Tanchak, Frank, Tidy … we tried man, we wanted that 3rd game for ya, but it wasn’t in the cards.

The tailgate under the freezing April full moon was a classic, with Triggsy bringing the heat and Trainor bringing the dogs. Nice way to close out the season boys. See you all at summer hockey.

Grinders fall hard (7-2) during the first game. Next game is Saturday at 7pm. A must win game for the Grinders who are facing elimination.

She’s a Grinder Fan!   What more incentive do you need?

Peter plays a text-book game, making glove-hand saves, pad saves, sprawling saves and saves off his own defensemen. Grinders get 2 short-handed goals and a power-play goal to go up 3-0. Peter continues to play a text-book game, making glove-hand saves, pad saves, sprawling saves and saves off his own defensemen. Grinders take him for granted and think they have the game wound up…. uh uh. Following a ridiculously bad call by the ref, they count a goal for the other team (unmentionable bastards) and thats when it all fell apart. Afore you knew it it was 3-3 and heading into overtime. Overtime lasted mere seconds before the other team (unmentionable bastards) took the puck from the red-line un-accosted all the way for a break-away goal.

Pete we owe you one. But in honour of a stellar performance, by special request, here is Peter’s own Grinder Girl!

THIS is teamwork. This is commitment. This is what it’s all about.  Even though we lost. We worked hard. We moved the puck. We hit at least a couple of posts. No whining, just one big solid team effort. It felt good.

From one team member to the team as a whole - “thank you.”

Let’s do it again and put 2-points in the win column!

Going up against the top penalized team with a short bench used to spell disaster for the “CuppaJoe Grinders.”  Our competitive Grind and short tempers would goad us to respond in kind.  ( poetry!)

But sound logic is rearing it’s wizened head   In the dressing room before game time the boys declared an oath to stay out of the box against this team, and simply skate away; let the refs look after the cheap shit. Guess what…it worked.  The cheap shot grinders ended up with 16 min in penalties, two game ejections and we got the 5-2 win and a free pitcher of beer!

The CuppaJoe Grinders had 10 skaters - three of them Spare and got a solid effort.  Jason Clarke opened the scoring in the first period beating the goalie on a breakaway. Yes, Jason scored on a breakaway - a feat that usually demands both speed and skill.  His 4th goal of the season….a career high?.  The other Grinders quickly replied to send it to the intermission 1-1.  Falling behind in the 2nd period we quickly responded on the power play as Goat’s rifled home a bullet from the slot fom Troy and thinchick.  The second period would end like the first, tied, this time 2-2.

Into the third, the Good Guy Grinders took over.  James Teddai moved to center for Rob and with three minutes in, corralled a breakaway stretch pass from Gord Schmidt to put them up three two and they never looked back.  Just 42 seconds later, Jeff Triggs playing stellar on the point all night, wires a shot top corner from the point.  A final talley from James on a wrap around put the game out of reach while two Bad Boy Grinders worked Gord over on front  with a pathetic display of unsportsmanship as they took penalty after penalty, including two game ejections.  In the dieing seconds, Guy was driven into the boards and responded like the proverbial bull as if channelled by a combination of Dave Tanchak and Rowdy Roddy Piper! He challenged anyone in his way, refs, or any of the two grinder teams on the ice.  So intense and out of character was his ire that upon his return to the bench the team had cowered to one end.  One team member was driven to tears…..?

All was forgotten after the game when the next calamity was realized…no beer!  To the rescue came Beer man extraordinare Dave Tanchak with a cooler at the ready in his car.

The game winner, contrary to scoresheet, came from Gordie ho planted himself on the edge of the crease and awaiting the perfect pass from PSP. Gordie’s shot went right through the legs of the keeper for the final tally.

[GORD’s EDIT]Close….me from andy and paul. Andy headmannned it to paul who took it into the zone, circled the net and passed it in front to me for the one-timer. They actually screwed up all the goals so I have sent the changes into Dave. I had a goal and an assist and don’t think they credited me for a point!

Guy had lots of chance to break out of his lone point for the season, but had no luck again. That was a great game by us eh? Quick shifts, everyone skated hard and got back….fun to play.

