The most hyped up tournament to date. The "dream" team was well represented. We had everyone we wanted. In the role we wanted. It had to work out, or panic would ensue. The 2011 Montreal Tournament needed to end with a win...it had to. All of the hype. But so many questions to be answered:
1. Were they right by replacing
Tony with Dave Riley a few years back?
2. Will Johnny finally step up?
3. Could Jimmy beat Nick in an arm wrestle?(hint: tehheee..no)
4. What are the odds that Griff is more rational than John Riley?
5. Could Borges manage to gain more weight over the weekend?
6. What do you find more cool to have on your car...ugly plaid lining or a hook on both ends of your car?
7. Will the fat slob realize you don't take this guys' seat without me blowing it way out of proportion? (yeah I wouldn't have said a word if someone else took it. Fwiw, I felt bad when I wrote this.)
8. What's a choke hold?
9. Can the b-team manage to not be the worst team in muckers? Yeah, muckers. Real Question.
10. Any guesses on the AVERAGE time of a John Riley shower? 34 mins. No exaggeration.
11. What is Dehydration? Dr. Robotnik wrote "humiliation=dehydration=asthma attack."
12. How many sideline girlfriends of the other team will say to Brett: "no he didn't (fingers snapping, of course)?
13. Why aren't we elite?
14. How many balls can Tony cover up? Call the Wambulance.
15. Eric, what's it like to have one of your ankle's now be a kankle?
Despite so many questions it really only comes down to one. Could we finally win one of these things?
Game 1: Reality Check
Early morning game time of 9:20. Out too late the night before. Didn't have a good night sleep. Jared didn't get us all breakfast. Did I cover everything from the excuse rolodex?
Game One would ideally be the "warm up game" A way to get the blood flowing, the heart pumping, and your legs under you. Yeah, none of those things happened. From the beginning, it was an absolute onslaught of shots. Corners picked. Passes going tape to tape. An absolutely extraordinary street hockey team. We somehow managed to not only keep up but we scored the first two goals. Maybe we were the great street hockey team? "Let's not be crazy" said one player. "I wouldn't say we were lucky but the first goal was trickled in by Johnny and the other was a beautiful shot by JB."
We were up 2-0 with a long way to go. A very long way to go.
I'm getting tired just thinking of it. 2 on 1 after 2 on 1. Tony was playing in front of net that seemed to be 15 feet wide and 20 feet tall. Not meant to be a dig on Tony...maybe. The point I’m making is these guys were unbelievable at times. Spin moves? Check. In between the leg self passes? Check. Breaking Borges’ ankle on a give go pass? Check. The Flying V? Check. Spinning Nick around on a one on one battle? Double check. I think I saw number 27 walk on water. This team. Just wow. Wow. “Some would say jaw dropping” said one player. “I just ran back and forth. They stood still. There passing was so crisp. Tape to tape wouldn’t give it justice.”
But we kept up the fight. Though it was a losing battle. Griff and Nick couldn’t handle the North Stars pressure and the surface to get the ball out of the zone. No outlet could be found. No winger seemed to get back. In fact, watching the video again, there was only two consistencies in the game:
Mistakes all around and, without fail, Griff would be yelling the phrase “get back!” every two minutes.
And despite how awful we were, we lost by two goals. 9-7. Including one empty netter by the North Stars. We tried to get into a scoring battle with a team built to score. We cant win that way. We’re just not that good. We knew we had to play better defensively or we couldn’t last in the tourney for long. It was time for a complete overhaul of the lines by the team captain. Change was needed.
We thought we could play with them. The next day we realized we probably couldn’t.
Coming Soon:
Game 2: A stroke of genius by the captain?
30 comments:
I have to ask...who voted for griff as the most disappointing???
Griff was probably our MVP.
The beard is gone:(
Nick originally had for question 11 humiliation=dehydration=asthma attack.
self editing....
sometimes I have a heart.
6-18-11
Game 1: Butterflies
3 Brett - Brett knew what was expected of him this year. And he started off with a strong showing scoring 1 goal and setting Jared up for the most meaningless goal of the tournament(and there were a lot of meaningless goals)
2 Jared - Scoring is what Jared does best and he proved it even in a losing effort. But you need to realize that any goal off this team was an earned goal.
1 JB - Scored during the game and on his penalty shot and made everyone believe that the A-Team had finally found their missing piece to win it all……in Muckers.
