For The Rest Of Us

An expanded top 15 Big Board!  On we go!




15.  Brendon-  This list was expanded for the sole purpose of getting Brendon on it.  I don't know what happened to this guy.  He used to have  a 103 mph slapshot that on occasion could get off the ground, mixed in with some hustle.  All I can remember this year is everyone's feet getting in the way of his stick.


14.  Ignads- Great winning %, scores some goals, and subs all the time.  He gets drafted every week incredibly high and whichever team he's on has very high morale on the bench.


13.  Austin- Sure he still holds the stick the wrong way, and tries to catch passes with the toe of the blade, but he hustles and the rest of us are dangerously out of shape.


12.  Andrew-  Just working my way thru the children on this list. 


11. Billy-  Billy's good...at..stuff...like passing...and......shot...blocking....maybe?


10.  Demaio-  Look at Mike cracking top 10!  Tough to ignore the stats this year, but I still was able to do it and not rank him high.


9.  Elliot-  Speaking of stats check out Elliot!  Top 5 in ppg, just behind Lenny, no seriously look at that.  Lenny...that Lenny.  Elliot is everything we want out of a Saugus player, he cares a ton about stats, celebrates meaningless goals, and doesn't care about defense or winning.


8.  Brett- Brett is one of the few people that read this blog so he has to be on here somewhere.  Showed Rick and Jack what it's like to be a youthful goalie, and most likely won't play again which will leave him with the highest ppg ever!  The only thing holding him back at this point is Ariel and her selfish attempt at providing for her family.


7.  Nick-  Nick is not in the top 20 in ppg.  That's impossible.  I looked over that list a 100 times.  Swervin has a better average than him.  Let's hope his ankle is still bothering him or something.  Redsox hot stove may have been a distraction too. 


6.  Griff- IIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCCCCE.  Griff is great at recognizing rule infractions.  Icings, high sticks, hand passes, offsides, he's on top of it.  Will also devote an entire night to ruining Jared's time which is a bizarre way to spend a Sunday night.


5.  Ron- Someone wants back in on Montreal A team.  Reckless 10 pm Friday night start?  Ron's in!  4 on 4 with some local school children?  Sign him up!  While half of us won't even live till 50, Ron is flourishing.


4.  Johnny-  It's a 2 pony race for the scoring title, and we all know Johnny will win comfortably.  Bergeron couldn't even cover this guy in the slot, no one can or ever will.  His stat posting has rebounded nicely this year. 


3.  Ward-  A higher ppg than Borges, Ward has provided entertaining hockey all year.  His ability to stare at the ball while stick handling and refusing to look up is unparalleled.  Top 3 in ice time this year, as he quietly never subs, another great quality to have in Saugus.


2.  JB- Who else can shake off another heart attack and continue to dominate Saugus?  Loses lots of faceoffs to Johnny now which is alarming.  But then again, who can beat Johnny at anything?  He's excellent at getting first pick in the draft every week, knowing that whatever mini-game Jared comes up with he will never win at.


1.  Jared-  Default #1. held off Johnny for scoring title for half a year, which is no small accomplishment.  Fantastic attendance, even got a group together without Johnny.  Of course he was punished severely the following week for going against the King.

Who is in for this Sunday, 6:00 Inside?

Stats are posted.


In: John, Jack (G), Jared, Mike W, Mike D, Billy, Iggy

Game is at 10:00 tonight, outside rink

I would need to try to book the rink by tomorrow.  Also, stats are up from this past week.


I haven't been able to reach the rink yet to see what is definitely available for Friday.  We can plan for 7:00 right now, and I will try to confirm later.


In: John, Nick, Billy, Mike D, Borges, Jared, Mike W, Joe, Jack (G), Melo (G), Ron.


Out: Brendon, Praters, Austin, Jon F, Brett (?)


Haven't heard from:  Griff, Drew, Iggy, John P

Hockey this Sunday, 6:00 Inside Rink

Let me know who can play.  All weekly stats, including the debacle while I was away, are updated.




In: John, Brendon, Jack (G), Mike D, Billy, Joe, Elliot, Andrew, Brett (G), Ron


Maybe: Austin


Still haven't heard from: everyone else

WEEKLY POWER RANKINGS

11-28-14

Payback

5 Andrew - With JB and Billy playing D, it was up to the prater boys to shoulder the load offensively. They scored a lot but they were unable to score those timely goals the white team needed to get the win. Still an impressive night from the brothers.

4 Demaio - Mike has quietly been racking up the points over the past few weeks, maybe even the most point total over the past 4 weeks.

3 Borges - Chose to go it alone tonight and even though his commitment to stopping Johnny lasted 14.2 seconds, his commitment to getting points lasted all night.

2 Brett - Point leader on the night, Brett really knows how to pick his spots to play out so as to raise his PPG average.

1 Johnny - Not the 14 points that Jared got, but his 7 goals and his ability to create chances for himself were nice to see.

Inspirational

Don't know if I ever posted this or not but it made me laugh

Hockey this Friday, 7-9 Inside Rink

I have booked the rink, but I need to call by tomorrow if we are not going to use it this week.  So, who can play this Friday at 7:00?


In: John, Mike D, Billy, JB, Brett, Elliot, Andrew Jack (G), Steve (G)


Out: Frendon, Jared, John P, Nick
Waiting to hear for sure from: Andrew, Elliot, Ron, Griff, Joe
On standby: Nathan, Evan, Mike Kazes, Ethan, Julianna

This man needs another!

I can't wait to see the joke of a group Johnny gets together this coming week. Half the regulars are away. The other half want to watch the Pats.  And everyone else will be full of turkey. But hockey "must go on" for the sake of the stats.

Is John Luke available? Paul and Tommy? What about Luke Carito? Steve Praankewich? What is Praankewich anyway? Sounds like a great name for a sandwich. 

Come one! Come All! Johnny needs the stats! Got to make up for lost stats! Who do we have in net? Are Kazez and Mike Demaio without equipment available? We can do this.

At least next week Johnny can't complain about too much stick contact in the crease. If your going to go to the dirty areas expect to get hit (or grabbed because apparently thats my thing)

On we go!

Game 1: That is Unacceptable!

It may have been the most frustrating game of the year for Billy T. I will say its way more fun to rag on Billy for a mistake when he is on the opposing team!

This game was your classic first game of the week at Saugus. A 5-4 game that took forever! The dark team was clearly the better team in both games but they only managed a 1-1-1 record. After getting out to a 4-2 lead on goals by Nick and Frendon with a beautiful goal (compliments are flying!). But from there the dark team couldn't end it. Melo was a brick wall as goalie. Seriously. Best game Melo has every played. Ever. B Team worthy. Borderline A Team worthy.The White Team was on the ropes. Jared was already thinking about trade offers. Johnny was already thinking about his start of game 2 rest on the bench with his blue powerade.

