Post by Old Bucks Admin on Apr 30, 2011 19:54:17 GMT -5
If Red had any doubts they would win Week 21 those doubts were laid to rest once they saw Steve Nanfava on their team. We chanced to overhear some of their pregame banter and the following exchange gives some idea of how confident they were:
Hughie: “Hey, look. Stevie’s back.”
Bob Freiling: “Good. I can take it easy tonight.”
Craig Allen: “Blue doesn’t stand a chance now.”
Huck Fairman: “Yeah. They even have Saunders. They’re toast.”
Larry Johnson: “I’m so glad Kenny picks me every week.”
Such hubris changed the dimension of the game. It was no longer the friendly scrimmage everyone relies on to “escape from it all”, but an allegorical contest of Right vs. Wrong, Good vs. Evil, Giants vs. Patriots, the Harlem Globetrotters vs. the Washington Generals. All Blue had was a mixed bag of scrappy players whose common denominator was the will to win and somehow they brought the Red juggernaut to a stand-still. Here’s how they did it.
First they acquired Eddie. Sure, it took a little locker room arm-twisting but he didn’t even wince. His only stipulation was that he wouldn’t play up and it was a done deal. Secondly, they combined a makeshift strategy of dumping and chasing with a few set plays conceived during the game, and it worked to coax Red out of their comfort zone, something Kenny makes sure is never far from the twilight. This succeeded so well that last week’s goats became this week’s heroes. Just witness Kip Thomas on the forecheck snapping up the puck and dishing it to an open Angie Jr. for an easy goal. Or Rich Devlin chasing down Bob Freiling on the breakaway and whirling him iceward with contact that from our vantage point looked purely incidental. Jim Heffern took advantage of a screen to score one, and Barry Blades creamed the puck so hard it knocked the stick right out of Marty’s hand (talk about getting in touch with your inner Annie Oakley). Capping it off, Saunders scored a career-high four goals and then proceeded to execute the first triple sec in Old Bucks history—something you figure skating savants know is what a triple sowkow looks like after five Rum Dandies. Stevie N.’s pet term for hockey players who don’t measure up—Dumb White Honkies—couldn’t have been more apt for the dejected Red squad.
The Academy Awards were on everyone’s mind, especially “No Country for Old Men” which has a special resonance with the over-50’s in the club. Marty did an excellent impression of Harrison Ford when he snapped at one of his defensemen, “Get out of my crease!”—an obvious reference to the “Get off my plane!” line in “Air Force One”. And Bill MacDowell reenacted a scene from “Raiders of the Lost Puck” when Vinnie overlooked the biscuit between his skates and Bill got the easy tap in. But it was Blue who received our Oscar—the “newly restored version” of Blue—for putting on a performance so inspiring that we’ll always remember it as the “feel-good game of the year”.
Hughie: “Hey, look. Stevie’s back.”
Bob Freiling: “Good. I can take it easy tonight.”
Craig Allen: “Blue doesn’t stand a chance now.”
Huck Fairman: “Yeah. They even have Saunders. They’re toast.”
Larry Johnson: “I’m so glad Kenny picks me every week.”
Such hubris changed the dimension of the game. It was no longer the friendly scrimmage everyone relies on to “escape from it all”, but an allegorical contest of Right vs. Wrong, Good vs. Evil, Giants vs. Patriots, the Harlem Globetrotters vs. the Washington Generals. All Blue had was a mixed bag of scrappy players whose common denominator was the will to win and somehow they brought the Red juggernaut to a stand-still. Here’s how they did it.
First they acquired Eddie. Sure, it took a little locker room arm-twisting but he didn’t even wince. His only stipulation was that he wouldn’t play up and it was a done deal. Secondly, they combined a makeshift strategy of dumping and chasing with a few set plays conceived during the game, and it worked to coax Red out of their comfort zone, something Kenny makes sure is never far from the twilight. This succeeded so well that last week’s goats became this week’s heroes. Just witness Kip Thomas on the forecheck snapping up the puck and dishing it to an open Angie Jr. for an easy goal. Or Rich Devlin chasing down Bob Freiling on the breakaway and whirling him iceward with contact that from our vantage point looked purely incidental. Jim Heffern took advantage of a screen to score one, and Barry Blades creamed the puck so hard it knocked the stick right out of Marty’s hand (talk about getting in touch with your inner Annie Oakley). Capping it off, Saunders scored a career-high four goals and then proceeded to execute the first triple sec in Old Bucks history—something you figure skating savants know is what a triple sowkow looks like after five Rum Dandies. Stevie N.’s pet term for hockey players who don’t measure up—Dumb White Honkies—couldn’t have been more apt for the dejected Red squad.
The Academy Awards were on everyone’s mind, especially “No Country for Old Men” which has a special resonance with the over-50’s in the club. Marty did an excellent impression of Harrison Ford when he snapped at one of his defensemen, “Get out of my crease!”—an obvious reference to the “Get off my plane!” line in “Air Force One”. And Bill MacDowell reenacted a scene from “Raiders of the Lost Puck” when Vinnie overlooked the biscuit between his skates and Bill got the easy tap in. But it was Blue who received our Oscar—the “newly restored version” of Blue—for putting on a performance so inspiring that we’ll always remember it as the “feel-good game of the year”.