Hockey This Sunday at 6:00

Who can play?

Also, stats are up for last season and career totals!  I still need to update the database to enter the two weeks we've played this year.  I hope to do that by the end of the week.

Roster for Sunday (so far):

In: Dave (G), Steve (G), John, Billy, Jared, Ward, Lee, Chris, Jason

Out: Brendon

That's Why They Play the Game!

After I finished putting my equipment on last Sunday night, I walked over to my net and looked at the team that we had.  To say I was concerned would be putting it mildly.  "We have no chance" I told a bewildered Elliot.  Yes, Andrew and Elliot were the captains last Sunday.  While picking up the teams I told Elliot and Andrew to make sure that Jared is shooting on Dave in order to make things fair (as we saw last year Jared LOVES to take advantage of guys that don't play much).  Well, Elliot didn't listen to me.  Instead, he and Andrew did a straight pick of players.  As a result, Jared and Billy both ended up on Dave's team, along with arguably the better Prater.  We had some good players, but they had better top end offense, defense, and goaltending, and we did not have any tangible advantage with the later picked players (because after all, sometime it's not about who you have on your team, but instead who you don't have).  With those teams, we had no chance.

Well, that's not exactly how things played out.  Things started according to script with Jared scoring on a terrible goal through the five-hole (1-0 White team).  After that though, it changed.  The Dark team did a great job using their speed to pressure the White team, and had some impressive shots that beat Dave.  Ward and Elliot generated a number of changes up front, Jason was rock solid on D, and Drew was all over the place.  It led to a pretty easy win, 5-1.

Game 2 started out well for the Dark team.  However, a couple of guys decided that they would stop subbing and a 2-0 lead turned into a deficit before they went for a sub.  The Dark team lost some of the speed and energy they were playing with.  They battled back and made it a 4-4 game.  However from that point Dave shut down some chances and the Dark team seemed worn down.  The White team had pressure and what felt like 20 minutes of zone time before Iggy shot one that hit me in the side and bounced in for the game winner.

Game 3 turned out how we thought the night would go.  5-0 White team, and the game was not really that close.  Of course, that was also the game that Reggie played a bit for the Dark team, so maybe there is a connection there...

BoxScore from 10/20/19

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DATE: 10/20/19

rank	Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Games	Wins	GW	GWA	Team Goals	GA
1	Andrew	6	1	7	3	2	0	0	11	9
2	Jared	4	2	6	3	2	1	0	11	9
3	Billy T	0	5	5	3	2	0	2	11	9
4	Elliott	1	4	5	3	1	0	1	9	11
5	Drew B	3	2	5	3	1	1	0	9	11
6	MVW	3	1	4	3	1	0	0	9	11
7	Brendon	1	1	2	3	1	0	0	9	11
8	Ignads	1	1	2	3	2	1	0	11	9
9	Chris N	0	1	1	3	2	0	0	11	9
10	Teddy N	0	1	1	3	1	0	0	9	11
11	Jason H	1	0	1	3	1	0	0	9	11
12	Chris Y	0	1	1	3	2	0	0	11	9
13	Reggie	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	5
14	Pete S	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	9	11
15	Mike M	0	0	0	3	2	0	0	11	9

rank	Goalie	Games	Wins	Win %	GA	GAA	Shutouts
1	Dave	3	2	66.67%	9	3.00	1
2	John R	3	1	33.33%	11	3.67	0

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Next Game on Sunday Oct 20 - 6pm

No games this week as people are away, etc.

Who can play next time on Oct 20th?

Let’s get a head count early so John can book the rink when he gets back from his vacation.

I’m in.


UPDATE: rink is booked, 6-8pm



Roster so far

In: John, Dave, Brendon, Iggy, Billy, Jason, Jared, Drew, Andrew, Elliot, Teddy, Chris, Ward
Out: Steve, Lee, Brett, Mike D, Griff
Haven't heard from: everyone else

Season 14, Week 1 - RECAP (10/06/2019)

So, I'm just gonna say it. Sunday night was Uhhhhg-leeee. With a capital Uhgg. Fourteenth season we've been doing this at Saugus, some of us have been playing much longer, going back to the old milk street park days, and even further back when we used to play at the Mary Queen of peace parking lot or miscellaneous schools around Salem - wherever we could setup those cheap plastic foldable nets...

So some of us have been playing hockey for the better part of 20+ years. You'd think we would remember how to use a stick, right? You'd think we know how to take a shot and not miss wide left by 13 feet, right?
Nope. Wow was there rust! Not just rust, but basically a whole auto salvage yard full of rust. First game seemed like a slaughter to me.

Everyone got off to a slow start, but once the goals started rolling in, seemed like there was no way to stop the dark team. I mean, we had Billy and Nick on Defense and Dave in net. Can you get much better than that?

But we can't put it all on them. As bad as we were at stopping them, we also could not get anything going offensively. Every chance seemed like a broken play or bad turnover. Can't be entirely too sure, because after that egregious, awful, low-down, dirty face shot I took from Hardy, I was a little woozy and don't remember much after that....I remember pieces....visions...blurs, mostly... I remember Reggie's 13.5 foot reach preventing anything from getting past him up the boards. I remember Drew blocking two or three of my shots with his shin guards - this inside part of his shin guards...

