Four Games in Four Nights, Game Two


As NHL training camps kick into gear, my own beer league season is under way as well. This weekend, I have a gruelling four games in a row Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Gruelling, if only for the fact that I am personally feeling older and slower pretty much every time I step on the ice.

Friday, North Vancouver

9:45 on a Friday night. There are not many worse time slots for a beer-league hockey game. Friday evening is the time of the week when one likes to wind down, relax and perhaps have a few after-work adult beverages. In the case of my Left Winger, Bidzy, it was the day of his annual work golf tournament. So, whereas I showed up to the rink only feeling slightly lazy, Bidzy showed  up with post-golfing "glow". This did not bode well. When we saw our change room filled with only eight other skaters, we knew we were in trouble.

The Vancouver Flying Vees are populated mainly with artist types, a lot of ex-musicians (a few still active) the majority of whom have now settled down with wives and kids. The leader of the Vees is goaltender Grant Lawrence, pictured above. He's a host on CBC Radio as well as an award winning author. In fact his new book, released next month is about his life as a beer league goaltender titled, "The Lonely End of the Rink".

On this night, the Flying Vees would be grounded. It wasn't the fact that we had only two lines where we usually have three, it was just a general team malaise. It was one of those games when the puck seemed to be bouncing on us, and we just couldn't catch a break. Honestly, this game had the intensity level of a bad scrimmage. Nothing there. It's our own faults for not generating intensity and instead sitting back and letting the melancholy of a late Friday night overtake us.

This is my one of two teams where I should and usually do produce more offensively. It's a good 6 or 8 division levels below my other team The Generals. In fact, my entire line this evening are all Generals, with Bidzy and Kellen rounding out the trio. After getting behind 2-0 fairly quickly, the Vees had minimal push-back. I would put a half-slapper threw a defenceman's legs on a three on two rush to beat the goalie (you had better score when shooting and not dishing the puck on a three on two rush). Wobbly Bidzy tied it up on a breakaway goal halfway through the game. But, that was about it for us.

Four unanswered goals would make the final a 6-2 loss. The Vees did end up out-shooting and out-chancing the opponents despite our overall lack of intensity, but we could simply not bury the puck.
Immediately afterward, Bidzy and I came to the realization that we very well could go "oh for four" this weekend. Tonight's Generals game presents us with another short bench, at the far higher level of hockey. 

This may get ugly...
























Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal
Read more

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un
Read more

Denman Arena, Vancouver - "The Pile"

Image
Situated at the corner of Denman and Georgia Streets in Vancouver, sitting on the shore of Coal Harbour, the Denman Arena was once the largest in the world. Built in 1911 by Frank and Lester Patrick at a cost of $300,000 it was the main venue for their newly formed Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Until the Montreal Forum was built in 1926, it was the largest artificial ice arena in the world seating 10,500. Constructed of wood and brick, the large brick facing led Vancouverites to refer to it as The Pile. The Patrick brothers simultaneously built the 3,500 seat Patrick Arena in Victoria to help house their three team league which also included New Westminster. They would proceed to raid the established National Hockey Association of much of it’s top talent to stock their teams. The Pile would host the Vancouver Millionaires Stanley Cup championship in March, 1915, boxing matches featuring Max Baer and “Cinderella Man” James Braddock, movie star Rudolph Valentino as well as bicycle r
Read more