That’s a wrap

The Misfits took the Winter 2008-2009 Silver B Championship last Friday, defeating the Pints 6-4.  Congratulations to them! They played quite well throughout the playoffs.  As the fifth place team, they defeated the fourth, second and first place teams to capture the prize.  Incidently, the Misfits captain is now the most decorated in our league, having won the championship twice – once in Bronze and once in Silver B.  Both cases were upset wins.

For the Puck Hogs, Winter 2008-2009 was a bit of a different one for us.  Until this last season, we never had too many challenges with attendance or injuries, but this winter was very different.  We had several guys go down to injuries or other situations (particularly as a result of the economy shift) that prevented them from being able to play every game, or any game.  We ended up most games a little short and twice we had less than 10 skaters, which coincidentally happened against the two best teams in the league.  We faced a lot of adversity this season.

However, the tough season didn’t really seem to phase us and I think we rose up to the challenge.  Guys worked hard to get over their injuries.  Some even played injured right into our last playoff game.  Those who were transferred due to work made extraordinary efforts to try and make it when they could.  It says a lot about them.  Moreover, it says a lot about the guys who were able to make it regularly that despite all the challenges we had rosterwise, our team finished in third place and had a solid second half of the season.

With the championship awarded, the Winter 2008-2009 season comes to an official close. I’m hoping that my offseason work is largely done as well.  I tried to start earlier this season to prepare for the summer one, but I think all that did was prolong all the ups and downs in trying to get the team ready.  Our season barely ended before my focus went immediately to next season – I didn’t even really have time to reflect or “mourn” our playoff elimination.  However, I think we’re now ready for the summer - our team fee is paid up with the rink and our roster is set.  I’m excited about our roster and am looking forward to seeing how we compete next season.  We’ll have a bit of a new look!

The Winter season provided some valuable lessons for me, and I’m hoping that I’ve learned from them.  Indeed, our roster challenges have influenced my decisions going into the Summer, and I think we’ll have a lot more flexibility in our roster this time around.

This offseason hasn’t been the most pleasant, very reminiscent of my first.  Much like then, I tried to do what I think is best for the team, but this doesn’t make some of the decisions I’ve had to make any easier.  I’m hoping that with the team squared away that I can take a break from the mental stuff and go into our summer season refreshed.  We have a little time until next season starts (April 24), so I’m going to enjoy the next 10 days and not think too much more about captaining than I have to. 

Singh10.

A bitter sweet end

For the Puck Hogs, the Winter 2008-2009 season came to an end at 7:30 PM on Friday night.  Our second round playoff loss to the Pints sent us packing with no more games left to play this season.  The Pints move on to the Silver B Championship game this Friday to face the Misfits.

We left the rink and went to our  post game pizza place to drown our sorrows in meat lovers pizza.  I know I felt better afterwards.

We had gone into our game against the Pints with a lot of challenges.  We were missing four guys and this put us at a disadvantage compared to the full (and overall younger) bench of the Pints.  Another of our teammates was basically playing injured, as he has been for some time.  However, I think we put up a good fight and competed as hard as we could.  It was disappointing to lose, but it was a close loss (we lost 3-1) to a very dominant team, so I’m consoled by the fact that we still were very competitive in light of the odds stacked against us.  But, I do have to say that I left that game upset by more than our loss.  An incident with only seconds left in the game has bothered me, and I feel I have to address it here.

Because this is where I record my thoughts and opinions on the game, I’ve been very quick on this blog to publically get on teams or players who I feel play dirty.   The Pints have been a recipient of this from me for two seasons.  But, despite my own personal belief on how rec hockey should be played, my own team is not immune from engaging in dirty or ugly play on the ice.

We were down 3-1 in our game against the Pints with 19 seconds left and our goalie pulled for the extra attacker.  Frankly, the game (which had been fairly clean to that point) was pretty much over.  One of the Pints – their best player - came into our zone with the puck along the boards, and one of my teammates aggressively checked him to prevent the guy from scoring an empty net goal.

