After 2 months of solid coastal rain, VRH finally received a blessing from the gods with a beautiful sunny Saturday. Due to the cancellation of 2 Brazilian players, we were left with 2-2 or 3-2 full court numbers for the entire session. A new rink at Robson Park right in the heart of Vancouver was used for this session; the rink is a fair bit larger than Ambleside, and the nets are also smaller, close to McCormack Park size. Overall the rink was ok, with the main issue being some small pebbles on the playing field and overall a somewhat rougher surface. The surface issue caused more missed passes and bobbled stick handles, which further helped the two goaltenders in their very impressive performances today. All in all it was great to finally get out there and get a decent session together. Great joy was had by all!

SERIES 1:
Bernie, Lorne, [Tony - missed first 2 games], Bron(G) VS Stefan, Andrew, Joern(G)
G1: BLB 1 - SAJ 5
G2: BLB 2 - SAJ 5
G3: BLTB 5 - SAJ 2
G4: BLTB 5 - SAJ 0
G5: BLTB 5 - SAJ 1
The first series started with Stefan and Andrew having a lot of jump, with Bernie and Lorne having a hard time keeping pace on the large rink. However, after some car trouble Tony finally arrived and joined team BLB resulting in a 3 on 2 situation. The extra man proved too difficult for team SAJ to handle, and team BLTB won the next two games easily. For the last game it was decided to play 2 on 2 with team BLTB having a sub; despite this new arrangement team BLTB went on to win the game 5-1, thereby winning the series. Both goaltenders played exceptionally well, intelligently making use of both the smaller nets and the rougher surface.

SERIES 2:
Stefan, Bernie, Bron(G) VS Lorne, Tony, Joern(G)
G1: SBB 4 - LTJ 5
G2: SBB 5 - LTJ 3
After the first series Andrew had to leave to his 'gay street fighting' lessons, so new 2 on 2 teams were created. With everyone getting more tired this series was much more wide open with many more odd man rushes and breakaways. The first game was very close with team LTJ just squeaking out ahead. For the second game, team SBB really turned up the energy early on and got a healthy 3-1 lead. They eventually went on to win the game with a lucky bounce, but their fourth goal was the one that created the most controversy. Numerous times Joern had played the puck far out of his crease and gotten very lucky in not allowing a goal on a giveaway; once again Joern played the puck out of his crease and Stefan came in at him full speed like he would if any player had the puck, at the last moment Joern tried to protect the puck with his body and Stefan ran into him and came away with the puck, as Joern was lying helplessly on the ground Stefan scored a wrap around goal. Despite much heated discussion the goal was eventually counted.

Thanks, Bern! What a great session to introduce a great new venue for Burton Hockey. I am just at the continued dominance from Lorne and Stefan. Lorne rules the day with 19G, 4A on 71 shots. Ah, the Pavel ratios of old! Stefan was right there as usual with 12G, 8A on 78 shots as he dishes out his standard unholy ratio of shots-per-game. Everyone gets three-star points today as Tony, Andrew and Bernie each get ten points, Tony and Andrew doing it in two less games than the others. Bron start his third season of Burton with an excellent .811 including a shutout. Joern wasn’t far behind at .786. Hopefully goalies are rounding into form this year in Burton now.

Season Stats: As big a gulf as we are seeing between the top three scorers in BUSH and the rest of the pack, VRH sessions this year are even more disparate between Lorne and Stefan and the rest of the pack. They each take a big bite out of the massive gap between them and the three BUSH leaders as they close to within 30 points of leading scorer Seamus. PPG-wise, Lorne and Stefan are untouchable this year so far. Perhaps even more astounding is that despite playing only half the games the BUSH players have, Lorne is only three goals out of the goalscoring lead this season (he’s a full GPG ahead of second-place Stefan). Assists, however, are a different story, with only Stefan appearing in the top five. How is all happening? The answer is in the shots column. BUSH is experiencing the biggest shot drought in history, while Stefan and Lorne are far above the norm at 8.13 and 7.86 shots-per-game respectively; basically, they are literally putting twice as many shots on net as the top BUSH players. Goaltending is not playing a role in that statistic as shooting percentages are high in both leagues; it’s safe to say goaltending hasn’t been stellar this year with only Brodie and Bron breaking .800 after six sessions. It’s still early on, of course. Lorne hands the shooting percentage lead over to Oliver. Brodie is microscopically ahead of Bron for first in goaltending. Joern moves into second in saves; Bron into fifth. Bron becomes the third goalie this year to record a shutout. Stefan falls behind Seamus into second in APG. Lorne’s 23 points this session ranks fifth-highest this season, but his 19 goals easily rank first. Stefan’s 12 goals rank fifth. It goes without saying that Stefan and Lorne’s shot totals are one-two so far this year. Bron’s session just misses being the best of the year by about .004. Joern’s .786 ranks fifth. Joern’s 99 saves rank third: Bron’s 90 saves rank fourth.

On the all-time front: Bernie closes to within eleven points of Justin for fourth in points. Tony passes 100 points; Andrew needs ten for 100. Lorne has 666 goals! Of course, any biblical scholar worth his/her salt will tell you that 616 is the actual number of the beast. Lorne needs needs one assist for 400. Stefan needs eleven for 300, and is seven behind Joern for seventh all-time. Stefan passes Justin for fifth in all-time shots. Lorne passes Dustin Marchischuk for fifth in shooting percentage. Bron goes back over .800 all-time and passes Brodie for fifth in all-time save percentage. Lorne is two games behind Justin for fourth in all-time games played. Bron ties Chris for fifth in all-time shutouts. Lorne is just ten three-star points behind Lee for first all-time. Stefan becomes the sixth player to record 300 three-star points. Bron falls just a smidgen behind K.J. for first in saves-per-game. Lorne records his eighth consecutive ten-goal session and is four sessions away from Robert’s record. Stefan’s streak is at six, the third-longest streak ever. This also marks three straight 15-goals sessions for Lorne. Lorne has nine consecutive 15-pointers, two away from Lee’s record. Stefan is at six straight in that category as well. Stefan records his fourth straight 20-pointer, one away from Dallas’ record. Lorne’s streak there is at three. Bron records his third-straight 90-save full-length session; he is the only goaltender to accomplish this in VRH. Bernie’s consecutive session streak goes to nine, Lorne’s goes to seven.

SDF/GDF: VRH’s session today gets added to the Wednesday BUSH session to produce the final rankings for the week. Lorne’s great session thus unseats Seamus from the top of the SDF. It doesn’t do anything to the top of the GDF, as Bron was already solidly number one, but Joern does move up to sixth.

This could be the last VRH session for a while if Stefan goes over to BUSH for a month. Regardless, I will be in Burton next week to write-up some live stats from BUSH. Hopefully they can get in another session between now and then! Don’t forget the Records and Hobours page in the Links section.