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...