End Of Year And Beyond

First and foremost Mike and I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for playing for the Average Joes over the past two seasons. We both recognize that things started off a bit hectic but as we have both settled into being coordinators, hopefully you saw and will continue to see bigger and better things from us. At the very beginning of this we had made the decision to find a bunch of players that were learning the game of hockey and looking to have some fun. How many times did you hear on the bench, "Are we having fun yet?" We both hope you have enjoyed yourselves and did have fun playing. Something Mike said today that I wanted to use here is, "Winning a game lasts a week, winning a friend lasts a lifetime." Who knew he had such deep thoughts. Anyway, this team isn't about us, it's also about you. You guys are the ones that make this team what it is, so for that we thank you. The majority of you started playing this year, me included, and it's been really fun learning with you all and watching everyone improve game to game.

So with that it's on to bigger and better things....like SEASON 3!!!!!!!!!

The next season should start the weekend of January 15th or the 22nd. Which ever week it is, it will be a practice week with a game the following week. The Brahmas have a bunch of home games in January so our schedule might be all over the place to start. Games should be in the Thursday-Sunday range again and probably late into the night/evening. The only good part is despite our games getting tossed around there are no major holidays in January, February, or March, so hopefully we will play once a week and get the opportunity to gel as a team quickly. The cost will be $175 a player. If you can only commit to 5 games we might be able to split the fee with another player and then any other games played by that person can pay the team kitty a few bucks. Some people have already said they couldn't commit due to their schedules and are wanting to be put on the sub list, that's fine too, just let us know. The plan, or goal, is to get the team fee paid ($2,500) first. After that we can do one of several things with any extra money we have if any, buy matching socks for everyone, refund some money back, or discount the next season, throw a huge team dinner/party. We will need to try and collect all the money before the night of our first game. Our division/league will be us, Jets, Indians, Whalers, Stingers, and Mud Ducks. We will play each team twice then have the playoffs.

So here is what we need from you going forward.....
Question #1. Are you in for next season? Full/part/sub?
Question #2. Do you need a white and/or blue jersey? We have a few spares, the blues are sweet!
Question #3. Do you have a friend in mind that wants to play?

I have received a lot of interest over the past week about people wanting to join the Joes. As stated above we are looking for players that want to learn the game, have fun, and make some new best friends. At the very least I will need the answer to question #1 asap so that we have time to work on the other 2 questions to accommodate other interests. Feel free to leave your response here on the blog if you wish, or just get a hold of me.

If you have any questions you can contact me via facebook, email (piper28@sbcglobal.net), text, or just call me.

Last thing, Mike and I invite you to leave any feedback here on the blog as well for us or others. Have a safe and happy holidays. See you next year!

Greg

Schedule For Rest Of Season 2

Hey all,

I now have access to the blog (thanks Kent) so instead of sending out text messages over and over I thought I'd post here. Our last regular season game is against the Keller Indians THIS THURSDAY (12/2) at 9:30. If we win or tie, and/or the Jets lose to the Bandits Saturday night, we will play the Whalers on Saturday, 12/11, at 8:10. We are currently 5th in our division. If we drop to 6th we'd have to play the Sens Thursday night, 12/9, at 9:30. Assuming we stay in 5th, play the Whalers and win, we'd play the Bandits on 12/18, at 10:25. Win that game and the conference finals would be the very next night, the 19th, at 8:00.

The Stanley Keg game date and time is still to be determined.

So instead of sending texts back and forth all day long if you can post on here if you can make the game this Thursday that would be great, or text me if thats easier. There will be more info I'll be putting on here regarding next season and other fun Average Joe stuff later today or tomorrow.

Hey, this thing still works!

Blah, blah, blah

Just wanted to show that I'm still going to update this thing, eventually.

For now use this, get a conversation going in to comments.

lets do this:

Poll

Is Greg:

the worst hockey player ever

or one of the worst hockey players ever?

I would vote for the next Crosby, but whatever loser made this poll didn't list it as an option. FAIL

Key Word to the Playoffs: Momentum

No recap, I changed my mind. Mostly because the pre-playoff post should all be positive. Our FIRST playoff game is Saturday at 7:45. I'm not sure who we'll play yet, it'll either be the Sens or the Whalers(they both play tonight). So let's get right into it...

