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.

Wednesday Wusings: Unsportsmanlike conduct

Well, wasn’t our game against the Kodiaks on Sunday night interesting? There were over 40 minutes of penalties awarded in the game, and three quarters of those were awarded in just the last 10 minutes of the third period.  At one point our penalty box was standing room only.  It’s also amazing that no fights came out of the game, but it probably came close.  This was not a typical Puck Hogs-Kodiaks match (I used to say that the Kodiaks were one of the classiest teams in the league), which used to be very clean and competitive.  I’m not entirely certain as to what’s going on with the Kodiaks, but their captain seems worn out. 

Additionally noteworthy is that apparently the game before us – Volcanoes vs. Ice Dawgs – also had some issues with officiating, and we had the same set of referees.  I’m not going to go on a diatribe about officiating here because I said enough in an e-mail to the hockey director this week.  The officiating is what it is, and you know what you are likely to get into when you get on the ice and see who is calling your game.  Referees are not perfect and you need to cut them some slack, but when for some officials games consistently seem to get out of control, I think there is an issue there that must be addressed. 

Competition in the league seems to be getting much more intense, and I’m wondering if it’s to do with the impending playoffs (now two weeks away), or if there’s an overall declining trend in good sportsmanship.  At the end of our game against the Kodes, our teams did not even line up to shake hands – a few did, but others swore to “bring it next game”.  The Pirates won their game against the Phantoms (what did I tell you, people!?), and it seems Team Second-Coming-of-Christ (at least that’s what it sounds like if you read their website) were more sour than the team they beat.  And finally, apparently APL forfeited their game against the Flyers after trying to sneak in an illegal player.  We are not amused, APL.

What this league needs is one big giant group hug as a gesture of peace and togetherness – or maybe, just the captains of the top three teams should.  I wouldn’t mind that so much.

Singh10.

Monday Musings: Dusting off

I know it’s Wednesday, but these are still my musings, so you do the math.

We lost for the second time in a row on Sunday, this time to the Phantoms, who according to Captain Phantom are “not the reigning champions for no reason“.  Two losses in a row is a new situation for us, because when we’ve lost before, we bounced back the next week with a win.  Our first loss was against the Pirates (and yes, I saw that only two people signed my petition – keep them in Bronze at your own peril, foolish people!).

What also happened for the second time in a row was a game official telling me after the game that we didn’t look like our normal selves.  This is very telling, because we had all the same people that we normally do.  And, hearing it for the second time in a row is frustrating for me.  There is something mental going on (or not going on) in our team game and we need to get to the bottom of it before the playoffs start. 

This is not to take anything from the Pirates or the Phantoms, because they deserved their wins.  I’m not saying that had we played better that we would have won either of those games.  What I am saying though is that it’s hard to accept losing when you didn’t put your best on the ice, and we didn’t.

More stickhandling, and a petition!

Tonight is the start of a three-week stickhandling clinic at Skatetown:

ADULT STICKHANDLING CLINIC
This clinic is for players who would like to improve their stickhandling. Skills taught will include technique, control and agility with the puck, increasing stickhandling reach and range, body position, deception and fakes. The class will be taught by Skatetown’s professional coaches.

This is the second time a stickhandling clinic has been offered.  The first time was last summer, and I took that one too.  It was a big help, and it was just after I did that four-week clinic that I scored this shootout goal last summer – a toe drag to the right to avoid the goalie’s pokecheck and giving me nothing but net to shoot at.  As such, I can say that this stickhandling stuff really works.

My personal preference has been to play at least twice a week (game on Sunday, drop in game on Friday), and I’ve noticed that when I don’t play twice, I don’t play as well (naturally).  Lately, I haven’t been getting out to the drop in on Friday nights – it’s hard to drive out to the rink at 10:15 PM after you’ve come home from work, had dinner and are sprawled out on the sofa.  Feel free to comment about my social life below.

So, I’m looking forward to hitting the ice tonight.  Hopefully it’ll have helped me like it did last time, and hopefully sooner than later.  We’re playing the Bronze Champ Phantoms this Sunday and I’ll need any help I can get.

And now, on to another, much more pressing matter…