The return of Seamus and Graeme for a few short days was cause enough to organise a Thursday session. Throw in Nathan Wiebe, Oliver, Ben and Lee, and you have the most positionally-sound line-up of skaters ever fielded in a single session. Shem declared his groin healed enough to platoon the pipes, and thus all that was needed was Justin. And so we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Despite a scheduled 6:00 start time, the caravan didn’t even depart Casa del Gordon until 6:40, leading to a lecture on the benefits of promptness from your humble statistician which went over like a lead balloon, Graeme’s cheery outlook not helping. After an obligatory stop at the Valley Food Store, it was 6:50 before Nakusp was left behind in the rear-view mirror and 7:15 before the stragglers made it to McCormack to be greeted by an impatient crew of hockey players. To top it off, Graeme found that his wheel bearings had conveniently rusted shut in his six-week absence, leading to a full bearing replacement. By the time the gang was able to start play, it was 7:45. This would not be a long session.

Shem, exasperated by the growing amount of crap accumulating ‘neath the bench, took it upon himself to remove the bench (along with said crap) from the rink entirely, opening up the rink even further. Throw in the six skaters we had lined up, and the session was indeed typified by sound positional play, set passes, and responsible defence. All three games went 30 minutes. Seamus, Graeme, Ben and Justin won the first game 5-3 after coming back from 2-0, and took the second game 5-4 after letting Lee, Nathan, Oliver and Shem back into the game midway through. Justin was quite good in this game in particular. Game 3 saw Seamus and Ben team up again, this time with Oliver and Shem, to win 5-3. At this point, it was too dark, and the session ended. It wasn’t an especially intense session, but it was fundamentally sound and enjoyable to watch and play. It was probably the closest thing to a conventional hockey game (i.e. the type you’d watch on television) you’ll see in Burton, which is a true compliment to the players.

The even two-way play of the session was reflected in the statistics. For the first time ever, all six skaters on the rink netted a star. Of course, Ben took his de rigueur first star; finishing with 8G-5A on 32 shots in the three games. He was the only player in double digits tonight. Lee took second star with nine points on 34 shots. Seamus, Oliver, Graeme, and Nathan all had eight points each to tie for third. In goal, it was even closer; both Shem and Justin had 52 saves, but Shem let in one more goal than Justin. Thus, Justin finished at .813 while Shem finished at .800 even.

Here are the game scores:
Seamus Graeme Ben Justin def. Lee Nathan Oliver Shem 5-3 5-4
Seamus Shem Oliver Ben def. Lee Graeme Nathan Justin 5-3

Season Stats: Lee needs just one point to become the first player to have multiple 300-point seasons. Ben needs eight for 200. Ben passes K.J. for fifth in goals and needs two for 100. He is six assist behind Kyle for fourth. Lee passes 700 shots; Ben passes K.J. for sixth. Lee passes Stefan for second in games played and needs one for 100. Shem passes Lyle for third in games goaltended and needs three more to tie Joern for second. Ben jumps into a tie with Oliver for fourth in three-star points. Ben passes Troy and K.J. for fourth in PPG. Lee passes K.J. for fourth in shots-per-game.

On the all-time front: Oliver needs 19 points for 1,500. Lee passes Lorne for second in all-time points, 1,269-1,266. Seamus is six points behind Bernie for fifth all-time. Ben passes Ryan for 18th all-time, needs five points to catch Dallas for 17th, and needs eight points for 200. Oliver needs 19 goals for 600. Oliver becomes the first player to score 900 assists. Justin needs nine assists for 400. Oliver needs 23 shots on goal for 3,000. Ben passes 400 shots on goal. Shem is seven saves behind K.J. for tenth all-time. Lee passes Laird for fifth in games played. Shem passes Brodie for 12th in games goaltended. Ben jumps to 16th in three-star points and cements himself as the all-time leader in APG. Since there were only three games played, the session was not long enough to count against scoring streaks. Oliver’s consecutive session streak hits 27. Lee’s goes to eleven; Shem’s to eight; Ben’s to six. Mitch’s streak ends at eleven. Lee’s 150 goals is the third-highest total in a single season ever. His 149 assists are second-best in a single year; Oliver’s 137 are sixth. Lee’s 732 shots on goal ranks third for single seasons all-time, as do his 140 three-star points.

SDF/GDF: Pat’s on top of the SDF for an ninth consecutive ranking, but Ben continues his climb toward the top, moving up into second. Nathan jumps up into the top 12 despite not having played a full complement of sessions. Dom stays pat in top of the GDF for ranking number three. Bron takes a small hit from fourth to seventh.

Don’t forget check out those Records and Honours on the Links page before you leave. More BUSH action is headed your way Sunday.