Post by Jim H. on Feb 13, 2022 22:11:30 GMT -5
Around every water cooler during Week 21 was the same buzz: who are you rooting for? The Bengals or the Rams? Justin Trudeau or the Freedom Truckers? We don’t know enough about football or politics to weigh in on either matter, but we will say this about the Freedom Truckers: they would get a lot better press if they just changed their name to Occupy Wall Street and parked a couple of their rigs in Zucotti Park for symbolic effect. As it stands now, the press will only refer to them as the so-called Freedom Truckers. That’s like saying Hunter Biden is a so-called artist, or Nova Scotia is the so-called birthplace of hockey—a claim actually made by Paul Egan, which is pretty dubious considering that he says the same thing about pickle ball.
We got to the rink on Sunday at noon for the 12:15 skate. For the first time in our Old Bucks career we were going to find out if Mediterranean omelets were performance enhancing. There was a good turnout. The Kibbeys were there; three Doughertys—two brothers and their cousin Connor were there; Kenny, the so-called head of Old Bucks was back, Ben David was back, his French Canadian accent quite noticeable as he went out the locker room door and in broken English muttered, “Two months—have to see if still know how to skate.” Most surprisingly of all George Schott, estranged from Red for over six years, was also back, whatever hard feelings he had toward them as distant a memory as the auto reply that his email server had suffered a catastrophic failure.
All things considered, the game was well-played and physical from the outset. George Schott took the ice and wasted no time in plowing right into Joe Bruno which knocked them both to the ice in a messy tangle of sticks and limbs. They were both slow getting up, not because they were hurt; they just both move very slowly. Then Paul Egan cut loose with the puck and Kenny hooked him from behind so effectively that Paul, too, fell in a heap, causing a stoppage in play. In the old days Blue would have rallied to Paul defense and pummeled Kenny into insensibility; but hockey players have since gone soft and instead they just asked Paul if he was ok and did he want to go out for crumpets after the game?
Ben David broke the 0-0 tie, jumping all over a Kiyoshi shot that bounced off of Vinnie’s pads and right down Main Street where Ben drilled it home and celebrated his prowess with a kind of low key Gallic shrug. Kiyoshi scored to make it 2-0 and John Lupisella followed up by taking a hanging soft ball and knocking it out of the park which, translated into a hockey speak, meant that he shot the puck “up where mama keeps the peanut butter”.
The Red offense was flying high. It would take a 5G response from Blue to mess with their altimeter and bring them crashing back to earth. Fortunately Blue had Greg Dougherty and Gillian Kibbey—two G names that were plenty disruptive when it came to scoring. Greg actually scored three goals in succession to tie the game at threes. But Mike Valenzano, digging like a boy from the Bronx, broke the tie, only to have Gillian break back and tie again 4-4.
Connor Dougherty who’s been playing himself into shape all season, found some open ice in the neutral zone and got two strides into Red territory before launching an absolute rocket past Ed Conrad, who might have gotten a blocker on it had not Kiyoshi’s big backside blinded him like a thick mist. Blue cruised to a 6-4 lead, but then Red tied it up 6-6 and got the go-ahead from Ben David who urged his Red teammates to don’t let go of the potato! which is a folksy way the Quebecois have for saying don’t give up!
There was life in Blue yet. Down 7-6, they got the tying goal from Gillian who was able to elude a quintet of exhausted Red shirts. The clock was winding down: three minutes, two minutes, one minute…Exhausted ourselves, we headed to the Blue bench which, almost to a man, looked more ready for a Red Bull and an oxygen tent than taking the ice for one more go at the Red net. The only exception was Greg Dougherty. Already standing up, he vaulted over the boards, immediately took possession of the puck in the neutral zone, made steam across the blue line, and with Eddie’s five hole square in his sights, scored the game-winning goal with mere seconds to play. It was rare spirit for an even rarer Blue victory.
We got to the rink on Sunday at noon for the 12:15 skate. For the first time in our Old Bucks career we were going to find out if Mediterranean omelets were performance enhancing. There was a good turnout. The Kibbeys were there; three Doughertys—two brothers and their cousin Connor were there; Kenny, the so-called head of Old Bucks was back, Ben David was back, his French Canadian accent quite noticeable as he went out the locker room door and in broken English muttered, “Two months—have to see if still know how to skate.” Most surprisingly of all George Schott, estranged from Red for over six years, was also back, whatever hard feelings he had toward them as distant a memory as the auto reply that his email server had suffered a catastrophic failure.
All things considered, the game was well-played and physical from the outset. George Schott took the ice and wasted no time in plowing right into Joe Bruno which knocked them both to the ice in a messy tangle of sticks and limbs. They were both slow getting up, not because they were hurt; they just both move very slowly. Then Paul Egan cut loose with the puck and Kenny hooked him from behind so effectively that Paul, too, fell in a heap, causing a stoppage in play. In the old days Blue would have rallied to Paul defense and pummeled Kenny into insensibility; but hockey players have since gone soft and instead they just asked Paul if he was ok and did he want to go out for crumpets after the game?
Ben David broke the 0-0 tie, jumping all over a Kiyoshi shot that bounced off of Vinnie’s pads and right down Main Street where Ben drilled it home and celebrated his prowess with a kind of low key Gallic shrug. Kiyoshi scored to make it 2-0 and John Lupisella followed up by taking a hanging soft ball and knocking it out of the park which, translated into a hockey speak, meant that he shot the puck “up where mama keeps the peanut butter”.
The Red offense was flying high. It would take a 5G response from Blue to mess with their altimeter and bring them crashing back to earth. Fortunately Blue had Greg Dougherty and Gillian Kibbey—two G names that were plenty disruptive when it came to scoring. Greg actually scored three goals in succession to tie the game at threes. But Mike Valenzano, digging like a boy from the Bronx, broke the tie, only to have Gillian break back and tie again 4-4.
Connor Dougherty who’s been playing himself into shape all season, found some open ice in the neutral zone and got two strides into Red territory before launching an absolute rocket past Ed Conrad, who might have gotten a blocker on it had not Kiyoshi’s big backside blinded him like a thick mist. Blue cruised to a 6-4 lead, but then Red tied it up 6-6 and got the go-ahead from Ben David who urged his Red teammates to don’t let go of the potato! which is a folksy way the Quebecois have for saying don’t give up!
There was life in Blue yet. Down 7-6, they got the tying goal from Gillian who was able to elude a quintet of exhausted Red shirts. The clock was winding down: three minutes, two minutes, one minute…Exhausted ourselves, we headed to the Blue bench which, almost to a man, looked more ready for a Red Bull and an oxygen tent than taking the ice for one more go at the Red net. The only exception was Greg Dougherty. Already standing up, he vaulted over the boards, immediately took possession of the puck in the neutral zone, made steam across the blue line, and with Eddie’s five hole square in his sights, scored the game-winning goal with mere seconds to play. It was rare spirit for an even rarer Blue victory.