The Cuppa Joe Grinders

An oddly polite yet sometimes aggressive bunch of Cougars took control of the Joe’s on Tuesday night.

(SEO note:  Keywords in the previous sentence will do well in search terms, only to sorely disappoint the users that land here expecting something a little more risque. We’ll have to do our best to satiate their desires with the end graphic.)

No, Courtney Cox was not involved. Just a bunch of over weight middle aged men clinging to their last vestiges of youthful activities they can still perform (not so well). About once a week they get out and play a little hockey. More often than they have marital sex. This game took on an atmosphere you may expect, one of competitiveness but good sportsmanship, as the oddly polite Cougar team took advantage of the Grinders own goals and penalties (sound familiar? I may just cut and paste from previous 83 entries)  to settle the game 3-0.

Actually let’s try that…. Here’s excerpts from Dec 1, 2007 versus the Cougars…

• We came out with a short bench, 10 skaters. It went without saying, keep the shifts shorts and stay outta the box.The tempo of the whole game was rather lax, so we could have been in there. And in fact we were for the first period. we made it through with no scoring from either team, but we realized that if we were going to make an impact we had to step things up.

That was about right!

October 14, 2008:

• The Grinders were clicking and getting many quality scoring chances, including at least two posts, but simply couldn’t get the puck past a hot goalie .

April 22, 2008

• The effort was big, the beer was cold and the smokies were hot; what else could you ask for? A win, maybe, but alas it was not in the cards. Gord set-up two wingers with saucer-like passes at point blank but to no avail – who were those wingers anyway? The Cougars got their first goal on a power-play.
  

March 28, 2008

• Peter plays a text-book game, making glove-hand saves, pad saves, sprawling saves and saves off his own defensemen.
  

March 24th, 2008

• The Grinders played a hard game with a few unlucky bounces that sank them, but there was a solid effort by Everyone, and I mean everyone including non-Grinders to make this game the best it could possibly be.

April 16, 2007

• Regroup at the bench. Troy is tired; Kuznak gives us the gears about getting some shots on the net. He’s right, at my count we’re at seven shots heading into the third. We’re down two goals and the frustration is starting to kick in. Puck drops in the third – me and Tanchak are out to kill off the remaining seconds in Geib’s minor, and we have Frank and Bob on the point. It goes well. Shortly after the Atoms pot their third goal and the Grinders’ spirits are crushed.

It’s who we are; long-shifting, penalty-taking, bad-lucking, no-scoring Grinders.   You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, so they say.

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But you can make them salivate at the ring of a bell

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A bunch of other stuff happened, like Peter playing a really good game yet again, Andy hustling his butt off, some descension amongst the ranks, some great play, some weak play, the beer cooler almost emptying, a few missed tripping calls by the refs, a stellar OT chance by PSP to win it, two goal posts hit in regulation time and Jay’s disallowed goal, two comebacks in the game from the Grinders, but really it all comes down to the Grinders expectation of Guy scoring a goal and it simply didn’t happen.

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No Water (Beer Fine)
No Pucks (Beer Fine)
No Cash (Beer Fine)
No Discipline
No Energy
No Subs
No Luck
No Guy
No Goals
No Fun
No Glory
No Bob
No Frank
No Santa
No Jay
No Spares
No Win
No Tidy
No Mark
No Victory
No More.

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"No, no pucks in this net. I don't know why they asked us to check. We even swept in the corners. Guy wasn't playing, what do they expect?"

The Grinders welcomed the 2nd new team to our division with yet another tick in the Grinder Win column.  With a full line-up and a heck of a fore-check the Grinders were able to make life difficult for the All-Blacks. They had some of their regular roster, Keenlyside, and Gargonzola but they seemed to lack a bit of the usual puck-carrying momentum that they brought to the previous encounters over the years.

Peter wasn’t too busy in the first two periods so we adjusted our game plan and let him see the puck a little a little in the 3rd.  Someone on the bench mentioned the “S” word one shift prior to the Allblacks  scoring their one and only goal in the game.  Feeling guilty, perhaps, Jay took the ensuing face-off and carried the puck all the way to the Allblack netminder’s crease, but failed to score.  Unlike MR. TEIGEN who calmly placed his streak-maintaining goal into the net during the second period to extend his point-per-game streak to 5.  FIVE.   I want him on my line next game. Way to Go, Guy.