Momentum, it is so important in hockey. A team scores a goal, then gets another quickly, and all of a sudden they completely control the game. It happened to us twice against the Rampage, once against the Sens. It was in our favor in the Severe Icing game (before the fight). It happens in the NHL, and I'll post up a couple videos here to show what momentum looks like. The best example will be in this first video. Game 6 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals between the Anaheim Ducks and the Dallas Stars. Pay close attention to the time on the clock in the third.

The Stars score a quick two, and then it's lights out. The Ducks lose anything they had going for them, and could have easily given up another two or three in that period if their goalie had not stayed composed. Another example would be here Game 7 of the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals, between the Colorado Avalanche and the New Jersey Devils. This one didn't see a team getting the momentum after being down, but instead they jumped out to an early lead, and kept it through the rest of the game.

Both of these are examples of what can happen when a team gets momentum. As I said earlier, we've seen it a bunch this season. We need to be the ones to make it happen in the playoffs, or we'll suffer the same fate that the Devils and the Ducks met in these videos, the end of our season.

This Week

Well, I'm not going to talk much about the last game, it was brutal. Losing 8-0 always sucks, but it's even worse when you stop having fun. And I know, no one was having a blast during the third of that one. Excuses can be made, yeah we were down a couple good defenseman, had a player suspended and hadn't played in two weeks... But like I said, I'm not going to say anything bad. So moving on...

We have our final regular season game on Thursday at 7:15. Then the playoffs start this weekend, our first game will be on Saturday, and depending on the final standings we will play at either 7:45 or 9:10. So no, no first round bye for us (I know, I was shocked too). If we when that game we will have another on Sunday. Just so ya know, it is entirely possible that we could draw the Sens in the first round.

On the picture, the second logo down is our new logo. If you don't like it, deal with it. (I kid, I kid). Anyways, I'll see you all tomorrow, and have a "recap" up Friday as well as a post about our key word going into the playoffs, see ya later!

BBQ @ Steve's after Saturday's Game

*Not Steve's actual house

EDIT: http://cstephenmurray.com/bbq/ for all info

WE WILL ALSO HAVE A TEAM VOTE REGARDING THE FUTURE OF THE AVERAGE JOES

And here is all of the info, crudely copied and pasted from an email!

BBQ at Steve’s Place
This Saturday, Aug 15
6pm

RSVP for extra people
(we’d love to have them, just need to know)

Burgers, dogs, beans, potato salad, watermelon.

BYOBC+T (bring your own beverage, chips and tofu [for any non meat-etarians])

Address: 211 Rodeo Drive, Keller

Directions from Nytex:
West (L) on Mid-Cities
North (R) on Rufe Snow (2.5 miles—2nd major light)
West (L) on North Tarrant (about a mile)
North (R) on Rodeo (2nd right after 4-way stop)
House on R a ways after the road curves.

He also sent me an awesome map with the directions, but I can't post it off my MacBook, so when I get a chance I'll hop on a PC and get it on here.

Game 7 vs Severe Icing

I won't post an actual recap until they post the stats online. I just figured that some of you gus would want to talk about last nights events before tomorrow.

Game 6 vs Rampage

Well, I waited two days before posting this one, a 6-5 loss to the Rampage. It was needed to keep the language clean. The first period was great. So was most of the second. But that third period. This week there are no excuses. We can't blame the refs, we can't say the Rampage were a dirty team, at least not compared to previous weeks. The truth, is that the Joes just let the game slip away. There is 0 excuse for that. If an NHL team blew a 4-0 lead like that, you can beat people would be traded or fired, and they would make some of TSN's top 10 lists. Not the good lists either. I know you're thinking"But we're not the NHL". So what, we are still a hockey team. The rest of the league is gonna know about this. I really hope this is only a one week thing, because it is an embarrassment to have that happen to you. I really thought about it and tried to figure out how this happened. Don't take offense, but I think we just stopped skating. When we were up 4, we continuously went from an all-out offense, giving them an absurd amount of odd man chances, to trying some all out defensive strategy. But as soon as they took that 6-5 lead late, our skating came back, and we had some great chances. Like I said, I hope this is just a one week thing.