After weathering the storm ( mostly because of Mello) the white team was able to capitalize on 3 Dark turnovers ending on a bad turnover by Billy T that led to a 3 on 1 and a Mike D goal. Game Ova.

Game 2 and 3: Jared's Last Game

I know its hard to believe but Jared had a melt down. "If you call this penalty Im done playing! Forever!" It was like the kid from the Sandlot. "Forever". Game 2 was a laugher as a the JB show rolled on. Showing great chemistry with MVW. 5-1 final. But the story was the start of Game 3. Borges had a breakaway (which I assume was a pass from me...another stat I missed out on!) Melo decided to "drop/throw" his stick when he was clearly beat. In typical Saugus fashion a couple guys yelled for a penalty shot. And a bunch of guys ignored the calls and kept playing. From there the dark team had a bit of melt down. Sticks everywhere! Weeee! Highlight of the year. After all was settled Borges did get his attempt at a penalty shot as Jared pouted on the bench, putting on a sweatshirt (puma?) and  packing up his hockey equipment for good. Borges beat Melo 5 hole. Night over. How sweet it was.

You will be missed Jared. I, however, look forward to a New Mike Ward. Finally free to be himself.

In honor of WPR:

5. Johnny
4. Melo
3. Joe
2. Ward
1. JB

How humble of me!

WEEKLY POWER RANKINGS

10-16-14

Ambidextrous

5 Demaio - It's been a while since Mike has graced the rankings. His chemistry with Jared was in full effect Sunday. Catching passes up the boards were a losing battle for him, but he more than made up for it with his commitment to defense.

4 Nick -

3 Jared - He did what anyone of us would have done in his situation and that's why he gets penalized for taking the easy road to glory. And Brendan is right, 14 points isn't as much as I thought he'd have. He was greedy enough to take Brett, but he wasn't greedy enough to rewrite the record book.

2 Brett - You'd have to have been there to understand why Brett gets the second spot, because if you just saw the teams on paper you'd roll your eyes at this ranking while trimming your mustache saying "WPR is biased toward Brett. He's such an idiot". Now he did seem to lose interest as the night went along and my goodness did Billy make him look like a fish out of water on that move at the blue line, but Brett's the only reason his team retained their 100% winning percentage on the night.

1 Austin - B-Team should be contacting you within the next 48 hours for the Montreal trip. With an opt out clause if A-Team comes and asks you after. Austin boy-handled Nicks team all night showing that he can be just as big a pain against slow laboring wingers as he is verse Jared. His defense of 3 on 1s was as impressive as Nicks teams attempt to execute them was hilarious. You'll never see better defense on a night like Sunday.(and yes, nicks spot has been intentionally left blank. Complain again. See what happens.)

Honorable Mention: We'll never forget you and may you immediately forget us. Safe travels.

Hockey this sunday at 6 - Inside Rink

In: John, Billy, Mike D, Elliot, Andrew, Nick, Iggy, John P, Jared, Mike W, Frendon, Mike M (G), Joe (G)

Out: Jack, Cindy, Steve

Doubtful: Brett (G)

Still haven't heard from: Ron, JB, Griff, Austin, Drew, anyone else

Hockey on Sunday at 6.

Johnny, we are playing out of spite!

We have two goalies. We are on!

Mike and Billy are in

UPDATE:

We are on:

We are playing outside @ 6...we are shooting for earlier because of the Pats game after.

Brett
Rick
Nick
Jared
Ron
Billy T
Mike W
Mike D
Joe
Drew
Brendon

Possibly (lol)

Griff???
Brad
Bobcat
Austin
Goggles
Johnny

Out

JB
Reggie
Ignads (Tacos)

WEEKLY POWER RANKINGS

10-31-14

In Loving Memory

Seeing as last week was possibly Borges' final week in Saugus, and maybe even his final week in this system of things, I think it'd be good to take a look back over his top 5 contributions to hockey and this blog. I think it best to reflect on someone's life before it's too late.

5 Scoring Champ - This 2 time champ showed that he has the ability to abuse the rag tag bunch of goalies parading through Saugus as well as the capable goalies in Dracut, landing him 2 impressive trophies that sat on his mantle......till they were replaced by pictures of his children that he has yet to buy life insurance for. But then, who's going to give insurance to someone who's heart almost explodes from participating in a friendly pickup game of dek hockey?

4 Montreal 2014 - With the good memories come the bad. Friday and Saturday especially. Falling off chairs, Almirah, shooting the ball off Brett and into his own net. Dare I say more?

3 Muckers Champ/ Lawrence Champ - Not everyone has a dark blue Muckers champ t-shirt in their wardrobe right next to a white Breakway champs t-shirt. Being able to say you played with Monte and weren't sexually abused is even rarer indeed.

2 A Gold Medal - I wasn't there personally, but I can only imagine what it was like at the post-game ceremonies, standing there as that glorious medal was gently placed around his neck along with all his teammates, the likes of Bobcat, Derek and Dave Riley all captained by ..........

1 Frendon - Not only has Borges the power to make us laugh, he also has the power to rename someone who's been living for 30 years and had already been given a name at birth. With one quick post, Brendon was no more and Frendon was born. Many even call him Frendon in person and this my friends was his greatest and proudest contribution to hockey and the blog and society.

Hockey is Friday, November 7th. 7:30 - 9:30 Outside Rink

Box Score and Season stats updated.


For Friday:


In: John, Nick, Ward, Jared, John P, Frendon, Joe, Ron, Iggy, Drew, Rick (G), Steve (G)


Out: Billy T, Elliot, Andrew, Austin


Supposedly in: Brad








Haven't heard from: Mike D, JB (assuming he is still breathing), Griff, Brett, Lenny, anyone else

WEEKLY POWER RANKINGS

10-26-14

Rick Estimate

5 Jared - A true captain doesn't let a 3 goal lead slip away like that. The Alliance will be looking to strip his C, and maybe even his roster spot from him for Montreal, injury or no injury. Billy, put in your application.

4 Nick - Icing

3 Borges - Watching Nick and JB back there on defense gave me flashbacks to league games. The league games where they weren't giving up 6 goals a game trying to protect the crease of that scrony goalie Nick who just started playing net the week before.

2 Brett - First game out in 7 months and was expected to carry the team. It was only when dark team captain lost all hope of winning that Brett stepped up and led the team to their only win of the night.

1 Mike (not Demaio) - JB was confident he could focus on defense with a force like Ward wreaking havoc all night up front. Mikes performance in game 2 will go down in Saugus history as the 64th greatest single player performance.

Honorable Mention: Steve - That save on Jared was memorable.

WEEKLY POWER RANKINGS

10-19-14

....How?

