About three weeks ago, while thinking up plans and dreams for the much-bandied-about ‘DecaSession’ in 2010 to celebrate Burton Hockey’s tenth anniversary, the suggestion of a BUSH SuperSession for this season was brought up. Lee Orr went to work conceptualising and organising, and the weekend of 15-16 August was chosen. This was seen to be an optimal date given the current bounty of high-skilled players in BUSH at the moment. There would be hockey, there would be barbecue, there would be alcohol – all of the necessary ingredients for a true SuperSession. And it would have to go long – very long. If it was going to happen, there would be no half-assing it. It would have to start at lunch and go until dusk. This session was designed to be a celebration, and it was designed to set a new standard for quality and for volume. Lee planned this with the full intention of demolishing every volume-based record in the Burton Hockey annals.

As of Saturday, seventeen players were confirmed. Now, it’s always good to have a lot of players, but seventeen? That’s a bit crazy. That’s enough for four teams, let alone two. There would be a lot of sitting around of a lot of people. Fortunately, though, this is BUSH, where things work themselves out; in this case, it worked itself out in the form of a wedding party Saturday night, where many of the expected players (and two in particular) got so unbelievably annihilated that playing was not seen to be an option. There were also, as per usual, a handful of last-minute dropouts (family, wives, ‘I don’t feel like it’, and so on). Everything was up in the air Sunday at noon when it was time to depart. Oh, the joy of a not-entirely-lucid/rational Graeme taking 45 seconds to move the eight feet from the couch to the door in nothing but his Joe Boxers at 1pm on a Sunday, politely declining to join us on the trip to Burton. Yeah, it was probably for the best. He’d sleep it off a bit longer and then join us later in the afternoon. And what of Seamus, who was fairly involved in the planning of said session? Well, we shrugged our shoulders and simply said he was a better man than we were to give this day up. No Bitch Award for him on this day, no, sir. That would go to Laird, who just never showed at all.

And, so, fuelled by the power of Oasis one-litre juice cartons and a burning desire to see something amazing go down at the ALHS Archives Arena at John McCormack Memorial Park, the procession continued down Highway 6. Naturally, equipment had to go flying out of the back, and by the time we got onto the road again, we were stuck behind an RV doing 70. It should never take 30 minutes to drive to Burton, but it did. And when we arrived there were seven players. SEVEN. Keep in mind, we were late. After a few minutes of settling in, the players who were there were finally fed up enough to just start playing 2-on-2 with a sub (which is almost anathema at this point), over the objections of one Mr. Hanna. Just as everyone was laced up, however, Watson pulled. Within three minutes, he was on the asphalt and ready to go. At 2 pm, the sixth BUSH SuperSession, and first in over four years, was a go!

Sticks gave K.J. Terryn Kyle Joe vs. Shem Ben Lee Andrew. Shem was particularly imposing with a Jason Voorhees hockey mask that, combined with his dreads, made him look just like Rank Sinatra. Unfortunately, there’s a reason hockey goalies haven’t worn those in 30 years – you can’t see sh*t. Within the first five minutes, it was jettisoned in favour of the standard mask. Joe, of course, can’t even be bothered to wear one of those. Terryn was a house afire this first series, sniping like mad as his crew took the series 5-2, 5-4. At this point, it was .857-.750 in favour of Joe, and Shem was livid. Some herb and a fresh start in a new series slowly turned him around, and by Game 4, he was back at full Shem. From then on in, the goalies were dead even.

Watsy turned it up with his new team of Joe, Ben and Terryn. Terryn continued to snipe, but Lee, Kyle, and K.J. were not slouching either, as Kyle and K.J. teamed with Terryn for some nice tic-tac-toe action. The two squads battled hard, and volume was the order of the series (as it would be all day). Ben, in particular, was peppering Shem; he had 54 shots after four games. Ultimately, Golden Joe was a bit too golden, and his side won 5-3, 5-4. Even after discovering his groove in Game 4, Shem was still angry and proclaimed to stop caring about his stats from then on in. Naturally, that’s when he started putting up major stats and turned the rest of the session into a epic goaltender’s duel for the ages; one that would be accompanied by the soundtrack of ambulance sirens for nearly thirty minutes, as something huge evidently was happening on the highway a block below the rink.

Unfortunately, Andrew had to drive back home to Revelstoke for work. But you know how things had been strangely working out? It was at that point Jesse showed up, and 3-on-3 continued. He teamed up with Shem, Ben and Terryn (who was up to his usual level of unusual and hard crashes to the ground) to face K.J., Kyle, Lee, and Joe. Anout one-third of the way through Game 5, Brad showed up just as K.J. blew a wheel. He was added to Team Joe, and another close series commenced, won by Team Joe 5-3, 5-4.

