While BUSH’s recent Mega Session certainly planted the seeds of inspiration, the recent increase in numbers made it possible for VRH to contemplate a Mega Session of their own. The fact that founding member and former primary VRH organiser, Stefan Klopp, was back in town after an almost 6-week hiatus in Europe (before he takes off again the following Saturday) kicked the planning for a Mega Session into high gear. The irony of Stefan ultimately missing the session was not lost on us.

The session started off with a glitch, literally, as we were informed that a work-related server crash was delaying Kloppster’s departure. Luckily for us, J-Spooge also had a vehicle on this day so we were able to catch a ride with him to the otherwise highly inaccessible rink at Griffin Park in North Van. Our arrival was further delayed by J-Spooge’s insistence on driving by the PNE to check out the “jail bait”. After being stuck in PNE traffic for a good 10 minutes we were forced to pull a U-ie and head back down to 1st Ave. Perhaps there is a “moral” to that story.

You might think that on this day the bitch award would go to Stefan for choosing an emergency work related matter over hockey (who does that, really?) but no sir, not on this day. On this day the bitch award would go to the complete fucking moron (we’ll call him Keith Moran) that was doing the technical work on Stefan’s server, and not only didn’t fix it but corrupted it to high heaven, causing Stefan to have to have deal with work s*it all day long. At least that’s the official version; in reality we all know that the Jonas Bros. were in town putting on a secret private show for the Kloppster himself.

Nevertheless, by the time we arrived at Griffin Park, about 45 minutes late, we were greeted by a solid number of players including rookie Eric Coutino (VIHL) and sophomore goaltending sensation Dom. The fact that we were able to get a record number of players out (and enough for a Mega Session on a large rink) without Klopp nor a couple of key regulars including Rob and Pat (see below for more on Pat), speaks volumes about the state of VRH these days. Also, of note real dedication was shown by Andrew Smart in changing shifts just to be able to make the session.

Play finally got underway at around high noon. “Sticks” produced teams of Andy-J-Bo-Eric-Sam-Tony & Bron vs J-Spooge-Lorne-Bernie-Joern-Ollie & Dom. It was decided that 4-on-4 would be perfect for this size of rink (slightly smaller than a full size hockey rink). Despite Bron’s subpar performance in the first couple of games due to him trying out his new inline goalie blades, his team was still able to find victory. Halfway through the second game we were all surprised to see the arrival of perennial superstar Patrick Elischer. His presence was very much welcomed by Dom’s team giving them a much needed boost, allowing them to make a series of it by winning the next two games. The fifth and final game though, was all Bron as he stopped 23 of 25 shots to lead his team to a 5-2 victory.

During the first few games we quickly noticed that on the larger rink the dynamic of the game was much changed favouring speed and crisp passing, over the more grinding style of Ambleside. Dedicated positional play and team strategy was also much more important. It took a couple of games to make the adjustments, but once everyone started to find their groove, it resulted in fast-paced action and some truly spectacular play, some might say a display of sheer speed and skill the likes of which Burton Hockey has never seen (Lee and Kyle’s note: Ha!). It should also be noted that the nets here were a little larger than even the large Ambleside nets, rendering any sort of save percentage comparisons to performances in the relatively miniscule BUSH nets as good as useless. We also soon realized that our hope of smashing the recent 12 game record was not feasible as games on the large rink were more time consuming due to the much greater length of time for play to move from one end to the other, and also much more exhausting due to the far greater amount of skating involved.

After the first series it was already close to 3 o'clock and time for a brief intermission. Though a few people brought meat to BBQ, due to the lack of an actual BBQ, we were left to nourish ourselves with granola bars and Gatorade.

The next teams featured Pat-Sam-Andy-Ryno-Bernie-Ollie & Bron vs Tony-Lorne-Spooge-J-Bo-Joern & Dom. Due to the large numbers the next few games were played 5-on-5 which slowed the games down even further, cementing our dashed hopes for a high game session. Dom's team won the first game handily 5-2, but Bron's team came back with their own rout (5-0) in the next game. It should also be noted that two youngsters, Brendan and Sebastian, joined in the game at this point; they were probably about the age Sam was when we first met him, but still held their own. At this point Joern left the session for “personal reasons” which evidently demoralised his team as they were walloped 5-1 in the series finale.

One more game was played before a number of people had to leave due to having plans in the evening, effectively ending the session. It should be noted though that it was around 5:30 by this time and everyone had pretty much reached the point of exhaustion.

If there's one positive about Stefan missing this session, it's that it means we'll have to organise another Mega Session once he's back after the Labour Day long weekend, perhaps one that will be even more epic that the grandiosity of the hockey played on this day.

Thanks, Bern. After all was said and done, we have first-season-tournament-level scoring stats, with only three players able to overcome the challenges of a record 17-player session. As per usual, Pat led the way with 12G-14A-26P. Second was Andrew with just 5G but a massive 17A on 61 shots. Lorne came in third with 7G-10A. In goal, Dom made a massive 153 saves and finished at .810 to Bron’s .778. Have you ever seen such a one-sided shot total?