For that I present to you, Snowflake… (Albino, white, snowflake… gawd my Google foo is hawsome)

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Scarlet shall also be known as the Pre-Game girl for tonights game again the Burnaby Jets, Friday 8pm at 8 Rinks. We’ve been playing against the Burnaby Jets for about 7 years now and the games are always very even - going either way depending on puck luck. Last game shots on goal were 25 to 27, but we managed to eke out a 3-1 win even with having to kill 2 penalties. We did have out ELITE spares with us as compared to tonight where we will have to rely on our own resident skill, so play hard guys, mucho shoto and victory shall be ours!

GAME SUMMARY PROVIDED BY GOATS
Once upon a time there was Grinders’ game on a Saturday afternoon. The Burgundy warriors were soon to face off against the might Shockers - a team the Grinders had bested before. Warm-up was awesome as the guys peppered Goats with shots from the hash marks and breakaways from the corner. Feeling pumped up and ready to go, the lads gathered in around the crease… 1,2,3, GRINDERS! And the games was underway.
The action was snail paced save for a player on the Shockers, whose socks were reminiscent of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty era, who danced the Grinders inside out and backwards. He ran the ice like a cat, dodging, weaving and generally making a mockery of the Grinders’ thrown together defence.The Shockers ran the first period, potting three early goals. On the first goal Houghton backed into Goats, leaving him blinded by at minimum ten yards of burgundy fabric in his direct vision. The shot went into the net without protest. Minutes later, Goats sealed a pad to the left post as a Shocker skated out from behind the net, placing a perfect pass onto the waiting stick of a completely unguarded Shocker on the right post. He placed it int the net without protest. Minutes later once again, the Grinders’ defencemen stopped skating and let a Shocker skate right past them and walk in on goal, sliding the puck under an outstretched Goats’ left pad. The puck slid into the net with only minor protest.

The second period, however, the Grinders owned the Shockers. Pressing in their end, we moved the puck well. We had myriad chances around the net, bashing, slamming, shooting from the point, but nothing. Shots hit ankles in front. Shots hit sticks at the hash marks. The Shockers’ keeper casually flung the puck aside over and again. But the Grinder’s worked hard to keep the puck in their end, and no more damage was done in their own end during the second period.In the third, the Grinders’ came out with guns blazing. Gieber, T-chak, Gordie, and Stace busted their hineys trying to pot a goal. The passing was clean and the pace was good, but not good enough.

Just as the steam came to a head, the Shockers managed to slip the d once again and hit a the open man to pot the 4th goal; the nail in the coffin for the Grinders. Not willing to give up so easily, the Grinders mounted an assault on the Shockers late in the game. T-chak raced speedily towards the goal mouth and banged in his own rebound to break the goose egg and and give the Grinders a boost. But it was not enough. The Grinders wearily played the remaining two minutes just shutting the door as best they could. Luckily the Shockers were tired too and lifted the puck into the corner of the Grinders’ end instead of charging for the net. The game ended 4-1 Shockers.

On the good side, not a single Grinder spent time in the sin bin and as a result Goats, Stace, Leng, T-chak and Guy partook in a post match free pitcher. On the bad side, we lost on account of poor skating and some early goals.

Three star picks - 1. T-chak - a goal and no penalties!; 2. Geiber - worked his ass off to keep the puck in their end; also lent Goats an undershirt; 3. Tosh - well, he wasn’t on our team, but he only got one goal; it could have been much worse.

Just Kidding: (about the pic)

In honour of Goats stepping up for two games and playing to the best of his ability as well as writing the game summary, I present to you, Grinder Goalie Girl.

Please provide your feedback, as we need to ensure that we are making a responsible decision in this time of bereavement. We want to ensure that this is not simply a “rebound cooler”, but will be a worthwhile companion for the Grinders for seasons to come.

Their goalie had a shaky first period and the grinders took advantage with long shots, big rebounds and quick blades to hop on the loose puck. All 5 goals came in the first period. Santa gets his first goal of the year on the first goal of the night at 6:29 with an assist from Mr Leng who ended up with a 3-point night including the nights 3 rd goal. The eventual game winner came from number 44 Gordie Schmish with assists from Troy and James. And then triggs and Trainor rounded out the evening with the insurmountable 4th and 5th goals.

It’s a good thang the Grinders scored early because as the night wore on the feet got slower and we started to collapse around the net, allowing the Smokeeaters their one and only goal. Goats stopped 20 more pucks thrown at him for an overall stellar performance, but the skaters couldn’t keep the energy going around him to salvage his shutout.

