a backhanded shot but it got deflected out of play so i was pissed and went off the floor after a short shift and it seemed to help our team out. jason, who replaced me on the floor scored a goal 30 seconds later on a nice backhander over the goalie and put us ahead 2-1.
we were able to keep the other team at bay for most of the third until about the 1:30 minute mark and they tied it up on a slapshot from the point. someone shoud have been covering their point man. next shift brawley takes a penalty and we go shorthanded for the last minute in the game. we were obviously looking forwards to the overtime and messed up big time on our penalty kill in the last minute. we had a perfect opportunity to clear the ball and run out the clock and we didnt. pretty pathetic because the next 15 seconds the guy i was covering got the ball and he just outright beat me and i didnt get a chance to get in front of his shot and he sniped the shit out of OX with 18 seconds left. pretty weak way to lose, considering the ball shouldnt have been in our end to begin with at 18 seconds left.

i felt overall i had a really good game. i made some good plays and me, brawley and brawlet had a couple good scoring chances but none of us could finish. cowin had a great game and went in a few times and beat the defence by himself and got some good shots. beaven moved up to forward for the 3rd period and got some good chances, at one point wide open in the slot but he needs to shot the ball. stop hesitating and worrying about if you have a bad shot or not and just shoot. the more we shoot the more scoring chances we have.
we got ross coming back to the team in a week or two, that is great to hear. hopefully we have hacket and johnson sometime eventually. unless they have an ice hockey practice or shinny game that is more important.

next week full team. cant wait

Semis and Final

the semis was a pretty exciting game. 10am vs. the booze hounds who we had already beat before and they came out pretty strong. or maybe we were just weak because we were missing hackett and kev johnson. they got the first goal but after that we smartened up and played proper.

final score was 2-1 i think. one goal by jason and one goal by stabs. good game.

the final game was bullshit and we got spanked 4-1. ugly, just ugly.

i have nothing more to say.


summer season starts in 2 weeks.
time to start all over again

playoff game #1

what a game!! not really but it wasnt bad. we got the W and thats all that really matters.

to start off we went to the game an hour early to watch the game before as and seee who we would be playing and it turns out the Tormentors are pussies and didnt even show up to the game so the yellow team with crazy eyes and his pink stick automatically move onto the next round next week. weak sauce.
they decided to have a scrimmage against the panthers who had already played earlier in the day. it turns out the panthers have no life and just sit around the arena all day. we watched a bit of that, that big goon #19 on the panthers wasnt doing jack shit, like usual.

ok, now onto the game.

we started out pretty well, first few shifts werent the best but we had control of the ball for most of the 1st period and definately had them on their asses trying to stop us. the downside is that we couldnt light the lamp at all. their goalie got pissed off early and was sooo rattled all game long. cowin has a way of pissing off people and getting them to take a penalty and then he laughs at them.

second period was better, we were scoreless up until 4 min left in the frame and johnson got the ball right in between the hash marks in the slot and made no mistake about it and put us ahead 1-0. a few minutes later (im pretty sure it was in the 2nd period still) kells started a rush and once i saw him run up i dropped back and watched his work his magic. he made one nice play to get around a defender and fed stabs a pass and he just went backhand on the goalie and put it right by his glove.

the third period was much of the same. i think jason got us our 3rd goal, i cant remember how though. the boozehounds come out in spurts and there were a few times when they would cycle it around our end and we would just sit there trying to stop them and fail. that only happened a few times though, we pretty much controlled the puck 70-80% of the game.

at some point in the game one of their guys got a shorthanded breakaway on baskie and, as usual, he shut the door on him. one guy steam rolled baskie and ross and kells just started beating on the guys trying to get him off our goalie. cowin pissed off their goalie enough to draw a 4 minute hooking penalty with 4:30 left and pretty much ice the game for us. then he got in a tussle with some idiot on their team against the boards with 10 seconds left and they started throwin punches but no one really got hurt. buddy was bitching about getting hit from behind or something. brawley got absolutely robbed on a breakaway by the goalie (pulling a hasek) move. and when i say robbed i mean robbed.

overall good win team. another shutout for baskie, thats 2 in a row now. 2 more wins and we're champs.
next sunday is gonna be epic.

playoffs baby

big game this sunday, well.... not really. yea yea yea its the first game of the playoffs and its 1 loss elimination but for some reason im not too stressed about it or worried in the least. first of all, the team, for some reason, got placed in the shittiest division of all the sunday teams even though we were tied with another team that got placed in the middle division, which is fucked. and we are also playing against the boozehounds again, who we thouroughly handled the last 2 times we have played them. im not saying this is a for sure win, because it isnt, but im not too worried about this team. or this divison. we are seeded 1st place and we shouldnt have a hard time in the playoffs this year.

