Every week , I find myself wondering what might be worth writing about, but eventually end up a few pages later , going : Well, I guess there is always something !!!....
Before talking about the games , I have to mention Martin Desjardins’ nomination as the first " Player of the Month " in the LFA’s history... Such a long-awaited event, that an extra week had to be added and yet another reminder by the league commissioner had to be made so guys would vote ... But now that you know that there is a prize at the end of the line, I'm guessing you'll take it more seriously !
But be careful ! voting for yourself is not allowed, and be advised that security systems are in place to ensure that none of us cheat by " hacking " the website to get "extra votes " ...
Since the stakes are so high, I think that mandatory testing should be installed, also I suspect Marty of " boosting " his performance using coconut milk : I found a few cans lying around, at least once on the player’s bench or again in the «Av’s» room after a game...
Either that or " The league commissioner" could «even the field» by getting another sponsor and add this elixir in our coolers to enhance the performance of a few guys (like me) !
I did a little research on the subject ... check out this link… rather interesting :( http://www.seedguides.info/coconut-milk ) but like anything else there may be undesirable side effects: ( http:/ / chriskresser.com/3-reasons-why-coconut-milk-may-not-be-your-friend )
So be careful Marty! Even with coconut milk : "moderation is always in good taste !” Whoa ! I’m wandering a bit… to say the least !
Now getting back to hockey, I don’t know if it’s the "award ceremony" that took place before the game that pissed off the Czeckers but they seemed determined to prove that even without the " Player of the Month " in their team they were going to win.
With a «one way» start to the game (4-0 after one period) and then by protecting their lead, they guaranteed their victory in the end by scoring in an empty net: Final score of 5-2 ...
This week it was Bertrand Guay-Paquet’s turn to lead the "Grays" with a hat trick ... Add to this a big game by Mike Wees (3 assists) and "spare" John Webb (2 goals) and this is what happens ! Incidentally, I didn’t find an empty can of Coconut milk on the bench nor did I see Marty’s name on the score sheet apart from 3 penalties? ? ? ... I’ll let you come to your own conclusions !
As for the the second game of the night, the Express was ready for anything, knowing the Tomahawks would come out strong having suffered a crushing defeat the previous week ... Unfortunately for the Reds, and despite of goalie Pat Bouchard’s spectacular saves, the Blacks prevailed, led by Julien who celebrated his return with a hat trick ... ( Now here’s another guy that deserves an «extra special» Sheppard’s pie if you ask me... )…as well as a noteworthy performance by veteran Graham Thorne who fore- checked as if his life depended on it ... Not to mention Gio’s usual dizzying performance ending the night with a goal and two assists, and Eric Cormier’s (aka: "Corm") contribution who definitely gave his 150 % (1 goal ,1 assist), a spare that any team would love to have !
Which leads me to another subject: the two teams put new spares to the test in order to eventually fill in the last spots in each team before Christmas ... And unfortunately even though they did pretty well , I have to say their attitude made me cringe . I can’t tell if it's due to stress or to the fact of being in "unknown territory" or again because they feel extra pressure by being evaluated , or by the simple fact that they were not well enough "inhabited" by the" Hockey Brotherhood spirit" , but I was shocked to see a Red spare energetically "massaging" the back of the black spare’s head with his stick as if he wanted to pass it through the ice ... I cringed even more when guys told me that he (the Black spare) asked for it since he speared the Red player behind the leg and that he had done the same thing to another …. Maybe I’m naïve but I hope it wasn’t on purpose (I admit it would be hard to believe)
Honestly gentlemen, even if the guy was on my team , if he really did it on purpose , we should never tolerate such behavior and if a Red (or the Ref for that matter) came to tell me or if I had personally witnessed such a thing, I would have been tempted to tell the guy to leave the game and give him his 20 bucks from my own pocket while making sure he understood that we don’t accept this kind of thing in the LFA ...
Whether it’s Spearing , cross-checking or any other deliberate or intentional stick work it’s just unforgivable in my book and in yours too I guess ... (I hope ! ! )
As I said in an earlier «article»,(which was not translated to English) and I 'm not sure it was well understood : we should never find ourselves in situations where a guy wants to take revenge on another , this is the worst kind of negative energy and we should just want to avoid it much less create it by doing this kind of shit... and that's all!
Well, I can already hear Mimi say that I’m making it sound as if we were a bunch of goons !That said , I wish the Tomahawks get back into their "groove" or just plain find it as soon as possible...As we all know, hockey being what it is, there’s a fine line between winning and losing ! Sooner or later, the pendulum is bound to swing back !
Have a good one ! (or two)
Disclaimer: please don’t judge my English too harshly, I have to translate from French and I use Google translate to go a little faster and then try and make sense of the gibberish that comes out !!! Mind you it’s pretty funny, kind of like instructions that come with Chinese crap you have to put together !....