5 Brett - We'll never complain about the goalie discrepancy ever again.

4 Johnny - A good night for Johnny, but something tells me 6 of those 7 assists were accounted for after everyone left.

3 MVW - I just know mike was picked way too high in the draft, but finally he was worth the pick. He reminds me of Danny Paille. A high draft pick with flashes of talent and speed, but almost never able to put it all together.

2 Jared - Its a good thing the games aren't played on paper.

1 Iggy - Jon found his happy place Sunday(links are here to stay). He channeled his inner Haverhill Cup into Saugus for one night. And what a glorious night it was.

Hockey for this Sunday is 6:00, Outside Rink

Also, stats are up (season and box score).  Congrats to Ignatio - top 8 in scoring!


In: John, jack (g), Steve (g), nick, Jared, drew, ignads, ward, Elliot, Andrew, Austin, Ron, mike d, billy


Haven't heard from: Everyone else


Doubtful: Frendon


Out: John P

Hockey is this Sunday, 6:00 - Outside Rink

Box score and season stats are update.  Let me know who is in for Sunday.



In:  John, Jack (G), Mike M (G), Jared, Billy, Mike D, Ron, Austin, Andrew, Elliot


Probably: John P, Mike W, Drew



Haven't heard from:


Out: Griff, Frendon

Hockey is on the Outside Rink, 6:00 this Sunday

In: John, Jack (G), Brett (G), Billy T, Mike D, Frendon, Ron, Elliot, Andrew, Jared, Mike W, Iggy, Drew


Haven't heard from: Austin, Nick, JB, Griff, John P, Joe, anyone else

WEEKLY POWER RANKINGS

10-5-14

Best Friends

5 Nick – Definitely not back to his usual self just yet. One clear sign of this was when he actually hit the net on a slap shot. I’m sure he’ll correct that next week.

4 Griff – There’s no doubt that he plays his best games verse Jared and the fact that his stick has the right of way over someone’s foot is a major benefit.

3 Mike W – Yes, when he gets the ball, he turns into THIS . But on defense he was pretty flawless and didn’t let Johnny roam free in the slot.

2 Jared – Let’s just be thankful that he’s better at scoring goals than making predictions. 4 and 4? Not even close.

1 Brett – A part of me thinks Brett made things look way harder than they needed to be. Brett just moves a lot and makes you think he’s doing a lot. Kind of like how Jackie Chan would shake his head a lot when fighting and it made him look really quick.

Honorable Mention: Dark Team Prater Boy - Had the guts to pick Brett first overall even after Cindy picked him apart last week and he played good defense. Also had to make some crucial decisions like benching Demaio for Brendon.

Just Gonna Stand There

Additional generic comments before we get to the actual Big Board rankings!


On we go.


10.  Austin- The best of the children thus far.  Elliot may have the offensive stats but we all just like Austin better personally.


9.  Billy- Sporting 2 game winners and a nice winning %, Billy is playing much better this fall after a horrid spring.  Good defensemen are at a premium this year with lots of scorers showing up.


8.  Drew- Has quickly become above average in 2 weeks of hockey which should make us question why we haven't improved in our weird hobby this past decade.


7.  Griff-  Made the foolish mistake of not covering Cindy and playing tight against Johnny or Ron.  Maybe Brendon can show you how to play a zone defense.  Adam Sandler isn't funny.


6.  Nick-  Wally Pipp is the guys name.  Worst case Nick can grab an extra referee application from Brendon for Montreal 2015.


5.  Ron- Leading the league group in game winners and participating in after hockey association, Ron is having a solid start to the season.


4.  JB- Him and Jared have split wins this year with some hard fought games.  The lack of ability to motivate Brendon and Cindy is keeping him out of the top 3.


3.  Jared-  Shooting primarily against Brett has really cost Jared all those half court garbage goals that he cherishes so much.  His greatest attribute this year will be his attendance.


2.  Brett-  Was a shoe-in for #1 spot before last week.  When Cindy is scoring at will you gotta look in the mirror.  Also did an average job with the anchor seat at BWW.  Wasn't able to get the whole group together as Ron and Jared were left talking by themselves. 


1.  The King- It's Groundhog day every week, every year in Saugus.  Big Board, WPR, The Real Deal, Brendon's knock off of WPR, and all other bloggers have been craving change at the top of these rankings for years, but we will not see it for a while.

Rare Monday Stats Update. Sunday's game is at 5:30, Outside rink

We are making the time a little earlier so everyone can make it out in time for the Pats game...well, those that are still watching the Pats this year.


In: John, Brett (G), Jack (G), Billy T, Elliot, Andrew, Frendon, Jared, Iggy, Mike W, Drew

Should be in but haven't received a confirmation yet: Ron, Nick, Jon, Griff

Not Sure: Mike D

Out: Austin

Stats Posted, Inside Rink this Sunday, 6-8

In: John, Jared, Ron, Austin, Billy, Frendon, Brett (g), Jack (g)




Probable: Jon, Nick, Jared's guys


Haven't heard from:  Griff, John P


Out: Elliot, Andrew

WEEKLY POWER RANKINGS

9-21-14

Almost Broken

5 Jack – No this isn’t for shock value (not totally anyway). In all the timed games it took all 30 minutes to determine a winner and in the closest game of the night, game 2, Jack out battled Brett and kept the white team to only 2 goals with some pretty impressive saves late. How many 3 on 1s do we expect him to stop?

4 Brett – His job isn’t to be better than the other goalie; it’s to be better than the other team. No matter how large the discrepancy is in net, Brett’s job is to hold off the other team for 30 minutes, which he did, never allowing more than 3 goals in a game. The winning percentage is sky high. Just remember for next week, it’s about making even teams not evening out his stats.

3 Drew – Drew is making us rethink about how high that defensive ceiling actually is that has been set by Nick. Follow along: Nick’s been playing 7 years. Drew, 3 weeks. Nick tries hard vs Jared. Drew tries hard verse everyone. Nick and Drew both have wildly inaccurate shots. Drew knows how to take a wrist shot. Nick can barely pronounce the words wrist shot. Still following me? I think you get the point.

2 Andrew – It is odd to think, with a team led by Jared and Johnny, that Andrew was the one that actually made that line go. It’ll be nice having an assist first winger since Brett’s career tragically ended last year.

1 Jared – Jared had a decent night but gets the #1 spot due to the fact that he was the most instrumental in getting that game 4 over with as quick as it did. Game 4’s are the worst.

Honorable Mention: Brendon – His thinking process and decision making are incomprehensible most of the time. But do you really need to yell at him for mistakes you yourself have made? Stop looking for things to yell at him for. Trust me, just wait 3 minutes and he’ll give you something real to criticize him on.

Who can play this Sunday at 6:00? Outside Rink is booked.

