Post by Jim H. on Dec 18, 2023 6:52:03 GMT -5
Week 15 had all the earmarks of another great Christmas skate where Old Bucks ushers in the holiday season with jammed-packed benches and a super festive afterparty. It all began on Friday with the Lawrenceville school hosting its annual invitational hockey tournament which ended on Sunday when Lawrenceville lost to Belmont Hill 3-2 in the finals. In between we saw several former Old Bucks standouts, including Doug Rendell, Doug Jr. and a little grandson in tow. We also saw Steve Hendershott now running the D corps on TCNJ’s Division II hockey team; and finally we talked at length with Scott McCann who's graduated from Old Bucks to long-distance running, and the next day was doing a 10-mile run along the canal with his daughter. All in all the tournament was a huge success although Bruce the Zamboni driver said that one disgruntled hockey team trashed a locker room by smearing mud on the walls, stalls and ceiling. Apparently not all prep schools are so refined. Or maybe they are, except for the hockey teams.
We took a seat in locker room 301A gratified to find it so full of cheerful hockey players gearing up. Our only regret was that the new skate sharpener drowned out the sound of Hughie’s plentiful wisecracks. Which is just as well since most of them are protected by intellectual property laws and can’t be reprinted anyway. Tim White, incidentally, was already at Andrew Tona’s—the site of the afterparty—live texting his sampling of the crudites platter and his relish for pita wedges. In the meantime there was hockey to be played. Notably, according to Brian’s lineups, Ben David was back on Blue. This meant Blue had to spruce up its game and polish its attitude much like San Francisco does when hosting the visiting Chinese. And Mark Mayer was back on Red like Big Dom DiSandro back on the Eagles sidelines ready to scuffle with anyone brazen enough to body slam Eddie to the ice. Everyone gathered at center ice for a club photo snapped by Ryan Crowell’s wife and then the game commenced. Blue scored first when Jim Heffern, rattled by being left out of the club photo because he was five minutes late, telegraphed a pass to Andrew Cordssen-David who dished to Hughie in the slot who corralled his own rebound and with a good second effort made it 1-0. Paul Egan then got a nice dish in the slot too and pinned the corner with a monster of a wrist shot to make it 2-0. Paul, incidentally, had been to four holiday house parties over the weekend and went on to have a career game, scoring a hat trick with nitrous zinfandel coursing through his veins. Players like Greg Valenski and Dave Boggs tried to keep Red in the game, but the damage was done. There’s simply no surmounting a Paul Egan hattie. The best exchange of the night was on the Red bench. Chris Dougherty was trying to motivate the players on the ice.
“Come on! Skate. Skate. Skate! Find the open ice!” he shouted.
“You’re pretty demanding, aren’t you?” Aaron Kibbey responded.
You know it’s Old Bucks when even a West Pointer finds that excessive.
During the week, after watching Jill Biden’s Christmas music video, our Christmas spirit was crushed. We felt worse than Jimmy Stewart did when Clarence the angel conducted him through the streets of Pottersville. But then we went to Andrew Tona’s for the afterparty and our Christmas spirit came back stronger than ever as his whole family hosted, including his wife and daughter. Everyone was festive. Everyone was dreaming of a white Christmas except for Paul Egan who was dreaming of white truffles. Scott Shapiro had used his pellet stove to bake a delectable dish called bacon wrapped armadillo eggs. All three Dougherty brothers attended. It was an especially warm occasion enjoyed by all so thank you Tonas and we’ll see everyone in the New Year!
We took a seat in locker room 301A gratified to find it so full of cheerful hockey players gearing up. Our only regret was that the new skate sharpener drowned out the sound of Hughie’s plentiful wisecracks. Which is just as well since most of them are protected by intellectual property laws and can’t be reprinted anyway. Tim White, incidentally, was already at Andrew Tona’s—the site of the afterparty—live texting his sampling of the crudites platter and his relish for pita wedges. In the meantime there was hockey to be played. Notably, according to Brian’s lineups, Ben David was back on Blue. This meant Blue had to spruce up its game and polish its attitude much like San Francisco does when hosting the visiting Chinese. And Mark Mayer was back on Red like Big Dom DiSandro back on the Eagles sidelines ready to scuffle with anyone brazen enough to body slam Eddie to the ice. Everyone gathered at center ice for a club photo snapped by Ryan Crowell’s wife and then the game commenced. Blue scored first when Jim Heffern, rattled by being left out of the club photo because he was five minutes late, telegraphed a pass to Andrew Cordssen-David who dished to Hughie in the slot who corralled his own rebound and with a good second effort made it 1-0. Paul Egan then got a nice dish in the slot too and pinned the corner with a monster of a wrist shot to make it 2-0. Paul, incidentally, had been to four holiday house parties over the weekend and went on to have a career game, scoring a hat trick with nitrous zinfandel coursing through his veins. Players like Greg Valenski and Dave Boggs tried to keep Red in the game, but the damage was done. There’s simply no surmounting a Paul Egan hattie. The best exchange of the night was on the Red bench. Chris Dougherty was trying to motivate the players on the ice.
“Come on! Skate. Skate. Skate! Find the open ice!” he shouted.
“You’re pretty demanding, aren’t you?” Aaron Kibbey responded.
You know it’s Old Bucks when even a West Pointer finds that excessive.
During the week, after watching Jill Biden’s Christmas music video, our Christmas spirit was crushed. We felt worse than Jimmy Stewart did when Clarence the angel conducted him through the streets of Pottersville. But then we went to Andrew Tona’s for the afterparty and our Christmas spirit came back stronger than ever as his whole family hosted, including his wife and daughter. Everyone was festive. Everyone was dreaming of a white Christmas except for Paul Egan who was dreaming of white truffles. Scott Shapiro had used his pellet stove to bake a delectable dish called bacon wrapped armadillo eggs. All three Dougherty brothers attended. It was an especially warm occasion enjoyed by all so thank you Tonas and we’ll see everyone in the New Year!