Grapevine Kup Game

For those of you who are trying to figure out what this game is, let me explain. Polar Ice/Grapevine Mills has an I-League program. They play on Friday nights at 8:15. Their schedule can vary but basically they play 3 games 3 weeks in a row, then the 4th week is a practice. It's $20 each week you participate. Once a quarter they "invite" another team or group to come play their team. It is set up as a reward for those people that show up each week and play at Grapevine. I approached Coach Kaeppel about having our team play against them this time. The cost to us is free, since we are invited. The key is to have a fun, competitive game, so that we get invited back again. Myself, David, Zee, John, Sebastian, Steve, Kent, and Mike, to name a few, have all played in this game I believe. Afterwards, if/when we win, there is a mini trophy for us to have our pictures taken with and skate around the ice, beer in the locker room, and then most everybody goes to Love and War (its a bar) for a little more fun.

Confirmed so far is.....
Mike
Steve
Stephen
Bruce
Scott
Zee
Sebastian
Todd
Chris
Nathan

Let me know asap if your in for this game. Want to have a full bench of 15 players so that we don't overdo it and are whiped out for our Nytex game the next night.

The Schedule Is Out!

The summer schedule is out and available. Average Joes schedule is posted to the right of the screen. Will work on the blog to get the Scorpions schedule permanently up as well but until then here is their schedule:
Game 1-vs Indians, Saturday, April 30th at 9:30 pm
Game 2-vs Bandits, Thursday, May 5th at 8:30 pm
Game 3-vs Stingers, Saturday, May 14th at 9:30 pm
Game 4-vs Mud Ducks, Saturday, May 21st at 6:30 pm
Game 5-vs Spider Monkeys, Saturday, May 28th at 11:00 pm
Game 6-vs Jets, Saturday, June 4th at 11:00 pm
Game 7-vs Blazin Saddles, Saturday, June 11th at 5:00 pm
Game 8-vs Whalers, Saturday, June 18th at 9:30 pm
Game 9-vs Average Joes, Saturday, June 25th at 9:30 pm
Game 10-vs Blazin Saddles, Saturday, July 2nd at 11:00 pm

Still have another practice this Saturday night at 9:30. Full ice with both teams participating. Will need payments into Mike that night so that we can pay the team fees before the first games on the 30th. Should be a fun season with new teams and some new faces.

Spring/Summer Season

Hey folks. Another huge blog update. The below message comes directly from Chad. But this will give you an idea of what next season will look like, the plan for running the season, and the start of things. We still have a few open roster spots on both the Joes and the Scorpions so if you have anyone that wants to play get in touch with Mike or I asap. The fee for the Scorpions is $200 and we will provide the jerseys while the Joes will be $175 again. I'd like to collect all paperwork and payments over the next 2 weeks at the practices. If you can't make either one I understand but lets try and plan to meet up so we can pay the team fee early. If you need to call me with questions don't hesitate to call or text. I will be at this Saturdays practice but not the 23rd. My wedding anniversary is that weekend and I've been sequestered by "the wife".

From Chad,
For Starters the Puddle Jumpers are taking a summer vacation from league play. Some will play in over 35, some will join Mud Ducks, and some will just take some time off. Best of luck to all of them, and we hope to see them back in the fall. Bandits are making a move as well dropping down to the lower division (not to worry any player that otherwise wouldn't qualify for lower division play will be finding a new home and you can rest assured Bandits will be by the book). Also MIB will have a lower division affiliate next season with the debut of the Blazing Paddles, and Average Joes will be debuting a 2nd squad who will be known as the Scorpions. Also
previously mentioned in an email to you is the return of the Spider Monkeys to Nytex. Welcome to all the new teams, welcome back to the Monkeys.

So the list of lower or second division teams reads as follows:
Whalers
Indians
Stingers
Jets
Average Joes
Mud Ducks
Spider Monkeys
Blazing Paddles
Bandits
Scorpions

Ten teams total, so you will play everyone once, and then a "rival" a second
time.