Let me know.  Additionally, the stats are updated (box, weekly, career).


In: John, Billy, Mike D, Jack (G), Brett (G), Elliot, Andrew, Austin, Jared, Ignads, Mike W, Jon


Maybe: Drew, John Peduto


Haven't heard from: everyone else


And, welcome to the site Ignads!  What's the over/under before Brett makes him stop logging on?

Hockey on Sunday at 6:00, Outside Rink

Stats are updated - box score, season, total, and rivals.


Let me know who is in for this week:


In: John, Ron, Rick (G), Mike D, Billy, Jared, Mike W, John P, Austin, Elliot, Andrew


Haven't heard from: JB, Griff, Nick, Ignads, Drew, Frendon
Probably: Brett (G)
Says that he is in: Brad


Out:

Weekly Power Rankings

9-7-14

Good To Be Back

5 Brett – Maybe the save percentage wasn’t there as Jared suggests, but it’s not Brett’s fault that Dark Team couldn’t hit the net. No soft goals and some great saves are more than you could even imagine from a Saugus goalie. Even Drew thought he played great.

4 Johnny – Location, location, location. Johnny has certainly gotten over the whole “I can’t shoot against my Dad” thing.

3 Billy T – That game winner was impressive in my opinion. Which is all that matters on a Monday after Saugus hockey. His defense was very solid with a bunch of blocked shots thrown in there too.

2 Elliot – With Brett in net, someone had to feed Johnny the ball, and Elliot filled that roll admirably. I expect week 1 to go straight to his head and ruin him for the rest of the season.

1 Austin – We all know why Austin’s #1 this week. I think we can all agree that Ariel had it coming. Ray Rice didn’t fare as well as Austin for hitting a woman in the face.

Honorable Mention: Brendon – That goal vindicated him. After all the abuse Brendon had to take all night long while under the oppressive thumb of Jared, he proved Jared to be completely wrong in all his criticisms. Brendon was flawless as usual.

'14-'15 Season Begins Sunday September 7th - Outdoor Rink at 6:00

Let me know who is in for Week 1.


We are going to play at 6:00 this week.


In: John, Jared, Drew, Ignads, Austin, Elliot, Andrew, Frendon, Mike D, Billy, Jack (G), Ron, Brett (G)

Haven't heard from: JB, Nick, Joe, Mike W

Maybe: John P

Out: Griff

'14 - '15 Season Preview: Team Dark

"Bang-a-rang!"

Elliot – Look for Elliot to have the rare junior slump and even may be demoted to defense some weeks due to the fact that he’s not feeding Johnny the rock, and believe me, Johnny will let him have an earful. The game winners are where he will be most valuable. He’ll finish top 5 in that department.

Austin – I actually think he’d best be served as a defenseman to offset team white’s speed. We’ve seen him cancel out Jared for a whole night before and there’s no better partner to learn what not to do from than Billy T. 25 and 30 for Austin.

Billy T – Billy has been stuck in mediocrity for a while. Saugus mediocrity. In other words, he’s been bad. Billy HAS to stop being beat around the edge by Jared and losing track of him all together. The speed isn’t there to take as many chances as he does. I’m looking for Billy to take a page out of Nick’s book and get back to doing the basics well. Look for Billy to ignore all this constructive criticism and have his finest offensive year ever with 22 goals and 25 assists.

Brett – Brett will be committed to playing in net and getting better as a goalie. But there will be lulls during the season where his team is on a 5 week losing streak and leave him facing countless two on ones and three on ones. This will really test his desire to play goal and may even come dangerously close to exposing him as the truly inadequate goalie he is. But then there will be weeks where he’ll be the only reason Dark team won the week. Look for Brett to have a 3.4 GAA and win 55% of the games. Are the games timed?

Griff – The games just won’t mean enough in Griff’s eyes for him to truly try his best week in and week out. Griff is best served at wing where he will have fewer opportunities to yell “GET BACK!” or “WHERE IS EVERYBODY?”, ergo keeping his interest as high as possible. I can easily see Griff having a 30 30 season. I can also easily see him single handedly blowing up this White team vs Dark team thing by playing once a month.

Johnny – The season is just like a race to Johnny, the longer the better. Johnny doesn’t hit his stride till about 4 months in where his game finally hits top speed and he starts to take over games, weeks, months and eventually even take over the goal scoring title. I do see the back keeping him out 3 weeks or so, and let’s all pray he never takes another deflected shot to the balls again. After how he reacted to the last one, the next one could be career ending. But where does Johnny play? CENTER!!!!!! 120 goals and most assist of his career, edging out Jared by 2 goals in the last week of the season. Jared will have more points though.

Borges – Even though he’ll be the team’s MVP, he’s moving to wing. Kind of how A-Rod moved to 3rd just because SS was Jeter’s position, Borges will move to wing because Johnny is a center and is inept at playing any other position. Borges is just going to have to settle for taking face-offs as his only time at center. 102 goals with a record setting 39 from half ice or beyond. Jared will be looking for a defenseman. Don’t trade him a thing Borges and you’ll take the season.

'14 - '15 Season Preview: Team White

Season Expectations

2014-2015

Team White (Jared’s team)

Goalie – You know what you’re getting with Jack or Rick. It’s not always bad and it’s not always good. Look for them to frustrate Jared more than the Dark team. Jared is already counting down the days till Dave makes his 2 week visit. I’m looking at a 3.85 GAA for Team White’s goalies combined.

Andrew – The better Pratter discussion isn’t nearly as good as the better Driscoll one, but this year Andrew will put up slightly better numbers than Elliot. Especially since he won’t be getting any drama parts ever again. Look for Andrew to hit the 100 point plateau with ease. *disclaimer* as long as no less than 300 games are played in the 14-15 season

Frendon – Oh Frendon. What’s left to say? Could he possibly use the hilarious summer beating he took on this blog as motivation? Probably not. But I do think he’ll have a bounce back year in stat keeping. As long as Ashley doesn’t get a hold of the official stat sheet, he should get 35 goals and at least 50 assists (all phantom assists) with Jared scoring in bunches.

Mike W – I do think Montreal will help Mike. Kinda like how it helped Nick a while back. Mike’s speed will be uncontested with Jared on his team, playing opposite wing. The only problem I can maybe see is Ward having to play D some weeks, which will dampen his numbers. But not his value. With eyes on Montreal 2015, I can see more games played than ever and Ward finally breaking the 1PPG mark for a season.

Mike D – Mike had a very good Haverhill Cup and a very good last 2 months of the season. Most people start to deteriorate rapidly at that age *cough* Ron *cough*. Mike’s refusal to play defense shows he’s finally joined the crowd in craving stats(or maybe he thinks staunchly refusing to play defense adds to his ruggedness) Stats validate everything we think of ourselves. Mike should find the back of the net 30 times, but no more than 300 times.

