With just six days to go before the biggest weekend in Burton Hockey history, it was time for the final preparations. The BUSH sweaters arrive Monday to go with the already-arrived VRH jerseys, but that’s not the only fashion news. The ALHS Archives Arena got a makeover this week as well in preparation for the DecaSession, as Laird Bilinski obtained permission from the Burton Community Hall to formally paint the rink. Bright blue creases and sleek red lines greeted the largest gathering of the BUSH season (twelve players today), replete with a brand-new faceoff circle at centre featuring the Burton Hockey shield; another sign that Burton Hockey is permanently entrenched in the fabric of the community. That wasn’t the only makeover; tired of hockey netting that gets used and abused from dozens of goals each session (and most importantly, tired of goals that go through the netting and then get argued into the ground), Kyle Grenier retrofitted his nets with wire mesh that no ball can possibly get through (a match for the chain mesh of the Ambleside nets). Not only does metal netting remove most of the ambiguity of goal scoring (in fact, not one was argued today, which may be a first for BUSH-man, it’s nice to finally have good nets), it helps weigh down the nets AND makes a nice ‘ching’ sound when you score or hit the post. Finally, Grenier showed that he's not just a master netsmith but a burgeoning mask designer as well, lovingly crafting a BUSH-themed mask that would be used today by Seamus as he did battle against the Sambuca-infused and ‘Sun-Smart’ Joe Leonard.

A pretty interesting line-up today with two ace goalies on one hand and two rookies on the other. All the way to us from Richmond Hill, Ontario came Orr family cousin Andy Kieran, with decades of hockey experience- well, in goal, anyway. He’d be on skates today, though. Adding to the youth movement in BUSH was Mitch Zorn-teammate Andrew Likness, the first player in Burton history to wear braces. With twelve players, it would be 4-on-4 all day. It would be a stats-killer for sure, but no one cared, for the line-up today was solid.

Sticks in the middle put Lee, Andy, Andrew, Joe, Justin and Terryn on one team against Kyle, Seamus, K.J., Mitch, Noel and Graeme. This first game set the pace for the entire session; a grinding war with wild momentum swing and lots of battling in the corners. Players getting speared and knocked down to the pavement were a recurring theme of the day. The goalie came out on fire, especially Seamus with 32 saves, and the game went long. Andy immediately showed that he would be a guy to deal with shot-volume-wise. In the end, Kyle and K.J. made a terrific duo. K.J. fed Kyle four apples, and Kyle lit up Joe for all five goals in Game 1. Seamus chipped in with three assists of his own. Naturally, of course, this meant that the opposite would happen in Game 2, as Kyle was held pointless. The big combo in this game was Terryn and Andrew, who each notched four points working together for a 5-1 victory. This set up a Game 3 rubber match that would drag itself out to 47 minutes. From the 1-1 mark in Game 2 through the 2-0 mark in Game 3, Golden Joe stood on his head, not allowing a goal for 45 minutes; about as long a shutout streak as there has ever been in Burton. It wasn’t enough, as Kyle and Mitch came together for four goals and led their crew to a 5-2 win. From this point on, Mitch was Kyle’s ‘good luck charm’ for the rest of the session, although most would argue that it was actually the cans of Palm Bay he was downing like spring water. An unfortunate moment in Game 3 occurred when Graeme was admonished for some errant stickwork; rather than alter his style. Graeme left the session, stating he didn’t want to hurt anyone.

With Graeme gone, this meant only one team would have a sub for the second series, but the pace and style of the session wasn’t altered a bit. Kyle and Lee were put together after sticks-in-the-middle with the caveat that they have Noel as a sub; they were joined by Andy and Mitch and backed by Joe against Justin, Terryn, Andrew, K.J. and Seamus. By this point, other than the usual level of Grenier dominance, the only focus was on the excellent play of the goaltenders, especially that of Seamus, who, it was becoming apparent, was having a career-best session even by his lofty standard. Joe was pulling some flashy moves of his own. Despite the even play, scores were lopsided; each team took a 5-2 victory before K.J. had to leave. Andy was switched to Team Seamus, and a new series began. Game 6 saw Seamus’ sickest sequence of saves: six in five seconds (two shots each from Kyle, Lee and Mitch). Justin emerged in this series and almost caught the leaders by the end. Once again, this series would not have a resolution; each team took a win. By the end of the last game, the gang had been going for four hours and it was time to head back to Nakusp to watch the UFC pay-per-view at Three Lions Pub. Rumours of a trail of empty Palm Bay cans leading all the way back to Nakusp have yet to be confirmed. Or disproven.