It was now 5:30, and time to barbecue. Burgers were the order of the day all around except for Terryn, who opted for a combination of smokies and steak. Much meat was had by all, and, as you well know, a stomach full of meat is the perfect fuel for hours upon hours of non-stop skating. Graeme arrived just in time, and brought us to 4-on-4, which is what the rest of the games would be played at.

At 6:15, action resumed and sticks gave us the only one-sided matches of the day, as Graeme, Lee, Ben and Kyle peppered Joe and gave Shem his first victories of the day over Brad, Joe, K.J., Terryn and Jesse, 5-3, 5-2. Switching Lee for Terryn rebalanced the teams, and Terryn resumed sniping. At this point, it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before records started falling. In Game 10, both goalies (who were never more than eight saves apart all day and traded the save lead back-and-forth) went past the record of 206 saves. Game 11 saw Ben go past Seamus’ 102-shot record, and K.J. broke Lee’s assist record with Kyle and Ben on his heels. Team Joe took the best-of-three 5-4, 3-5, 5-4 in another slugfest. Kyle was the star of the series with twelve points, leaving him at 39 points. Brad and Ben, of course, were defensive truck mowing over everything in their paths.

It couldn’t end there, not at eleven games. It had to go twelve. Every record was going down, even if Game12 went into the dark (which it did). Kyle was on a mission, and he got three more points to move past the hallowed mark of 40. He and K.J. both went over the shot total record, and Lee and Terryn made it five players at 30 points on the day. Kyle and Shem would lead themselves, Brad, Terryn and Graeme to victory, 5-2 over Lee, Ben, K.J., Jesse and Joe. At the end, it finally sunk in what we had accomplished this hallowed day. A collective feat of endurance, volume and skill that may never be repeated. No floating, no pussyfooting, no quitting. Six hours of high-caliber hockey in which every player left everything on the rink. A legendary day at McCormack. There are no words, really; the only way to sum up the day would be to show you the looks of contentment and mutual achievement on the faces of the players at the end of this special day in Burton Hockey history. They know what they did today.

The result of the longest session in history was a superlative boxscore unlike anything Burton Hockey has ever seen or will see for a long, long time. It’s hard to know where to begin. Until today, only ten players had ever achieved the feat of scoring 30 points in a session. Five players did it today alone, led by Kyle Grenier, who now claims the most hallowed session record in Burton. His 42 points are a new record, and they were quite evenly distributed (22G-20A). Not only did he smash the point record, but his 20 assists surpassed the previous benchmark, as did his massive 114 shots on goal. But even those last two totals placed second today. K.J. nearly snatched the points record as well, scoring 18 goals and adding a new Burton record 21 assists to place second; he, too, surpassed the old shot record with 106 shots on goal. The new record for shots, however, belongs to the man who placed third today with 12G-20A, Ben de Wit. His 120 shots on goal is an absolute mammoth of an accomplishment. To average ten shots a game through twelve games and six hours of hockey is amazing. We must not forget our other two 30-point scorers, Lee and Terryn, who each registered 16G-14A and 90 and 64 shots respectively. On any other day, those would usually be ahead by a mile.

Despite all of those amazing, record-setting accomplishment from the skaters, the two most remarkable stories may have been Shem and Joe in goal. The two backstoppers went toe-to-toe through six hours of grueling, fast-paced BUSH action, facing an unfathomable amount of shots and leaving the court absolutely red and purple with welts.. They never wavered, and with the exception of Shem’s first series, were remarkably consistent all day. The final count produces save numbers that are almost impossible to conceive of in the context of Burton Hockey, considering only goalie has ever passed the 165-save barrier previously. Shem just edged Joe in saves, 248-241. While 42 points may be incredibly hard to beat but still feasibly beaten eventually, 248 and 241 saves are exponentially beyond anything seen in Burton. In total, there were an astronomic 587 shots on goal today. And it wasn’t just the volume that was amazing; the goalies were on it all day. As close as the shot totals were, the save percentages were even closer with Joe edging Shem .834 to .832. There was absolutely nothing to choose between the two at the end of the day; they were both fabulous in their first-star-and-a-half-level performances.