The Bad- Well, we sort of had the game in hand, and blew it.

The Good- The first period and a half we were dominant. We need to continue to play the way we were there. If we can do that for three periods, we could beat anyone in the league. Also, our subs who played with us were great, and it was great to have them.

The Great- Headed into the game, our three leading scorers were #8 Dan, #12 Peter and #55 Glenn. Glenn and Peter weren't even there, while Dan held it down in the defensive zone (though he had some GREAT chances). But we found scoring from other people. #40 Scott scored his first goal, #49 Taso had two, including a buzzer beater in the first. #93 Cat had one or two, and #91, yours truly had one 30 seconds into the game. Dave in goal once again played great, stopping 26 of 32 shots against.

Game 5- vs Puddle Jumpers

It was a tough game. Though the Joes lost 3-0, by no means were they dominated. The score doesn't show how truly close the game was. The Joes had a short bench, and their two leading scorers weren't there. Add onto this a horrific injury to #26 Al. Speaking of which, I don't have any new information on the specifics of the injury, just the text from Mike saying surgery is tomorrow. But back to the game... After this the Joes found themselves down an additional three players, and had an extremely short bench. The Joes had some great scoring opportunities, but never could find the back of the net.

The Bad-

A lack of penalties called against each team was surprising, mainly because I even felt as though I should have gone to the box a couple times.

Not enough shots. We can't possibly expect to win games when we are getting outshot 3-1. Yeah, they were great at blocking shots, but we need to get more on net.

The Good-

Another great showing put on by Dave in goal. Once again he etched his name into the non-existent Three Stars of the Game.

The team is getting better. I know we didn't build on our win against the Whalers, but we were with the Jumpers the entire game despite everything else.

The Great-

That everyone kept their cool after the injury. Everyone understands that hockey is a quick moving game, and accidents can happen. I whole heartedly believe what happened was an accident, and out team acted like it was. No one went out for revenge, and that shows an immense amount of class on our part.

Last Word- We improved upon our last game again, and I still believe by the end of the season well be a team that people don't wanna play.

Around the league-

I know the Indians beat the Whalers by 1, and I know the Sens beat the Bandits by two in an extremely entertaining game. I'll update this part when they post the scores.

We're Talking About Practice, Man. Not the Game, but Practice?!?

First, kudos who can tell me where the title came from. Second, practice is something we all need. Sure you can go out on the ice every Saturday, but your not gonna get a chance to practice then. So when's a good time to get practice?

NYTEX and the Starcenters (as well as all the other local rinks) offer certain times each day for open hockey. As you would expect some are crowded, some are empty. It seems that the later in the week you go, the more people are there. I'll link the sites at the bottom of the post, and you can check their calendars to see when these times are. For the most part they are a lot of fun. And with so many rinks across the area, you can normally find one that fits you. I know NYTEX now has an early one, something like 7-8AM. Euless has some nights that hockey goes up to midnight, and the prices range from $6-$12/ I go to some during the afternoon at Euless, and almost every Friday at noon at Grapevine.

Another really good place to get your practice on is at I-league in Grapevine. Yeah, it's a different kind of league then were in. I made it out there last week and it was a lot of fun. They have it every Friday night at 9:30, and it'll run you $2o. But it is well worth the money. It is an actual games, refs and timekeepers included! Here, they have games for three straight weeks, followed by a practice with coaches. As I said, it's worth your time and money. This Friday will be the practice week.

If you guys know any other places, or classes that are worth going to let me know in the comments or by email (email address is at the bottom). Thanks, I'll have another post up by Friday!

Links:

StarCenters-http://www.drpepperstarcenter.com/schedules.asp

NYTEX-http://www.nytexsports.com/

Hello, and Welcome!

Hey everyone. This site will get better as the season progresses, and we have more stuff to put on here. If you have any pictures, please send them in so we can use them. Just an FYI, you don't need to have an account to comment, anyone can. I'll keep playing around with the setup, until I find one that works. Bookmark us, I'll update this site as much as I can and if you have any ideas about posts, let me know. Thanks guys