game #13

sunday's game was a big one, really really important and it had a favourable result but that about the only positive we can draw from the game. it was the last regular season game and we needed to end the season on a high note because the playoffs start next weekend. we were playing the old tymers and they are right below us in the standings and this was a huge game because we sure as hell didnt want to finish the regular season with a 0.500 record.

the first shift (me, stabs and jason) was great. we came out gunning and had them on their heels. for all of about 1 minute until we got off the floor. after that it went downhill, some parts werent very pretty to watch. for some reason we couldnt clear the zone all game once they were in our end and any chance we got we would try to clear and they would stop the ball before it got past the red line and just bring it back in again and get more shots. we got SO outshot yesterday that it was starting to get embarrasing. luckily we had baskie in net to keep us in the game, and he sure as hell did.

the second period was pretty much same as the first. us trying to gain the zone and failing often, and then letting them walk right into our zone and us struggling to clear the ball. not very pretty. one upside we can take from this period is that we had a few more shots than the first and we were able to kill off some penalties and it was still 0-0.

the third period was where we knew we had to step it up a bit because we couldnt let them get as many chances as tehy had gotten in the first 2 and let baskie keep us in it. we had to get a goal for him. i could tell guys were starting to get frustrated at the fact that we werent winning and hadnt been able to do anything in their end, baskie was pissed and yelling at us every play stoppage and maybe that helped us. there was about 6 minutes left in the period and hackett, johnson and someone else were on the floor and i remember looking at someone and half jokingly saying "hackett's not comin off the floor till we have a goal". anyways, 1 minute passes, 2 minutes pass, 3, 4, johnson's already come off and hackett's out there lurking waiting for that opportunity because i know that once he gets it we'll be up 1-0. i guess he finally gets tired and comes off and now its the plug line out there for the last 2 minutes. me, jason and cow, put in to waste time and give the good players a rest so they're ready for overtime. we get a nice rush going towards their end and its me and jason coming in against one defender and cowin trailing behind. so anyways i go in, deke out one defender, wait for another guy to get back just so i can deke the pants off him too, then i walk in and completely embarass the goalie and rifle the ball top cheese to put us up 1-0 with a minute and a half left.

well... thats how i remember it. what may have actually happened is that me and jason were rushing in and i tried to pass the ball to him but for some reason flicked it wayy too high and did a sort of ugly lob pass into the corner. i could see jason was not amused by my retarded pass and i was pretty embarassed at myself at the time too. so jay goes into the corner to fight for it and fires a shot at the net and the goalie gives out a beefy rebound that goes right onto cowin's stick just as he is getting to the net and he fires it a few times from the side and it somehow trickles through and i see the ball and an open net in front of me and slash at it a few times right before the goalie falls on it. for a minute it thought i had just screwed up our only chance to win the game in regulation and then somehow the ball rolls out from under the goalie and right into the net. WOOHOO!!! a minute and a half left and we're up 1-0 off of an ugly goal by me. I cant remember exactly what happened next but kells and this olli jokinen lookalike that looks like Powder with crazy eyes get into a bit of a scuffle and the play is stopped and they both get penalties. as jokinen is walking by our bench he starts talking about how next week in the playoffs he cant wait to play us again and i just keep telling him he's rattled.

we play the last minute and a half biting our nails and get the hard fought W against a team we shouldnt have struggled against but we did.

next week is the first game of the playoffs, and if we win that we have 2 games the following week.

we were missing cainer this week because he had an easter dinner with his mom he had to go to. we were also missing ross... not sure why. we could have really used him, we missed his speed yesterday and if he had been there i doubt we would have won by only one goal. we were dead all game and we played our asses off and it was pretty ugly.

looking forward to next week.

Game #12

been loaftin on this for the past few days. one might think that the reason why is because we lost... WELL YOU THOUGHT WRONG IDIOT! we won, and it was a good game but i would have liked it if we had absolutely shit kicked the Express, like we did the last time we played them.

the game was good for us because of the fact that we were able to control the ball for alot of time and really keep them on their heels for most of the game. we got out to a nice 2 goal lead on decent goals but that didnt last. they came back and tied the game up late and we ended up pulling ahead with about 5 minutes left and then ross got an ugly, but necessary, empty net goal at the end of the game.

cowin started the scoring by cleaning up the garbage in front of their net and jamming it home. first goal of the year and it must have been a nice weight off his shoulders, maybe now he'll find a few more ways to put the biscuit in the basket.
hackett got our second goal and it wasnt that pretty considering it was a top cheese snipe. dont get me wrong, the goal was nice but the shot was a weak saucer and their goalie was terrible. i know baskie would have saved that, thats why we got the best goalie in the league.

they came back and got 2 mediocre goals that, if we had our defence positioned properly, wouldnt have been goals at all.

johnson got a nice goal to put us ahead to stay, i cant really remember how it was but it was nice. ill ask him and edit this post to include the description.