6-18-11
Game 1: B-Team, Just as I Suspected
3 Matt - Matt is so close to being a good hockey player. All he needs is a little more patience and a little more skill. There is no question whether he has the speed, heart and hustle.
2 Eric - Eric did what we all thought he would and showed why A-Team whished they had him. But was he really that good? Or was it that the rest of his team was so bad that they made him look better than he was?
1 Mike D - Mike wasn’t the best player this game, but after Joe went down with heat stroke, Mike stepped between the pipes, with only a blocker and glove, and fought to the very end of a game that got out of hand very early.
ah nick you fixed the post. Good job
well, the cat was out of the bag.
i had two options: embrace what I said or deny it.
are people just voting against griff because I said something?
I dont get this. someone explain.
Dude, Nick what did you just say about me?
nothing negative...I was thinking that people voted against you because I questioned the first guy to vote against you.
The only thing that makes sense to me.
Dude, Nick can I have a sip of that?
maybe it's dale
i was planning on the game two recap tonight but im holding it back...it needs more work (and andrew miller is distracting me)
Im expecting it up tommorrow night.
dude, griff I get the dude reference (i think) but what do you want a sip of???
Your really missing the boat on this joke.
Over my head. Sorry?
does anyone else want a redo on the last game. Either team for that matter
If I had to pick a game to redo I'd want to redo game 1 because personally didn't realize how ruff a shape Joe was in. We could have pulled him after the 1st time he went down at which point I think it was still close if not still tied 3-3. I thinnk Brendon used our time out the 1st time he went down, which was why I didn't have time to try to suite up.
As for the last game I'd redo the last 2 min. I had no clue Brendon had passed the ball from behind the net or a shot was taken until the other team started yelling because they had scored.
my problem with how we played our last game was that we waited for the pass to be recieved before we attacked. We needed to be on the guy before he got the pass so that he didn't have a chance to make a play
I think the main thing that every team had an issue with when playing the North Stars was that overall they were all extremely good at stick handling and that one guy 27 (Marty) was absolutely nasty when he had to ball
Their passes were tape to tape 90% of the time and they were quick passes, which prolly made it hard to attack because you always seemed to be on your heels
Brett, I agree...I think we waited too much instead of attacking their weakness, which was defense.
I don't think the final score was indicative either. Don't get me wrong, they were definitely better. But by the intermission I was completely spent. I had nothing for the 2nd half, and I've heard a few other guys say the same thing.
And let's face it - we were pretty well behind from the start (3-0 I think). It's tough to bounce back from kind of start.
I think although they were better, we could still beat them...it would just take our best game to do it.
i do have a recap typed up...not sure I like it though....Ive been sitting on it.
I want the last game and half back, personally.
Year One, we were the Cinderella story. We didnt belong there. That it ended wasn't surprising. it was a great time.
Last year was disappointing. Woulda coulda shoulda. It didnt work out, oh well.
This year was different. The last game still sticks in my craw. Its bothered me since we got back. Frankly, I was awful in that game and perhaps thats why it bothers me so much more. I dont have the words to describe that last game. Anger, frustration...name it. If i ever get my act together that last recap would be epic...
Brett, you're starting up all these emotions, again.
Honestly, i don't remember anyone playing below expectations. I don't really like the poll question cause what did you expect from everyone? Who really played below what we really truely expected? I think we only had people who over performed. Johnny over performed big time from last year and other years. And Griff was our MVP. Griff actually inspired me by his play.
Nick i wouldn't say you played awful by anymeans. I can't remember one play where you made a mistake that no other teammate made at some point during the tournament as well.(i won't mention that certain play Nick. I promised i wouldn't. Let's just say video proof is on our side though haha)
well, im not going to argue that i played bad...lol.
Recap will be up tommorrow...I promise. Ive sat on it for two days...it needs refining still. I just dont like it.
video???!! When do you plan on breaking that out?
Also, with the quality of video this year, its going to be very tough to get accurate +/-, right?
Yeah I've already conceded the fact that no video compilations will be produced this year. I guess we learned our lesson though. Someones wife will have to come from now on.
B Team should have been able to take more video for us!
the stupid camera didn't charge over night for some reason. no battery power to tape. It's my fault.
here's the link to the youtube video of the B-Teams first game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRPP1mm3Blg
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