Burton Hockey comes and goes in waves, it seems. A dry month of June exploded last week as both leagues roared back into action with high-scoring sessions. A perfect storm would culminate Friday as one of the most concentrated all-killer-no-filler line-ups in Burton history, let alone BUSH history, would take to McCormack. Six top skaters and two top goaltenders. Between the seven skaters: five of the top six scorers of all time; a combined 9,642 points for an average of 1,377 per player; 4,412 games played. With VRH all-time scoring champion Stefan Klopp visiting his old BUSH stomping ground this week, it set up a potentially epic 3-on-3 session featuring himself, fellow VRH ex-pat and all-time games played & assist leader Oliver, all-time leading scorer Lee, season scoring leader Kyle, the two all-time predominant dual threats in Seamus and K.J., and goaltending legend-turned 2010’s most improved skater Nathan. To counter that formidable veteran lineup would be two equally formidable sophomores in goal; the number-one and number-three-ranked goaltenders of all-time. Between them, a cumulative career save percentage of .840 and not a single session lower than .800. In fact, all-time goaltending champion Taylor Reitmeier has never been below .835. Third-ranked Terryn Stenseth is the most promising dual threat in years. Together, these eight represented one of the best regular line-ups you’d ever see outside of a supersession.

Not only was it a momentous line-up on paper, but from a sentimental stand point it meant a great deal. It was Stefan’s first BUSH session in over a year and only Oliver’s second. It was Taylor’s first session since graduating high school. It was Terryn;s first goaltending appearance in nearly a year. Perhaps most of all, it was Seamus’ first session since becoming a father for the first time. While the line-up only came together Thursday evening, it still left room for an entire day of hype and anticipation leading up to it. Would the scorers run wild like they have been all year in BUSH, or would the top-ranked goalies shut them down? Would the skaters and goalies balance each other out and turn it into a DecaSession-like grind? Having it 3-on-3 rather than 4-on-4 would seem to give at least a little hope that the games would go faster than expected. Of course, the killer West Kootenay heat would certainly sap their energy, even with a 5 pm start.

No Seamus for the first game, as his ferry was held up by a tugboat, so there were no subs in Game 1. As the players took to the rink, they were greeted in true 2010 fashion by the melodious sounds of the three vuvuzelas your humble statistician brought to the rink to harass them. Neighbours came out of their houses and dogs ran for cover. Literally. Thus was the quick end of the vuvuzelas for the day. In the first series, sticks-in-the-middle gave us Lee, Kyle, K.J. and Taylor against Stefan, Nathan, Oliver and Terryn. Game 1 in the sweltering heat set the tone for the day: it took sixteen minutes to score the first two goals, the goalies were on fire, and Kyle kept finding energy in the heat that no one else could muster. He would point out despite Team Terryn putting up a valiant effort to keep it close for most of the game; Team Taylor took Game 1 5-3. Near the end of the game, Seamus finally made it across the lake and back to Burton. He was given to Team Terryn, and this actually wound up backfiring. Having to substitute ruined the chemistry of the team, and Team Taylor ran roughshod, outshooting their opponent 18-4 en route to a 5-0 donut. Terryn was sunk down to .763; a change of teams was needed. Another round of sticks gave Terryn Seamus, Kyle and Lee against Taylor’s crew of Oliver, Nate, K.J. and Stefan. All it served to do was kill the other goaltender; Kyle pointed out again as he led Team Terryn to a 5-0 drubbing of Team Taylor; Terryn picking up a six-save shutout.

Disappointed in the sudden lack of balance, the final series featured handpicked teams (Kyle, Nathan, Oliver and Terryn against K.J., Stefan, Lee and Seamus) that resuscitated the session and gave us true balance for the rest of the day. Game 4 would be the shortest game of the day, but still took thirty minutes to play. Taylor was standing on his head all day, and Game 4 was his best effort. Lee was the only skater today who could really get near Kyle, and his best effort came as part of a tag team with Seamus in Game 4 as they would take the win 5-3. Game 5 seemed to go on forever (although it was ‘only’ 40 minutes), at one point going 19 minutes without a goal. The hockey quality, however, was high, as we did indeed get the near-DecaSession-quality defensive play we’d been looking for. Taylor and Terryn showed why they are not just the future of BUSH goaltending, but the here-and-now, as they continuously shut down the shooters on every occasion; two fundamentally-sound goaltenders with few holes. Most of the goals today were net-crashing garbage bang-ins. While the play was even in Game 5, Kyle’s energy and hustle ground down the opposition for a 5-2 victory that was not nearly as lopsided as the score would indicate. Terryn made 31 saves to Taylor’s 28. K.J. took off before Game 6, evening out the teams again. Another entertaining, grueling 40-minute slug fest ensued. Team Terryn got up to a relatively quick 4-1 lead before Team Taylor ground back to tie it up. Kyle and company spent nearly 20 minutes trying to pot the series-winning goal. Certainly he, Nathan, and Oliver were completing their share of nice passes, but their nicest goal was one that wasn’t even legal: a shot from the corner by Kyle popped off Taylor’s pad straight in the air only for Nathan to tomahawk it out of the air over Taylor’s head into the back of the net. Of course, Nathan’s broad smile gave it away immediately that it was easily a high-stick; too bad, for it was sweet! Eventually, they would finally ice it 5-3. Before Game 6, there was still talk of another set; after Game 6, there were basically six glassy-eyed John Isners lying exhausted on the grass.

