Ah, yes! Burton hockey is back for a brand-new season, and Ambleside, West Vancouver, the new focal point of the circuit, played host to the first session. Here is the Kloppster to tell your ass all about it (edited for spelling and grammar as is to be expected with Stefan- just like Grade 10 English!).

After over 50 days of rain the clouds parted, and Vancouver was treated to a few weeks of sunshine. Taking full advantage of this was the Vancouver division. Session today was a mix of originals and rookies and a few returnees. From the originals there was Bernie, Joern, Lorne and Stefan. Rookies saw the joining of Jason (from the Vancouver Moose), Carlos (goalie for the Moose), and Andrew. Last but not least was the sophomore session of the Russian Commander Bron.
First 2 games saw Jason, Joern and Stefan take on Andrew, Bernie, and Lorne. Both games were pretty much blowouts with the two Moose teammates (Stefan and Jason) and possible future teammate Joern move the puck around better than Sedins on the powerplay. Stefan probably got the majority of his goals on tic tac toe plays, that light up the otherwise stellar goaltending of Bron.
The next series saw the infamous "sticks in the middle" produce a team of Jason, Stefan and Lorne. This was quickly rectified by a trade of Lorne for Bernie to produce two very even teams.
The first game we saw a continuation of the teammate clicking between Stefan and Jason. While on the other team Lorne and Joern started working there organisms and forced the game into overtime. Team Bernie, Stefan, Jason finally netted a goal past the Brazilian Ruzza to win the first game of the session.
The second game saw just how well the Orn line could produced by netting 5 quick goals with each Joern and Lorne factoring in point wise on every single goal. They couldn't have done it thought without the amazing goaltending coming from Moose goalie Ruzza. Carlos withstood breakaway after 2 on 1 after ripping shots to only allow a total of 3 goals against his high scoring moose teammates.
The final game of the day had Jason and Stefan finally find an answer to the Brazilian wall as they continued to click to finish off the series in a 5-3 win.
The end of the game featured shootouts as usual to see Jason roof 4 shots. 2 on Carlos and 2 on Bron respectably. In the final shot of the game Lorne pulled a fantastic move on Bron to net the final goal of the day.
All in all it was a fantastic opening to the 2006 season. The sun was out, the legs were fresh and the games plentiful. Hopefully this will turn into a regular event on sunny weekends.

Thank you, Stef; excellent write-up. Stefan also had an excellent session with 13 goals and seven assists to lead the way. Jason was right behind in his first session with 9 goals and 10 assists. Joern, as usual, was very giving with 5 goals and 12 assists. Lorne lead in shots with 51. In net, both goalies were excellent; Carlos posted .848 to Bron�s .804.

Useless Stats: Normally this is where the season stats recap goes, but that�s pretty fruitless here being the first session of 2006. On the all-time front, Lorne had to wait over the Christmas break to finally do it, but he has overtaken Oliver for Burton�s all-time scoring lead, and is now only seven points away from being the first player to break 900 points. Bernie moves to within 17 points of Justin for third all-time. Stefan ties Joern for eighth all-time in scoring, and this could be the battle of the year in VRH as both pass the 400-point mark. Stefan passes Seamus for fifth in all-time shots while Bernie is now just six shots behind Seamus. Bron now has the requisite number of shots against to claim Burton�s all-time leading save-percentage at .837, 19 points ahead of Seamus; as well, he is averaging 26.5 saves per game (though this is due in part to the abnormal shot total of the last one-game session of 2005). Bernie becomes the second player to reach 500 games while Joern needs 11 for 300 and Stefan needs 11 for 200. This is Stefan�s fourth straight 15-point session in full-length sessions. Jason�s 19 points is the fourth-highest total ever for a rookie. Jason�s 10 assists tie him with Isaac Schroeder for the most ever posted in a rookie session and it took Jason one less game to do so. Carlos�s .848 in net is the third-best session for a rookie goaltender. Bernie has now played in nine straight sessions while Lorne is at six and Joern five. Lorne, Joern, Stefan and Bernie become the first players to play in all seven Burton seasons; Justin, Oliver and Lee have all year to join them in that elite group. On the SDF, Lorne was a bit behind in this session, and that is just enough to hand the top ranking to Seamus for just the second time in his career. Stefan and Joern both move up while Jason debuts inside the top 10. Dallas and Kyle both fall off the ranking as the VRH gang slowly takes over. Over on the GDF, brother Laird is still on top for the fifth straight week. Don�t forget those Records and Honours, and let�s hope for more hockey and continued sunny weather for VRH next weekend.