Today brought us a session where we had absolutely no idea what would happen, or even who would make it happen, let alone whether or not it would work once it did. Shem Hanna, goaltending ace of note, was about to bow out of BUSH for now as he was forced to take a job in Kelowna. His presence in net would be sorely missed, having registered an .840 save percentage since the switch to the bigger nets. Couple that with Kyle and Troy off to work, and BUSH was in crisis. At one point this morning, Nev Fellows was lined up as one of the goaltenders against Stevie Fergusson, a most unlikely pairing to be certain. A week of solid, nearly cloudless sun made this day too good to pass up, however. Who would be left standing when the game of Burton musical chairs finally stopped?

Shockingly, Shem was lured out for one last session (but on skates). Even more shocking, however, was his appearance: no dreadlocks (*mouth agape*). After five years, in preparation for the new job, he decided it was time to shave them off. Seamus and Nathan were bullied into goaltending, and Stevie would debut on blades rather than in net. Lee was already so exhausted from killing his morning organising that if he had to do it again, he said, he wouldn’t. Nevertheless, we were here on a picturesque day in Burton, and it was time for hockey. Well, time for as much hockey as we could cram in before the Canada-US game started at 4:30.

Having no idea how Stevie would play, we paired him with Lee backed by Seamus against Shem, Noel and Nathan. Mistake. Small and fast, the Home Hardware impresario clicked immediately with Lee, and they ran over their hapless opponents in six minutes, killing Nathan with five goals on nine shots. Seamus posted a five-shot shutout, and Lee and Stevie recorded a double point-out.

Rearranging the teams, Nathan was out for revenge. Now partnered with Lee and Shem, it was his turn to win. In this game, the goalies really began to integrate themselves into the passing plays of their respective teams. The game lasted a little longer, but Lee was too much as he pointed out again en route to a 5-1 win. Stevie had his team’s lone goal, continuing to impress despite being outshot heavily. Poor Noel was without a point through the first two games.

Putting the S’s together finally produced some balance. Stevie, Shem and Seamus clicked immediately and got up to 3-0 on Lee, Noel and Nathan. The guy who had pointed out the first two games was now in serious danger of losing in a shutout as Stevie and Shem hooked up like chain lightning, and Nathan was fully in the groove determined to make up for Game 1. Lee and Noel began battling back and pulled out a major comeback, sending the game to overtime thanks to a barrage of shots on Seamus (the Irishman pulled out 32 saves this game). On the final faceoff, Noel won the puck and launched himself on a breakaway, picking a tiny hole on Seamus’ far side for a beauty goal to cap the comeback win, 5-4. We finally had a series! Or did we? Three impressive games, including working so hard to beat Lee and Noel in Game 3, blew Stevie up big time, and he struggled mightily in Game 4. Lee and Noel outshot the S’s 24-6 and gave Nathan a shutout. Seamus, as seen by the shot totals, was rather heroic in defeat.

Done on skates, Stevie donned the pads, which allowed Nathan to get back onto skates like he was supposed to today. The unthinkable then happened: Lee offered to relieve Seamus in goal. Seamus said no this time, however; since he was already in the gear, he didn’t want to spend the time taking it off. Stevie backed Lee and Shem; Seamus had Nathan and Noel. In a game that lasted eight minutes, Stevie posted a shutout in his debut game, and Lee pointed out again with an onslaught of shots on Seamus, bringing Seamus down from the .mid .840s to .811 on the day. Shem worked very hard in assistance trying to beat Taco, and was getting tired now, too.

With just a little bit of time left in this session, Seamus couldn’t resist the idea of seeing Lee in goal (and was more than happy not to be in goal after the last game), and so the deck chairs on the Titanic were rearranged again. Lee would don the pads for the first time in four years. As much as the gang entertained the idea of letting Stevie go home with a 1.000 save percentage on a five-shot shutout a la Sam Lam, he was back in for Game 6, helming Noel and Nathan against Seamus and Shem. It was a back-and-forth tilt with the two fresh skaters on opposite teams and Noel and Shem shining in Lee’s absence. Nathan, in particular, enjoyed this game because it was his first-ever chance to burn Lee with shots after all these years. Indeed, Nate went two-for-two on breakaways on Lee in this game, which produced the happiest version of Nathan we’ve ever seen. Seam/Shem would get the duke here, 5-3. After the quickest clean-up ever, the parade of vehicles headed back to Nakusp just in time for the opening puck drop. It was a weird and wacky day, but a ton of fun, and Lee wound up being happy he organised it after all.

