Post by Jim H. on Jan 22, 2024 6:52:56 GMT -5
Football season ended early for Old Bucks. From now on it is Fly Flyers Fly, Reign Rangers Reign, and at the risk of one more excruciating pun: Brew Bruins Brew. Not to discount Kiyoshi’s beloved Lions who were winning 24-17 when we pulled into the new entrance of the Lawrenceville School and while driving along Andrew Tona Way asked Siri for an update. Snow blanketed the ground, the wind had dropped with the night, and a moon just past full was shouldering above a dirt mound. Even the gravel parking lot was still covered in snow. And there was a decided nip in the air. We wouldn’t have hockey in January any other way.
With the delicate equilibrium of Old Bucks so far out of whack, we didn’t know what to expect for Week 18. Indeed, the club is a lot like Iran and Pakistan who in the midst of conducting joint naval exercises still fire missiles at one another. There was Chetti in goal for Blue in his first skate this year, and Bob Freiling Jr. was back setting off a buzz even before he hit the ice. Locker room gossip was pretty thin, or perhaps just supplanted by Paul Egan’s account of skiing out west. We were almost the last out on the ice and chatted affably with Mark Herr who told a good story of hooking up with an old college buddy in Vegas last week to watch the Golden Knights play the Islanders.
“Just wind him up and away he goes.” That pretty much describes Andrew Tona’s style of play who scored Blue’s first two goals for a 2-1 lead. The score became 3-1 when Nick G. connected with Brian U. after Ed Conrad lost track of the puck, thinking it was under his pads when it was really skidding through the high slot. But Red stormed back, first with a Greg Valenski goal and then Jim Heffern, who brought a gangly intensity to the position of forward-at-large, dished to Bob Freiling for the 3-3 tie. Then Bobby Jr. made it 4-3 Red on a snipe that was well within the bounds of discretion—for minor league hockey. Which set the stage for Ryan Crowell’s goal which not only made it 5-3 but finished his son’s homework. For two weeks Ryan’s son had been filming his dad so he could make a movie documenting his dad’s rise from nobody to hero. Hitherto he’d only been able to get the nobody footage. Then Ryan took an odd bounce off the boards and made a beauty of a move to heroically give Red…a two goal lead. But he wasn’t done. When Paul Egan took out Bob Freiling (it wasn’t a big hit but Bob sold it by flopping) Ryan, seeing his son’s camera trained on the play, leapt to Bob’s defense and pummeled Paul so vigorously he was forced to turtle up on the ice and cry uncle. If that’s not heroic we don’t know what is. Old Bucks needs more of it. Like the new PWHL. That girlie brand of hockey can only go so far. Eventually everyone has to go to half shields and start fighting.
For the rest of the game Red players were like paid attendees at the Bob Freiling Fantasy Camp. Yes, Bob was padding his stats with goals, assists and swatting pucks into the goal like a shuttlecock. With Blue down 13-10 a field goal would tie it. In the absence of field goals in hockey Blue still scored twice during “garbage time” when Red put a bunch of seldom-used substitutes onto the ice who were more concerned with making an individual impression than executing team play. Thankfully Old Bucks resorts to a running clock on just such occasions. And speaking of making an impression, Paul Egan made quite an impression after the game, in the shower of all places. The locker room had just gone quiet as it sometimes does when its knack for “shooting the breeze” is all played out and it needs the restorative effect of beer and pizza in order to revive it. Through the silence everyone heard the echo of Paul Egan’s voice off the shower walls—to whom he was speaking we don’t know—because the disquisition was lengthy and entirely one-sided. Eddie claims he was able to make out Paul saying, “J.K. Rowling.” Perhaps it was a rehash of her latest Twitter spat with the non-binary crowd. Whatever it was, his auditor sure got an earful.
With the delicate equilibrium of Old Bucks so far out of whack, we didn’t know what to expect for Week 18. Indeed, the club is a lot like Iran and Pakistan who in the midst of conducting joint naval exercises still fire missiles at one another. There was Chetti in goal for Blue in his first skate this year, and Bob Freiling Jr. was back setting off a buzz even before he hit the ice. Locker room gossip was pretty thin, or perhaps just supplanted by Paul Egan’s account of skiing out west. We were almost the last out on the ice and chatted affably with Mark Herr who told a good story of hooking up with an old college buddy in Vegas last week to watch the Golden Knights play the Islanders.
“Just wind him up and away he goes.” That pretty much describes Andrew Tona’s style of play who scored Blue’s first two goals for a 2-1 lead. The score became 3-1 when Nick G. connected with Brian U. after Ed Conrad lost track of the puck, thinking it was under his pads when it was really skidding through the high slot. But Red stormed back, first with a Greg Valenski goal and then Jim Heffern, who brought a gangly intensity to the position of forward-at-large, dished to Bob Freiling for the 3-3 tie. Then Bobby Jr. made it 4-3 Red on a snipe that was well within the bounds of discretion—for minor league hockey. Which set the stage for Ryan Crowell’s goal which not only made it 5-3 but finished his son’s homework. For two weeks Ryan’s son had been filming his dad so he could make a movie documenting his dad’s rise from nobody to hero. Hitherto he’d only been able to get the nobody footage. Then Ryan took an odd bounce off the boards and made a beauty of a move to heroically give Red…a two goal lead. But he wasn’t done. When Paul Egan took out Bob Freiling (it wasn’t a big hit but Bob sold it by flopping) Ryan, seeing his son’s camera trained on the play, leapt to Bob’s defense and pummeled Paul so vigorously he was forced to turtle up on the ice and cry uncle. If that’s not heroic we don’t know what is. Old Bucks needs more of it. Like the new PWHL. That girlie brand of hockey can only go so far. Eventually everyone has to go to half shields and start fighting.
For the rest of the game Red players were like paid attendees at the Bob Freiling Fantasy Camp. Yes, Bob was padding his stats with goals, assists and swatting pucks into the goal like a shuttlecock. With Blue down 13-10 a field goal would tie it. In the absence of field goals in hockey Blue still scored twice during “garbage time” when Red put a bunch of seldom-used substitutes onto the ice who were more concerned with making an individual impression than executing team play. Thankfully Old Bucks resorts to a running clock on just such occasions. And speaking of making an impression, Paul Egan made quite an impression after the game, in the shower of all places. The locker room had just gone quiet as it sometimes does when its knack for “shooting the breeze” is all played out and it needs the restorative effect of beer and pizza in order to revive it. Through the silence everyone heard the echo of Paul Egan’s voice off the shower walls—to whom he was speaking we don’t know—because the disquisition was lengthy and entirely one-sided. Eddie claims he was able to make out Paul saying, “J.K. Rowling.” Perhaps it was a rehash of her latest Twitter spat with the non-binary crowd. Whatever it was, his auditor sure got an earful.