Perspective

The nice thing about playing hockey when you write a blog on hockey is that it gives you a bit more appreciation of what the guys are out there doing out on the ice. Of course, sometimes your teammates (or some of them) find out about your hobby and want to know if you're going to blog about the game you just played.

I've done it before, granted. It is a delicate balance of writing things that people might find interesting or indulging myself in writing whatever the hell I want to. Usually the latter wins, mostly because I've never been too concerned with the opinion of others. The unseen bonus in all of this? I am almost 100% certain I'll be the only person blogging about this game. With that said, this is for you Bruce...

The Ice Hawks opened the fall season last night with a convincing win over the White Flash at the Ice House in Garner. Being the first game of the season, we were starting five new players. My line had two of them, so I thought it would take us a little bit to gel.

Although the Flash opened up the scoring early with a backhander over a sprawling Kevin Kleber (if you know Kevin, you'll realize this is somewhat of a natural state for him). One goal on one shot is not how you want to start a game and a season, but Kevin would bounce back. Later in the period, I scored on the power play after fighting off two gorillas in the crease. On the same shift, Nate, the center on my line, scored off a pass from his dad Jim and myself. That would be all the scoring we'd need, but we weren't done.

In the second period, our captain, Bruce, scored on a backhand after a minute of constant attack in the offensive zone. The scoring was capped off in the third by a pair of goals by center Chris Flood and defenseman Chris "Biggie" Ellis. Biggie's goal was the team's second on the power play in a night filled with penalties, including a ten minute game misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct (arguing and yelling at the official) by Chip Little of the Flash.

That was actually kind of funny. One of the fine lines in recreational non-check hockey is the distinction between "checking" and "contact". You are not allowed to line someone up and crush them, but the physical nature of the game will involve some contact. It can't be avoided when you have a dozen people on the ice, many of whom (myself included) are not exactly skating virtuosos. This guy was upset because there was contact as people were going after pucks. He wanted a call or two, didn't get one, and blew up. It happens and is rarely pretty.

The Flash managed to rack up twenty four minutes in penalties compared to our four. We were 2-for-7 on the power play, including an unsuccessful 5-on-3. They were 0-for-2. We scored 5 goals on 22 shots, whereas Kevin allowed 1 goal on 11 shots. Next week we face the back-to-back league champion Vertigo, fresh off a loss to the Vipers.