An abrupt end to the 2008 season meant Vancouver Roller Hockey faded away from the consciousness of the public very quickly. Fortunately, once the long winter ended, it reminded the Burton Hockey crew of the beautiful game. Bernie brought the call-to-arms and Stefan organised a full session on two days’ notice, bringing a plethora of VRH veterans as well as the man who will go down in history as Burton Hockey’s 100th player. Here’s the Kloppster to tell you all about it.

A sunny brisk day at the end of March marked the first installment of Burton Hockey in Vancouver for 2009. All the originals you would expect were there (Lorne, Joern, Bernie, Oliver), along with a few who are turning into regulars (Ryan, Albert, Sam), and finally, one newcomer to Burton Hockey (Scott Edison). Initially we thought we had some balanced teams; however, as new players started to get added to the fold we quickly found out the balance was way out. Unfortunately, soon after started playing we were attacked by soccer players, who wanted us to "share" the rink, by us stopping play and them getting to play. We told them we got there first, and that they should play soccer where it should be played, on grass, not in a hockey rink. Unfortunately they thought otherwise and vowed they would be back to take over the rink. Due to this distraction we decided to lessen our breaks, and just continue to play with the teams we had, which led to Joern getting his first shutout in a good long time. After Joern's shutout we did another sticks in the middle, which again resulted in a complete lopsidedness of teams. After another 2 blowout games, we decided to call it quits as a few players dropped out, and the soccer players were back looking to play.

Still, all in all a good first session to get us out there and playing. Hopefully the weather will continue to improve so we can get this going more regularly. A few funnies from the day: Lorne bought a goalie stick blade at Canadian Tire for . I remarked that, "It was probably his best purchase of the day." After having completely agreed with me he goes to bend the stick blade, and ends up snapping the blade in half. Second gaff happened during the game, Lorne makes a glove save on Sam, then proceeds to sweep the puck out to one of his players only to put it in his own net.

Thanks for the update, Stefan! An excellent, if somewhat convoluted start, to the tenth season of Burton Hockey. The big story here is Burton’s 100th player, Scott, tying for first star despite not showing up until Game 3, recording an excellent 9G-5A in just four games. Is he another new star on the rise? The man he tied is one of Burton Hockey’s oldest stars, Oliver, with a session uncharacteristically skewed towards goals for the circuit’s top d-man, 10G-4A. Sam was on fire in the first series with 8G-2A, enough to put him into third. In goal, Joern recorded the first shutout in the league in over a year-and-a-half en route to an .826 session and 90 saves. Lorne was excellent in the second series and closed the gap on Joern, finishing at .810 and 94 saves.
Here are the game results:
Sam, Oliver, Ryan, Joern def. Jordan, Bernie, Stefan, Lorne 5-3
Sam, Oliver, Ryan, Joern def. Jordan, Albert, Bernie, Stefan, Lorne 5-4
Sam, Oliver, Ryan, Scott, Joern def. Jordan, Albert Bernie, Stefan, Lorne 5-2 5-0
Oliver, Jordan, Scott, Lorne def. Ryan, Sam, Bernie, Stefan 5-1
Oliver, Jordan, Scott, Lorne def. Ryan, Bernie, Stefan 5-1

Season Stats: Being the first session of the season, naturally the session stats ARE the season stats, with Scott and Oliver tied for the scoring lead over Sam. Stefan, last years’ runaway scoring champion, lies fourth, although he leads in assists. Oliver holds the goal scoring lead, and Joern is top goaltender despite Lorne leading in total saves. Scott is easily the leader in the offensive per-game categories.

On the all-time front: Stefan is eighteen points behind Bernie for fifth all-time, and becomes the first player to record 400 points in VRH alone. Ryan needs twelve points for 100. Oliver becomes the third player to reach 500 goals. Stefan is eight goals behind Seamus for fourth all-time. Stefan is thirteen assists behind Justin for sixth. Oliver passes Lee for second in shots. Lorne becomes the ninth goaltender to record 1,000 saves, and is a session or two away from catching Seamus and Lyle for seventh and eighth. Oliver needs to play seven games to become the first player to reach 700. Joern ties Justin for thurd in all-time shutouts. Oliver passes Stefan for fourth in all-time three-star points, and is twenty points behind Seamus for third. Joern records back-to-back 80-save sessions. Stefan plays his 17th consecutive session, Joern his 13th, Oliver his 11th, and Lorne his eighth. The year-long inactivity from BUSH represents its effective dissolution, and Seamus’ consecutive session streak is declared ended at 23 retroactive to last March, leaving Stefan’s streak as the longest active. Lorne, Joern, Stefan, Bernie and Oliver are the five players remaining who have played all ten Burton seasons. Laird and Lee could still add to this list, although Lee relocating to Castlegar in the offseason has effectively ended BUSH for time being.

SDF/GDF: With the lack of sessions last year, the SDF and GDF only have nine sessions on them instead of the usual ten. Lorne is on top of the SDF for his fifth straight session and thirtieth overall, while Oliver moves into second ahead of Stefan and Scott debuts seventh. Bron is ahead by a mile for the third straight session.

Check out those Records and Honours before you leave. Here’s to a fantastic tenth season!