Nick – Even though Nick will be working on his offense, his numbers will decrease this year. Trying to remove, or at least decrease, the “up the boards” play from his play book and making quick, smart passes will lead to more turnovers than usual. One step back will hopefully mean 2, if not more, steps forward for when it really matters. Between 20 and 25 goals and a boat load of icings.

Jared – Has his work cut out for him this year. Has less offense to work with than one might think. And a lot of games are going to depend on him scoring rapidly and out pacing Team Dark’s offense (I know that’s the point of every game but you know what I mean). His team does have a major advantage in the BMI department.

Montreal W.P.R.

June 15, 2014 Montreal QC

 Pass? Or Fail?

 7 Ron – Someone has to be ranked 7^th, and Ron’s lack of enthusiasm for defense really did shine, as was predicted, landing him in this spot.

 6 Mike W – Everyone kept saying he was riding high after his 2 goals (in a losing effort) in game 1….If riding high means scoring no goals and missing wide open nets in the next 4 games, what would riding low consist of? Maybe he should’ve listened to that sideline spectator and not have tried so hard.

 5 Brett – I don’t know what I expected from Brett in net. I can’t really say that I was surprised he gave up a weak goal in almost every game. His first step in getting his game to the next level this year is learning how to stop a bus (not Jerome Bettis) from scoring. But he did get unnoticeably better each game I thought.

 4 Nick – Remarkable defense again this year. Blocking shots and poking the ball away was a common occurrence. What's become commonly uncommon is his goal scoring. It can't be over stated. 1 goal all weekend doesn’t cut it anymore. I get it, shut down defense is invaluable. It truly is. I can’t imagine how frustrated Ginger must have been after the game. But finishing your chances is just as important, especially in a very close playoff game.

 3 Griff – It’s amazing how scoring in the playoffs can almost completely erase what happened the day before........almost. I don’t think I’ll ever forget all the things he was unable to do in game 1 Saturday. It was pretty special

 2 Jared – Just as scoring in the playoffs can remedy a bad Saturday, not scoring in the playoffs can ruin the whole weekend. And hitting posts and crossbars just seemed to rub it in. Not only that, but he couldn’t even figure out how to duct tape the camera to the fence. One of his worst Sundays ever.

 1 Borges – I’ve chosen to forget about the first 2 games on Saturday. The Alliance had no shot at doing anything without him playing at a high level. JB shook off early morning jitters and took it to the next level. Turns out it didn't make a difference.

Saugus in August (it rhymes)

Due to the fact that Nicks terribly unfunny posts arent getting many comments and the fact that everyone actually hates summer, I figured I'd post the teams we talked about having this next season and in the hope that we start playing sooner rather than later. Yes yes we've talked about this before, but I think this year we can do it with all 10-12 guys having a pretty high attendance percentage.

Here are the teams that we talked about and came to an agreement on.

Jared
Nick
Mike D
Mike W
Frendon
Andrew
Whatever other goalie shows up


Borges
Johnny
Griff
Billy T
Austin
Elliot
Brett (G)

The Email Games (Part Two)

 -----Original Message-----

 From: Martino, Brendon [mailto:brendon@mitre.org]

 Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 12:49 PM

 To: Riley, John J. - Information Technology

 Subject: RE: stats

Ok, something is definitely out of whack here. (Too Easy)

Before you posted the stats (which were the last three weeks worth), I was 59 and JB was 69. Minus 10. 

 Before Sunday, there were two weeks of stats, and each week I gained a point on JB, bringing me to Minus 8 (yes, I wrote down his point 

totals each week).

 This week, I gained 8 points, so that's EVEN with his points.

 So how exactly am I down a point on him???

John’s Response is perfect:

 From: Riley, John J. - Information Technology [RileyJJ@chesterton.com]

 Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 12:53 PM

 To: Martino, Brendon

 Subject: RE: stats

 Look at what you sent me. You gave yourself an   assist to Borges when you weren't even on his team:

 Sunday Feb 13, 2011

 Teams: Game 1

 White Team

 Darrin (G)

 Nick

 Mike D

 Brendon

 Billy T

 Jared

 Dark Team

 Steve (G)

 Griff

 Mark

 Matt P

 JB

 Dale

 Game 2 & 3, switched Brendon and Mark

 -----------------------

 Score: 4-1 - Game 1 - scorer (assist)

 White: Jared (Mike D)

 Dark: Dale (Matt); JB (Mark); JB (Brendon) (hahahaha...how great is that?) JB (Matt P)

 Score: 4-2 - Game 2 - scorer (assist)

 White: Mike D (Billy); Jared (Billy); Jared (Mike D); Jared (Billy)

 Dark: Matt P (Brendon); Brendon (Matt P)

 Score: 1-1 - Game 3 - scorer (assist)

 White: Jared (unassisted)

 Dark: Brendon (unassisted)

To be fair Brendon probably turned the ball over to JB in Game 1. It was probably his best setup of the year. I would have given him the assist personally. 

From: Martino, Brendon [mailto:brendon@mitre.org]

 Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 12:58 PM

 To: Riley, John J. - Information Technology

 Subject: RE: stats

 Something got messed up then. I definitely assisted him once that week....however, we had (as usual) inexperienced and uninterested people taking down stats. (I can only assume Ashley was there that week) A lot of them were filled in after all the games were over. (who would be involved in this?)

 I'll see if I can dig up the old stat sheet and see what went wrong (I might have thrown it out though). (“hopefully it was done in pencil”)

In the meantime, there is still one other point I have in my records that is unaccounted for (not part of this conversation, nor the one a 

 few weeks back about a missing assist that wasn't written down).If I send you a list of all my points week-by-week, do you think you can match them up against the db and see which weeks there are discrepencies? (spelling)

Thanks

Are you ready for a Math Popsicle headache?

 From: Martino, Brendon

 Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 1:32 PM

 To: Riley, John J. - Information Technology

 Subject: RE: stats

 I understand that you don't have time now. Don't feel obligated to do this asap: With the past two "corrections" where I lost an assist each time, due

to bad record-keeping, I still have 76 points in my records, which is one more than the books. Here is the breakdown of what I have recorded

week-by-week:

 date goals assists points

 9/19/2010 4 1 5

 9/26/2010 2 0 2

 10/3/2010 1 2 3

 10/10/2010 1 1 2

 10/17/2010 0 1 1

 10/24/2010 3 4 7

 10/31/2010 0 0 0 (shootout goal, in game 2. Not

counted as regular gamewinner or goal) 

 11/7/2010 1 0 1

 11/14/2010 1 3 4

 11/21/2010 0 CANCELLED: MS MEETINGS, ETC.

