Trick or treating

Last week was Halloween, and the rink had games scheduled that night.  This posed a problem for many of our teams as our players had to choose between spending time with their families on this annual occasion or come to the rink to play.  Our game with the Pirates was right in prime-time trick-or-treating hour, and so it left little opportunity for players to try and do both things on the same night.  When the schedule was released, I requested that games on this night be rescheduled, but apparently there was no available alternative night. So, much like federal politics, we spent the week working on getting as high turnout as possible. 

Fortunately for us many of our guys were able to make it (one way or another), and we were able to ice more than two lines of forwards and two lines of defense.  Our team has been lucky in this regard.  We’ve rarely, if ever, had too much of a problem with turnout.  Our goalie has made every single game we’ve played, and we’ve never had less than 10 skaters show up for a game (which would give us two lines each of forwards and defense).  I’m lucky to play with teammates with this kind of dedication and attendance record – it certainly gives me one less thing to worry about.  A lot of credit and thanks have to go to our families, who’ve clearly been supportive of our hockey team and have given our players some flexibility to show up every week.

Unfortunately for the Pirates, they were very short and only had one or two players on the bench for the entire game.  It was a tight game for the first period but clearly they were getting tired in the second, and our higher turnout gave us the advantage in terms of our energy level.  The Pirates picked up a second wind in the third but by then the outcome was inevitable.

I got a little “treat” in this game as I scored my second goal of the season (coincidentally just after I wondered about the over/under that I would score again).  This one was set up by Yama2, who centered the puck while I was cruising through the slot, and I swept it at the net.  Incidentally, I’ve scored two goals set up by two guys named Vince.  Maybe we’re on to something here?

This week, we have yet another Saturday game, so we won’t be at the rink tonight.  We’ve played every team once, so the cycle restarts and we’ll be facing Norcal Crossover A.  They sit one point above us in the standings at second place.  We tied them in our first preseason game though they thoroughly outshot us in the game.  I’m hoping that we’re playing much better than when we started the season.  Playing NCA tomorrow night for the second time this season will be a good indicator of our progress.

Singh10.