By the end of the day, Seamus had put together one of the greatest goaltending performances ever; a combination of that kind of volume with that kind of save percentage has really only been put together two or three times in history. Both rookies accounted for themselves very well; both Andys already had plenty of hockey experience and fit right in. They are welcome back anytime. I think Lee put it best: ‘I had a horrible statistical day. And I couldn’t care less. It was so much fun out there. It was excellent hockey.’ A perfect way to head into the excitement of next week.

Once again, we have an absurd amount of pictures; too many to fit on this page. View the whole set here.

Seamus O’Connor has been a good goaltender ever since the first season of Burton Hockey, when he was Burton’s first-ever goaltending champion. With so much hockey behind him, he still somehow continues to improve with every season, and this has culminated today in an epic performance: .883 on 173 saves; a PPS of 1056. It overshadowed the excellent performance of Joe, who was very solid at .821 with 124 saves, including 45 straight minutes of shutout hockey. Offensively, it was another win for Kyle, with 13G-9A on 70 shots (despite being first star, it still didn’t stop him from having to hilarious cram into the back of Graeme’s truck cab on the way home alongside Lee and Joe). Tying for second in his debut session was Andy with an even-handed 8G-8A. Sharing second in another decent outing was Terryn (5G-11A). With 12P in five games, there’s a good chance K.J. would have been there if he had been able to play the whole day.

Here are the game scores:
Kyle Seamus K.J. Mitch Noel Graeme def. Lee Andy Andrew Joe Justin Terryn 5-3 1-5 5-2
Kyle Lee Andy Noel Mitch Joe vs. Justin Terryn Andrew K.J. Seamus 2-5 5-2
Kyle Lee Noel Mitch Joe vs. Justin Andrew Terryn Andy Seamus 5-4 1-5

Faceoff Stats:
Andy Kieran 3/3 (100.00%)
K.J. O’Connor 4/6 (66.67%)
Terryn Stenseth 14/22 (63.64%)
Justin Gordon 7/12 (58.33%)
Kyle Grenier 12/24 (50.00%)
Noel Ballard 3/6 (50.00%)
Andrew Likness 1/4 (25.00%)
Lee Orr 1/5 (20.00%)
Mitch Zorn 3/16 (18.75%)

Season Stats: Kyle passes the 400-point mark, becoming the first player to do so twice in his career. Lee is 32 points away from the same. Pat passes Seamus for third and Stefan passes Nathan for sixth. K.J. and Bernie look to be next to 100 points. Stefan needs seven goals for 100. K.J. is the ninth player over 50 goals this season. Lee needs ten assists for 200 this year. Pat passes Oliver for fifth in assists and needs 14 for 100. Pat passes Seamus for third in shots and goes over 500 on the year. Stefan needs one shot for 400. Jordan Barlow passes K.J. and Stefan for third in shooting percentage. Joe passes Laird for fifth in goaltending, and Alex enters the top ten (Dom drops out behind Bron). Seamus takes back the lead in saves by just one over Dom; both cross over 1,000 on the year. Alex passes Shem for third; Joe leaps into fifth. Joe moves into fifth in games goaltended. Alex records his fifth shutout of the year. Terryn enters the top ten in three-star points. Joe ties Alex for fourth in goalie star points. Lee falls from third to fifth in GPG. Lee falls behind Seamus to fifth in shots-per-game. Pat’s 35 rank fifth-best this year; he has four of the top five tallies. His 21 goals rank fourth; he holds the four top marks. Seamus’ .883 is the fifth-best save percentage mark this season, and his 173 saves and 1056 PPS both rank second.