But, my player didn’t stop there.  He proceeded to pull the Pints player down, jumped on top of him and started throwing punches.   I was on the ice at the time, and while I’m usually one of the first to try to break up these plays, I skated to the bench instead.  I was disgusted because there was no justification for this act.  Their player was playing the game as he should have been.  The attack on him was completely unwarranted; it would have been one thing if my player just checked him hard, but it was another to take him down and assault him for no apparent reason.  After all of my ranting about dirty play from other teams in our league, to witness my own player engage in such an act was a bitter pill for me to swallow.

Some people might accuse me of throwing my own teammate under the bus, but I have to be fair about this.  I’ve openly called out the actions of other players, and so it would be hypocritical of me to ignore incidents when members of my team do the same things.  I know that if our places were reversed and someone from the Pints assaulted one of my players in such a manner, I would have been calling for heads to roll.

After our game, I approached the Pints captain in the parking lot and apologized on my team’s behalf for his player getting jumped.  I also asked him to extend my apology to his player.  I expressed my regret for the action of my teammate and I told the Pints captain that this is not how I want my team to play or be known for.  The Pints captain accepted my apology with a lot of grace and didn’t make a big deal about it.  I know that I wouldn’t have been so graceful if it was the other way around, especially given our history with the Pints.

So, to be true to myself, I want to publically apologize on this blog to the Pints for what happened at the end of our game.  I still believe that assaulting other people on the ice has no business in rec hockey, whether it comes from members of another team or my own.

Singh10.

To be the best, you have to beat the best

I first heard this quote from Ric Flair (whoooooo!) in his prime.  The quote holds true for us Puck Hogs this week.

In the first round of the playoffs last week, we defeated the Pirates in a bit of a nailbiter of a game.  It was the closest game of the night, but we managed to get by the Pirates to advance to round two, which takes place tomorrow night.

I don’t know that I played all that well in the game last week, or for the last several.  I was riding a better-than-usual string of games in terms of my performance some weeks ago, but in the last couple I’ve felt as if I’ve slumped a bit.  I have a couple of theories as to why.  It’s most due to my lack of work on my conditioning and hockey skills outside of games in the last little while.   I really have to pick up the pace again as I’ve only been skating once a week lately.

A couple of weeks ago, a few of us woke up in the early hours of Sunday morning (I’m talking 4:30 AM early) to get to the rink for its Sunday 6:15 AM sticktime, which we had been doing for several weeks for extra practice.  As usual, it was a pain to get up so early and get to the rink, but the promise of a nice and clean sheet of ice and an hour long practice was great motivation.

When we pulled into the rink’s parking lot at 5:45 AM, we noticed there were no other cars in the parking lot, which gave us an uneasy feeling.  We walked up to the front doors, and the doors were locked.  The lights were on, but no one was home.

There would be no hockey that day.  So, we decided to drown our sorrows at Denny’s down the street for breakfast.

Mmmmm.  Denny’s.

It turns out that the rink quietly cancelled the 6:15 AM ice time.  We found this out after we returned home and checked Skatetown’s website.  The session was removed from the rink’s schedule.  Some warning or announcement would have been nice, but oh well.  Communication hasn’t always been the rink’s strong point.

Regardless, we find ourselves facing the Pints tomorrow, who finished in first place with a near perfect record in the standings.  The winner of this game goes to the Silver B Championship game next week, against the winner of the Misfits/Flaunting Wieners match. It’s going to be a challenge.  While we squeaked by the Pirates in round one of the playoffs, the Pints completely dominated Yo MaMa and sent them home packing in a 10-2 victory.  We will have our work cut out for us tomorrow, but hopefully we’ll be able to put up a good fight against them.

If we don’t, our season is done.

Singh10.

Parity? Draw your own conclusions.

I did a quick calculation of average goals scored per game for each team in Silver B, from preseason through first round of the playoffs:

Winter 2008-2009, Preseason through Round 1 of the Playoffs

This is based on Skatetown’s stats. If you rank by goals scored, it closely matches how the teams finished in the regular season, except that Norcal Crossover A, who actually finished above the Misfits, scored fewer goals per game on average. 

Also, from Yo MaMa up to Puck Hogs, the increase in goals scored per game happens in increments of about half a goal as you move up.  The increase widens for the Flying Wizards and Pints.  The average scored across the league (the gray dotted line in the chart) is 3.3 goals per game.

Singh10.