Seriously, we have had the equivalent of two teams in terms of "SUBS" on Saturday and in the previous weekend as well. Sixteen! And I did not count the new goalie in. On top of that, it was their first time for some with us. Try to balance the teams with the schedule of some who are available at 4h30 but neither at 3h00 or 6h00. Would you like an apple turnover with that?! I sometime feel like a travel agent booking a flight for mr wonderfull. We are lucky to have as many reservists as we do but “JEEZE”, how can we see if the teams make sense when they are totally disemboweled week after week. Note that it’s not such a big deal, we still have plenty of time to deal with it but it would be nice to have all of our players at the same place at the same time, which could also allow us to take our much talked about group picture for our FB and twitter accounts.

It would be especially nice for the locker room spirit. So far, I have lived my weekends in SUBORAMA and I have had a hard time remembering who’s who walking around the team rooms.  With now the surprising number of 299 subs, (with 16 Eric's among them) and 119 goaltenders in our contact list, I sometimes wonder when entering different locker rooms if that team is part of our league. To have so many members results in guys greeting me here and there around town and I sometimes have a hard time figuring out where I know them from. Just as some girls from the Cegep and university era that I greet in the streets, to later figure out that we had a photography class together, back in the days of the darkrooms, but that’s another story. At this rate, I am going to have to ask subs to wear name tags.

Strangely for a third year in a row, we lost a goalie after the first game of the season. In this case, Benoit Hogue, now ex-goaltender for the Shamrocks, who experienced a knee injury and will have to be away from the game for six to eight weeks and maybe longer.  Hearing the news, I explained him that this situation was going to compromise the evenness of the teams, which we want to reach before approximately eight weeks. Since a goaltender is often the cornerstone of a team, this long-term injury made impossible the analysis of his club in comparison with the other teams in the LFA. Benoit understood the complexity of the problem and as a good prince, he granted to leave his position to someone else for the good of the league and its members, and I am thankful to him for his open-mindness and gesture.

Luckily we had three goalies backstage, including Patrick " poker face " Bouchard, who had decided to pursue his career with us at the last minute, letting me know about is decision 45 minutes before the draft, which did not leave us enough time to reconsider the preformed teams. The misfortune of one makes the happiness of another and this weekend, Patrick retied the knot with competition with his  former team, the Shamrocks, and delivered a robust performance in a tied game, allowing us to live our first ever shoot-outs thath was very exciting and appreciated, trusting the numerous comments I received on that matter. Six players set off on both sides until Eric Drapeau from the Avengers scored the winning goal.

Aside from this encounter, the Vipers faced the Czechers in a game which I had to put on the goalie equipment for the Vipers, while waiting for their goalie to show-up. I then crossed-over, jumped in my player gear an ended the game as a defense with the Czechers since they were missing a man. A premiere in my case and possibly in the world of hockey. To close the evening, before heading to our traditional After Game, this time at Mc Carold’s pub located nearby, with more then twenty players, girlfriends and sisters gathered, the Tomahawks faced-off against the Loggers in a one-way game where once again, despite four replacements, the men in red (The Tom’s) had the upper hand over their opponents who, it is necessary to mention, didn’t have their most threatening forwards available.

In a few games, we will reconsider our teams and see if changes are necessary, which seems to be the case, going by what I saw and heard in the past two weeks.

Have a good one!

JFD (AS TRANSLATED BY STEPHANIE BEAUPARLANT)