Here are the game scores:
K.J. Terryn Kyle Joe def. Shem Ben Lee Andrew 5-2 5-4
Joe Andrew Ben Terryn def. Shem Lee Kyle K.J. 5-3 5-4
K.J. Kyle Lee Joe Brad def. Shem Terryn Ben Jesse 5-3 5-4
Graeme Lee Ben Kyle Shem def. Joe Brad K.J. Terryn Jesse 5-3 5-2
Brad Lee Jesse K.J. Joe def. Kyle Bern Terryn Graeme Shem 5-4 3-5 5-4
Kyle Graeme Brad Terryn Shem def. Lee Ben K.J. Jesse Joe 5-2

Season Stats: Lee hurtles along through uncharted outer space at 442 points. Ben is opening up a bit of a cushion in second at 339. Oliver needs four points to become the third person to score 300 points this year, but Kyle is only twelve points behind in fourth having passed Mitch. K.J. passes Stefan for sixth. Lorne passes Rob to move back into the top ten by a point. Terryn becomes the 14th player this season to score 100 points; he passes Bernie for 13th, and is three points behind Ryan for twelfth. Lee passes 200 goals, while Ben passes Mitch for second, 47 goal behind Lee. Kyle is nine goals behind Mitch in fourth. Oliver is three goals behind Stefan for second. Terryn becomes the thirteenth player to score 50 goals. Ben has closed to within eight assists of Oliver for second. Kyle leapfrogs over Mitch and Stefan into fourth in assists. K.J. moves over 100 assists and passes Mitch for fifth. Ben passes Mitch for second in shots on goal. Kyle passes Stefan for fourth in shots. K.J. is 17 shots behind Oliver in sixth, and rob re-enters the top ten. Tony jumps from fifth to second in save percentage ahead of Lorne, Scott and K.J. Shem passes K.J. for fifth in save percentage, and becomes the second goaltender to make 1,000 saves this year. Joern passes Lorne for third in saves. Joe moves all the way from eleventh to sixth in saves. Lee is within five games of Oliver for most played this year, 154-149. Bernie and Ben are closing in on Mitch, 123-116-115. Shem passes Joern for second in games goaltended; Joe goes from ninth to sixth. Bron records his sixth shutout of the season. Kyle passes Stefan for third in three-star points. K.J. passes Pat for fifth and passes 100 three-star points. Shem narrows the gap in Bron’s lead in goalie star points to 110-100. In total star points, Lorne and K.J. affirm fourth place at 115 points ahead of Stefan and Bron at 110. K.J. passes Lee and Bron for third in PPG. Kyle passes K.J. for second in GPG while Andrew Smart debuts fourth ahead of Scott. Ben passes Seamus for third in APG, microscopically behind Lee. Andrew Smart falls below Seamus for the season lead in shots-per-game; Kyle passes Pat for third and goes back above 8.00. Shem moves ahead of K.J. into fourth in saves-per-game. *deep breath before the session record summary*Kyle’s all-time leading session point total is naturally the top scoring session of the year. K.J.’s 39 rank third, and Ben’s 32 tie for fifth. Kyle’s 22 goals rank third-best in a session this year. K.J’s 21 assists, also a new all-time record, naturally rank first this year. Kyle and Ben’s 20 assists each tie for second. The season’s top four marks for shots on goal came tonight, with Ben (120) first, Kyle (114) second, K.J. (106) third, and Lee (90) fourth. Nothing in history comes close to Shem and Joe’s save total this session (248 and 241 respectively). As well, nothing this season comes close to their PPS total (1080 and 1075), easily ranking one-two this year.