A high-quality slog in the summer heat that drained everyone involved, yet left them eager for a Sunday evening session (with a later start time, of course). One last note: K.J. taking off left Terryn without a ride back to Nakusp. With Nathan’s car full thanks to having his hyperactive dog Dexter along for the ride, it was down to Lee (nearly full) and Seamus, who both balked at giving the guy who just killed himself for 3 ½ sweltering hours in goal a ride home. Seamus settled the matter by just taking off for home alone in his car in the middle of the conversation, thus causing everyone to nominate him for a post-match Bitch Award, hurling expletives at the Irishman as he sped off down Burton Loop Road into the evening. (Yes, Lee did end up driving Terryn home.)

It was Kyle and the two goalies who dominated today. First off, the scorers: Kyle obliterated the crew today, pointing out in three of the six games while the rest of the crew struggled to break double-digits for the entire day. Grenier posted another 25-point, 70-plus shot session. You have to drop down to 14 points to find second-place Lee (the only other skater to surpass 2.00 PPG); Nathan was third at eleven. Seamus notched ten assists but just 14 shots on goal; not one went in. In goal, Taylor just continues to play without error or fail, posting .843 on 113 saves. Terryn had a rough Game 2, and was still at .774 coming into Game 5; he moved up 51 points in the last two game pulling saves out of nowhere and stupefying his opponents to finish at .825 on 99 saves. Each goalie had a shutout. Two more excellent sessions from two goaltenders that have shown almost no weaknesses in their Burton netminding careers.

Here are the game scores:
Lee Kyle K.J. Taylor def. Stefan Nathan Oliver Terryn Seamus* 5-3 5-0
*no Seamus in Game 1
Seamus Terryn Kyle Lee def. Oliver Nathan K.J. Taylor Stefan 5-0
Kyle Nathan Oliver Terryn def. K.J.* Stefan Taylor Lee Seamus 3-5 5-2 5-3
*no K.J. in Game 6

Here are the faceoff stats:
Kyle Grenier 7/10 (70.00%)
Lee Orr 9.16 (56.25%)
Stefan Klopp 6/11 (54.55%)
Oliver Koth-Kappus 6/12 (50.00%)
Nathan Robson 3/6 (50.00%)
K.J. O’Connor 4/12 (33.33%)
Seamus O’Connor 3/9 (33.33%)

Season Stats: Kyle’s season scoring lead over lead goes to 643-585 as they chase the single-season scoring record. Nathan is twelve points behind Pat for third, 348-336; Stefan needs 15 for 300; K.J. passes Bernie to enter the top ten. Kyle is ten goals away from becoming the first person to score 400 goals in a single year; Lee needs eight for 300; K.J. passes Graeme for eighth and needs six for 100. Lee needs twelve assists for 300; Kyle hits 250; Stefan passes Pat for sixth. Stefan passes Pat for third in shots-on-goal. K.J. falls behind Troy to fourth in shooting percentage. Taylor jumps to ninth in saves and fifth in goalie star points. Lee needs eight games for 200; Kyle needs nine. Seamus passes Dom and Bernie for fourth in games played. Taylor becomes the sixth goalie to post multiple shutouts this season. Nathan ties Oliver for fifth in three-star points. K.J. falls behind Mitchell for fifth in GPG. Taylor narrowly takes the lead in saves-per-game from Seamus.

On the All-Time Front: Lee needs 16 points for 2,300; Oliver becomes the second player to reach 1,900. Stefan needs seven points for 1,400 with Seamus 20 points behind him for fourth. K.J. is 12 points from 1,000. In the race for third in goals, Stefan’s lead is now 765-749-742 over Oliver and Kyle. Kyle is four assists behind Justin for seventh in assists. Lee becomes the first player to take 6,000 shots on goal, and has done it before anyone else has even hit 4,000. Stefan passes Oliver for second in shots-on-goal; Kyle is 61 behind Lorne for fourth; K.J. is 37 behind Justin for seventh; Nathan needs 35 for 1,000. Lee needs six games for 800; Justin is two games behind Laird for ninth; Kyle plays his 400th. Taylor records his second career shutout; Terryn his first. Terryn narrowly falls behind K.J. into third in saves-per-game. Kyle’s record 15-pointer streak is now at an unfathomable 34 sessions (the next closest is a ‘mere’ 18 set by Pat this April); Lee’s streak ends at nine (by a single point, as is typical). Kyle has five straight 20-pointers (Lee’s streak ends at four) and ties Pat’s record of five straight 25-pointers set last September (Lee’s streak there also ends at four). Kyle’s record 30-pointer streak does end today at four. Lee’s ten-goal streak ends at six sessions; Kyle’s goes to five. Kyle ties Pat’s Burton record for consecutive 15-goal sessions with five; Lee’s streak ends at three. Kyle’s 20-goal streak ends at four; Lee’s at three. Seamus’ ten-assister streak goes to three; K.J.’s ends at two. Terryn has six .800s in a row and Taylor has five (every full session they’ve ever played, in other words). Terryn has back-to-back .820s. Taylor has five straight .830s, one away from tying a Burton record. He also has back-to-back .840s. Lee plays his 16th consecutive session, Nathan his ninth, Kyle his sixth. Lee and Kyle now have the fifth-and-sixth-largest games played totals in a single season.

SDF/GDF: The last day of the DecaSession falls off, and with it a ton of points (not to mention a ton of players). The entire chart is thrown into upheaval as a result. Most notably, on the GDF, Seamus falls off the top due to inactivity, bringing Alex to the number-one spot for the first time in his career, well ahead of second-place Dom. On the SDF behind Pat and Kyle lies a field of carnage. With many big names losing major points, Marcus and Graeme move to career highs of third and fourth. Tony falls to fifth; Lee to sixth; K.J. to tenth; Stefan to eleventh. Nathan re-enters the top ten.

Both BUSH and VRH are going to try for Sunday. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.