WEDNESDAYS #3 vs. LUMBERJACKS:

(vol. 21W, no. 3; newsletter by b.n.)
Someone once said: “Into every cloud, some rain must fall.” Or was it “From every cloud, some rain must fall”? Not that it really makes a difference, but the way things are going lately there sure has been a lot of rain. For those of you that just read the newsletters and don't attend the games, you probably don't know what I'm talking about. And there are probably a couple people that attend the games (Wildman) who have no idea what I am talking about. Then there is Mike who — if he is not playing in the game — doesn't read the newsletter because the narcissist only likes to read about himself. No matter! What does matter is that the Pirates third game of the season was also their second of three games on Monday. Not that Monday games are a bad thing, but at 11:00 p.m. they no longer hold the allure that they once had. For some reason, I find that 11 o'clock games on Wednesdays aren't so bad. Even Sunday nights are not usually a problem. But Mondays? They suck. But I won't use that as an excuse. Our opponents for this late contest were the Lumberjacks who have spent the last couple season's tearing up the “A” league. Which of course brings me to my next point: I have noticed a disturbing trend over the last few seasons on the Wednesday night team. For whatever reason, when we play an “A” division team after 9:00 p.m. it seems that no one shows. All you have to do is look at the game against the Lumberjacks and check the roster: Roger - no show. Craig - no show. Ferraro - no show. Dave Matthews - no show. Wildman - no show. And of course there is Russ, who in an effort to avoid playing an “A” team on Monday night came up with a bogus cover story about having to travel or something like that. In fact Russ went to such lengths to make the story believable that he was willing to miss the Sunday night game in order to carry through with the masquerade. As it turned out, there was no Sunday game, so Russ only missed the Monday game (obviously he knew the Sunday schedule much earlier than Harris, but that is another story). Sure you can say all you want that while we lost a few players on Monday night, we also had quality backups to fill their spots, such as Scott LeMatty and Mike Farrell, but that is not the point. The point is that other than Mike (who is not on the roster but seems to play in every game anyway), you need a certain amount of continuity from week to week to play well. Oh well, who am I kidding?

As it turns out, LeMatty was the only Pirate to pick up a goal against the Lumberjacks when he moved in front of their goalie in the opening 2:00 minutes and just buried it. That goal gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead that the clutched onto for the first 7:00 minutes, but that was it for the Pirates. Not that they didn't try. The Pirates had only seven skaters to start the game and decided to go with the “ironman defense” — with just Keith and Mike; meanwhile, Chris, Keith, LeMatty, #67, and The Bros. Miller rotated on offense. Even with this Herb Brooks-like strategy, the Pirates trailed 4-1 at the buzzer.

Bobby Corrao joined the bench in the final period after closing down shop for the night, but that didn't change much. Perhaps the best chance the Pirates had was when the entire Lumberjack crew was trapped down low and the puck was loose near the face-off circle to Harris' right; sensing an odd man rush in the making, Bobby swooped-in and tried to carry the puck out of the zone. Unfortunately, Bobby was wearing the stupid blue “Best Buy” jersey that he insists on wearing as opposed to the spare jersey that Harris offers up before each game. As it turns out, #67 saw a flash of yellow coming from behind him (that would have been the yellow striping on Bobby's stupid “Best Buy” jersey) and immediately clamped down on the player's stick. Whoops! So much for that chance. Bobby would say later that playing with #67 is worse than playing against him. Gee, I think I've heard that before. Oh well, things went from bad to worse as the Lumberjacks scored a couple more to make it 6-1 with just under 4:00 minutes remaining. Then Keith got his feet tangled up with a Lumberjack and went down hard and he was done for the night. (editor's note: as of press time, Keith was undergoing MRIs on his knee and ankle and is on the DL). Chris actually did a nice job filling in on defense for the final minutes of the game, but that didn't soften the blow as the Lumberjacks closed out the Pirates 7-1. Oh well, “into every life a little rain must fall.”
date of game: 3.21.05