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WEDNESDAYS #2 vs. JAGUARS B:

(vol. 7W, no. 2; newsletter by b.n.)
First of all: Some apologies:
1: I apologize for the timeliness of this email.
2: I apologize for my lack of face-off prowess in the last 2 games.

That said, here's the newsletter:
On the 10th day of the 10th month Of the 10th year (since 1991) at the 10th hour (in the PM) ... I sat in the locker room waiting for the game to begin. Then, at the 10th minute Of the 10th hour Of the 10th day Of the 10th month ... the puck was dropped. (I'm guessing here of course, I wasn't wearing a watch or anything ... but I wanted to try to carry this numerology motif as
far as it would go)

Just a brief aside: Before the game began, one of the members of the team suggested that I write the newsletter in advance, the assertion being that the outcome of the game was a forgone conclusion. I resisted the temptation. In hindsight, perhaps I should have taken the advice because at least the newsletter would have gone out on time. Anyway.... Gee... It's been so long I forget what happened.... Oh, that never stopped me before.

Our second game of the season was against our old rivals, the Jags 'B'. One of the raps on the Jags 'B' has always been the amount of 'A' players that populate the Jags 'B' roster. However, this season, the Jags 'B' are now the 'New Look' Jags 'B'. Gone from the roster are 'A' players such as Mark Andras (a fixture at many of the parking lot 'meetings') who was booted from the team because they already had their allotment of 'A' players. Ironically, Mark found a roster spot on the Geriatrics & promptly broke his finger in the first game of the season. So going into the game, there was a certain amount of optimism on the Pirate bench. Which, given the fact that we had an 8 game regular-season losing streak, was a good starting point. The game began and within the first 5:00 minutes Russ found himself in the penalty box. According to Russ, the dude he was tussling with (I think it was the big dude, #18 Grinberg) starting kicking him after the two found themselves on the floor of the rink. That was not the last incident with #18 — Glen got tangled up with him and he (Grinberg) cried so hard that the ref told him "You have to be quiet!" In fact, he cried so hard that Nick thought he was one of those 16-year-old kids and decided to go after him (after an extremely late shot on Harris after the play was blown dead).

But I digress... The game was probably not more then 10 minutes old when one of "those" goals happened. You know what I mean when I say "those." This particular goal went down like this: Roger had the puck in our zone and decided to try and throw it around the back of the net. At that same instant, Harris was standing at the right side of his crease. As Roger angled the puck behind the net, Harris turned to see it come around the other side of net. Unfortunately, it never came around that other side, instead, it deflected off the rear boards, pinballed of Harris' skate and ended up in the net. Perhaps last season we would have let this goal get us down. But not this season. Before the period was out (and I confirmed the score with Harris between periods), scoring sensation Nick G was able to even the score (I think Russ may have had an assist).

The 2nd period brought out the collective hustle in the Pirates. Everyone seemed to be stepping up and making plays. The hustle paid off when Russ took the puck at the blueline and fed a wide open BB. With 5 of his 6 kids in attendance, BB took the puck, made a move ... waited ... made another move ...waited ... (about this time the screams of "shoot the puck" began -- but BB would not be distracted because he) ... waited ... the goalie was sprawled on the ground and still BB ... waited... finally, to everyone's relief, BB shot the puck. And yes. He scored. Before the period was out though, the Jags 'B' were able to tie the game when Harris made a great play on a partial breakaway — unfortunately a late trailer on the play was able to flip the loose puck over Harris and into the net to send the game into the 3rd knotted at 2-2.

At the 3rd second Of the 3rd minute
Of the 3rd period Was the 3rd goal scored? I don't think so, but at some point early in the 3rd the clang of the post was heard ringing mockingly throughout the rink. Later, my favorite play of the night unfolded like this: Glen Chambers skated into the offensive zone on the far side of the boards, the puck ended up on the stick of the Jags' defenseman (and Harris' 5th cousin twice removed) Mark Segal (editor's note: he has a different spelling, Brian). For whatever reason, #67 thought the play was going to be offsides and fearing that a pass out the zone would have given the Jags an oddman break, #67 decided to play the puck before Mark could. Somehow though, Mark got dropped and #67 skated off with the puck. #67 was surprised by the fact that the play was not blown dead, he was further surprised when the highly irritated (must run in the family) Segal threw his stick at #67. With the Jags 'B' effectively shorthanded, the play was kept in their end, (Segal was roaming around, stick-less trying to knock people over) finally the puck ended up on the stick of Russ who buried it for the 3-2 lead. The night's scoring was closed out when Nick, doing his BB impersonation -- took the puck at the blueline and ... waited ... (the screams of "shoot the puck" began immediately because Nick didn't really have a lot of room -- but that didn't deter him because he) ... waited ... when he finally took the shot the Jag's defenseman got his stick it and the puck was deflected high into the air. The puck dropped at the feet of the other defenseman who never saw it, #67 pounced on it and after one deke, (and unlike Nick & BB) shot the damn puck for the 4th goal of the night and more importantly, our first regular season win since last season. No... wait... we didn't win any during the regular season.

That's the End of the Newsletter. I also quit. Some else needs to write it next week. Kudos to: Nick (even though he complains about the newsletter) and Glen (even though he complains about getting too many emails).