Today marked the annual return trek of Stefan Klopp and Oliver Koth-Kappus to BUSH. The goal: to play as much hockey as possible. It was a relatively stacked line-up, and the teams we had (for the first six games, anyway) were some of the most even teams we had all year. How would the Vancouver boys deal with readjusting to the Burton rink? Stefan’s rule of thumb is that is takes about three games to rediscover the flow. And he was about right.

Game 1 put the Mitches, Lee, Ben and Nathan against the VRH tandem, Shem, Lyle and K.J. It must have taken a while for the Vancouverites to get their sea legs because this game was over quickly. Lee, Ben, and Mitch D. skated all over their opponents, and Nathan got a two-save shutout. K.J. and Oliver hooked up in Game 2 and mounted a 5-3 comeback before their opponent came right back at them with the same score in Game 3 to win the series. It was already obvious that this line-up of players threw people into defined roles, introducing something called ‘defence’ (I think that’s the word) to the BUSH vernacular. Stefan and Oliver hung back all day and played their roles to perfection. Ben, Shem, and Lee were what you’d call defensive forwards, stepping up front when needed but grinding their opponents down all day.

The squads were rearranged for Game 4. Karl Detta came by to watch, but could not be convinced to play (we’re trying for three generations of Dettas on the court at once in the same game; we haven’t given up on this). Lee, Stefan, Shem, Mitch D. and Nathan went up against Oliver, Lyle, Ben, Mitch Z. and K.J. Game 4 was all Ben; it’s a close call between him and Grenier for the hardest shot in BUSH, but Ben’s shooting accuracy is stellar. The rookie king of all-around play notched three, and his crew won 5-4. The next two games were slugfests pitting K.J. and Ben and their torpedo system on one side against the tic-tac-toe schemes of Lee, Shem and Stefan backed by their own torpedo, Mitch D. Shem broke out with three goals and an assist, and his crew won the last two games 5-4 5-4.

Nathan was done after six games in net, and Mitch Z., playing on four wheels all day, took the opportunity to don the pads. It wasn’t a great start, as he went 6-for-11 in Game 7. Shem and Stefan were still hooked up and led the way toward a Lyle shutout. Teams were quickly amended for Game 8; this would be the last game before dark. Stefan finally started scoring instead of defending and passing here; between him and Mitch Detta, the game was over quickly 5-2, and Mitch Z. got his redemption in net, going 9-for-11.

An amazingly even session meant our top six scorer were all within six points of each other even after eight games. K.J. led the way with 13G-9A with Lee right behind at 8G-12A. K.J. also led the way in hitting goalies in the junk with five nut shots during the session. Mitch Detta took third at 12G-7A and led the session in shots with 50. Stefan had a slow start but really picked up at the end and got 5G-13A. Ben wound up with a slightly Pavel-ish ratio of 12G-5A, odd considering how much defence he played all day. Shem had a career session of 5G-11A and his improvement over the last two sessions has been absolutely amazing (but, after all, that’s why they call him ‘ShemWow!’-made in Lebanon, so you know it’s good). Yes, Oliver really only had four points. He really stuck to defence all day and was just as effective there. In goal, the goalies were hot and cold at times but generally solid. Nathan made enough saves in the second series to just get himself to .800. Lyle finished at .781 and Mitch Z. at .682.

Here are the game scores:
Lee Ben Mitch Z. Nathan Mitch D. def. Stefan Oliver Shem Lyle K.J. 5-0 3-5 5-2
Lee Stefan Shem Mitch D. Nathan def. Oliver Lyle Ben Mitch Z. K.J. 4-5 5-4 5-4
K.J. Shem Ben Stefan Lyle def. Oliver Lee Mitch D. Mitch Z. 5-0
Stefan Oliver Mitch D. Mitch Z. Ben def. Shem K.J. Lee Lyle 5-2

Season Stats: Lee opens his lead up a bit, lying at 186 points. Stefan just nudges past Kyle for second at 163. Mitch Detta took a big bit out of the gap between him and fourth-place Oliver. K.J. needs one point for this third 100-point season. Ben and Shem move up to 13th and 14th. The top five in goals remains static, but Lee is almost level with Kyle 98-95 with Mitch Detta not far behind. K.J. jumps to eighth, becoming the eighth player to notch 50 goals this year. Stefan passes Oliver for second in assists and Shem is up to seventh. Mitch Detta passes Kyle for third in shots. Ben leaps up to third in shooting percentage. Nathan drops to third in save percentage behind Terryn and Laird. Lyle moves into the top five in saves. Stefan passes Bernie for second in games played this year; Lee moves to fourth and Mitch Detta to fifth. Lyle moves to fifth in games goaltended. Lyle ties Joern for second in shutouts; Nathan notches his first of the year. K.J. ties Pat for fifth in three-star points. K.J. falls behind Lorne to fourth in GPG and behind Kyle to third in APG and shots-per-game. Nathan drops the lead in saves-per-game to Terryn; Lyle drops behind Bron to fifth. Stefan’s 13 assists tie for third-best this season.

On the all-time front: Stefan needs 27 points for 1,000. Mitch Detta needs 19 for 300. K.J. passes Bernie for seventh on the all-time goal list. Lee passes Bernie for second in assists, Stefan passes Seamus for fifth, and Mitch Detta passes Simon for 14th. Lee becomes the second player to take 3,000 shots and is fifty behind Lorne for first all-time. Lyle passes Lorne for seventh in saves and in games goaltended. Lee passes Seamus for seventh in all-time games played and Stefan is not too far behind. Nathan ties Laird for second in 80-save sessions at 21, two behind Chris Jackins, while Lyle has seven straight, the second-longest streak ever. He also has three-straight 90-save sessions. Shem scores ten assists and 15 points for the first time. Lee has back-to-back ten-assist sessions. Stefan record 15 points for the 30th time. Ben records his first 15-pointer. Lee’s streak of nine 15-pointers is the second-longest ever; K.J’s is eight and Mitch Detta’s is seven. Lee passes Stefan and Seamus for second on the all-time 20-pointer list with 20; he has three in a row while K.J. has two. Oliver has a consecutive session streak of 21, Mitch Detta’s is at six, and Lee’s is at five.

SDF/GDF: Pat holds court on top for a third straight ranking, while K.J.’s winning session moves him to second. On the GDF, Nathan barely stays ahead of Lorne.

Check out those Records and Honours on the links page before you leave. Of note, Burton Hockey has introduced the Most Improved Player award and a panel has retroactively awarded winners for the previous eight seasons; you can view them along with the rest of the awards on that very page. We’re going again Thursday in BUSH; join us then! We should also thank Nathan’s girlfriend Megan for taking NINETY MINUTES of video footage tonight. Hopefully we can edit that into something!