Lee Orr: Riskiest session ever? We drove down through the pouring rain with only 4 guys, gambling that we could get Lyle, Shem would still be in Burton, and it wasn't pouring rain at McCormack like everywhere else. At the viewpoint it was raining so hard Seamus advised pulling over and flagging Graeme down to cancel this mad endeavour. Logically, I knew he was right. But I was having none of it.

Bulls-eyes on all three counts. Shem was there and waiting. Not a drop of rain had hit Burton. Lyle was in the middle of hosting a party and was hammered, but wasted no time grabbing another beer for the road and stumbled into my car. Despite losing the capacity for making any sense he naturally played quite well. There is also one other surprise.

Kyle Grenier: Graeme got all the way down there and realized he didn’t pack his skates. He tried fitting into a pair of Seamus’ old skates, but they were too small, so he said ‘F*ck it, I’m playing goal.’ Graeme finally played goal, and he was pretty good. Lyle stood on his head for the first two games (over .900) even though he couldn’t say a word. And I broke Lee’s season scoring record.

The numbers are kind of short now… I’m off to Kelowna tomorrow but I’ll be back later this month and hopefully we can play again. I’ve got Shem’s number in Kelowna; he’s pumped. We really want to get a third league going (Kelowna Association for Socialist Hockey). I should get Troy to start one in Red Deer- RASH! K.J’s there, too.

Thanks to Ocho Ocho himself for the stats, filed on the back of Lee’s driver license receipt. And #88 was indeed in top form, scoring 28 out of a possible 30 points today (19-9-28-53) and setting a new single-season scoring record with 735. No one else came near him. Seamus was second at 17, and you have to go all the way down to ten points to find Leeroy in third; Lee was forced to play against Kyle all day and it showed. As for the debutante goaltender Graeme, he had a solid rookie outing. In fact, he was at .800 even before the final game brought him down to .767. Lyle had an amazing start, stopping 30 of the first 33 shots for .909 after the first series before losing it completely to finish at .683. With Graeme finally entering goal in his eighth season after 436 games, the new holder of the dubious distinction of having played the most games without ever having suited up in net belongs to Mitch Detta at 249, although he is rapidly being caught by three VRHers: Ryan Disterheft at 211; Rob Hajdu at 207, and Pat Elischer at 203.

Here are the game scores:
Seamus Kyle Lyle def. Lee Shem Graeme 5-2 5-1
Kyle Seamus Graeme def. Lee Shem Lyle 5-3
Shem Kyle Graeme def. Lee Seamus Lyle 5-2 5-1
Kyle Shem Lyle def. Seamus Lee Graeme 5-2

Season Stats: Oliver ties Nathan for fourth in points at 359. Stefan is just one point behind Nathan for fifth. Sam passes Bernie for ninth and is just two points behind Jordan Barlow for eighth with 237; Rob is just one behind Bernie, 226-225. Oliver passes Nathan for third in assists; Rob passes Pat for eighth and is just behind Jordan Barlow. Kyle passes 2,000 shots; Sam passes Oliver for fifth. Kyle passes Barlow for fourth in shooting percentage. Dom passes 2,500 saves; Alex 2,000. Dom passes Nathan for sixth in games played with 179. Alex leads Dom in shutouts 13-7. Stefan ties Oliver for fourth and Sam moves to eighth in three star points. Pat's 28 goals today is the fourth-highest session total of the year. Dom's 186 saves are the highest this year; his 1,039 PPS is fourth.

On the All-Time Front: Oliver becomes the second player in history with 2,000 points. Stefan is 25 points behind Lorne for third; Seamus is 44 points behind Stefan; Kyle is 75 points behind Seamus. Pat passes Joern for eleventh in points; Sam enters the top 20. Kyle passes Stefan for third in goals and becomes the third player to score 800. Stefan needs four; Oliver needs 20. Pat needs 31 goals for 500; Sam passes Joe Chwachka for 14th. Lee needs two assists for 1,100. Stefan becomes the second player to take 4,000 shots on goal; Oliver needs 15. Dom is 99 saves behind Chris for fourth all-time; Alex becomes the eleventh goalie to make 2,000 saves. Oliver becomes the first person to play 1,100 games. Stefan passes Lorne for fifth in games played. Pat becomes the 21st player with 200 games played. Dom passes Joern and ties Bron and Nathan for third in games goaltended at 253. Alex ties Laird for third in shutouts with 13. Pat actually drops from second to fifth in APG. Kyle’s 15-pointer streak reaches a frightening 38 consecutive sessions. Pat and Sam have five in a row. Pat posts his 20th career 20-pointer; he and Sam have three in a row while Kyle has two. Kyle becomes the second player with 20 25-pointers and has two in a row; Pat has three. Pat has three straight 35ers, in fact. Kyle is two ten-goal sessions behind Lorne for second all-time with 44; Sam has four in a row and Pat has three. Sam posts his first 15-goal session; Pat has three in a row and Kyle has two. Pat has three-straight 20-goal sessions. Stefan ties Kyle for fourth in ten-assisters with 21. Seamus’ ten-assister streak ends at four; Sam’s at two. Dom passes Chris for seventh in .800 sessions with 15; Alex pots his tenth. Dom has back-to-back .820s. Dom ties Seamus for fourth in 80-savers with 22; he has four in a row as does Alex. Dom is just one 90-saver away from tying Bron and Nathan for the lead at 20; Alex is at 16 (four in a row). Dom passes Shem for third in 100-savers with 16; Alex is at 12 (four in a row). Dom is one 110-saver behind Bron for the all-time lead with 12; Alex has ten (four in a row, two away from Seamus’ record streak). Dom passes Nathan for the all-time lead in 120-savers with ten. Alex ties Bron for second in 130-savers with six; Dom leads with nine. Bernie’s 28 straight sessions is the fifth-longest streak ever. Lee is not far behind with 24. Oliver is at ten; Seamus nine. Pat’s 28 goals in the VRH session today is the fifth-highest session total ever. Dom’s 186 saves rank fifth-highest in a session ever. As mentioned above, Kyle sets a new single-season scoring mark with 735, besting Lee’s 2009 season of 728; Pat’s 292 rank fourth. Lee needs 27 assists to tie the all-time season mark of 355. Kyle becomes the second player to take 2,000 shots on goal in a single year. Dom becomes the first goalie to make 2,500 saves in one year; Alex becomes the second with 2,000. Lee’s 222 games played ranks second all-time for seasons along with Oliver’s ’09 campaign. Dom’s 190 goalie star points are the second-highest mark ever.

SDF/GDF: Pat holds on for the eleventh straight session and 56th overall, although his lead actually shrinks since an even more dominant session falls off. Lee’s fall from third to seventh bring Rob and Graeme to third and fourth. Barlow enters the top five, and Eric enters the top ten for the first time as Marcus falls out due to inactivity. Seamus holds the GDF for the seventh straight time and 28th overall, one behind Justin Gordon for the all-time record. Alex does close the gap down behind him, and Dom is almost back to .800 again.

A huge weekend on both sides of Burton Hockey with history being made in a big way. BUSH is severely crippled with the losses of Nathan to Cranbrook, K.J to Red Deer, and now Kyle to Kelowna. While they will all visit when they can, their absence on a full-time level makes it nearly impossible for BUSH to continue at the moment with only the Orrs and Seamus regularly playing. Hopefully the proposed KASH circuit of Shem and Kyle can take off in Kelowna. VRH, though, is flying high and should be good to go every weekend indefinitely as long as the weather cooperates. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.