JCC Floor Hockey

 

Juranka's Corner

April 4, 2005

the entire season results
come down to just
a couple of games

everybody gets into the playoffs
and then the elimination begins and
it always seems a bit haphazard
as to who goes on and who doesn't

the grey eminence had an amazing year and
a brilliant playoff run which saw chris chambers
rise to the top of the scoring stats

how can we forget how close they were
to eliminating the ronnellys in two games
and without tanner

i believe they were up by two with
less than 5 minutes to play

GAME THREE
EMINENCE vs. RONNELLYS

the ronnellys had a full squad
and the eminence were without gabe

it was mike's birthday and
his family was watching from the track

it was elimination day
so everybody felt that buzz
like a cool chilly breeze

if the ronnellys could be
almost eliminated without tanner
then they were
definitely the underdogs
going into this game

being the underdog is always
an advantage psychologically

jamie who had scored the overtime goal
to keep the ronnellys alive in their last game
began the scoring this game
and scored twice before the half

from the track we could feel
that it was slowly becoming
the ronnellys game

adam was on fire in the first half,
assisting twice and scoring

mike was also having a great game
getting clear and taking shots
but the pressure of the ronnellys
was unrelenting and they took a
4-2 lead into the second half

both of the first period eminence goals
were powerplay efforts

harris from silverman and tanner
and then
tanner from roy and chris

harris and tanner would account
for all of the eminence scoring
this evening

at no point was the game
out of reach for the mighty eminence
and to see tanner running and
grunting twice as much as usual
was spectacular

jeff silver finally got on the score-sheet
with the first goal of the second half

as the gap began to open,
the ronnellys began to play
their typical high pressure
mixed with random outbursts
type of game

its like mixing hypnosis
with a sucker punch

a gorgeous goal by lev
from ronny put the ronnellys
two up on eminence with
minutes left to go

eminence was not going to give up
and fought until the last moment
when a very tired tanner
coughed up the ball
to a very tired silver
right in front of the empty net

although mike stopped the first two shots
he couldn't stop the third

with less than 10 seconds left to play
the eminence was finally beaten

it was another amazing pressure-cooker

i hadn't seen mike over-exert himself
since the all-star game

he finished with 2 goals, 2 assists
harris had a hat-trick
chris had three assists which would
be great for us mere mortals
but after his playoff run he
expected a lot more from himself

its been a great pleasure getting to know
chris and paul and the entire eminence team
has played well and showed great composure
right to the very end

although chris has mentioned that
he may not be able to rejoin us next year,
the league is talking to his agents
and like yashin, we think he has
some unfulfilled obligations to honour

alan silverman, the role model of the mature players
raised the bar again in this year's playoffs
with perhaps the two best games of his career
in these semis

in their first games of the season,
black faced grey and won
by the exact same score, 8 to 5

MELLOW BEES vs. the ZEPs

somehow i had the impression that
the bees were always beating the zeps
but i just went back to the regular season
results and discovered
that both teams beat each other twice
and the bees goal total was only
one goal higher than the zeps
and
the number of goals is astounding

28 zep goals and 29 bees goals
in four games which means
either team scored an average
of seven times against each other
each game

although the first meeting was
a narrow 6-5 zep victory,
all the rest of the games would
be lop-sided
nov 8 - bees 13-7
dec 13 - zeps 10-1
feb 7 - bees 10-5

we had all been warned by steve
that he wouldn't be able to make it
because another one of those
beer ads had him reserved for the night

with that humbling thought in mind
as well as the false perception that
the bees always had our number,
the zeps approached this game
with a bit of trepidation to put it mildly

the first half was a total grind

it felt like the bees were going to wear us down
knowing that without steve we wouldn't
have any legs by the second half

josh was calling everything
because as we all knew, this
could become a game
that got out of hand

during the regular season
the way to beat the bees
seemed to be simply to have a
strong start and let the
bickering behind their bench
accelerate their implosion

it wasn't going to happen this time
because without steve we were
amazed and relieved to be
taking a tie into the half

puya opened the scoring
and then assisted on paul's goal
gregus scored the third bees goal