Bueno efforts were made from each and every player on the Grinders this game, with encouragement on the bench, short-shifts and a general sense of everyone giving their all. Including a glorious display of effort in the second period with a rush down the right wing, with almost Chacko-like flair and energy, until a little rub-out along the boards resulted in a Yard Sale.

Passing was the key to the game with the likes of Santa making his patented rush but then dishing off to the wingers, getting the defenders moving side to side opening up the ice in front of the net. Santa ends up with an assist on the nite, as does Triggsy, PSP and Cranston ends up with 2!

Tanchack gets a goal by letting go a blast from Yust Over the BlueLine (I capitalized that because I thought it would make a good Yorgy Yorgenson tune) and it was Newts who started it all off in the second period through good old fashioned hard work.  No need for any of that new fangled hard work.

In fact all three Grinder goals came in the second, then we hung on for dear life (See Start Strong and Hang On).  With time ticking away in the third period the Allblacks yanked their goalie and started to press in an effort to make a comeback> The Grinders were defending their end trying to do good by their keeper, wondering why it seemed a little lopsided and the pressure was a little more intense than it should be, we looked out to center ice, and what did we see? A Yard Sale.

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Grinders cap off the week with a 6 – 3 win over the Toques on Friday. The Grinders had a full bench and used it well to out-hustle and out-play the Toques during the first part of the game. The Referee even made a comment to the bench that we were playing Detroit-like; at that point he didn’t mean “old,”  that comes in the third period.

In the first period, however, we came out strong and came away with a 2-0 lead and never looked back. At 12:55, after a Glen and Troy poked around at a loose puck at the Goalie’s pads, it was Troy who eventually pushed it past the padded protector for the grinders goal. Glen, jealous that he couldn’t do it on his attempts took out his frustration on the Toques D-man.  The same dude would later score 2 goals in the third for the Toques in their failed attempt at a comeback.

It was Thinkchick who made his presence known next by capitalizing on a Guy Teigen assist at 13:20 of the first. And the two of them just kept on producing (Gord remember this match-up, Thinkchick and Guy on the same line). In the second period Guy deflected a Thinchick shot past the gormless goalie, then it was Thinchick, who, from the goal line beside the net roofed the rubber over the ragged rookie. That would be it for that line, with both Thinchick and Teigen ending up with 3 points on the night.

One other Grinder ended up with 3 points, PSP netted his goal in the third right after Gord deposited the dregs in the dumpster at 0:34.  Paul’s tally timed in at twelve twenty six as he eased his shot assuredly aside the shielded sentry. PSP’s other 2 points came on assists – See! He passes!

But one must not focus only on production in a proud performance but also the protection from Peter populating the parcel between the pipes. Peter took twenty two attempts to task terminating nineteen Toque tries.

The Grinders lineup is decimated by injury with Mark Leng Gone for the season with two broken bones in his leg, Gord Schmidt, Gone for the season with a broken ring bone on his spine, Frank Williams,  Out indefinitely and visiting a head doctor due to a crosscheck to the back of the neck. And the late night game took its toll on others in the line-up as well; Bob was in Calgary (or so he says), Tidy had to wake up too early (or so he said), Triggsy was covering the early shift (or so he said), Trainor was ill (or so he said), and Troy just didn’t wanna (or so he said).

But 10 other skates and a goalie did honour thy commitment and came out as ornery as ever.  Chacko made his marks early into the game scoring the first goal with help from Tanchak and Newts at 10:11, and then sitting in the sin bin 22 seconds later with an interference minor.  Not to be outdone, Jay took a penalty as well at 13:53  for hooking, and then again at 10:53 in the second for roughing, and then again in the third for Body Checking…apparently Jay wanted to go home early.

Tanchak put the Grinders up by 2 in the second with an assist from Guy, but the Storm rallied back quickly in the third, first taking advantage of the Power Play and then tie-ing it up even strength at 8:09.

But no one is keep the Grinders out this late and then hand them a loss, no siree! Dave Tanchak put another point on the board an scored the game winner after being set up with a sweet pass from Ashworth. Then Goats and Nickason added the insurance to put up a convincing 5-2 win.

But there is a story left untold as we look at the details of the game with Mr Chacko getting a 10-minute misconduct for harassing the official and setting the Grinders up for a season of officiating misery. Please, do tell.

Fine….