In the upper or first division we have:
Sweet Leaf
Rampage
Sens
MIB
TBA
TBA

Next season will kick off with a week of practices. Since there are some new teams and lots of guys who are moving around to different teams within the league we wont jump right into games like last season. So starting on April 16th (Saturday we have the following team practices)
2:00-Sweet Leaf and Spider Monkeys
3:30-Scorpions and Average Joes
5:00-Indians and Sens
6:30-MIB and Blazing Paddles
8:00-Bandits and Rampage
9:30-Mud Ducks and Whalers
11:00-Jets and Stingers
Then Thursday the 21st we will have practices at the following times:
6:15- Mud Ducks and Whalers
7:45- Jets and Stingers
9:15- Indians and Sens
Saturday the 23rd we have:
6:30- Bandits and Rampage
8:00- MIB and Blazing Paddles
9:30- Scorpions and Average Joes
11:00- Sweet Leaf and Spider Monkeys

Forward this email on to your teams and use the coordinator list for help contacting other teams (Yes I know I need to clean up the coordinator list).

Lets get all the payments and forms and all that good stuff in to me or Jamie Tuttle at the front desk by the 23rd if we can. Registration forms should be in the lobby of Nytex.

Random Comment Thread

So our season is done. Yeah, that sucks. Luckily for us, a new one starts soon! Until then I figured we should have a comment thread, so we can basically talk about whatever we want (but with each other, you know, team bonding and all). So if you want to talk about how the Stars blew it, how Jamie Benn is the greatest thing ever, how Natalie Portman is the hottest girl on the planet, the NHL playoffs (or I guess it would have been easier to just say hockey in general), or your ideas for next season, do it here!

Hope everyone is enjoying these days of awesome weather!

Be safe and see ya soon!

Mike And Mindy Take The Plunge

I'm fairly secure you all knew that Mike got married recently. Little did we know he'd try to hockey stop on the carpet. Maybe he had watched Kindergarten Cop and had Arnold in his head saying, "Bring your fiance to the carpet." Who knows. Here is the news story by NBC.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/sports/Putting_the_Wedding_on_Ice_Dallas-Fort_Worth-118717709.html

Putting All The Pieces In Place

So here we go. Another chance at a magical mystical playoff run. It all starts this Wednesday night at 7:30 against the Whalers. Win and barring a game 5 for the Brahmas against Odessa in their playoff series and we'll play sometime on Saturday the 9th against the Stingers. Win that and the finals are scheduled for Monday the 11th. But first things first, we have to get past the Whalers. We've had some success against them in the past by winning 3 of 7 games from them overall in our 3 seasons at Nytex.

This season has seen it's ups and downs. Losing Paul and Glenn to injury, Brian to Marine schooling, and John for a bit of time so he could do his best Ricky Ricardo banging his drums while on tour with Tera Melos. Had wonderful people join the team like Todd, Jonathan, Stephen, Bruce, Rusty, Ryan, and Chris. Heck, we even got Kent to come back. We went from having our heads handed to us at the beginning of the season to holding our own and winning a few games and holding our heads high.

Once again, on behalf of Mike and myself, thanks to everyone for playing this season. We have truly been blessed to have met and played with each and every one of you.

So, for those of you who are keeping score at home.....
Tuesday the 5th, practice at 7:45.
Wednesday the 6th, game at 7:30.
Saturday the 9th, game TBD if we win and barring Brahmas playoff run.
Monday the 11th, championship game. Barring Brahmas.

Next season info on the next post.

End Of The Regular Season

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog but an issue behind the scenes arose yesterday that didn't allow me to write anything, I'll address that later. So we ended the season with a loss to the Ducks, a shootout loss to the Stingers, and a hard fought win against the Jets to finish with 6 points for the season and probably 5th place in our division. The way the playoffs look as of now our first playoff game will be Wednesday, April 6th at 9:00 pm probably. If we end up in the cellar we'll play at 7:30 on the same night.