Here are the game scores:
Andrew Barlow Eric Sam Tony Bron Ryan def. Downey Lorne Bernie Joern Oliver Dom Pat 5-2 5-4 3-5 1-5 5-2 (Pat and Ryan missed Game 1; Barlow missed Games 3 and 4 with skate issues)
Pat Sam Andrew Ryan Bernie Ollie Bron def. Tony Lorne Downey Barlow Joern Dom Brendan Sebastian 2-5 5-0 5-1 (Brendan and Sebastian missed Game 6, Joern missed Game 8)
Pat Barlow Oliver Lorne Downey Bernie Paul Bron def. Andrew Brendan Sam Sebastian Tony Dom 5-2

Season Stats: Oliver is only three points ahead of Kyle for third. Pat becomes the eighth player to score 200 points this year and is 20 behind Stefan for seventh. Bernie passes Terryn for thirteenth. Andrew jumps from 22nd to 16th. Pat is seven goals behind K.J. for fifth; Oliver passes Stefan for seventh; Lorne passes Rob and Troy for ninth. Tony becomes the 14th 50-goal scorer this year; Bernie needs three. Oliver is now just two assists ahead of Ben for second; he needs 13 for 200. Lorne falls behind Scot to fourth in shooting percentage. Dom debuts in third on the season save percentage chart. Pat passes K.J. and ties Stefan for fourth in three-star points. Andrew falls behind Kyle to third in shots-per-game; Pat falls behind Ben to fifth. Dom debuts first on the saves-per-game chart. Andrew’s 17 assists his session ranks fifth-highest in 2009. Dom’s 152 saves are the third-highest total this year (mind you, second place is 241!).

On the All-Time Front: Lorne becomes the third player to reach 1,300 points. Bernie is 15 points behind Seamus for fifth all-time. Pat becomes the 19th player with 200 points and passed Dallas and Ryno for 18th. Lorne becomes the first player to score 800 goals. Ryan needs nine assists for 100. Pat moves from 25th to 21st in assists. Dom assumes the all-time save percentage lead, but just barely, over K.J., .837-.835. Lorne re-passes Oliver for second in all-time shots on goal. Bernie becomes the sixth player with 2,000 shots. Tony affirms fifth in shooting percentage. Bernie needs seven games for 800. Bron ties Nathan Robson for the all time lead in shutouts with thirteen. Pat enters the top 15 in all-time three-star points. Pat now barely holds onto the all-time PPG lead ahead of Robert Rogers. Andrew relinquishes the all-time shots-per-game lead to Dallas; Pat drops from third to fourth behind Ben. Dom’s saves-per-game dropped nine whole points but he still just remains ahead of K.J. for the all-time lead. Pat has eight 15-pointers in a row, Lorne five, and Andrew three. Pat sets a new record for consecutive 20-pointers with six; Andrew has three. Pat ties the record for consecutive 25-pointers with four (Robert Rogers did it twice). Pat has six straight ten-goal sessions, but his record streaks of 15-goal and 20-goal sessions end at five and three, respectively. Andrew has his first ten-assister. Lorne has three ten-assisters in a row; Oliver’s streak ends at two. Bron has four 80- and 90-savers in a row; Dom has back-to-back 80-savers in his first two sessions; obviously 153 saves is his career. Bron ties Laird for second in 90-savers with 15, three less than Nathan Robson. Oliver reaches a major milestone with his 34th consecutive session. One more will set a new Burton standard, replacing his previous record set from 2000 to 2002. Bernie has fourteen straight, and Lorne and Joern have streaks of five. Dom’ 153 saves are a new VRH record, one more than Bron had on 27 June. Oliver’s 307 points this year equal his career high and rank fifth all-time for individual seasons. His 187 assists this year rank second all-time in a season, and his 163 games played are fourth-most. Bron is five games away from becoming the first player to goaltend 100 games in a single year.

SDF/GDF: Pat goes back on top with another dominant performance. Lee makes headway as well with his win in the BUSH session this weekend, and Andrew and Lorne return to their minimum divisor and rise up to their usual spots in the top end of the ranking as a result. Kyle also is recovering nicely after suffering through an elbow infection that dropped his ranking considerably. Taylor continues to just barely lead an amazingly tight GDF ranking, with seven goaltenders within close contention for first. It’s so close than even an .815 this weekend dropped K.J. from second to fifth. Brandon debuts fourth and Dom, the only VRH goalie in the top ten, reappears in eighth. Nineteen goalies in one ranking is a new record.

Two weeks, two SuperSessions! It’s Ben de Wit’s final appearance of the season this week, so come back and see how he does. Until then, don’t forget to visit the Records and Honours page in the Links section for all of the current leaderboards.