The Cuppa Joe Grinders

The game started out just fine with the grinders hemming the All Blacks into their zone for most of the first period.  The shortest period. Playing with three D and a full front 3 lines the Grinders were passing, skating, forechecking. Nothing wrong with these later games. 9:45 doesn’t phase us old-timers. It may not have been the fastest game we’ve played and their may not have been numerous scoring chances on either side (if you believe the stats sheet, the AllBlacks had 10 shots on goal and we had 5.  Apparently it was too late for the score-keeper to be awake for a large portion of the game.  At least he took his head out of his text book long enough to update the score clock when he heard a whistle). This mis-stat does an injustice to the way Peter played. Two own goals and a screened tipped high popper were of no fault to the keeper who played a great game that night.

The start of the second looked promising as well with PSP doing the most of the work (as it should be) and Trainor standing in front of the net (as it should be). PSP fed a perfect pass to the stick of Trainor, who then proceeded, for the first time in 4 games, to “think”.  He decided to “fool” the goalie and go short side. It’s just that kind of sharp minded offense prowess that has Trainor so far up the standings in total points.

…And then we got old. The clock struck 10:15, and halfway through the second period the All-Blacks potted their first of the night.  The Grinders started taking too many men penalties, which was understandable since some team manager posted the line-up BEHIND us on the wall, expecting us to actually turn around and see what our assignments were.

Passes went astray, checks went unchecked, ad the game got choppy.  If not for a few Grinders; Tidy with his new-found youthful exuberance as he enters retirement, Andy with his usual organic energy, Troy minus his 35 pounds (when did that happen!?), and Jay and Triggs showing off that they actually had hockey skillz.   Perhaps they could try to teach the rest of the adult-learned players some of these skillz. As Santa did!  Late in the third as he was defending our net he decided to show Trainor just how it was done. No hesitation and definitely no thinking involved, Santa buried the puck with authority in the back of the net, turned around and shouted at the forwards on the bench: “Thats How its Done!”

Andy did his best, ringing one off the crossbar in the third in an attempt to get us back in the game. And the line of Gord, Frank, Newts had the shift of the night keeping the puck in the All-Blacks zone for the entire shift ad banging away at the front of the net, but alas, to no fuition.

The game ended, the teams departed and the best part of most Grinders games commenced, the locker room banter. Which goes to show that in Hockey, sometimes the best action isn’t always on the ice.