Also the practice we had scheduled for this Thursday, the 31st, was moved to next Tuesday, the 5th at 7:45, due to the Brahmas playoff series. So this means we'll have an opportunity to work on some things Tuesday night before our game on Wednesday. We still have a "midnight" practice scheduled this Saturday night, the 2nd at 11:45 pm.

So for those that want to mark your calendar here are the dates you should be aware of.....
April 2nd, Saturday, 11:45 pm practice.
April 5th, Tuesday, 7:45 pm practice.
April 6th, Wednesday, 9:00 (probably) game, or 7:30. We should know our opponent by this Friday.
April 9th, Saturday, TBA, if we win Wednesday we should play the semi's this night barring the Brahmas don't bump us out with Game 5 of their playoff series.
April 11th, Monday, our leagues championship game if/when we make it this far.

I'll write a bit later about next season, Mike's wedding, and the issue that arose yesterday and why I delayed updating the blog. Have a good week and hope to see you Saturday night.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Ah yes, the sweet smell of victory. A win makes any food or beverage taste so much better. We've eaten a bunch of poo all season so last night was a wonderful change of pace. Despite missing Mike, Paul, John, Zee, Steve, Todd, and even Chris the team pulled together and beat the Whalers. Sebastian and Dave subbed and played defense with myself. Glenn got a hat trick. Rusty returned and got 2 goals, with one being a gift from their goalie, and a new addition to the team, Jonathan made a positive impact with a goal. Another new member to the group is Stephen. Stephen works with a majority of the Whalers, so for at least a week, he has some bragging rights. The entire team played so well. David was a brick wall in net, not only stopping a good number of shots from the Whalers but also kept the puck out when we knocked the puck towards him ourselves.

I posted on here a few weeks ago that I could smell a victory on the horizon, well last night was that night. We even buried the blue jersey jinx I posted about too. This is our 3rd victory against the Whalers over the past 3 seasons. They are a solid, well disciplined team, who has always played us tough but clean. Next up is the Mud Ducks who we lost to in a shootout. Not to put any pressure on anyone but if we can get a win that would secure at least a 5th place finish in the division. Why is that important you ask? We have one more game against the Jets and they are in 4th currently, which is who we'd face in the first round of the playoffs.

I apoligize for taking our bye week off as far as writing on here so let me tie up some loose ends. David gave Glenn the player of the game puck after the last game. Then last night Glenn gave it back to David for his performance, a well deserved honor for both guys. Jonathan and Stephen will be finishing the season with us taking Paul and Brian's vacated spots. I have had the opportunity to sub on Mayhem in the silver league over the past few weeks. I say this for one reason, I have seen alot of players in silver that play in our lower bronze division. Next season this will not be allowed. Upper bronze can play in our division but thats it. So overall our league will probably even out a little more but I'd suspect a few ringers will be found within the league. We shall see.

Lastly, we finally have a practice schedule. The times and dates are not the greatest but they are scheduled. We will split the ice with another team but Mike and I have some drills that we want to run that should hopefully help everyone and depending on the other team maybe we can get a scrimmage going.....
Tuesday, March 22nd at 10:30.
Thursday, March 31st at 8:00.
Saturday, April 2nd at 11:45.
As I said, not the greatest times and dates but for those that can make it we'll make the most of it.

Wearing blue against the Ducks this coming Saturday, see you on the ice. As always, comments are encouraged but not mandatory.

Don't Bring Me Down!

Figured if I referenced an old ELO song people might read the blog. Although we took another convincing loss against the Indians, I still see us making strides at getting better. Bruce continues to show promise each and every game. Nice to see Scott join us for 2 games in a row, if he shows up for the next one that would make 3, and would officially be on a streak. Kat and Zee have a real chemistry on a line together. Now for some bad news.....

For those who haven't heard Paul had surgery to put 2 screws into his ankle to reattach the ligaments to the bone. As I write this it appears that the surgery went well but with healing time and rehab he'll be off the team for 6 months. He has already promised to come to games and do what he can once he's up to it. The other bad news and that probably deserves his own paragraph is Brian. The Marines feel that they need him more than us so he will be travelling around and be lost to us for quite a while. I know he's planning on posting on here so I'll let him post the details. Brian came to the team via an email to Chad looking for a team. I put on my best recruiter voice and convinced him to join us. He will hopefully be able to join us off and on as a sub but his ice time will definately be limited for a while.