On the All-Time Front: Lee becomes the second player to reach 1,400 points. Lorne needs five points for 1,300. Graeme is five points behind Laird for tenth all-time. Kyle becomes the 13th player to score 400 points and passes Mitch for 12th all-time. Ben leaps ahead of both Joe Chwachka and Robert Rogers into 14th all-time. Terryn passes 100 points. Lorne needs seven goals to become the first player to score 800; Lee needs 29 for 800. Oliver becomes the third player to score 600. K.J. is eleven goals behind Seamus for fifth all-time. Kyle is four goals behind Mitch for tenth all-time. Lorne becomes the fourth player to pass 500 assists. Ben passes Mitch for 13th in assists. Lorne is within ten shots-on-goal of Oliver for second. Bernie needs eight shots on goal for 2,000. K.J. passes Justin for seventh in shots. Shem passes Nathan and Seamus for third in all-time save percentage. K.J. drops out of the top five in shooting percentage, bringing Dylan back to fifth. Bernie needs to play 16 games to reach 800. Lee is five games behind Joern for fourth in games played. Graeme becomes the eleventh player to play 300 games. Ben enters the top 20 in games played. Shem becomes the 21st player to play 100 games, and passes Mitch Peterson to enter the top ten in games goaltended. Bron passes Joern for second in all-time shutouts with 12; he is one behind Nathan Robson for the all-time lead. Oliver needs five three-star points to become the fifth player to notch 500. Ben ties Robert for ninth in three-star points. Lorne is 20 total star points behind Lee for the all-time lead. Kyle moves up to seventh in all-time PPG ahead of Lee and Joe, and just behind Lorne. Andrew Smart has now fired enough shots on goal to qualify for shots-per-game; he debuts in first just ahead of Dallas (still, Andrew’s average took a bit hit yesterday). Ben passes Robert for fourth in shots-per-game; Kyle passes Steve for sixth. Lorne becomes the second player after Lee to reach 50 15-pointers; Oliver becomes the third player with 40. Kyle moves into eighth with 15. K.J.’s record 15-pointer streak goes to fifteen; Lorne has four. Andrew Smart has back-to-back 20-pointers. Lorne and Lee remain tied for the lead in 20-pointers with 25. K.J. and Kyle tie Justin for sixth with 12. Lee is three ten-goal sessions behind Lorne for the all-time lead, 42-39. Believe it or not, yesterday was only Oliver’s seventh ten-goal session ever. Jordan Barlow hits ten goals and fifteen points in his first session. Today was also Terryn’s first ten- and 15-goal session. Lee is one 25-pointer for the all-time lead, 12-11. Kyle is third with eight. Terryn reaches 25 for the first time. Kyle and Lee become the fifth and sixth player with multiple 20-pointers; K.J., Ben and Terryn reach the mark for the first time. Only thirteen players have accomplished a 30-pointer. K.J. has six straight ten-goal sessions. K.J. ties Robert for second in 15-goal sessions with eight (Lorne has 22; Lee has seven, Kyle has six). Kyle becomes the sixth player with multiple 20-goal sessions. Oliver has back-to-back ten –assisters, as does Lorne. K.J., Ben, and Kyle inaugurate the 20-assister club. Joe and Shem each have four consecutive 80-save sessions (you could argue that they had three of them today!). Bron has three straight 80-, 90-, and 100-save sessions. He is one 90-save session behind Laird for third all-time with 14. Joern becomes the sixth goalie to post ten 90-savers, and ties Lorne for fifth in 100-savers with seven. Shem also has three straight 90- and 100-savers, and Joe has back-to-back 90- and 100-savers. Bron’s 110-saver streak ends at two, but Joe has back-to-back 110’ers, just the fifth goalie to ever do so. Oliver plays consecutive session number 32, one short of his own Burton record. Lee has the ninth-longest streak of all time with 20, Ben has 16, Bernie has thirteen, Terryn has nine. Seamus’ streak ends at five. *another deep breath before the session record summary*Kyle’s 42 points today is the new session standard, breaking the long-standing mark of 40 set by Robert Rogers in 2003 and equalled this June by Pat Elischer. K.J.’s 39 points is the fourth-best mark of all-time. Three skaters at the SuperSession share the distinction of becoming the first players to notch 20 assists in a session, breaking Lee’s mark of 19 set in June. K.J.’s 21 is the new mark; Ben and Kyle each had 20 to set the second-best mark of all-time. The same trio smashed through the session shots-on-goal record as well, previously held by Seamus O’Connor at 102 and set back in 2006. Ben ranked first with 120, followed by Kyle at 114 and K.J. at 106. The hallowed (and previously considered untouchable) record for saves also fell, as Nathan Robson’s legendary 206 saves back in June of 2006 was obliterated by Shem (248) and Joe (241). Keep in mind no goaltender had come within 40 saves of Nathan’s mark previously. Nathan’s PPS from that session is still barely tops all-time thanks to Nathan’s .880 in goal that night; Shem’s 1080 ranks second and Joe’s 1075 ranks third. Ben’s 339 points this season is the third-best single-year mark ever. Lee’s 212 goals rank second (he is 18 short of his 2006 record). Oliver’s 183 assist this season rank second; Ben’s 175 rank fourth. Lee sets a new mark for shots in a season with 1,109, breaking his 2006 record of 1,074. Ben’s 893 rank third. Bron sets a new record for saves in a single season with 1,217, passing Nathan’s 2006 mark of 1,195. Shem’s 1,092 rank third. Oliver’s 154 games played and Lee’s 149 rank fourth- and fifth-best in a single year. Bron sets a new record for games goaltended in a year with 86, passing Nathan’s 2006 season of 77 games. Joern’s 72 games rank third; Shem’s 64 rank sixth. Shem’s 100 goalie star points are also third in a year.

SDF/GDF: K.J. stays put on top for a second straight ranking as the top three stay solid. The big move comes from Kyle, whose massive 42-point against a stacked line-up will help begin to repair the damage done from the sessions he played with an elbow infection. Conversely, tony takes a huge hit. Joern’s tours in goal drop him below the minimum sessions skated and send him down the rank. Taylor stays just on top on the GDF for a second tour. Joe returns to the list in fifth, and Bron plummets to tenth. In a reflection of the current goaltending disparity between the two league, Bron is VRH’s highest-ranked goaltender at an uncharacteristically low .7778.

I really have no idea how you can follow something like that (other than a nice long rest in a hot tub). Join us next weekend when both leagues will be in action again. Don’t forget to check the Records and Honours page in the Links section before you go and see for yourself where the records from today’s action rank among the all-time leaders.

By the way, that’s another record; this one for longest write-up of a session in Burton history...