I remember Iggy...Iggy was...actually I don't remember Iggy... Anywhoo......Game one was brutal and we lost in a demoralizing shutout 5-0. We needed a trade. Really, what else are you supposed to do. It's not like we had hope. We just couldn't put all that rust together to form anything that remotely looked like an offense.

So John trades me and Billy away for Drew and Jason. So game 2 was much, much more even, despite what the 5-2 score maybe gave the impression. It was 0-0 for the better part of the game, maybe like 20 mins or so...can't tell...too concussed to be accurate about the passage of time...

Jared was talking about maybe getting Steve a Saugus-first shutout for the whole night. Is that true? Have we never had one goalie with a complete shutout for the whole day? I would think that we would remember that, no?

But alas, Steve had to let up two goals to bring his GAA up to a pathetic 1.0 and blew his big chance at a Saugus legend. I suppose we could have helped him with that, but whatever, I digress....

It was a very thin stat night for most players...more so that I can remember in years past...I mean, how many nights can you say that Johnny Rocket was held to ONE point on the night? Ludicrous, right?

Eight players were held to 1 point or fewer. Eight out of Eleven. Only Drew, Jared and Ward managed to get some points on the board. It was very lopsided on the stat sheet. So now it's a three-man race for the scoring title...too early for that?

So what did we learn from week one? We learned you can't count on Lenny Young. Unless he shows up next week and makes up for it. Your word is your bond!

We learned that most of us are wayyy too rusty from taking the summer off. Gotta hit the gym harder...

We learned that first game of the year we need subs. And not the kind you order from D'Angelos. Playing without a sub week one is brutal. We need more bodies out there.

Let's get everyone for the next game in 2 weeks. We need them all. Even Brad.....
Ok, maybe not Brad. Dale, though. We need Dale. If not for his backhand skills, then at least for his blog skills. Let's make a blog great again! #MABGA

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DATE: 10/06/19

rank	Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Games	Wins	GW	GWA	Team Goals	GA
1	Jared	4	1	5	2	2	1	0	10	2
2	MVW	2	3	5	2	2	0	0	10	2
3	Drew B	3	1	4	2	1	1	0	7	5
4	Billy T	1	0	1	2	1	0	0	5	7
5	Brendon	0	1	1	2	1	0	0	5	7
6	John R	1	0	1	2	0	0	0	2	10
7	Nick	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	2	10
8	Reggie	0	1	1	2	2	0	1	10	2
9	Jason H	0	1	1	2	1	0	0	7	5
10	Chris Y	1	0	1	2	0	0	0	2	10
11	Ignads	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	10

rank	Goalie	Games	Wins	Win %	GA	GAA	Shutouts
1	Steve F	2	2	100.00%	2	1.00	1
2	Dave	2	0	0.00%	10	5.00	0

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Season 14 Preview - Making the blog great again

One of the great things about the stats database is that every now and then I see something that I wasn't expecting.  For example, when Salem was moved into Haverhill South I met someone that said they had played hockey with us in the past.  I didn't remember him, but I looked up his name in the database and there he was.  Well, I finally started adding the stats from last year into the database and it struck me that we were about to begin our 14th season.  It struck me that 14 is a pretty big number.

Now, we have been playing more than 14 years in Saugus.  At one point, we never kept stats.  We didn't have a web site.  And it wasn't Brett that was scaring people away from playing, but it was Nick's cousin.  I don't even think people went out regularly after the game back then.  However, one fateful day, during the preparation for the renovation of the Methuen Hall, Reggie had the brilliant suggestion: "Why don't we keep stats?"  It was a game changer.

Early on we had a problem of how we were going to display the stats.  Early on we had a very simple web page, but then Nick created the current site giving us Recaps, Big Board, WPR, and flame wars.  If you are ever bored go back say 8 - 10 years and read some of the threads that existed, spurred on by the antagonism of Brett (sorry, I mean Anonymous) and buffoonery of Frendon and Dale.

But alas - stats, recaps, and hijinks have fallen off in recent years. Well folks, we hope to change that this season.  Stats from last year are currently being updated, and we should be up-to-date through week 1 by next Thursday. The stats themselves are now in the cloud, so each week it is a little bit easier to get the stats done. Additionally, we will try for weekly recaps - a mix of recapping the game and addressing Jared's latest controversy.

What do I expect about the actual play this year?  Brett is clearly the best player each week.  However, Jared's dedication is unmatched.  He will show whether it's raining, snowing, or his family is away on vacation. As a result, Jared will win the scoring title again.  Depending on Brett's attendance, he will end up 2nd or 3rd, and I'll probably end up somewhere in the top 3.  Ward and Brendon will round out the top 5.  Dave will be the best goalie again by far, but will have middling numbers because his team will usually need to be a little worse than the team for the other goalie.  That is, unless Darrin returns.  Unlikely, sure - but who ever thought we'd see Lee and Chris again?

Finally, a poll question - Who is most likely to play at least once this year - Lenny, Brad, or Cindy?

BTW, the roster for Sunday will be in the previous post.