Now back to some good news and other info. For those of you who were trying to figure out who that guy was at the end of the bench watching in street clothes the other night, well that was Al Lacaze. He broke both bones in his leg in our 1st season. It was great to see him out at the rink and hopefully we will start to see him around a lot more in the future. I know we had a full bench this past game. I'll take the blame for that. Sebastian and Dave (aka Kentucky) came out to try and help us out. At the time I asked them to play I knew we were short Paul, but I wasn't sure of a few others availability to play so to make sure we had enough for a couple of lines I invited them out. Little did I know that everyone was able to show up.

Lastly I want to talk about practice and research. I, and several others, go to a tactics class on Wednesday nights at 9:15 at Grapevine Mills/Polar Ice. They have also started a "chalk talk" session that will start around 8:30 in the locker room while everyone gets dressed. The chalk talk will focus on ice hockey terms, basic general rules of play, and will answer any questions you might have. The cost is $20. Also Nytex has a 1:30 stick and puck time most days now available. It is a chance to get out on the ice with only a few people around and work on skating, puck handling, and passing. It's always better to take a friend/buddy with you. Sometimes there are private lessons going on on the other side of the ice, but it's a good way to work on things on your own if necessary. It's $12. Lastly there is an I-League game on most Friday nights at Grapevine as well. It's $20. There is a game 3 weeks in a row and then the 4th week is usually a practice. The schedule might vary but these games are at our general level.

Lastly, the research part. If you really watch the NHL closely you'll see alot of teams using the "triangle offense" which is what we are trying to play on this team. Now trying to watch the NHL's fast pace is difficult, but not impossible. However I have found a great teaching tool online. If you go to silverleague.blogspot.com you'll see a post of the Whalers vs Jets youtube video. Now this silver league blog basically gives people a chance to just be ugly and a jerk to their opponents, so try not to get sucked into a pissing match on there. However watch the Whalers specifically on the video. You'll notice them work the triangle to perfection. You'll also notice them skating to the blue line, going towards the offensive zone, and either slowing down to go into the zone together or they turn on the blue line to keep skating. This is what we need to work on the most. Too many time, me included, we skate to the blue line and then stop. We have to keep skating. The Whalers post alot of their games on youtube so watch a few of their videos and see if you can tell what they are doing on offense. This is also good since they are our next game.

Alright, enough rambling, enjoy your weekend off this week and lets get ready to harpoon the Whalers next week.

Close But No Cigar

Sorry this post is going up a bit late but I finally have collected all my thoughts about our last outing. To give a quick update Paul broke his fibula just below the knee. He is in a cast now and will have to stay off his leg for 4 to 6 weeks. Looks like he can start skating again in 3 months. He also suffered a high ankle sprain but as of right now no surgery will be required to repair anything, which is good news.

As far as the game goes, although we lost in the shootout, I felt like this was our best game. As much as I enjoyed how we reacted in the Jets game by staying positive and clawing our way back into that game. This game was even better. Granted the majority of the Mud Ducks team plays at our level we dominated play most of the game. We skated well, passed well, and played as a team. Their goalie is the only reason we didn't win. He was very good. Their first goal tipped off my stick and probably fouled up David. Their second goal was our only mistake the entire game. We sank down and screened our own goalie.

Zee and Kent played great at center. Kent set up our first goal by getting the puck on net and Paul banged in the rebound. The second goal was a "great" deflection off Mike for his first goal as a Joe. We had several other chances to score but just couldn't put the puck in the net.

Bruce played his best game thus far, obviously spurred on by the return of his son Scott. Collectively we did a much better job of keeping the puck by the boards and cleared the crease repeatedly. Even using the boards to pass to one another and joining the rush to try and score.

