Post by Jim H. on Dec 12, 2021 22:46:57 GMT -5
How fitting that Week 14 should coincide with the release of the new West Side Story movie. After all, there’s only five degrees of separation between Old Bucks and the great Broadway musical and they are as follows:
In West Side Story there are two gangs, a Puerto Rican gang called the Sharks and a white gang called the Jets.
There are also two NHL teams: the San Jose Sharks and the Winnipeg Jets.
The Sharks and Jets are in the Western Conference along with the Dallas Stars.
The head coach of the Dallas Stars is Rick Bowness.
Rick Bowness is Paul Egan’s brother-in-law.
Paul Egan skates for Old Bucks.
Such a fun parlor game, and for the record, there’s only one degree of separation between Paul Egan and Kevin Bacon since Paul really likes bacon in his Wake-Up Wraps.
But back to hockey. There’s a famous quote, “Sometimes the most dangerous team is the one with nothing to lose,” Case in point: the Flyers snapped a ten-game skid in Las Vegas Friday night simply by having “nothing to lose.” Carter Hart standing on his head for 45 shots was merely a footnote. Meantime Blue was in the midst of a six-game skid and they wanted to snap it too. We wondered if Kenny felt any pangs of guilt but then remembered he was blessed with a thick, pang-proof hide. He told Blue that they should think of their team the same way they thought of the economy, to wit, “Don’t look at the glass as half empty. Look at the glass as spilling over the sides in an abundance of plenty.”
We got to the rink with nine minutes gone in the game. We walked to Locker Room 1 counting five players on the Red bench. Excellent turnout by recent standards. We counted five players on the Blue bench too. As we walked by we expected all kinds of “come hither” looks from Blue players; instead we got a “go thither” wave from Andrew Tona and a very explicit, “Go play for Red.” Clearly Blue was not taking any chances. It was just as well. Mark Mayer was on Red and we had an excellent discussion on why you never see the classic red, nine-spotted ladybugs anymore. Nor were we aware that ladybugs are a type of beetle. You don’t get that kind of information skating for Blue.
In the locker room we heard high pitched “whoops” from the Blue bench and banging sticks on the boards. We learned later it was a Rich Devlin goal. “Like a lacrosse shot. With velocity,” Tim White told us. Tim White, by the way, was back, and we welcomed his apt phrasing. When we got to the Red bench Blue was winning 4-2. Then John Lupisella got a tap-in and Tim White the equalizer to knot the game at fours. If Red was going down, it was going down swinging.
Best goal of the night was Brian Urban gaining the zone on an odd-man rush and backhanding—and we mean backhanding—a saucer pass across the ice to a streaking Rich Cerbone who was able to knock the hopping puck out of mid-air and into the goal. By the time Rich Devlin bagged the hatter, Blue was winning 8-6. This is the same Rich Devlin who had a very sore thumb and was paradoxically upgraded from “questionable” to “probable” and downgraded from “buy” to “hold”.
Bob Freiling left the game at this point. At first we thought it was related to his Peloton, that he now has a hard time physically exerting himself without some buxom British brunette in leotards and sheer white stockings telling him what do; but then we learned he had just had his booster shot and for that we sympathized. The third time is not the charm—we can vouch for that personally.
In short Red kicked it into high gear and players like Aaron, Eddie and Kiyoshi delivered another type of booster to the Red offense and tipped the scales in Red’s favor, eking out the 11-9 victory. We’d be remiss not to mention Ed Conrad in goal. He never stands taller than when he’s doing the butterfly and many’s the shot he repelled with that classic move. We're already looking forward to next week's Christmas showdown.
The afterparty was swell as always. We heard a little more about the trip Paul Egan, John Lupisella and Rich Devlin took to Vegas this week to see Paul’s brother-in-law coach the Stars against the Golden Knights. They even met Mike Robbins (Old Bucks c. 2011-2015) there. We saw a photo and Mike was wearing the same Islanders hat he once left in locker room 3 only to come back two weeks later and find it was still there—exactly where he left it. Here’s a link to some highlights of the game and the trip, a little music video we posted called “Old Bucks Goes to Vegas”:
youtu.be/ET64Qx33A0I
In West Side Story there are two gangs, a Puerto Rican gang called the Sharks and a white gang called the Jets.
