Last night I was telling someone that a player was M.I.A, Their response: "MIA, The initials for Miami?" No I'm not talking about Shaq's old stomping grounds, the ghetto, home of the Marlins and Dwayne. I'm talking about Jon Borges, I'm actually starting to miss the rancid smell of garlic cloves in the air! Well,only a little...to this weeks notes...
*Defense,Defense, Defense! Both Game One and two consisted of strong defensive efforts by both teams and resulted in what seemed to be longer games then usual. OK enough about the first two games, Game three was the game to be apart of so Lets get a biased opinion from Brett:
After two hard fought games from the Dark side, and two losses, they got even worse news . . . . . Joe pulled a muscle, apparently. What a blessing in disguise that turned out to be. Brendan filled in Joe's pads and headed to the white team along with Reggie. In return the dark team got, red hot goaltender, Steve. The dark team claimed a 1-0 lead that would hold for quite some time till finally Steve was solved by the white team. Shot after shot, save after save, Steve did all he could do to keep his team in the final game of the night. While the score was 4-2 in favor of the white team, Steve made stellar saves on the likes of Brett and Johnny Riley from point blank range. Brendan wasn't his usual self in net either, he was stopping the ball, matching save for save with Steve, with one imparticular being on Mr. Meadows. Brett developed cramps in his
legs and had to sit himself down which was the only window of opportunity the dark team needed.*(see footnote) They clawed their way back from a 4-2 deficite and got, not pretty goals, but well deserved goals from both Mikes, and stole the game from the white team with a Mike Ward GAMEWINNER!!"
*It's interesting to note that it was at the same time that Brett sat out, that Jared did the same. So which gave the dark team that spark? Jared taking a timely line change, or Brett's hamstrings doing a yo-yo trick forcing him to sit?
Got an Opinion of game three? Send me an email, if its biased enough I will add it to the post...(nickbuurton88@hotmail.com)
11 comments:
11/2/08
5 Mike W - Where was that kind of play in Florida when we needed it? Mike may have had little to do with the score sheet in the first two games, but made up for it with his gritty play and 2 goals in the third game (his second being the game winner).
4 Johnny R. - He scored less . . . . But didn’t get more assists. What a change a week can bring. Though getting 7 points, he is no longer the leading scorer, Johnny has been nice enough to let Brett in on the glory, as they are both tied for the lead. Don’t expect Johnny to try and get more assists next week, quote “that’s the last time I try to set someone up for the game winner”
3 Dale - He had his share of goals, but what really amazed me was that he lifted his head once in a while to look for the pass instead of just firing away at every chance. He’s starting to show he trusts his teammates. But do they trust him yet?
2 Brett - If the games were only played up to 4, then Brett would have the most game winners by far. But they’re not. Brett was drawing 2 defenders to him all night. Opening up areas on the court for his teammates to expose. Brett found them consistently, as well as the back of the net. “He’s too fast for you Nick, don‘t pinch in so much” was heard quite a few times after many of Brett’s goals.
1 Steve - Was there any question after his performance the other night that he’d get first star? Not at all!! The only player that night to get three wins was Steve. He played above and beyond his known capabilities. Or has he taken his game to new heights? Steve was in position to make every save he should have, and most of the save he shouldn’t have. He clearly made the difference between the Dark team being beaten 5-2, 5-2. And them winning the last game in comeback fashion 5-4. 21 career wins!!
Welcome to this weeks big board, which predicts the top 15 draft picks for the following sunday.
1. J Riley- What a Saugus hockey machine, truly on top of his game to start the season.
2. Brett- Him and Riley cannot be stopped and certainly should be split up to make the teams fair come sunday.
3. Brendon- Has the heart of a warrior, a 5 tool player if that even exists in hockey.
4. Borges- threw on 28 pounds in the 2 off weeks but will still anchor his team at center.
5. Mike D- doing the little things to help his team win.
6. Jared- He plays left wing
7. Steve- Too high for a goalie? go make your own list.
8. Lee- A solid performer on D
9. Matt?- Still not sure if that's his name but he can handle the rock.
10. Dale- Always good to have someone who can take an unnecessary backhand shot
11. Cliff- Look for cliff to bring a clean game and a clean shave come sunday.
12. Lenny- showed some offensive skills sunday.
13. Mike W- developing into a 15-20 goal scorer.
14. Left Bench- It's definately the better side, with more space, a shorter walk, and less puke on the floor from Brett.
15. Nick- good for you Nick making the big board
Even though dark lost 2 of the 3 games, I'd take those teams again in a second.
Even though we lost we for the most part played as a unit.
Had some bad bounces and some stupid plays (myself included), but we just kept grinding it out.
No one was selfish, we all kept passing, and hustling (almost all of us).
Even in the games we lost we had some great defensive plays and played good defensively as a unit.
I know saying we played well defensively is strange in loosing games, but it is true.
In the 3rd game our forwards attitude changed. We attacked more, passes were cleaner, and we were quicker.
We had become comfortable with each other and the addition of Mike W. was huge.
Nick was a staple on defense in all 3 games.
Then after I screamed at Bradley (sorry about that) he picked up his effort as well.
would anyone be apposed to posting up the actual draft picks every week or do you think that would get weird and people get stupid over it?
the teams for the third game were better than the other two, with Mike Ward changing for Reggie and Steve.
The thing is, will Steve be that great every week? Get Tony to play net this week and see who's better. Tony in my opinion has been the most consistently good goalie.
in regards to the big board . . . .
i think switching up the duo of me and JR would defeat half the purpose of Saugus. One half being stats, and the other being developing for Florida.
Is it possible to keep the same core of players for each week, for example, JR, Brett, Brendan. And the other team has, Jared, JB(if hes gonna show), Mike W, or Mike D.
Keep tweaking the teams till they are just right. Don't dismantle teams and rebuild from scratch.
If we recorded the order of people each week that were picked then we should be able to track who was picked where. The only danger of posting it, is like you said Mike, some people might complain about being picked low. As long as people don't care, then it doesn't bother me.
As for the same teams each week, I'm okay with that as long as we get Left Bench on our side. We would just have to have enough of a base group there each week to choose from. Think about it, and if you guys want to do that we can try it.
BTW, just to add to the discussion from last Sunday's game: as much as I hated losing the last one, the dark team played great. Each of you guys played well, and played together very well. Our team played pretty well too; you guys just outplayed us.
Brendon, you definitely didn't deserve having the 5-spot on you (I'll nominate you for the best glove save of the year), unfortunately Steve was just awesome in that last game.
I only suggested posting the order so you could compair the actual order against the big board order, but it will most likely get ugly..
As far as teams, I'm down with what ever as long as teams are relatively even.
I personally wouldn't want to be on a team that was nothing more than a whipping post for your Florida team that was trying to build chemistry...
I definately think we pulled it together on that 3rd game.
i know what you mean Mike. That's why just tweaking the teams would be best. Like when we traded Reggie for Mike W and Steve.
Little things like that can make a big difference, as we could see from the results of the last game
and we shouldn't be afraid to just switch goalies cause it'll hurt their feelings(that's what some one said when i suggested it a while ago)
what's the difference between trading goalie for goalie or player for player?
If the goalies are what are making the difference then switch them.
the numbers game
0 - points separating JR and Brett
1 - number of line changes JR took last week
2 - % chance that Borges will show this week
3 - represents Bradly's place among his teams scoring leaders
4 - amount of wins Steve has in 11 games. Also the Points Per Week for both Jared and Dale.(Jared is .33 higher)
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