Next game, Saturday the 12th at 2pm.  Goats is in net again.

January 2nd, 10:30pm on Blue A against The Vancouver Smokeeaters.

Have a festive season gentlemen. Don’t get too fat because we could be playing as early as January 2nd! The schedule will be posted on Pointstreak Dec 28th. I will be checking regularly and will email you when the next game is posted.

Cheers!

Peter played stellar in net stopping 17 saves on the night, more than a few of them on the breakaway. He has earned a well deserved 2 weeks in the Philippines. (This guy goes on more over seas tropical vacations than anyone I have ever known - must be single).

Fun hockey all around, even when their cheap bastard #2 started to get lazy and hacking, we just kept coming after them and ignored the crap. It put is on the offense more than not, it gave us the better chance to win the game. But alas, a 0-0 tie is what we have to settle for.

But as promised, with a stellar effort and clean game I present to you, a half naked Grinder Girl. May I present: Peaches.

Do I hear an “I’d hit that”?

Congratulations gentlemen, The Grinders are now the most penalized team in the division.

Proud, I am not.

We came out with a short bench, 10 skaters. It went without saying, keep the shifts shorts and stay outta the frickin 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, all things except the cheap crap. Oh!!!! Thats the problem, we should have been more clear about that at the bench during the intermission. Okay gets lets step it up, more passsing, more skating, more speed, more shots, and LESS crap.

Our fault, never mind.

And then it started, Flutter-by master Bob Bradley gets a tripping call. Thats his first penalty in 10 games, so then it must be alright for the rest of us, right? Apparently we thought so:

Santa goes on to take two unsportsmanlike penalties and a high sticking penalty for a total of 8 PIMS
Nickason takes a tripping and high sticking for 6.
Geiber, Andy and Tanchak take a measly 2 PIMS each just to fit in.

Some familiar names in there to be sure: Santa with 40 PIMS, Nickason with 10 PIMS, Geiber with 14 PIMS, and Tanchak with 14 PIMS. All of our PIMS leaders sitting in the box at one point or another during a 4-0 loss.

One of the penalties, our player mugged theirs in the corner. And the Cougar skated away.

Another; after a harmless redirected shot that careened around the boards our player rode a Cougar into the boards. And the Cougar skated away.

A slash! and the Cougar skated away.

High sticking! and the Cougar skated away.

They gladly accepted the power play, dominated the flow, dominated the game, scored 4 goals and skated away.

We bitched, we whined, we went to the dressing room and blamed the refs. And the Cougars drove away; with a win.

too muchch crap, too little respect.
My $0.02

Well the first one sounded good. Rumour has it, that if I had had time to post a Grinder Girl that game the 3 stars woulda went something like this:

1st Star - Peter with a well-deserved shutout and Jacques-Plante-esque saves.
2nd Star - Harry! (breaking the no-stars to spares barrier) with stellar performance on D
3rd Star - Troy with the game’s only goal (nice assist Rob)

But then, game two happened: A loss, Lots of penalties and copious amounts of bench bitchin’.

We’re ahead of schedule girls. This usually doesn’t happen until Mid-January, early February. Are we losing sight of the reason we come out to play already?! You senile old bastards are getting harder and harder to appease every year. Remember:

• It’s for fun.
• We claim to our wives it’s for exercise and that we earned that last beer.
• It’s to be able to tell our co-workers that we belong to a team.

But if you guys can’t play nice with each other (or with the other team for that matter) then we’re gonna have to do something drastic, like join the 35+ league, or (don’t tell Bob I said this or he wont shut up about it) start our own league.

So let’s strip our game down to the basics, gentlemen. Lets go out to be competitive, and to win, but drop the “at all costs” notion. Respect your fellow team-mates, and respect the other team. Too often we accuse ourselves as dropping to their level and yes we do have to learn to skate away once in a while, but admit it, take a close look at yourself, we start a lot of the shit as well.

Play the game hard, play to win, but cut out the crap and listen to your teammates when they tell you to relax. Perhaps you ARE cross checking in front of the net (Santa) , Perhaps you ARE too critical (Gord) , Perhaps you ARE taking long shifts (Dave), Perhaps you ARE taking it too personally (Andy), Perhaps you ARE too skilled for this division and should ease up on the competition (Glen).

Anyways, until morale improves all you get is naked men: