Vindication

I’m really proud of and happy for the team after last Friday’s win over the Flying Ringers.  Our team played great.  To a player, there was a definite determination to play hard against the other team at both ends of the ice and it showed.

Even after the Flying Ringers tied the game late (after they significantly cut the ice time of their less talented players in the third period to give their sandbaggers more ice time), we didn’t lose our resolve.  There was no panic and right to the end we felt we could beat them.

The game proved to be a vindication of many different things:

• We finally were able to put together consecutive wins – that too against the top team in the league.
• We defeated them after they crushed us 9-3 earlier in the season.
• After they tied it up, one of their players began showboating on the ice after he scored.  It was nice to get the win after that display.
• One of our players, who during the offseason was told he wasn’t good enough to play for the Flying Ringers, scored a goal in his first game against them.  He now has more goals himself than about half their team combined, and has more goals than the person on that team who told him he wasn’t good enough.  I couldn’t be happier for our guy!
• Another of our teammates played injured and played an excellent game, scoring a goal himself.
• Two guys got their first goals of the season.  That leaves just one left to get a goal and when he does, every player (besides our goalie) will have scored at least one goal.  That’s awesome.
• After watching the game and how the Flying Ringers play, a couple of people commented to me after the game about how they were now convinced that what I have said about that team is true.
• Despite the Flying Ringers essentially benching their less talented players so that their sandbaggers could get them the win, they ended up losing the game.

Like many other teams in our league, we continued to roll all our lines throughout the game. Equal ice time in rec hockey is an ethic that many team captains share in our league and across rec hockey.  I’m glad that not only did we stick to it, but it payed off with the win as well.

I consider equal ice time a fundamental right in rec hockey.  It is sacred.  We all pay the same fee to play, and so we all deserve equal ice time regardless of our talent or ability.  Another captain in our league commented after our game about how the cutting of ice time of lesser able players by the Flying Ringers was “unfortunate”.  However, what is most unfortunate is that the team is proud of it and use it as a legitimate strategy.  As one of their more talented players said about this strategy:

It was a great game, even without some of our ringers and we almost gotrdone regardless. It’s alway a great time to play the Hogs and even that much sweeter when we see our game plan come together…..right down to the last 31 seconds!!

I’m not surprised that they pulled that move, we’ve seen them do that before when they are losing.  What I am surprised about is that people on that team even tolerate it.  Such behaviour was the catalyst for me leaving that group of players in the first place many seasons ago (back when we was Bronze), and last Friday was just more validation that I made the right choice.

Singh10.

Some milestones

I am trying to be good.  I really am. 

It has come to my attention that behind my back, my name is being attached to silly accusations, and I have a strong temptation to address these things.  However, since I’ve resolved to stop the smack talk for the sake of peace in the Silver B galaxy, I will continue to bite my tongue even if it makes for less entertaining stuff to write about.  Besides, certain people are free to bring up their little accusations with me on Friday.  

So, onwards and upwards.  Let’s talk about some milestones that I’ve crossed over the past couple of weeks.

First, our game against the Ice Dawgs a couple of weeks ago was my 100th as a Puck Hog.  There’s nothing particularly significant about 100 games per se, other than that it’s a traditional milestone.  But, it’s still a good feeling to know I’ve played that many games for this great group of guys.  It’s a ton of fun every week, and not just because of the hockey.  All the postgame hanging out  we do into the wee hours of the morning at our pizza place or another local restaurant makes it totally worth it, win or lose.  We’ll talk or joke around about a gamut of topics - be it about the game we just played or mixed martial arts matchups within our own team.  It’s always a lot of fun and is the best way to kick off the weekend.

To date, I’ve played 103 out of 107 games for our team.  My “career” hockey stats look like this:

Singh10 Career Stats

My points per game went up a bit with the Hogs compared to when I played on the original Foothill Flyers, but I’ve been pretty consistent.  I’d like to think I’ve improved over the 100 games, but that might be a tough call.  The fact that my stats still show a little growth in light of facing more able players in our current league suggests that there was some improvement.  But hey, I’m still working on it.

