Monday Musings: Here we go again

Welcome to the Puck Hogs, season 2!

I’ve been pretty quiet on this blog since our first season ended a couple of weeks ago.  But, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t thinking hockey – most of us probably were, especially those of us who are team captains.  It was nice, though, to take a break from all the hockey “websiting” for a little while.

Since the season ended, we had a team BBQ last week and a bunch of us and our families got together and ate a lot of grease:

Not only were we gluttonous, but we also had an awards ceremony, organized by Vinnie Guillama.  He went through a lot of effort to put these awards together, and they turned out great.  I’ll post the awards here soon.  Without me knowing, the team also decided to buy me a new Canucks hockey jersey for the “hockey mom” activities that I’ve been doing.  I’m a little embarrassed by it, but it’s a very generous thing for them to do and I really appreciate it.  These really are a great group of guys.

Monday Musings: you lose some, you win more

…a twist on an old quote.

Last night we played our final game of the Summer 2007 season, against the Pints in what we called “The Loser’s Jock-Strap Cup”.  It was a consolation game as both of our teams were knocked out of the first round of the Bronze playoffs. 

The consolation games this season didn’t mean much more than an extra game of hockey. But, we decided to spice things up a bit and introduce a new trophy for the league:

The Loser’s Cup Invitational

Monday was the most popular day ever for this blog, with almost 100 visits on just that day.  It looks like our playoff elimination created a shockwave around the league and everyone wanted to see what we had to say about it.  Yeah, we are just that damn hawt.

I’m sure there are many who were happy to see us get knocked out.  We certainly had our detractors this season.  But, I’m not bitter about our loss or the criticism we constantly faced as a team.  It’s why the game is played – sometimes you lose.

After our elimination, a bunch of us Hogs went out and watched the next game – the Flyers vs. the Steelheads – and had a great time.  As good as the Puck Hogs are as a hockey team, I think we make even better fans.

What we’ve been waiting for

It’s finally playoff time! The schedule is nearly set for the first round. Tomorrow night (August 9), we’ll find out who the eighth seed is going to be, as the eighth place Pints and ninth place Pirates square off in their playoff qualifier.  The winner of that game will play the Volcanoes in the first round of the playoffs on Sunday.

Our first round match in the single elimination tournament (win, you move on; lose, you’re out) will be against the Kodiaks on Sunday night at 8:15 PM.  Having played each other four times, our two teams know each other well.  Our team is also aware that we can’t take the Kodes for granted.  They are a fast skating, determined team and are better than their record suggests.  They also were none too pleased about their losses to us in our home-at-home series. Coincidentally, while the Kodiaks were our first opponent ever, they now also are our first playoff opponent ever.  Funny how that worked out. 

A full preview of our game against the Kodiaks can be found here. 

While of course our own playoffs is the most intriguing to me, there’s another story in this post-season that I’m interested in as well: the Steelheads.