Post by Old Bucks Admin on Oct 31, 2021 21:19:41 GMT -5
Halloween’s just not our bag. We don’t like candy corn, orange icing, fake cobwebs or inflatable ghouls on lawns. Which is why Old Bucks was such a welcome escape tonight. It doesn’t curdle the blood but it does get it moving. Especially when benches are inadequately manned by players, as they were in Week 8. All week we were checking the new TeamReach app in hopes of a solid turnout. In fact it became a kind of compulsion with us, with all the negative connotations that the word compulsion implies, as if we weren’t on our phone enough already. We became fixated on the status of Bob Freiling—he was stuck in the “unknown” column day after day as if, like Trump’s call logs on January 6, it would take a subpoena for him to register. Finally he did, at the 11th hour, and on Sunday afternoon he became a “yes”. The threat of another drab Old Bucks scrimmage was suddenly infused with the promise of vim, vigor and vitality.
The key to playing Old Bucks under these conditions is pace yourself—start out slow, continue slow throughout, and finish slow. Which is what everyone seemed happy to do while maintaining a semblance of effort and saving the intestinal fortitude for digesting lumps of bread and cheese at the after party. On the strength of three goals by Bob Freiling Red was able to keep pace with an Andrew Tona-led Blue squad taking a 3-3 tie into the initial stages of the game. Dramatically Blue went up 5-3, first with Kiyoshi going coast-to-coast, faking a shot on Ed Conrad and then converting a wrap-around as unorthodox as it was effective. Then Colin Disbrow ripped a guided missile from the blue line that was all net, each goal, by the way, not detracting from a stellar outing by Ed in his first game back in several weeks.
Bobby and Brian Pike knotted the game at fives and the teams took their first five minute break. The Red bench drew straws to see who was going to tell Mark Herr that he can’t wear his pink jersey anymore—it’s just too flamboyant, too if-Elton John-played-hockey-this-is-what-it-would-look-like. Over on the Blue bench Andrew Tona broke the news that he was hitting the showers, having pulled something during the last shift, and not wanting to chance further injury.
Play resumed with Blue lacking the one-two punch that AT delivers shift after shift. Their offense became as stagnant as the air in a Grundy locker room. Their mood could best be described as “Blue-phoria” which is defined as a state of mind induced by not losing by ten goals with Bob Freiling having scored five of them. With Red winning 7-5 Nick Gaudioso scored to make it 7-6, the same Nick who hasn’t played all year but finally decided that Halloween was a good time to exercise his personal demons because even personal demons need a little cardio now and then. Mark Mayer put the game away for Red, scoring two quick goals in a single shift and making it 9-6. Blue wondered at Mark's consummate display of potency so late in the game, not knowing that Mark is an expert on the free-hovering flight wing kinematics of the horned beetle and, in imitation of this, used his inertial energy stored on the bench to overcome aerodynamic drag while flying down the ice en route to scoring.
All in all, in was a festive outing with both benches peopled by a kind of “injured auxiliary” consisting of Paul Egan, Tim White and Andrew Tona. Not to be overlooked was the Blue goalie, Mark, who got the loss but still won the esteem of anyone who appreciates a good effort between the pipes.
The key to playing Old Bucks under these conditions is pace yourself—start out slow, continue slow throughout, and finish slow. Which is what everyone seemed happy to do while maintaining a semblance of effort and saving the intestinal fortitude for digesting lumps of bread and cheese at the after party. On the strength of three goals by Bob Freiling Red was able to keep pace with an Andrew Tona-led Blue squad taking a 3-3 tie into the initial stages of the game. Dramatically Blue went up 5-3, first with Kiyoshi going coast-to-coast, faking a shot on Ed Conrad and then converting a wrap-around as unorthodox as it was effective. Then Colin Disbrow ripped a guided missile from the blue line that was all net, each goal, by the way, not detracting from a stellar outing by Ed in his first game back in several weeks.
Bobby and Brian Pike knotted the game at fives and the teams took their first five minute break. The Red bench drew straws to see who was going to tell Mark Herr that he can’t wear his pink jersey anymore—it’s just too flamboyant, too if-Elton John-played-hockey-this-is-what-it-would-look-like. Over on the Blue bench Andrew Tona broke the news that he was hitting the showers, having pulled something during the last shift, and not wanting to chance further injury.
Play resumed with Blue lacking the one-two punch that AT delivers shift after shift. Their offense became as stagnant as the air in a Grundy locker room. Their mood could best be described as “Blue-phoria” which is defined as a state of mind induced by not losing by ten goals with Bob Freiling having scored five of them. With Red winning 7-5 Nick Gaudioso scored to make it 7-6, the same Nick who hasn’t played all year but finally decided that Halloween was a good time to exercise his personal demons because even personal demons need a little cardio now and then. Mark Mayer put the game away for Red, scoring two quick goals in a single shift and making it 9-6. Blue wondered at Mark's consummate display of potency so late in the game, not knowing that Mark is an expert on the free-hovering flight wing kinematics of the horned beetle and, in imitation of this, used his inertial energy stored on the bench to overcome aerodynamic drag while flying down the ice en route to scoring.
All in all, in was a festive outing with both benches peopled by a kind of “injured auxiliary” consisting of Paul Egan, Tim White and Andrew Tona. Not to be overlooked was the Blue goalie, Mark, who got the loss but still won the esteem of anyone who appreciates a good effort between the pipes.