Excluding some notable exceptions, at the time when Silver B was created, like most teams we Puck Hogs moved our whole team up to a higher league (the league we’re in now – Silver B).  We’ve had to face much tougher competition since then, which I’m glad we do.  Several of the original Silver B teams still retain much of their character from their Bronze League days, including the Misfits (formerly the Phantiaks, formerly the Phantoms/Kodiaks), Ice Dawgs, SMB (formerly Yo MaMa, formerly the Volcanoes) and our team, and I think there is something very positive to be said for that.

Another milestone that just passed was the second anniversary of the Hog Blog on July 5.  On the first anniversary last year, I did a quick summary, so I’ll do that again this time around.  In year two, the Hog Blog has seen:

• Visits: 11,085
• Posts: 54
• Comments: 134
• Busiest day: September 30, 2008
• Most visited post: “Holey the Goalie and Nogoalov” – 256 views
• Most visited page: “The Hog Blog” – 567 views
• Top five search engine terms: “hog blog hockey”, “bryan klein”, “puck hogs”, “puck hog blog”, “puck hogs roseville”.

I posted much more regularly last year, so I clearly need to pick up the pace.  Silver B, you have been warned.

On to year three!

Singh10.

Remembering BK (part 2)

In the summer of 2006, I was in my third season with the Foothill Flyers in the Bronze League. Also on that team was a player named Bryan Klein, who played on our top line known as “the Top Gun line”. By virtue of playing on that line, Bryan picked up the nickname of “Maverick”.

Bryan joined the team partway through our first season – Summer 2005 – when our fill-in for one of our injured players was injured himself. Bryan came down from the Silver league Wizards to join us in Bronze. He kept a quiet and low profile, staying mostly to himself and seemed to avoid drawing too much attention to the fact that he was much better than most of us on the team.

As time went on, Bryan became more of an integral part of the team. He became an alternate captain, though by that time he was already an unofficial leader of the team. He became the “go-to” guy, but not just for goal scoring.  He evolved into our on-ice leader, providing motivation and leadership to a team that was just too used to losing.  He loved hockey, and all he wanted was to see his teams do well.

In our third season, a few days after one of our games, we were shocked with the news that Bryan took his own life.

Remembering BK (part 1)

Below is a post I wrote about two years ago, on another blog of mine.

July 1 notes July 2, 2006

Happy Canada Day.

But, not so much. I’ve thought of Canada a little bit, but my mind has been focused elsewhere this week, with the news of the passing away of one of my teammates on my hockey team, Bryan Klein.

While I played with Bryan for almost three seasons – amounting to about a year – our relationship was limited to the rink. We were friendly, of course, but we never really had a deep friendship. Much of what I knew of him came from word of mouth. The news of his tragic death was quite a shock. I found out last Thursday, and found it hard to think of much else on Friday. I spent much of the day in a mental haze, thinking about him and my relationship with him. In some ways, it surprised me that I was that affected, but perhaps it’s also not that surprising at the same time, given how much time we spent together playing hockey week after week.

I have to be brutally honest, and say that at some level, I think I resented him. He was a great hockey player and a leader on our team. But, I never felt like I could get any respect or acknowledgement from him about my game. Granted, I’m not a very good player, but sometimes I hoped to get some compliment or appreciation of a good effort from him, and I rarely got it.

Perhaps he didn’t think I needed it, or he just didn’t see anything to appreciate in my hockey playing. Maybe I was just insecure. It’s interesting though, that I only felt that way about him. I don’t even ever think much about how my other teammates feel about my abilities (or lack thereof). Perhaps I held that resentment, because on a deeper level, I respected him and I was probably looking for some sign that he respected me too.

All this doesn’t seem to matter now.

Rest in peace, Bryan. I hope you’ve finally found the solace and comfort that life could not give you.

More later…

Singh10.