 11/28/2010 1 2 3

 12/5/2010 1 4 5

 12/12/2010 3 4 7

 12/19/2010 1 1 2 (sadly, he has accepted that the stats were written correctly.)

 12/26/2010 0 CANCELLED: SNOW

 1/2/2011 0 CANCELLED: not enough people

 1/9/2011 0 CANCELLED: not enough people

 1/15/2011 1 2 3

 1/23/2011 2 5 7

 1/30/2011 3 5 8

 2/13/2011 2 1 3

 2/23/2011 5 0 5

 2/26/2011 5 3 8

 TOTALS 37 39 76

 There must be some other discrepency (spelling) that happened prior to the week of 1/30/11. It appears to another missing assist. (38 vs 39 total) - but which week? I'm guessing it was one of the two weeks before that week, since all the stats were posted in bulk yet again. (cant you do them weekly???)

 If you could just take a look when you get a chance and tell me which

week you have a point discrepency (spelling), I'd like to see if there was any glaring mistake that we can figure out (although it's so long ago it seems unlikely unless it was one of the weeks we happened to get some video).

 No rush. Thanks

The Email Games (Part One)

Johnny Im impressed. Note that this was during the JB vs Frendon season. Enjoy everyone!

From: Brendon Martino [mailto:brendon@mitre.org]  

Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 8:44 AM  

To: Riley, John J. - Information Technology  

Subject: Re: Hockey Sunday, Outdoor rink @ 5:30    

Hey John,   When you get a chance, can you make sure I got credit for 1 goal and   2 assists on the stat sheet....I can only remember two assists (seems   like   I should have had about 6 assists on the night but we just couldn't   finish at times)...One was where I tagged Nick accidentally and the   other had the other team questioning whether it was an intentional   pass or a shot (it was intentional, but either way it counts, right?).

 I'm not sure Ashley wrote everything down so you might want to double check it.   Thanks  -B   P.S. Who would know about Mike Ward's condition..... Jared?

Translation:"Hey I know you actually have to focus on your job during the day but I need a stat check! 1 goal and 2 assists, right!!!???!! Im not sure you are aware but I could have had 6 assists last night! What could have been??!!?? If Sidney Crosby was my center I could be beating JB!!!! Its a good thing Nick is a premiere finisher or I would have had just one assist! Im not sure if you are aware but Ashley did the stats! Ashley! Keep an eye on her. Do you know who her husband is???!!?? Double check it because I smell a conspiracy!" 

P.S. A ton of concern for Ward over here! You think he needs hockey tape?

John's Response:

 From: Riley, John J. - Information Technology   [RileyJJ@chesterton.com]  Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 9:06 AM  To: Martino, Brendon  Subject: RE: Hockey Sunday, Outdoor rink @ 5:30   

No problem, I'll take a look and let you know.   Jared would be the one, but I've texted Mike too so I'll let you know if he gets back to me.

A Different Email Exchange about a month later:

 From: Martino, Brendon  Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 9:49 AM  To: Riley, John J. - Information Technology  Subject: RE: Hockey Sunday, Outdoor rink @ 5:30  

Hey, I know you probably won't get to the stats right away since   you're dependent on your work PC, etc. but when you do get around to   them I just wanted to give you the stats I have for the last 3 games   we played:   

date goals assists points games wins  
12/19/2010 1 2 3 3 2  
12/26/2010 CANCELLED: SNOW  
1/2/2011 CANCELLED: not enough people 
 1/9/2011 CANCELLED: not enough people  
1/15/2011 1 2 3 3 1  
1/23/2011 2 5 7 2 2  
TOTALS 22 31 53 40 22   

It's been over a month since the 12/19 game and I just wanted to make  sure that all the stats get corrected since I got shafted an assist   somehow on that day in the books.....   If everything is written down right, by my count I should have 53   points. Let me know if something doesn't check out on your end.   Thanks  -B

Lol. He is still mad about the Ashley game!

Translation:"It's been over a month since the 12/19 game and I just wanted to make sure that all the stats get corrected since I got shafted an assist somehow (Ashley Borges) on that day in the books.....

If everything is written down right (by Ashley Borges), by my count I should have 53 points. Let me know if something doesn't check out on your end (If not its because Ashley didnt write my stats down correctly).  Thanks  -B

1 week later (black bolded added by me):

 From: Martino, Brendon [mailto:brendon@mitre.org]  Sent: Mon 1/31/2011 9:11 AM  To: Riley, John J. - Information Technology  Subject: RE: Hockey Sunday, Outdoor rink @ 5:30   

John,   When you updated the stats last week, you still didn't update the   assist I was missing. I should have 53 points before last night, plus  the 8 points from last night = 61. I would be trailing Borges by only  9 points now.  I can send you my complete week-by-week list if you want in order to   compare to see what you're missing.   It's hard enough to catch him when Borges called back goals or   assists of mine in the beginning of the year -- remember the first goal of the year I asisisted you on? It was called back. So were a lot of them. ("I have one example it has to be true a 100 times then!") I wrote them all down. ("this time I didnt let Ashley control the sheet! Im on to them!")  But I'm not going to get short-changed when an assist or goal is   actually written down on the paper and everyone agreed that it   counted. Why is it that I find this happening so much? I can remember

 when I first started this (It was Reggie's Idea actually) that people  were complaining that they   should have more stats than got credit for....that's supposedly why   you took over (yes we wanted accurate stats believe it or not)....so what's wrong with your system? Did you give the   missing assist to someone else? Someone with a similar name, like  > Brad? (that has a "BR" in it! Just like my name!! Did Brad get credit for my stat!!!) >  The assist in question came on 12/19/2010 (Also know as the "Ashley game")- I got credit for only 1   goal and 1 assist, but should have been 1 goal and 2 assists. It's   too far gone to recall the exact circumstances of each assist, but   trust me, it was written on the paper, and not by me. (that doesnt make it seem like you wrote the assist in at all) 

 I think Ashley was keeping score that game. (you dont say?)  Can you please check on that this week when you update the stats? I'm tired of falling behind just because my points aren't getting written  down. (1 assist is killing the stat race. Can you guess who didn't write it down?)   Thanks  -B

John's response:

 From: Riley, John J. - Information Technology   [RileyJJ@chesterton.com]  Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 10:42 AM  To: Martino, Brendon  Subject: RE: Hockey Sunday, Outdoor rink @ 5:30  

 I had gone back last week to the stat sheet that you were referring   to and there was no assist that you said. It was only one goal, one  assist. It was not on the paper.

Frendon's response:

 From: Martino, Brendon [mailto:brendon@mitre.org]  Sent: Mon 1/31/2011 10:48 AM  To: Riley, John J. - Information Technology  Subject: RE: Hockey Sunday, Outdoor rink @ 5:30   

What?? Are you sure? I always look at the stats after the game...I   wrote it down right afterwards...are you sure there wasn't some other    name that was close to mine like Brett or Brad that was illegible??