vince and i combined for the first
zep goal in a wild race for a bouncing
ball in the slot

three all and with
half of the game behind us
in walks steve which
for the zeps was a little like
the return of our savior

it may have been his hair colour
but i could swear he had a halo
or aura or something

to have steve arrive with fresh legs
after such an intense battle
shifted the psychologically momentum

sure enough steve scored first and
then assisted on aron's goal
which he scored shorthanded

this is when the zeps started to feel
that this would be their game

this is also when things started
to get weird around the bees bench

its true that the game seemed rougher than usual
but in all fairness, the roughness never
came close to the playoff games of old
when you had to be looking over your shoulder

twice i stepped on a stick and fell and
although during the year this would
usually be a penalty i got used to the fact
that in the playoffs it was too difficult
to judge if i stepped on it intentionally
or not

gregus assisted on amir's goal
and then scored off a pass from sander

the funk that plagued the zeps
was happening to the bees
because they shot over the top of the net
on three occasions where they had
totally empty nets to shoot at

after the game we discussed the fact
that the zeps have an annoying habit
of showing their exuberance by making
a lot of noise as they start to smell victory

after thinking about this again,
weeks after the event,
i have to admit that the
exuberance did get the better of us

especially in an elimination game
its important to remember that
our victory is someone else's defeat
and it does take more class
to handle such a victory with grace

the zeps felt like they had pulled themselves
from the abyss but at the same time
the bees must have felt like they
lost what should have been a sure win

aron had a hat-trick and two apples
mark and i had two goals and two oranges

mitch played the game of his life

most memorably with only a few minutes left
he ran up and down the court single-handedly
eating up really crucial minutes

larry had assists in both games

the game ended in the most disgraceful way
with a number of bees blaming the ref
for their loss

the stats simply do not bear that out

until near the end of the game both sides
had the exact same number of penalties
and by that time the zeps were leading by three goals

in fact both teams only scored once on powerplays

aron scored shorthanded

all the other goals were even strength

i distinctly remember losing games
during the regular season and
silently blaming the ref

i think that its human nature to feel
victimized when you lose

i don't ever remember thinking twice
about the officiating when we won

THE FIRKIN
the names of our two bartenders are
karrie and andrea

is that a weird coincidence or what ?

its like the jcc hockey hall of fame
went out to get two women with the
same first names as the two most famous
jcc floor hockey females just so that
the boys even after some drinks
will be able to remember their names

either that or
its just a coincidence

twenty one players attended this crucial
firkin event

it was soooooo crucial
because the last game ended
on such a bad note

some of the disgruntled players
were there to vent their frustration
and it was amazingly healing

its sad when any team is eliminated

in a perfect world we could play
through the summer and for ten years in a row

its sad to watch friends end their season
and have to start watching from the sidelines

what an amazing year amir has had
and gregus and chris and tanner
and the list goes on

i hope sander brings back the head tape style
again next year

the league just
wouldn't be the same
without it

in the firkin all of the incidents get discussed

one of the players at the bathurst jcc
had died while playing floor hockey
and his funeral had been held that day

this is major reality check
especially for those of us who witnessed
ed's death and it reinstills
the absolutely fundamental principles
of safety in our league

i really appreciate it when josh
starts to call everything

i know its all for the better
and i know that there will be a lot
that he misses

often things happen behind the play
and sometimes we just interpret
the incident differently

i never saw steve steamroll into jesse
but jesse sure saw it happen
and expressed it at the firkin

it doesn't change the results but
he gets it off his chest and we honour it

no one wants to see anyone get injured

after all is said and done
the ref has the least appreciated job
and the most important

without him we would quickly
fall into chaos

i've never gotten a parking ticket either
where i'd go up to the cop and say
"good call man, i've only been here
for 15 minutes but your are absolutely right
to give me that ticket, good job"

the firkin turnout was amazing

goalies - jesse
sistas - andrea jeff
eminence - chris roy harris
ronnellys - noah adam jamie ron
bees - sander paul mark amir

and the winner is
zeps - whole team including tim

three hours to go before game time

gotta eat some pasta !


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