ummm... the last few minutes were pretty exciting, they had us on our heels with their extra attacker on and both cowin and cainer made beautiful defensive plays to keep us ahead.

oh yea, cant forget this. baskie played well, like usual. i dont even know why i need to write this. its not like he ever plays badly.

good game team. back to .500 and we're playin the team right below us in the standings this sunday. gotta keep it atleast a bit sober on saturday nite and have a clear mind for the 3 pm game. we arent letting this team have any breathing room in the standings.

game #?

so aaaaaaannnyyyways, we played the panthers yesterday. the same panthers we lost to 4-1 in the beginning of the year, see prior post for play-by-play. and the result was the same, just a different score.

im pissed mostly because we had many many many opportunities to gain their zone and generate scoring chances but half the time we couldnt get by their blue line and we looked pretty pathetic getting stopped so often. on the other hand, they didnt really get that many chances to score. i had a beauty chance to start the game off an ugly turnover by them and shot a muffin at the goalie while he was sprawled out and all i needed to do was chip it over him.
we had a lot of chances like that that just didnt go our way.

there was this big ass on their team, the Captain actually, number 19. and he sure as hell didnt deserve the C on his chest, he didnt even deserve to be on their team. all he did was play the body all game (i got body checked like 4 times) and hook and slash our players. not to take anything away from the refs but we told them numerous times to watch him because he was playing dirty and for some reason they chose to ignore his dirty playing.

stabs finally had enough of it and ran from one side of the floor to the other and crushed him into the boards with a nice hit. the refs knew he was a big dick, i was talking to them during the game and one of them said he'd bet me that as soon as someone dropped the gloves with him he would turtle. too bad we never got the chance.

so we play and its 0-0 with like 7 minutes left when its a 4-4 and guess who comes in and scores. none other than that big piece of shit number 19. kind of ironic, i laughed my ass off as soon as he got the goal because of all the people it had to be the biggest plug on the floor. we got plenty of chances in the last 2 minutes with our goalie pulled, cycled it really well, i got another perfect chance to score and launched a field goal over the net. we ended up losing and to top it all off, number 19 on their team was calling us all pussies and bitches as we were shaking hands. what a class act.

we can take away from the game the fact that we only lost 1-0 this time and we should have won the game. i want to play them again and slash the fuck out of that big piece of shit, i dont care if he retaliates on me, so be it. we're playing the express next,the team we beat 7-1, or something like that and it's gonna be a tough game. we need to come out and beat the shit out of them

team practice

lookin forward to our game this sunday. for starters, its at 4pm, and im pretty sure we barely ever lose when we play after 1pm. and secondly this is gonna be a big game because we're playing a team from the A division that i am confindent we can beat, and beat soundly too.

practice this saturday, AKA tomorrow at behind pickering rec center. gonna be a doozie

game #10

AHA!! VICTORY!! damn it never felt so good.

leading up to the game sunday im not going to lie, i was a little nervous. we were comming of a resounding defeat at the hands of a team we had previously beaten. and we were about to play a game against the 1st place team in the league that had also just been slaughtered by the best team in the entire floor hockey league, not just our division.

not to mention i know for a fact that the players on the a-town snipers were talking shit about our team all week leading up to the game. Adrian said that he heard them talking shit as he was walking onto the floor before the game. that's disrespect, and that kind of made me want to just embarass them and show people that our team is one of, if not the best team in our divison. like... seriously, we barely lost to the other team that is now first place in the league. BARELY!!

ok onto the game, we came out with a vengeance. considering we didnt have baskie in net and both brawley and kells thought that the game was at 4pm (damn daylight savings time!!) we played pretty well. the snipers were gaining the zone quite a lot, but once they got in they couldnt do anything. i heard from a source that adrian's weakness when he is in net are the booming slapshots from the point and throughout the entire game im pretty sure they got a grand total of 2 shots on net from the point. and then any other shot that made it through was either 2 feet over the net or wide left or right. we blocked a lot of their shots and made it hard for them to cycle around us.

we got a goal in the first 10 minutes but for some reason it got called off because stabs got pushed into the crease by one of their defencemen and i guess you cant have a guy in the crease. its ok though, they got called on a stupid high sticking penalty and we made them pay. hackett got one of his wierd angle slapshot goals that he seems to get every game and drew first blood. we got another goal 5 minutes later on another nice move by hackett on a rush into their zone and it was 2-0.

