The hibernation is over, the pre-season games on foot have been played and today, Burton United Socialist Hockey breaks the record for earliest start, albeit by a day.

The weather has been unpredictable to say the least with houses on Alexander flooded from recent rain and meltdown. We took advantage of this mainly sunny, windy day for our first on-skates excursion. The rink still has about a foot and a half wall of snow behind the bench all the way along the entry side; behind the nets on the park side also resides a half-foot and the rink side facing the baseball field has about the same. The concession stand goal is cleared off entirely making it easier to handle the puck behind the net there. The snow made for some interesting loss of balance and wet feet on all fronts.

After the stick toss we were on our way. Justin, K.J. and Oli with Nathan in net would face Seamus, Steve and Graeme with Chris in goal. Jackins was a little shaky letting in 10 goals on 25 shots in this one as Nathan's team cruised to back to back 5-1's. Justin and K.J. with 4 goals and 3 assists in this series leading the way.

The second series was a 1-1 tie in games as we switched it up when Mitch arrived. Seamus, Oli, Steve and Nathan would storm game 1 with a 5-2 victory against Justin, Graeme and K.J. only to be shut out by Chris 5-0 in the second. Graeme with 3 and 2 and Justin with 1 and 4 led the way in this one.

With Mitch inserted we found our most balanced teams as Steve, K.J. and Oli with Chris would face Seamus, Justin, Graeme and Mitch with Nathan. Game one was our first overtime game of the year with Graeme breaking the deadlock finally for a 5-4 victory. In game two the effects of a subless team showed as Justin cruised to victory yet again in a 5-1 rout that was closer than the score would indicate. Seamus led the way in this series with 2 goals and 7 assists in the two games. Hopefully we can use this kickstart to get some early gaming on; only time will tell if BUSH can withstand the recent controversies regarding Lee Orr.

Thanks, Seam! BUSH picks up where VRH cannot, and gets going on a partially snow-covered McCormack Park to get their season going. Justin led the way with 8G, 10A. K.J. wasn’t too far behind with 9G, 7A. Seamus picked up third star with only 3G but also 10A. Shot totals were far below the Burton norms. The goaltenders showed some rust with Nathan beating Chris .788 to .702. The big story, though, was that defending scoring champion Lee Orr was not there. This session was organized without him, and it is all but confirmed that he will be moving to VRH sometime this year. Not only will this basically make the two leagues even in talent, it also makes the scoring race very interesting. With another skater, VRH will find it easier to organize sessions, and the competition between Lee, Lorne and Stefan should bring some intensity to their sessions as they race for the scoring title. On the flipside, BUSH would still be expected to play a few more (due to the advantage to playing more on weekdays), and players like Justin and Seamus should have bigger shots at winning the scoring title.

Season Stats: The first BUSH session of 2007 had three fewer games than the first VRH session (which seems like years ago at this point), so the scoring levels aren’t quite as high. Justin and K.J. slot in third and fourth in season scoring. Only Steve lies in the top five in shots from the BUSH crew, as the shot totals in this session were abnormally low. K.J. debuts second in shooting percentage. Nathan moves to the top of the goaltending list, just ahead of Laird. Chris is all alone on the 2007 shutout list.

On the all-time front: Oliver becomes the first player to pass 1,100 points, while Justin becomes the sixth player to reach 700. Oliver closes to within two goals of Seamus for third all-time. K.J. passes 300 goals and is eleven behind Bernie for seventh all-time. Seamus is eleven assists behind Lorne for fourth all-time. Graeme passes 200 assists. Mitch passes Kyle Grenier for 17th in all-time scoring. Justin is 50 shots behind Stefan for fifth all-time. Chris passes 3,000 saves and is 130 saves behind Laird for the all-time lead. Nathan is not far behind as he only needs four saves for 3,000. Justin needs nine games for 400. Seamus passes Joern for sixth in games played. Chris passes Laird for first in games goaltended. Nathan needs eight games to reach 200 games goaltended. Nathan drops from third to fifth in saves-per-game. Justin and Oliver join the ranks of those who have played in all eight Burton seasons. The third-longest consecutive session streak in Burton history is over, as Lee’s streak ends at 25. Seamus now has the longest active streak at 18. Justin is at 14. On the SDF, Lee continues to lead as Seamus moves up to fourth, K.J. to fifth and Justin to sixth as Dallas drops to ninth. Seamus continues to lead the GDF. Chris moves back up to seventh.

The season is slowly falling into place, and no one has any idea what expect. Hopefully the session will come in fast and furious from this point.