The Cuppa Joe Grinders

You might think that 2 shut-outs in two games is a good thing. You may think that a strong effort is all that it takes. Well we had both this weekend and although we did have a strong effort on two nights, only one of the shutouts was ours.

Game One: Grinders vs. The Sydney Millionaires. 2-0 Win for the Grinders

This one felt good. Everyone, and I mean everyone had a good game. From Reg’s stand-out goal (dropping to his knees from a check he managed to get under the puck and roof it with authority) to the forechecking of Guy, playmaking fo Leng, the ever-solid defense of Tidy to the Ladies Joining Us in the Room for a Beer!

Sydney beat us last time as we headed into the 3rd witha lead. not this time, however. We didn’t sit back and try to play defense, we kept up the forecheck, forced them off the puck and created chances for ourselves. Bueno.

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And then came the Cougars.
Game Two: Grinders vs. Cougars. 5-0 Win for the Cougars.

Some people may think we may as well have gone out there in dresses and open-toed sandals, but if you ignore the score and the fact that we hardly touched the puck, we played just as hard as we did the previous game.. The Cougars were simply better. We had hustle – especially from the likes of Thinchick and Teigen. We had good movement of the puck (when we had it), some great chances – Reggie with one off the post and and another over the crossbar, and Nickason with one off the crossbar. We had forechecking and we had grit. But when a team like the Cougars come along, puck possession, positioning and defensive play are simply hard to come by.

That effort we displayed will beat any other team on our division.

Anyone else notice Frank’s uncanny ability to predict the future again – albeit it was “opposite day”. I swear, just before he politely offered to tear #12 a new one, Frank advised our team to “Forget about this one boys, just go out and have fun”