3 minutes later i got a lead pass and was able to chip it by the last man and raced in on a breakaway, only to get stopped by that same guy coming back and the ball rolled into the corner. no big deal... i played it around the net and it got passed out into the slot for johnson who made no mistake and put us up 3-0. finally, near the end of the game they had their goalie pulled and brawley had control and was trying to play it forward for kells to get the goal so he passed it through his legs but it rolled too far and right into their net, kind of a funny way to end the game.

closing thoughts: i heard from a couple people that the snipers thought they had "outplayed the shit" out of us. their inability to get shots in net from the point was their downfall. id say the same thing about us if we had lost, you cant take hundreds of shots from the point and have 90% of them get blocked, and then to add salt to the wound you cant miss on the shots you do get through. we didnt get outplayed, adrian wasnt tested very much in net, and when he was tested he killed it, they had a few scoring chances all game and their so called fast players didnt burn our defence once. they have 3 guys in the top 10 in scoring and we held them to 0 points. i can confidently say that we have the best defence in the league. just watching hackett burn them like 6 times yesterday was priceless too. im just dissapointed ross wasnt here, he would have had a field day with hackett on 2 on 1 rushes. i know for a fact they would have combined for atleast 3 goals.

good win team, panthers next week. lets show them who's boss



a side note, there were no periods, just 45 minutes run time with no breaks. thats why i didnt divide the article up.


SPECIAL MENTION: adrian AKA Ox had a stellar game in net. im glad that now we know that if baskie is away or sick we have a solid (very fucking solid) goalie that can play in his place.

im glad baskie is back though.

game #9

it took a while to make myself write this.

we got slaughtered. the score was 6-1. too much excessive drinking on saturday night led to an embarassing game by us.

this week we play the A-town snipers, who are the best team in the league and who, themselves, just got beat 7-0.

two teams desperate for a win... its gonna be a doozie

game #8

i am very happy to report that the minivans are back on track and looking forward to next week's game so that we can start a winning streak.
yesterday's game was against the team we played for our first game and it was a pretty even game up until the 3rd period.

they scored the first goal on a shitty shot while they had a penalty and after they got a shorty we tightened up our playing and brought it to them, not just that, we shoved the game right down their fucking cocky throats.

these guys were real dicks, and when i say that i must mean it because im a dick, and they were like me times 10. one idiot was wearing this blue visor on his helmet, not really sure why because we play indoors and was jabbing at kells the entire game. yea, thats right you read correctly, kells, the smallest guy on our team. he was also talking shit to hackett and wanted to fight him after the game but surprisingly, he wasnt "waiting in the parking lot" like he said he would be when we left the arena... pussy.

ok, back to the game, so we're down 1-0 in the first and im thinking, shit, this cant be another shitty game played by us against such a terrible team. i was working my ass off and everyone else was too. we go into the second period and thats when we really turned it on and once we did that it was only a matter of time till the game was going to be out of reach for them.

kells got a BEAUTY goal. so the defenceman pinches, one of our forwards drops back (which was good to see because you gotta cover for him). he dekes around one defender, goes through another and puts the goalie on his ass with a sick move and suddenly the game is tied up. we got our own shorthanded goal so that pumped us up.

the game was still tied going into the third but we were outplaying them badly, and considering they had 16 guys on their bench and we had 10 on ours we were the team with more energy while their were sucking dirty pond water and getting in arguments with their own players. the game remained tied until the 8 minute mark of the third and then the next 2 minutes were next to flawless for us.

the second goal was a shot from the point by kevin that smacked the goalie in the face and fell right onto hackett stick. it was a nice one because hackett had just messed up on a breakaway right before that. i went on and got to the net and was jabbing at a rebound and got it to kevin and he hit it over the goalie for our 3rd goal, then the next shift we got another one. i cant remember how it went but it was nice. wait... i just remembered, it was actually our second goal and it was a slapshop from the blue line by hackett. from that moment on we knew the goalie was sooooo RATTLED! and thats when we lit him up.
thats 3, count em, one, two, three goals in a minute and a half. flawless.

so anyways, from that on we had them on their heals and they got pretty rough. we knew they were angry also, the trash talk had already started earlier in the game and it really started up when we were ahead 4-1. there were these really trashy girls cheering for them too, but on the seats right beside our bench and they started heckling us also, it was pretty funny. kells got in a fight with some big dude and the guy got ejected while kells got 4 minutes, stabs tripped and fell and WRECKED some little idiot named oxley by hitting him into the boards. and i mean WRECKED this kid, he coulda broken his neck.
all in all it was a good game for us, bad for them. 7 penalties per team, rough rough game. good win team, we needed it.

back to .500

things are lookinfg up

well... after that utter destruction last nite that was the canada russia game im suddenly not too worried about the game we're facing ahead of us this weekend.
boozehounds are the team we're playing, the highest scorer on their team has 3 points in 5 games. there are 3 players with 3 points. hmm, something tells me i shouldnt be reading into this too much though. this is going to be a tough game because we have been playing like tits lately and need to have a good game this weekend.
saturday night is pepin's club event shit that he's been planning for a while, definately not drinking on saturday. game at noon, gonna be a doozie.

game 7

im rattled... and not just from that disgusting display of terrible hockey last nite in the canada/usa game where martin brodeur proved that i'm right and he is a useless tit.
we were playing a team yesterday at 11am and they are about equal with us in the standings.
they were running on a short bench for a lot of the game and we should have been able to easily handle them if we had only just attempted to cycle the ball even a tiny bit. but guess what, we didnt and we pretty much sucked yesterday.
i wont get ahead of myself, the score was tied at 0-0 going into the 3rd period and we were playing decent enough to go on some nice rushes into their end and get some good scoring chances but at the same time, they were able to walk right into our end sometimes and get their own good chances.
fast forward to about 7 minutes left in the game. they get a goal, i cant really remember how so ill ask around and hopefully someone will remember and i can update this later. bottom line is that we're losing and the clock is slowly moving towards 0:00
to make matters worse, kotch gets a penalty for kind of nudging this sissy on the other team into the boards and he falls on the ground and flails like a little girl. no, let me rephrase that, kotch nailed this guy into the boards, a pretty bad ass check actually and ROCKED him. it was funny to see a guy get tagged pretty hard by kotch.
so we're a man down with like 3 minutes left and playing pretty good penalty kill, so good actually that johnston brings it into their end with hackett running at the net and wires a powerfull slapper right at the goalie's head and it just smacks him in the cage and falls right to the ground in front of him and onto hacketts stick and he burries it to tie the game up. nice shot kevin.
time is running down in regulation and its tied. the ball is in our end and ross is battling in front of the net with this guy and the guy tries to lift smiley's stick and actually raises the stick and smacks himself in the face with ross's stick. penalty with 2 seconds left in the game going into overtime but high sticking, kind of weak call but oh well. to make matters worse its a 4 minute penalty.
we played the first 3 minutes of overtime really well considering it was 4 on 3 and we were actually able to stop any chances they had. we had killed off about 3 minutes of the penalty and it looked like we were going to get a chance at even strength but then they scored to end the game. i dont really remember this goal either but who cares, it wasnt for us so why would i bother trying to remember it. the point is that we lost.

i had a terrible game, absolutely horrible. i made some STUPID decisions and pretty much cost us the game. next saturday night im not staying up till 4am.
cowin played well, so did everyone else including baskie (MVP of the game). cainer was up on forward for a bit and we have a new line combination ill call "the speed line". cainer, ross and hackett are the fastest forward line ive ever seen. i know for a fact that no one in the league will be able to keep up to them the next time they play together. we need to use that line to our advantage.

looking forward to next week. we are not going to lose again.

pond monday

monday was a great day. aside from the fact that i had the day off from work we had a mini team practice. and when i say mini i mean there were about 6 players from our team that came out to play some pond hockey. overall it was still pretty fun though.
we played for 2.5 hours and i coulda gone for atleast another hour.
we played a little 3 vs 3 for the whole time, switching teams a couple times. not gonna say it was an effective practice considering it was ice hockey and we play floor hockey but it still builds team chemistry. if you learn more and more about how someone plays and their tendencies then it pays off on the floor.

game #6

well well well... the day after im still rattled from this one. we were playing the Slakers, who probably meant to call themselves the "slackers" but are idiots and dont know how to spell so it looks more like the Lakers of the NBA with an S added to the front. morons.

ok, onto the game. we started off great yesterday. our first shift ended up getting a goal which is always nice and we kept up a fast pace of play all of the first period. by the first break it was 3-0 for us and we were playing very well and had the other team on their asses. they were shook, we could tell. then something happened, i like to believe that we looked up at the score and realized that we were beating the hell out of the first place team and thought "what the hell are we doing? we should be losing!" and that mentality screwed us. our second period was still good but we were slowing down, letting them cycle the ball in our end and get chances. those chances led to their first goal of the game and the second period ended with us leading 3-1 but our heads were obviously not in the game.

they came out strong in the third and we played like absolute shit. i like how ross summed it all up after the game, we were talking on our bench in the first 2 periods, the third period came and our bench was silent. not a good thing for nobody on a team to be talking to their team mates when your team is leading 3-1 in the third period.

they got 2 goals, one which was decent and one which was shit and tied the game up and we were expecting OT to settle it. never make assumtpions. those goals re-energized them and they scored a goal with 30 seconds left in the game to go ahead for good. shitty way to lose a game against the best team.

notes:
- hackett was away on a trip to some eastern province and he might have fared better with him.
- brawlette was a call-up for us and it was nice to see him back on our bench for a minivans game. he didnt have an amazing game but played hard and puked his ass off during the game.
- solid play by cowin, got a nice assist on my goal
we're 3-3 now, we need to win every game from now on.

game 5 AKA team practice AKA shooting clinic

as i said in the title... yesterday's game was a clinic. we blasted the other team and as bad as it sounds, im glad we beat them 7-1. our team needed a big win and we got it last nite thanks to awesome play from our forwards and defence. id have to say ross was my "Monster" for yesterday's game. he was all over the floor and if he didnt have the ball he was either getting open or pressuring the other team into making stupid mistakes, which they did a lot yesterday.

we started off the game with a bang. my second shift on me and cow were fighting for the ball in front of the net and it went into the corner. cow went after it and gained control and fired it out front and i banged the ball into the net for a quick 1-0 lead. after that our team never looked back. it was 4-1 by the end of the first and we were just getting started. ross had 2 goals yesterday and was too close to getting a third for his hat trick, kotchie had an ugly goal from the blue line, he pretty much just stepped up and slapped the ball and their goalie flopped on the save. jason had a beautiful back handed top cheese goal after he walked out in front of the net, hackett had a noce goal as well and overall it was a great game and good confidence builder for our team. we need that confidence so that we'll play well when we play the teams that are actually good in our league.

johnson had 3 assists on the game and got credited with kotchie's goal so hes pretty much either 1st or 2nd in the league right now in points. stabs played a great game, he played his ass off and it showed. he puked his guts out on the bench and went back on and almost scored a goal. brawley was back in the lineup after missing a few weeks with a hamstring injury and he was a welcome addition back into our high-powered offence. i cant stress enough how nice it is to have Kells back on our team and on defence. his defensive play is stellar every time he gets on the floor and since he came back we've been playing better as a team. cainer was back down on defence this week and had a good game also. special mention to cowin. his first game playing up and he is the big body we need in front of the net and pissing off the defense from the other team when we have the ball deep in their end. he played a great game yesterday and was definately one of the 3 stars of the game.

3 stars.

1. ross
2. cowin
3. baskie

we are now 2nd place in the league with 6 points. first place is occupied by a few teams and they all have 8 points.
not too sure who we play next week but we'll be missing hackett. gotta go out there and play like we dont need him. we should be fine, i mean... hackett is probably the best player on our team but we're a team and we should manage.

good game this week team.


i almost forgot!! baskie made one of the most beautiful saves ive ever seen in a game in the 3rd period with about 5 seconds remaining. he dove over from one side of the net to the other and robbed the opposince player of a for sure goal blindly. and i mean ROBBED. this kid must ahve gone home crying, he had a wide open net and got jacked. beauty save baskie, and good playing today.

game #4

today we went out and had some fun. and it paid off greatly.
first thing's first, we got kells back on the team and hes a great addition to our defence and whole team. brawleys still on the sidelines with his messed up hamstring but he'll be back soon, and having cainer up forward now on a line with me is starting to look like a nice little combination.

today we put on a clinic and it was just fun to watch. hackett had a hat trick, johnson had a hat trick, and ross had one of the prettiest goals i've seen all year and ill probably still be saying that at the end of the year.
we started out good, got a goal on our first shift and managed to keep the other team in check for a lot of the first period. by the end it was 2-0 for us and we were feeling pretty good. that changed quick in the second period. the other team got 2 quick goals and tied the game up and had us on our heels for a while in the period. we didnt panic though and managed to make the score 6-2 by the beginning of the 3rd period.
i guess that sparked something for the other team because they came out and had a stellar shift, controlled the ball in our end and ended up getting a goal on a missed defensive assignment by one of our guys.
after that goal they stormed back down and got another one 9 seconds later (something like 9 seconds) and made it 6-4. after that we calmed down a bit and controlled the ball for the rest of the third period. we ended up winning the game 7-4 which is nice but id have rather won 7-2 or 7-1. we let baskie down a few times.
i also let the team down 2 by getting called on some pretty obvious penalties. oh well, we all have bad moments.

anyways, all is good in the minivans camp. we're 2-2, .500 record. not amazing but good enough for now. i dont want to lose again this year.

game #3

we know what we need to work on after yesterday's game. and shooting the ball more is on the top of that list.
we played decent yesterday, not amazingly, and we got beat by one of the better teams in the league. these guys will be either 1st or second this year, im saying it now.

we started off the game down 2-0 within the first 5 minutes and things werent looking too good. thats when we buckled down a bit and started to play the hockey that we know we can play.
we ended up getting a nice goal by hackett and we were only down by one goal and made it a pretty close game. couple penalty calls for us didnt faze the team. a non-call on a high stick by the other team really hurt us and we let the other team get 2 quick goals in the last 3 minutes that really screwed our chances of coming back.

on a side note, brawley was out the entire game with a hamstring injury and stabs sat out a while too because his shoulder was messed up. it would have been a different game is we had both those guys in all game. ross played well with his new shoes and had a nice breakaway in the game. johnston was hung over to shit and still managed to play pretty solid. we had cainer out for a game and hes part of our team now. hes on defence currently but hes good at forward too so he might float between both positions.

team practice sometime this week. get some nets, play some road hockey in a church parking lot or something and practice shooting, deflecting shots, and screening the goalie.
we need to shoot more, instead of doing the dump and chase method (which evidently doesnt work for us), we should be shooting at the goalie every time we get an opportunity and then the other guy gets in there and wait for a rebound.

run times

so im running now to get in shape for hockey.
from my house to vernoys. not sure the distance but i'll just post my times here for my own reference.

january 18th - 25 min (approx)
january 19th - 25 min with kotchie
january 20th - 23 min (weak shit)
january 21st - 20 min with smiley and kells
January 22nd - 20 min with smiley

january 25th - flop AKA taco hell feast AKA fat tiem
january 26th -

more players

another side note.

i dont understand how anyone could ever think we could be a contender in this league with 11 players.
3 centers, 4 wingers and 4 defence DO NOT win a championship.

i know im not the only one that realizes this. yet... people think 2 full lines for a team and one extra player is the way to win. im pretty sure ive never seen an undermanned NFL, NHL, NBA, soccer, or any other professional team win anything while they are missing 3 or 4 players

game #2

not a good game last nite. we got outplayed, its as simple as that. some may argue that we infact outplayed the stallions but i strongly disagree. they had the ball in our end for a lot of the game, got more shots, and they wanted it more. some players on our team were walking half the time while going for the ball, and that will not do.
we started out the game good, we were in the opposing team's end and had them on their heels for all of about the first 5 minutes then we played like shit the rest of the game. they got ugly goals, but no one ever remembers whether a goal was ugly or not, they just remember that it was a goal. some of the centers on our team werent doing their jobs, some of the wingers werent doing shit either so we're all to blame.
we were down 1-0 at the end of the first and 3-0 by the start of the third and by then it was damage control mode. try to get one goal and then build from there. Stabs got our only goal on a shot that would have never gone into the net if the opposing goalie hadnt knocked their net off the line and the refs didnt see it.

on a side note, the refs really screwed us this week. we got a couple biased penalty calls in a very rough game for both teams. some of them were warranted but some of the calls would never be called in any hockey game by any well trained referee. At one point, we had a powerplay and the refs called a penalty on us, so that would have meant it was even strength and the opposing team proceeded to ice the puck after the face off from behind their own blue line all the way to our end without anyone else touching the puck. im no genius or anything but im pretty sure that is an icing call, yet the refs for some reason thought that we still had a powerplay, even though they had just given us a penalty to make it 4 on 4. on another occasion, we had the ball in their end and Stabs took a slapshot that was delfected by one of their players and flew directly up and hit the ceiling, yet the refs called the faceoff to be outside of the zone and when we asked for an explanation the ref said that he shot it. when asked how it was even remotely possible that he shot it directly up into the air and at the ceiling the ref told johnson "i dont know, ask him".

ANYWAYS... it was a rough game and we got beat. its not the defences fault that we lost and its not the goalie's fault that we lost. all of the blame lies directly on the shoulders of every single offensive player, myself included.

the end of the game got pretty heated as well, some guy started pushing stabs and one of his gloves got knocked off so stabs punched the guy in the head above the eye and it looked like a UFC fight where you see a vicious elbow get thrown, instant blood all over the guys face. after he realized he was gushing blood he took his hand and wiped his blood on Stabs face, and that just a greasy classless move right there.

all in all, we got beat by a "better" team.
good thing it was only game #2. this wont happen again.

line combinations

2 different winger lines

• hackett, ross
• johnson, brawley

3 different centers to rotate

• gummer
• stabs
• jason

roster report.

ok, so...
here goes.

me: jsut call me the workhorse, i just work my ass off all game, running around, shooting, passing, whatever needs to be done for my team to get a good scoring chance. right now im center, need to learn how to take faceoffs better to improve the overall effectiveness of my line when we are on. my shot is decent, i find that i panic sometimes and should take the time to slow down and think about moves before i make them, its not like im crosby or anything. (note to self: DONT MAKE BLIND PASSES!!)

ross: smiley AKA the gazelle. hes a winger that runs like the wind, im not even exaggerating that, he could probably beat the wind in a race. needs better shoes, if he had basketball kicks his style of play would improve immensely just for the simple fact that they would allow him to stop and pivot so much easier than he does now. good awareness, its his second year and considering he would have won the Calder Trophy last year hes keeping up with his great play. the only flaw i see is his shot, its not terrible but if he worked more on it he would score on every breakaway he gets, and he gets quite a few.

hackett: playmaker extraordinare. winger, as fast as ross, has amazing ball control and awareness on the play surface. hes got more moves than a U-Haul (thats my joke, dont steal it). he can set up plays beautifully, i have a sneaking suspicion that he can pass, i've just yet to see it. then again, when you have a laser for a shot why bother passing, the other forwards should go straight to the net and fight for the rebound.