There are also two NHL teams: the San Jose Sharks and the Winnipeg Jets.
The Sharks and Jets are in the Western Conference along with the Dallas Stars.
The head coach of the Dallas Stars is Rick Bowness.
Rick Bowness is Paul Egan’s brother-in-law.
Paul Egan skates for Old Bucks.
Such a fun parlor game, and for the record, there’s only one degree of separation between Paul Egan and Kevin Bacon since Paul really likes bacon in his Wake-Up Wraps.
But back to hockey. There’s a famous quote, “Sometimes the most dangerous team is the one with nothing to lose,” Case in point: the Flyers snapped a ten-game skid in Las Vegas Friday night simply by having “nothing to lose.” Carter Hart standing on his head for 45 shots was merely a footnote. Meantime Blue was in the midst of a six-game skid and they wanted to snap it too. We wondered if Kenny felt any pangs of guilt but then remembered he was blessed with a thick, pang-proof hide. He told Blue that they should think of their team the same way they thought of the economy, to wit, “Don’t look at the glass as half empty. Look at the glass as spilling over the sides in an abundance of plenty.”
We got to the rink with nine minutes gone in the game. We walked to Locker Room 1 counting five players on the Red bench. Excellent turnout by recent standards. We counted five players on the Blue bench too. As we walked by we expected all kinds of “come hither” looks from Blue players; instead we got a “go thither” wave from Andrew Tona and a very explicit, “Go play for Red.” Clearly Blue was not taking any chances. It was just as well. Mark Mayer was on Red and we had an excellent discussion on why you never see the classic red, nine-spotted ladybugs anymore. Nor were we aware that ladybugs are a type of beetle. You don’t get that kind of information skating for Blue.
In the locker room we heard high pitched “whoops” from the Blue bench and banging sticks on the boards. We learned later it was a Rich Devlin goal. “Like a lacrosse shot. With velocity,” Tim White told us. Tim White, by the way, was back, and we welcomed his apt phrasing. When we got to the Red bench Blue was winning 4-2. Then John Lupisella got a tap-in and Tim White the equalizer to knot the game at fours. If Red was going down, it was going down swinging.
Best goal of the night was Brian Urban gaining the zone on an odd-man rush and backhanding—and we mean backhanding—a saucer pass across the ice to a streaking Rich Cerbone who was able to knock the hopping puck out of mid-air and into the goal. By the time Rich Devlin bagged the hatter, Blue was winning 8-6. This is the same Rich Devlin who had a very sore thumb and was paradoxically upgraded from “questionable” to “probable” and downgraded from “buy” to “hold”.
Bob Freiling left the game at this point. At first we thought it was related to his Peloton, that he now has a hard time physically exerting himself without some buxom British brunette in leotards and sheer white stockings telling him what do; but then we learned he had just had his booster shot and for that we sympathized. The third time is not the charm—we can vouch for that personally.
In short Red kicked it into high gear and players like Aaron, Eddie and Kiyoshi delivered another type of booster to the Red offense and tipped the scales in Red’s favor, eking out the 11-9 victory. We’d be remiss not to mention Ed Conrad in goal. He never stands taller than when he’s doing the butterfly and many’s the shot he repelled with that classic move. We're already looking forward to next week's Christmas showdown.
The afterparty was swell as always. We heard a little more about the trip Paul Egan, John Lupisella and Rich Devlin took to Vegas this week to see Paul’s brother-in-law coach the Stars against the Golden Knights. They even met Mike Robbins (Old Bucks c. 2011-2015) there. We saw a photo and Mike was wearing the same Islanders hat he once left in locker room 3 only to come back two weeks later and find it was still there—exactly where he left it. Here’s a link to some highlights of the game and the trip, a little music video we posted called “Old Bucks Goes to Vegas”:
youtu.be/ET64Qx33A0I