The Day the Stats Stood Still -OR- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Sham

Brought to you by a "Former Blogger"...


TIME FOR ONE MORE RANT! WAHOOOO!!!! (Brett, eat your heart out!)


The "career" stats page is a joke. Or should I say "carrer"??
http://thehomeoftherecap.blogspot.com/2008/12/carrer-stats.html


There's no consistency and so many stats are so way off. And before you start saying that I think only MY stats are off - no, EVERYONE's Stats are off.


Consider this:


Dave Riley supposedly has the best GAA for goalies, with a 2.84 GAA. However, isn't 142 divided by 43 = 3.302 GAA?? Sooooo, your computer did that bad math, did it John?
I know, maybe he did it backwards: 43 / 142 = oops, nope. That comes out to .302 so that can't be it...Hmmmmmm.
Was that just a copy and paste mistake? Oh, ok. How about your GAA, then, John? 185 divided by 56 is 3.30357, NOT 3.032 as you posted it. Actually, it looks like for many of them they may have been done backwards (e.g. you divided #games by #goals instead of the other way around) because John's 56 games divided by 185 goals = .303, which is only one decimal place off from what he posted. So multiply by 10 and there you go.


      ....I Think I know what he will say. The total games are off because he counts PARTS of games, and that throws everything off, right? Ok. I guess we have to buy that since no one but you can see the secret formula for computing these stats. Yup, that make sense. I mean, John seized control of the stat kingdom back in 2006 like the Nazis invading Poland. All because he claimed that the current maintainer wasn't doing a good enough job and the stats were somehow wrong. Even though everything was out there in the open plain to see. And it was updated regularly. But all that had to change so he could make the stats look more like what he wanted them to look like. Did you know that he only counted HALF of our 2006-2007 season because he didn't like the stats for the first half of the year? Go ahead and look at how many games are counted from that season. For those of us there, you know we played way more than that. It's not like that first part of 2006 didn't happen. Good thing I kept all those stats for posterity. Maybe someday we can get them reinstated. Or maybe we should just let him use his database for his own personal use (as is the custom these days), and instead we can start fresh with some legit stats. Moving on...


Personally, I don't care about vague and unrelatable stats such as "highest scoring teammates" or "team strength". I'm sure Cindy ranks pretty high on that last one, so that makes for good stats, doesn't it? How about you start tracking a USEFUL stat, like plus/minus?? I'm sure Cindy would end up as a negative one hundred and something. Now THAT is a stat comparison that we can all agree is RELEVANT.


Enough about calculation mistakes and useless categories; perhaps we should take a look at the Wins and Win % table. Does the number of total games played match with any other games total, including the number of games in the points table? Go ahead and compare. I guess John decided to update everything except that table for several years, huh? Isn't all this supposed to be generated at once by his database output? I'm sure he has a reasonable excuse for that too. After all, no one knows what's going on behind the scenes anyway so we'll just eat up any old excuse that he hand-feeds us that sounds remotely plausible.


This is too negative. Let's focus on some things that I love about this page.
I love the way all sorts of players with only a handful of points show up on lists that are ordered by a percentage. So Joel's goal percentage is about 19% huh? But he only has 11 goals in his illustrious "career"? Yeah, that's a huge sample size. I'm glad you included Danno's 8 goals on that list. That's relevant. No, don't bother filtering the lists to say, a minimum of 20 or 30 games played for a better sample size. No, that wouldn't make sense.


I like how there's no rank # column next to any table list so I can't see where I rank among it. At least I know I'm somewhere near the "middle" of most lists, and that's pretty good, I guess. No need to quantify that.


I like how some new players who have played with us for two seasons now already have surpassed EIGHT people on the bottom of this version of the points list. That's two years, now and no update. Wait, sorry, I forgot to read the update on the page: "updated 5/8/11" ... Ok, that's THREE years then. Well, at least that means everything older than 3 years is up-to-date, right? Wait...Dale is listed as playing only 56 games since 2006...Hmmm... according to the 06-07 page, Dale played 34 games. He then played 7 more in 07-08. He then played...uh oh..56 games in 08-09! Looks like John arbitrarily decided to start counting certain people's career stats at a certain year. Okkkkayyy...and yes, it's different for other people too. Ok, I'm sure he has a valid reason for that...


I can't do this anymore. All this bad math is making my brain explode! Or is it IMPLODE?! AHHH! John, do us all a favor: don't fix the stats. Don't do any more updates. Fix them for your own personal use if you feel like it, but please save us the trouble of having to digest any more nonsense. It's been a joke for years. Mildly entertaining. Somewhat interesting. Completely innaccurate. Personally, I keep my own stat "database" in a simple spreadsheet, because, well, pretty much everyone has Excel and it can be shared quite easily. No it can't do your fancy scoring-combination tracking or team strength percentages....But I'm pretty sure 87.94% of all bloggers didn't really care about that anyway.


Yes, I keep the stats, but no, I don't want to replace John as stat-keeper for the blog. I don't blog anymore anyway. This was all written by a ghost writer. :)  Maybe someone else will step up to the plate and give us a nice presentation of how he plans to do a better job than John with the stats by 1) being accurate 2) updating in a timely fashion and 3) making the process transparent so there is no "hidden" formulas for calculating things.


Lastly, I hope none of you think you can figure out who I am. I'm a mystery, like WPR and BigBoard -- no one really knows who I am, and any claims will be denied. Because I made it really hard to guess who I am and this entire page is shrouded in mystery. So don't even bother. Thanks Nick for posting this for all to see, and until I have something else to complain about through Nick, I bid you all farewell for now!

P.S. If anyone wants to see some REAL stats from the past 8 years or so....I do have them up on a different blog site...but I'm sure you won't ask for access to that blog since I am so terrible at keeping track of stats....... :) lol :-P roflamo :-)))))) rabble rabble rabble!!!!!!!!!!

Born to Run

"If I end up on your team, or the B team or whatever...If I can make 10 or 15 plays that help set up goals, then I'm happy. You have to be realistic."

“Nick, your lack of hockey knowledge is quite understandable. You're a lackey.”-Former Blogger

Well, then, If this recap is completely off base then its understandable I guess?

Game Time

Since I started playing hockey with you guys I always felt that Borges was the best overall player we had. He was always the most well rounded player. Scoring, Slap shots or ball carrying skills...he could do it all. Sure Johnny and Jared may have been better pure scorers but Borges always seemed to be atop the multiple scoresheets at the end of the night. Ron may have had a better slap shot. But Borges’ slap shot has always been lethal from anywhere(mostly because he got better opportunities than me and rick green may be scared of the ball, duck!!!!). That may all be true. But scoring is all Jared has. Slap shots are all I think of when I think of Ron (and the mustache) but, JB, yeah he could do it all. He’s the best. You wanted him as your first line center, you wanted him on your first D pair. He was kind of a rich man’s Mike D. Or Mike is a poor man’s JB. However you want to look at it. Glass half full kind of thing.