I know some people wanted Paul to get the game puck for what happened on the ice but I wanted to reward David for his great play in net. He did a great job in net.

Looking forward to everyone else's thoughts. Next game this Saturday at 10:40 against the Keller Indians. I also lost a lot of phone numbers due to my phone resetting to September of last year so if you haven't already done so, please send me a text or call me so I can contact you again. Also tomorrow, Thursday, John's band will be in Dallas for a show. Contact me if your going, I'll be there for sure.

Average Joes = Dallas Cowboys

Now with the above subject title I bet you can't figure out where I'm going with this one, so just wait for it. If you check the Dallas Cowboys history books you'll see that they didn't play well, and often lost, when they wore their old blue uniforms in games. We have only scored 1 goal now when we wear our blues. The Cowboys seemed to finally break that string with Coach Johnson, we will break our streak this Saturday night against the Mud Ducks. Not to say they are easy, but both our teams are very new, and I believe we are the better team. But we still have to give it everything we've got.

Thanks to everyone who made it to Fuddruckers for dinner after the game. Chili's and Chedder's was just too crowded. I'd like to plan a few outings like this when we have an earlier game. It seemed like everyone had a good time and we had a few good laughs at dinner. Zee forwarded some pics so I'll try and add a few of them later today or tomorrow.

Congrats to Kent for winning the Player Of The Game Puck.

There will be a lot going on over the next month with the team so stay tuned for some cool announcements. See you all Saturday night at 11:55 in your BLUE jerseys.

When I Look Into The Magic 8 Ball

I see a win in our near future, do you? While we lost to the Jets last week it was great to see the team pull together and continue to battle (notice I didn't use the word fight). Although we were down 5-1 we battled back to make it 6-4 and really finished strong. At some point it's more important to play the game than to worry about the score or what the other team is doing, which is exactly what we did. The Jets, to their credit, played a very clean game along with us.

We have officially lost John for a few weeks while he goes on tour with Tera Melos. He will be back in town Thursday night, February 24th, for a show in the Deep Elm area. I know I'm planning on going and I think Paul is as well. Over the next couple of games lets get a headcount of who can go and support our little drummer boy. Sorry John, couldn't resist.

Keep up the good work. Paul passed the Player Of The Game Puck to Kat for her two goals. Will be interesting to see who wins it tomorrow. We have an early game tomorrow against the Whalers and then the Mud Ducks come calling late next Saturday night.

Scalped And Stung

Needless to say the first 2 games didn't go quite the way we had hoped. Despite the early losses, by looking at the standings, we've played the top 2 teams thus far. Nothing to hang our heads in shame about. So lets put these games behind us and move forward. Rome was not built in a day and our team has been broken down and rebuilt a couple of times with players moving on, adding new players, and others playing new positions. The Indians and Stingers, to their credit, have a consist core of players that have been playing together for literally years, this team was formed just over 6 months ago.

There are several things we need to continue to work on during games. One, keep talking to each other on and off the ice. Forward lines should be talking to each other as much as possible. We will try and keep the lines together as much as possible so that players can gel and learn what each other does. But make sure we are talking on the bench too when you see something that will help each other. Defense needs to talk as well, especially on the ice. Letting someone know that there is someone coming up behind them, telling them to throw the puck around the boards, etc, etc. We've done a pretty good job of yelling or warning teammates of things from the bench, just need to do it on the ice as well.

Our best games are still in front of us. Even if we get down early don't get discouraged. Buckle down, talk to each other, and keep plugging away. We might just surprise ourselves and come back to win a game. Although we lost the game against the Stingers we kept peppering their goalie, and played much better, and outshot them for the game. I know that might seem petty but at least we were still pushing forward.

Brian, unless he's changed his mind, is inviting the team to his place for "The Big Game" this Sunday. More info will be available this Wednesday at our next game.

Congrats to Bruce and Paul for "winning" the Puck Of The Game Award for the first 2 games. The current holder of the puck is more than welcome to decorate it or whatever they wish, but they will pick the next "winner" and we will continue to do this.