On the All-Time Front: Bernie passes 1,100 points, and Kyle passes the hallowed 1,000-point mark, making him the seventh player to do so and the first non-original. Justin only needs three to make the group eight. K.J. becomes the ninth player with 900 points. Ryan passes Nathan for 17th; Tony passes Shem for 22nd. Pat passes both Koth-Kappus brothers to move into third in all-time VRH scoring, with just 72 points between himself and second-place Lorne. Stefan passes Oliver for third in goals; both players score their 700th. Kyle needs 14 for 600. Justin becomes the eighth player with 500. Pat passes Joern for 11th in goals. Ryan needs six for 200. Stefan passes Lorne for fifth in assists. Justin needs four assists for 500. Ryan passes Shem for 18th. Stefan is 72 shots-on-goal behind Oliver for second. Jordan Barlow retakes the all-time shooting percentage lead from Robert Rogers; Pat passes Joe Chwachka for third. Seamus passes Terryn for fourth in all-time goaltending. Seamus passes Shem for seventh in saves and reaches 2,500. Dom needs 15 saves for 2,000. Oliver is 14 games away from 1,000. Lorne is two games played behind Seamus for fourth; Justin is eight behind Joern for sixth; K.J. needs five for 400; Ryan plays his 200th. Alex records his fifth career shutout. Kyle is 20 three-star points behind Oliver for fifth, and passes him for sixth in total star points. Seamus is ten goalie star points behind Laird for fourth. Pat drops out of the top five in all-time shots-per-game. Pat is now ninth in 15-pointers with 17; Ryan notches his tenth; Andy pots one in his first session. Kyle’s record 15-pointer streak hits 27; Pat’s second-all-time streak goes to 17. Stefan’s ends at four while Ryan’s goes to four. Kyle ties Lorne for second in 20-pointers with 27. Pat has a record 15 in a row; Kyle’s now has the second-longest streak at eight. Pat becomes the first player with ten 30-pointers. Pat has three 35-pointers in a row! Pat has 15 straight ten-goal sessions; Kyle five. Pat ties Lee for third in 15-goal sessions with eleven; he has three in a row. Pat ties Justin for seventh in ten-assisters at eleven; he has four in a row. Seamus ties Laird for third in .800 sessions with 20. Joe pots his fifth, and Alex his second. Seamus becomes the third goalie with 20 .810 sessions. Seamus passes Justin and Laird for second in .820 sessions with 18 and is one behind Nathan for the all-time lead. Alex has his first-ever .810 and .820 session; Joe his fifth. Seamus passes Laird for fourth in .830 sessions with twelve; he ties Bron and Laird for fourth in .840s with nine, Bron for fifth in .860s with six, and K.J./Justin/Nathan for the lead in .880s with four. Seamus passes Justin and Shem for fifth in 80-savers with 19; he has eleven in a row. Alex has six in a row; Dom two. Alex has six 90-savers in a row; one away from the record set last year by Shem Hanna. Seamus is right behind at five, and Dom has two. Joe has three 90-savers in a row and back-to-back 100-savers. Seamus ties Nathan and Bron for most consecutive 100-savers with five. He ties Dom for fifth in 110-savers with five and sets a Burton record with four in a row; yet, this is just his second 120-saver. This is also Joe’s second 120-saver. Kyle plays his tenth straight session, Bernie his ninth, Stefan his eighth, Seamus and Lee their seventh. With 407 points this year, Kyle now has the third-highest scoring season of all-time; Lee’s 368 are sixth. Kyle’s 234 goals this season rank third-all-time. Lee’s 190 assists rank fourth for seasons. Seamus’ 1,050 saves this season rank sixth for all-time seasons. Dom’ 78 games goaltended is the fifth-highest season total ever. Kyle’s 235 three-star points rank third-most, Seamus’ 100 goalie star points rank fifth, and Kyle’s 250 total star points rank third. Seamus’ 173 saves and 1056 PPS both rank sixth-highest all-time for individual sessions.

SDF/GDF: Pat is on top of the SDF again, only this time with the third-highest rating in history. What’s really interesting is the guy who’s now in third: Ryan Disterheft, up two spots this week. K.J.’s up two to five, Lee and Stefan each drop one spot. Oliver falls from the top dozen. Taylor’s reign on top of the GDF ends abruptly thanks to Seamus’ world-beater today, which moves him back to the top of the pile. Alex’s excellent VRH session moves him up three spots to fourth.

Well, DecaWeek is here. Don't be surprised if BUSH tries to get in another tune-up session before the big showdown Friday. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.