kotchie: key defensive player. hes really good at defense, one of the reasons we can stay in the games is because of the defence and he's a core component. hes also got a pretty hard and accurate shot, just needs to shot MORE!!

dutchie: vernelly is also a defenceman. hes got a pretty sweet shot too and also a core component of the defence. hes got great awareness and knows when to pinch and when to get back on the play. really smart on the field.

cowin: defenceman, hes a new edition to our team this year, but definately not new to playing floor hockey. hes a big body on defence and has a presence when hes on the field and thats what we need. seems kind of unsure of himself at times but that will pass with more games. i think he has a boomer for a shot, just waiting to see if my belief is correct.

bevan: key defenceman also, needs to get rid of those sweatpants and wear shorts and hed be so much faster, not to mention probably more energetic and less tired during the game. doesnt shoot much, needs to start because even if the shot is weak or off target, the closer to the net the ball is the better.

brawley: winger. another great playmaker on the team, sometimes it seems as though he has eyes in the back of his head. hes got some nifty moves too, like hackett and he can definately set up plays and make scoring chances on his own. hes got a great shot too and is also a good passer.

stabs: centerman. converted from defence in our 3rd last game last year and im glad we did. hes great at defence dont get me wrong, but hes awesome at offense too. fast runner, good shot and a digger when hes in front of the net. hes also a big body presense on the offense and we need that.

johnson: hard worker, could be either center or winger, depending on what he feels like. johnson has a really nice shot. hes also good good awareness and can set up plays well. hes got great defensive awareness as well, must be from years of playing hockey.

jason: another new addition to our team this year, centerman on the team and a hard worker. ive seen him paly ice hockey and hes good at that so im assuming that he'll have a stellar year this year in floor hockey. hes not tall but has a big presence in the opposing end. needs to throw his body around (without taking a penalty of course).

roster

Keith
Ross
Kevin
Kotchie
Stabs
Jason
Cowin
Baskie (best player on the team)
Brawley
Dutch
Bevan
Hackett

Who am i missing?


ill have player profiles soon

first game of the year!

well well well... it sure feels good to be back at this.
had our first game of the year on sunday morning at... WHAT!! 9am!!!
yea, you read that correctly, 9 in the morning, after a night of crappy Karma Lounge in Oshawa and bottle service. needless to say, some of the players on the team were feeling a little crappy.

we're playing this season (spring season) at a stellar facility in scarborough, about 20 min drive from ajax. its a really nice arena though and the playing surface is great. its a special surface with these tiny holes all over it, kind of like a rubbery texture and its not bad for running, stopping and pivoting if you got some nice basketball shoes on.

this season, since its a different facility we have different hours. whereas last summer it was any time between 5pm and 10pm games, this season its anytime between 9am and 4pm games. so the exact opposite. hopefully we dont have too many early games. if we do i've made the decision to take it easy on saturdays and watch while everyone else gets sloppy as hell on a saturday and ill be the sober one. my train of thought is that we need atleast one person who doesnt feel like shit at every game.

ok so, now onto the game. first off, i wake up at 8am, look around and everyone else is still passed out, so i wait a bit longer and finally have enough willpower to get up. i rise and luckily i had all my hockey gear at the house the night before so i dont need to go grab it at home. hackett comes downstairs and starts yelling hockey at people at like 8:25 (35 minutes till game starts), and people start to get up. it takes some more convincing for some but we finally get everyone ready and some people take off to go to the arena and im still waiting with johnson and brawls for vernoy. we leave at 8:45... not a good sign, we show up 7 minutes late and get dressed in 3 so the game is only 10 minutes late to start. the refs are dicks though and give us a delay of game penalty to start the game.

we started something new this year, me, smiley, stabs and brawls are centers. everyone else is a winger or defence. i still need to get used to running the most out of anyone on the floor when im on.

the other team looks decent, but how quickly first impressions can be wrong. turns out they're not very good at all. our entire team feels like crap and we dominate the first period. no goals though, but its in their end the whole time.

second period is a bit better, we get on the board on a nice move by johnson and its 1-0. a couple shifts later its me, brawls and johnson in their end and i feed one of them a beauty pass and we go up 2-0.

third period we're still domnating but we let them get back into the game by getting a goal and making it 2-1 and it looks like they're starting to feel confident. we shoot that confidence out fo the sky with a heat seeking missile the very next shift when stabs gets a nice goal and pretty much puts the game away. we end the game keeping the pressure on and dont give them any chances.

final score, 3-1 for the Minivans. first win of the season, many more to come.
on a side note, we got a bunch of penalties on sunday, some of them unwarranted. and we only got one powerplay. that shows that we can play well on the penalty kill because we got some nice scoring chances when we had some penalties.

crappy play-by-play this week, the game isnt fresh in my mind. next sunday will be better.

new scouting report to come soon also.

Cheers

GO MINIVANS!!!