Pointing out every game he skated except the third, it was a very good day to be Lee, with 17G-7A (one assist in goal) from 64 shots. You have to drop down to Shem nine points behind to find your second star. Considering he was shutout twice, Shem had a pretty good day with his third career 15-pointer (8G-7A-44 shots). The third star, despite goaltending the last two games, was the debuting Stevie, who impressed with his speed and innate passing skill (3G-8A). We hope to have him back soon! Four different goalies today, three of whom had shutouts! Nathan came back from .444 in the first game to finish at .825. Seamus faced a ton of shots for a 2-on-2 session (86 for 106) and finished just behind Nathan at .811. Stevie achieved the rare feat of picking up three-star points and a shutout in the same session; he was .762 in goal. Lee didn’t see a whole lot of action in his lone game in net, but he did display a decent glove; the jury remains out.

Here are the game scores:
Lee Stevie Seamus def. Shem Noel Nathan 5-0
Lee Nathan Shem def. Noel Seamus Stevie 5-1
Lee Noel Nathan def. S’s (Stevie Shem Seamus) 5-4 5-0
Lee Stevie Shem def. Seamus Noel Nathan 5-0
Seamus Shem Lee def. Noel Nathan Stevie 5-3

Faceoff stats:
Nathan Robson 6/7 (85.71%)
Noel Ballard 13/20 (65.00%)
Lee Orr 6/12 (50.00%)
Shem Hanna 10/24 (41.67%)
Stevie Fergusson 4/10 (40.00%)
Seamus O’Connor 1/3 (33.33%)

There are 114(!) pictures from this session; too many to host on this page, in fact. To view the entire set, go here.

Note: Some statistics below are provisional based upon the results of yesterday’s VRH session for which we are still waiting on a report.

Season Stats: Taking advantage of an absent Kyle, Lee takes the season scoring lead down to 192-180. Shem jumps up into a tenth-place tie with Graeme. Lee is nine goals away from 100; Seamus is three from 50. Lee is eleven assists from 100; Seamus ties Kyle for second at 72; Shem enters the top ten. Nathan moves to fourth in shooting percentage. Seamus passes Alan for third in saves. With Kyle away, Seamus becomes the only player to have played all 62 BUSH games (Nathan has been at every session but missed one game). Seamus passes Alan for third in games goaltended. Lee cuts Kyle’s three-star and total star point lead to 110-95. Shem passes Pat for fourth in total star points. Lee passes Sam for fourth in GPG. Lee passes Graeme for fifth in shots-per-game. Nathan falls behind Alex to fifth in saves-per-game.

On the All-Time Front: Lee needs 21 points for 1,900. Nathan is five points behind Ryno for 19th. Seamus is 22 goals behind Stefan for fourth. Nathan enters the top 25 in goals. Seamus passes Bernie for third in assists; Nathan ties Ben for 13th. Seamus marginally falls behind Terryn to fourth in the ever-tight race for top goaltender of all-time. Nathan needs 54 saves to become the first goalie to record 4,000 in a career. Seamus needs 107 for 2,000. Seamus is two games played behind Joern for fifth. Nathan is nine games behind Chris for second in games goaltended. Shem enters the top 30 in three-star points. Nathan is the ninth player to record 400 total star points; Shem needs ten for 300. Lee posts his 73rd 15-pointer and third in a row; Shem his third ever. Lee has three consecutive ten-goal sessions. He ties Kyle for second in all-time 15-goal sessions with eleven (Lorne has 24). Nathan becomes the first goalie to post 30 .800 sessions. Seamus ties Shem for fifth at 17. Nathan ties Justin for the lead in .810 sessions at 23. Seamus moves to third at 17 ahead of Laird. Nathan has back-to-back .820s this month. Seamus ties Joern for eighth in 80-savers with 14; he has six in a row. Nathan’s streak ends at three. Seamus’ 100-saver streak ends at two. Nathan plays consecutive session number 24, tied with Stefan’s 2006-09 streak for the sixth-longest ever. Seamus is not far behind at twenty. Kyle’s streak ends at ten. Shem has now played five in a row.

SDF/GDF: Pat’s on top of the SDF for the eleventh straight ranking with the second-highest rating ever of 136.7500. Lee moves past Troy into fourth. Graeme and Shaylin enter the top twelve while Tony and Sam fall out. Shem holds pat on top of the GDF with Dom moving up from fifth to third.

A wacky day, but very fun. Hopefully we can get some VRH stats up Monday for you. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.