This however was the worst I have ever seen JB. What a disaster.

Scratch that..disaster doesn’t describe this debacle. And it lasted basically all day on Saturday.

I guess the best way to put it is this way:

If I were to tell you before the weekend that JB would have the same amount of goals as Nick and less goals than MVW on Saturday...what would you have said our record would be?

Winning one game sounds impressive now huh?

Game 1: I hate hockey.

This game started off horribly.

Did I mention how awful JB was?

Nick was a train wreck on defense. Jack b-lite.

Ron was painfully slow getting back. Making it very obvious he wanted nothing to do with defense.

Griff was awful. But somehow, yet again, wasn’t the problem.

MVW was crashing into fences recklessly. Probably not what we were looking for.

Brett was forgettable. Which I think was something to strive for in a game like this.

Jared was odious? I don’t know Im running out of adjectives.

Bad. 

Bad is the word.  

Everyone was awful. But despite Elmira's lasting effects we were only behind in the game by a couple goals at the 15 minute mark.

It only got a little better.

After getting a quick goal by Jared to cut the deficit in half, Brett gave up his worst goal of the tournament (thus far). A slap shot from about the center line to make the deficit back to two with a score of 3-1. The defenseman probably should have blocked it too.

But the Alliance were not done. After a very poor first half, Jared was able to score yet another goal to cut Red Sauce’s lead to 3-2.

But in typical Alliance fashion, we gave back the momentum. “We don’t want this”

Quickly any hope of a comeback was gone. Two quick goals by the Hot Sauce made the score 5-2.

But then MVW made his arrival. And he rode that high all weekend. 2 unanswered goals. 2 improbable goals.

With the score now 5-4 thanks to Mike W the Alliance had a chance to pull the game out. 

But then the most embarrassing play in Alliance history finished us off. With time running out our captain decided to pull the goalie. JB had control of the ball behind our net and for some reason Borges decided to do the “flip pass”. Ya know the pass that we decided to ban from the tournament because no one could consistently execute it?  Believe it or not JB flubbed the pass right into the chest of Brett as he tried to get off the ice for the extra attacker. The ball rolled into our net. Sealing the victory for the Big Sauce. 6-4 deficit. 6-4 Loss.

Pathetic.

Game 2: We belong?

I blame Brittany

“I am not talking about tournaments. I am talking about street hockey in a parking lot with no referees and cement and no pads except gloves. I used to hang around with guys from my city who played teams from other cities and there were no rules. The games got nasty. If the other team knew they were tougher than you, they would start elbowing you in the face and swinging their sticks at your knees and punching you and cross checking you. If you fought them, there was no one there to break it up when you started getting your head kicked in. And believe me, their friends were ready to jump in and literally help their buddy kick your teeth in. I am not exaggerating. I remember one game where I got hit from behind so hard between the shoulders, from a kid who later ended up in jail for rape, kidnapping and attempted murder, that my body flew ten feet in the air and I literally did a summersault without even trying or using my arms . I landed on the cement and the future rapist just laughed at me . Later in the game, another future jailbird tried to take out my knees with his stick. He swung it like a baseball bat at my knees. I jumped and he hit my foot instead. ( He went to jail because he later tried to hit someone with his car that ticked him off.) A lot of other things happened in that game I wont get into. That was the last one I ever played.I didn't want to get permanently injured, But that was what those games were like. I can't wait to hear all the comments from this post. Let's go guys. Start laughing and making jokes. This is all true. How many of you have played with people who didn't care if you left with any teeth or not. These guys didn't like to lose and they did whatever it took to win. Believe me, I kept my mouth shut and just played.”-Former Blogger

True Story. 

But Montreal is nothing like that. Its the exact opposite actually. Everyone is apologizing if they even make contact with you. Well except Griff... “talk to the ref! get away from me!”

The Recap is back baby!

For the last couple of months I admit the recap has become a thing of the past. A forgotten art that made this once great blog great. But guess what? Now I have something to blog about. An incentive to actually wanting to write. I don’t have to write a recap about a 4 on 4 game in the middle of January. I wont have to write about Jared being shadowed by a defense all night as Cindy was ignored in the left dot. And finally Ill have a recap where I wont have to mention a Frendonism. Week after week of writing the same stuff. How many times can I write about Johnny’s decline, Frendon with a traumatic injury that is instantly cured by hockey tape or Rick allowing goals from the opposite end of the rink? I cant anymore. I’m done with that.

So I know what you’re thinking. There is going to be seemingly endless recaps day after day for the next week or so, right? There has to be so much juicy recap material just sitting out there like a giant matzah ball ready to be written. Not so fast. I’ve got nothing to work with. There is no material. No Stats. No Video. Its like it never happened. So for the first time in a long time all we have for proof is the recap. The recap is officially fact. There is nothing else. Who are you to say differently? There is only one thing I have left to figure out...who will be this year’s goat? Because what’s a recap of an event without a goat?

“We don’t have the horses to run two roll lines”

Oh yes, the hypotheticals. Do you put Borges on Defense? Griff at center? Nick at wing? Options aplenty. And the debate never ended because the Captain never made up his mind. But he had to settle on something so this is what we were left with:

Brett in net (for now...Griff was still an option after a game one panic)

Nick and Ron Rotating on Defense (Nick has to play 90% of the game I guess)

JB and MVW Rotating at Center

Jared and Griff Rotating at Wing.

No full line changes would be necessary,  We were doing the Saugus method. Sub when ready (or not at all).  The only person this rule didn’t apply to was Griff. He could be called off at any moment. He paid a different amount to play than the rest of us.

“What’s in name?”

In honor of the 2012 Muckers’ Champions this year will be the last time that we will go by the team name “Alliance”. Which had I known was a Star Wars reference I probably would have suggested a change years ago. Was there really no better options? No one thought about putting a gas mask on a aardvark?  Anything? No wonder why the Alliance never won anything.  

Trophy Defense

So for the first time since May 22nd 2012 a team from Massachusetts and New Hampshire (Hampstead and Salem respectively right Griff?) was back in Canada ready to defend the Muckers Trophy.

 But this time we moved up a level. We were too good for Muckers. We were going for the Intermediate Trophy. Now I know what you’re thinking. The team loses Eric and Darrin, which forces our best player to play net, and you decided to move up? 

Forget the trophy defense...we were looking at a 0-3 regular season.

Or were we?

Next: Game One Recap: I hate the early games