Hockey is inside this week @ 5:30

Remember that there is no hockey the week after (Feb 7) due to our assembly and the Super Bowl.

Brendon & Jared, use this thread for posting your teams...Darrin and Steve should be the goalies. For everyone else, post if you will be in. It seems like it will be a good group.

Game time is Sunday, 5:30. Playing OUTSIDE this week

The inside rink was not available so we are playing OUTSIDE this week at 5:30. Let me know who is going to be there.

Also, the stats are done and Nick should have them posted tonight, along with the updated player cards. I will be working on the front of the cards tomorrow, and look into making goalie cards as well.

Finally, feel free to post some ideas for teams this week.

Weekly Power Rankings

1-17-10

More Hockey = More Fun

5 Matt S. (Dark Team) - Matt’s short stint on the dark team was great while it lasted. He was able to play effectively on offense while still having the presence of mind to hustle back and help on D and he wasn’t even center. See Jared, it can be done.

4 Ron - Tough night for Ron, not in the scoring department, but in the team support department. Ron tried all the tricks in his bag and came up short with 3 losses as the rest of his team seemed to leave their bag of tricks at home. Even the addition of Matt S and Mike P. weren’t enough.

3 Nick - Still has a few wrinkles to iron out in his game, but Nick was more than solid. While working with the rookies Mike J and Cindy on defense, Nick was able to limit the damage the white team caused. He utilized his shot from the point, getting it through a screen of players many times. Whether it was on net is a different story.

2 Brendon - Brendon took over game 2 with his offense along with Matt S. Brendon took to heart the advice given last week about being a pest and continued to be one this week. His defense wasn’t bad either. Brendon has seemed to finally have found his game. Maybe it was the short stick that messed him up for a while?

1 Brett - No Johnny. Verse Ron. Verse Darrin. Win. Win. Win. Brett shut the mouths of all his critics this past Sunday with an outstanding performance. He was able to break through the D(along with everyone else), or just run around the ones that were standing still, and just toy with them by either finding the open man, or finding the open net.

A Taste Of Brett's Imperfections

BTW, just to let you know that we are playing on the Inside rink at 5:30 on Sunday.

Roast the Toast

He has not been here since the beginning but he has become the toast of Saugus hockey. He is the man with the magic fingers, the magic touch. And it's always been said, mostly by him, that he created Saugus's best. That without his touch, his counterpart would not be as great. But for the first time, in a long time, they separated. Did you take note of the results?

I'm not going to do a recap this week. I need a break. But let's talk about this upcoming week. Will It be Brett v.s Johnny, with Ron joining one side? Who will end up alone with Jared out? What do we think?

When Will We Ever Learn?

I'm not going to be specific and call to mind all the calls that should and shouldn't have been made. If i did then no one would show for 4 months from being offended. But i just want people to stop making calls the way they think they saw it. How bout asking after the play: "Hey who was that out off of?" instead of "OUR BALL." And please stop saying: "Then call it!" cause if we did call it every time, then we'd play less hockey than we did tonight. The big play of the night was obviously Ron's hook on Jared's break-away. Jared's at fault for not taking the penalty cause he tries to use reverse psychology(it doesn't work Jared) and it's the white teams fault for not calling it on themselves. Own up to your mistakes. If you hooked him, then say you hooked him and personally give him the ball at center ice. If it went out off you then say it went out off you. Darrin stopped playing on half the goals cause he didn't know what was happening. And now he doesn't want to play. The phantom offsides, the ball hits the penalty box area, comes back and we keep playing and leads to a goal. I've never ever seen that play happen and all i hear is: "We always play it like that" or "If it hit's the netting we still play it." I stopped, Brendon stopped, Darrin stopped. I thinks it's time to clear up the rules before we play again. I don't care if the teams are off a little, or if we're losing cause our team is underperforming. That's not why i quit. I quit because i can't stand people making calls in their favor cause they jump to conclusions.

Player Card Debut

Boring? What the? I'll trump that last post by you Ron, any day of the week!

Anyone else think Ron should focus on showing up at hockey before he can tell me how I should run this site? If it was up to me anonymous posting would still be happening...anyways. Should we take advice from a guy that couldnt get a website started like me and Johnny did? I dont think so! Ron wishes he had what we have created!

But on to more important matters. John and I are proud to introduce the first hockey blog player card. We want your honest opinion of our latest feature to the site. First of all, let us know it comes "in" correctly. 2nd do you like the format, etc and so on and so forth. Be honest please.

Jared Meadows   Left Wing Age: 23 Height: 5'03     Jared has finished second in scoring every year. He mostly cherry picks and complains about his teams. Season Games Goals Assists Points Wins Game Winners 1 34 43 22 65 18 7 2 35 40 38 78 23 7 3 82 83 69 152 39 9 4 47 80 31 111 18 8

The BLAP has Spoken So Listen Up

Ok, on behalf of the BLAP (Blog Readers Around Planet), I will make an attempt to voice my opinion on how to save this blog from complete and utter boredom.

Yes, I hear the people crying for the good ol' days of 100 posts per day. I am firmly in the corner of controlling the ridiculousness that occurred last year. However I feel that a little easing should take place.

I think the 20 registered blog contributors and readers should let their voices (or better put) their keyboards be heard.

Here is my proposal.

1. Continue to Only Allow Registered (INVITED) users to comment and post on this Blog.

2. Change the Blog setting back to allowing the blog to be READABLE to the world

Further, I have an easy solution for anonymous posts to occur, BUT WITH ACCOUNTABILITY.

For those who have multiple online personalities, like Report Card, Stat Master, Waste of Time Rhyme, Hockey Jedi, Alliance Breaker, etc., etc.

All you have to do is Change or Remove your avatar and change your profile Display Name and... BAMMO you can be Pseudo Anonymous (your still a registered contributor that can be tracked down if need by the site administrators).

Allow me to demonstrate, with a couple examples...

Perception or Precipitation?

I know a guy that needs a cheer leading squad for motivation. I know another guy that only seems to play hard if he feels his chances of winning are not remote. But that seems wrong to me. In fact, I know it's wrong. At one point the score was 3-0; you were in the game, you had a chance. But your attitude was as if you didn't have a chance. And that, right there, was your downfall. Your screwed up perception became reality. The other team clearly had the advantage in skill, but a little heart and motivation would have went a long way. When there is a will there is a way. You didn't have the will, it was obvious to everyone-especially your teammates. Your attitude was unacceptable and it was only logical that you had no chance to win as a result. I'm not questioning your skill, in fact I love being on your team, but a little more heart is needed. But in the end, I guess, heart and motivation can only go so far-skills win out.

Over the last few weeks I haven't been putting a lot of effort into writing the recaps. On more then one occasion I have been tempted to write "you should have been there" or my favorite line "we all know what happened." And yet, I still put forth the effort to throw something together. I had nothing to say that was different. It was pure verbatim. In fact, Big Board went as far as saying that I'm a recyclers of bad jokes. Well, if you talked to Ricardo last night you would know that he is the inventor of bad jokes. I will take solace that I don't have that title. So for the first time in a long time, I'm going to put forth some real effort on the game recaps-old school. Something like the original recaps in the 2007-2008 season. That means the scout may come back in his old format. Maybe even a player will have a comment.

*Game 1: Jared came into this week claiming that he wouldn't complain. Stating that he would finally take a loss like a man. Well, that didn't work out did it? "I couldn't believe it, well I could..." said one teammate. "I don't understand, he was convinced we had no chance from the start and to no surprise, we didn't." And the funny thing was, Jared's Dark team started out well in this game getting a quick goal from Griff to start the scoring. In fact they were never really "out" of any game on the night. "They were out of it mentally, but not on the score sheet. They were no doubt the weaker team with skills, they didnt need to be when it came to motivation," said one scout. The final score was 5-3 White Team. Game Winner went to Johnny.

*Game 2: Again, the score was not close, but not a blowout either. The teams were not far off, a trade was needed but stubborness kept logic from creeping in. The Final score was 5-2 White Team with the game winner going to Johnny Again. Im sure Jared and Griff are impressed.

*Game 3: This is when the games got out of control. Griff acted ridiculously and quit on his team. Im not even going to go there though, I've sang that tune before. The final score was 5-3 White Team, but that doesnt say the whole story. The Dark team actually started out this game with a 3-0 lead. They were clearly not being out played. But, for some reason (im sure it was stupid, naive and childish though) some players on the dark team showed lack of confidence in there teammates. You guys maybe werent as skilled but you could play with us-but you chose not to. The game winner went to Chris Young. Yeah, it was Chris. I looked twice to make sure it wasnt a mistake...hahaha. Anyways...Chris probably had his best night in a long time. Just saying.

*Game 4: An incomplete game with a final score of 3-1. More of the same form the dark team. Two types of quitters and an alienated team. A real shame. I had goal in this one, so it's all good.

Nick's Ramblings

I not trying to sound negative but this may have been the worst quality of opponent I have ever faced in Saugus. Let's get the game quality back up. I dont think Brett and Johnny need to separated to accomplish team "equalness" but the masses want it, so it may be time to make it happen. Though I don't want my alliance to break up, lol. Jared I showed a willingness to change sides, you didn't want it. I still dont understand. Lenny you were very solid this week. Brad that may have been your best week in recent memory. Reggie is still nursing that fake hammy injury, fyi. We missed you though. Brendon last week you wrote the following comment:

Chris, I'll be happy to give you some tips, if you don't mind taking it from someone who has no business giving it (insert a Lenny smiley face here:)

Now let me direct you to my post on August 23rd when I wrote:

Recipe for success. [insert a Lenny smiley face-to show that a clever remark was actually made]<

Are You kidding me???? BB, never call me the recycler of jokes again. At least I recycle my own jokes.

Best "Rant" of 2009.

In 2009, the Recap developed from more then just being a recap. It's no longer just a write up of what happened, if it ever was at all. It has become the place for me to let off some steam and enlighten you, the reader. But what rant was your favorite? 2009 will be forever remembered for the anonymous posting "scandal", but the rant is the headline of recaps past and future. What would a recap be without one?

My Rant about Griff on Feb 22nd to start the recap. http://playerstatistics.blogspot.com/2009/02/timely-recap.html

My rant on Subbing. March 9th

http://playerstatistics.blogspot.com/2009/03/recap.html

My rant on Failure. March 30th

http://playerstatistics.blogspot.com/2009/03/slippery-recap.html

My rant about complianing during a game. April 7th

http://playerstatistics.blogspot.com/2009/04/recap.html

My rant on interfering. April 27th

http://playerstatistics.blogspot.com/2009/04/recap_27.html

My rant on momentum. Nov. 29th

http://playerstatistics.blogspot.com/2009/11/not-yankee-talk-but-hockey-talk.html

My rant about John Riley's loss of step. Dec 28th

http://playerstatistics.blogspot.com/2009/12/tough-break.html

Game still on for Sunday: Inside rink, 5:30

I will keep everyone up-to-date about playing tomorrow with the weather that we have. Whoever is still planning on playing let me know too.