Twas a dark stormy Saturday afternoon as the sleet pounded Vancouver’s streets like a bitchy tenant who lives upstairs. Hockey the next day was certainly uncertain. But as clouds parted and newly formed asphalt creeks began to dry, the coalition of the willing crept out to test the ground…

Mother’s Day. Players made time, scheduled brunches instead of lunches, dinners instead of afternoon teas, or simply let her hit the slopes for some skiing without annoying spawn. The sacrifices of the VRH were worth the glory and Moms understand that a son’s health is important as well.

A slow start without enough players, and Team Grapefruit knew there was a war of attrition from the get-go by playing a man down. Like a Colbertian Eagle of America a Bird soared home and shat upon the Mozzaball and his German expats for the first game.

This structure ended with the arrival of new players, full teams, and a 7-Game Series was on! Three sub-less miscreants, unwanted Christmas Trees from a Charlie Brown Special, and a European Union of Germans, Hungarians and Swiss took the field for epic battle.

The EU came out flying, sniping from corners of the court to corners of the net. Passes were crisp, and the ball moved. Hard forechecking dominated nearly as much as the gigantic Swiss Snowball for the EU. Toe saves, glove saves, spinning-from-the-back-using-the-paddle-in-a-last-ditch-attempt saves, the Dominatrix closed the zipper on the leather S&M mask the CTs put on themselves. Before anyone knew it the games were 3-1 and the EU was coasting to an easy victory.

Then the paradigm shift came. Marcus hurt his pinky finger, and while being bandaged-up the game went from 2-1 EU to 4-2 CT in minutes. It ended 5-3. No biggie right?

Wrong!

This was the downfall of the EU. Players started standing around (except Lars, he can’t not move), the passes softened, the forecheck dulled, and the Snowball melted (although he basically stood on his head but I need a metaphor). At the same time the Grapefruit got square on every shot, closed the five-hole, and protected his corners. The CTs, without a sub, somehow found more energy. They didn’t get tired at all!

A rattled EU was shut-out in Game 6 of the series (not for lack of effort) and simply ran out of steam in Game 7 (eight of the day). Grapefruit and the Christmas Trees won the series, and the EU was broken.

Twas a great day of physical play, emotional swings, courage and defeats.

Happy Mother’s Day to all, and to all a good night!

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Nothing like a good old-fashioned Rob Hajdu write-up to kickstart your week. Thanks again, Rob! The Marcus-Oliver combo was a deadly pair. Together they scored 50 points today (25 each, though Marcus missed the first game; 25 is a new high for Marcus). Marcus had an absurd 87 shots on goal (also a personal best), including 25 shots in Game 7 alone (in which he scored all five goals). It’s no surprise that their goal and assist total are almost the inverse of one another. Not far behind on this high-volume day was Rob at 22 points. Ryan and Tony each broke 70 shots on the day as well. In goal, the goalies faced a torrent of shots; Dom in particular as he stopped 178 shots for .840. Sam was his equal, however, with a career-best .838 and a shutout. Game 2 saw Sam make 37 saves and Dom make 35. Dom may have been shutout in Game 6, but he made 40 saves in that loss. Quite the day to be a goalie in West Vancouver.

Here are the game scores:
Tony Rob Sam def. Bernie Oliver Ryan Dom 5-4
Oliver Marcus Ryan Sam def. Tony Rob Bernie Lars Dom 2-5 5-3 4-5 3-5 5-3 5-0 5-1

With both a VRH and a BUSH session this day, let’s see how the season and all-time statistics now look:

Season Stats: With Andrew Smart missing a rare session, the gang gets to close in a little on his massive lead. Oliver passes Rob to move back into second, 189-187, followed by Marcus, Tony and Lee, who passes Stefan and Bernie to move to sixth. Grenier moves into the top 13... Marcus is just 21 goals behind Andrew, 113-92, followed by Rob (86), Tony (82), Oliver (77) and Lee (69)... Marcus passes Oliver for third in goals... K.J. jumps into third in shooting percentage ahead of Mitch and Marcus... Dom takes the lead in saves from Alex from 1,264; Lyle jumps into fourth with 175... Dom (106), Oliver (103) and Bernie (103) all cross the 100-game mark on the year... Lee and Mitch have yet to miss a BUSH game this season... Lyle is fourth in games goaltended... Sam is the sixth goalie with a shutout this year... Oliver moves into the top five in three-star points behind Andrew, Rob, Marcus and Lee... Dom trails Alex for the lead in goalie star points, 110-95... Marcus leaps into second in GPG right behind Lee at 1.56 with K.J. moving to third at 1.53 ahead of Kyle... Tony takes over the lead in shots-per-game while Andrew and Lee fall to second and third... Marcus’ 17 goals are the third-highest session total this year, as are his 87 shots on goal... Dom’s 178 saves and 1018 PPS rank fifth-highest in sessions this year.

SDF/GDF: The razor-thin battle between Andrew Smart and Ryan Bateman continues. This week, it swings back to Smart, who leads his 12th career ranking (tied with Kyle Grenier for fifth all-time)... Grenier himself comes back over the session minimum and moves from seventh to fourth; Jesse also comes over the minimum and moves to eighth... K.J. jumps into the top ten... Not much happens on the GDF other than Lyle moving into the top ten. Jesse still holds a narrow lead on top over Alex and Ryan Bateman.

All-Time Records, Awards and Honours
All-Time Session Scoring Milestones & Streaks
All-Time Session Goaltending Milestones & Streaks

On the All-Time Front: Lee needs 14 points for 2,600... Oliver needs 16 for 2,400... Kyle is 16 points behind Bernie for sixth... K.J. becomes the eighth player with 1,100 points... Mitch needs six points for 600 and is ten behind Barlow for 14th... Tony passes Sam for 17th... Ryan needs seven for 500... Marcus needs 23 for 400... Lee needs six goals for 1,400... Tony is one goal behind Rob for 14th... Marcus enters the top 25 in goals and needs three for 200... Lee needs eight assists for 1,200... Kyle is ten assists behind Lorne for sixth and needs 16 for 600... Rob passes 350 assists and is one behind Barlow for 13th... Ryan is one assist behind Mitch for 19th... Bernie becomes the seventh player with 3,000 shots on goal... Rob ties Pat Elischer for 13th in shots... Sam passes Terryn to enter the top 15 in saves... Oliver needs 15 games for 1,300... Lee becomes the third player with 900 games... K.J. is two games behind Graeme for eleventh... Mitch needs six game for 300; Ryan eight... Lyle needs five games for 200... Dom needs two games in goal to become the first player to goaltend 400 games... Lyle needs six for 200... Sam picks up his second career shutout... Lee reaches 1,400 star points... Kyle is 15 star points behind Lorne for second all-time with 740, while Oliver ties Stefan for fourth at 730... K.J. passes Nathan for eighth in total star points with 505... Kyle’s 15-pointer streak is now at an absurd 41 consecutive sessions... Lee and Rob each have five in a row; Tony and Oliver four; Mitch three... Kyle and Lee’s 20-pointer streaks end at four; Tony’s at two... Marcus has his first-ever 25-pointer... Tony’s ten-goal streak goes to four; Kyle’s ten-goal streak ends at four sessions; Rob’s at three... Marcus has his fifth ten-goal session... Rob moves into seventh in ten-assisters with 15... Sam has his first .830... Dom has back-to-back .840s; he’s tied with Alex and Seamus and one behind Justin for the all-time lead with 14... Sam has six straight 80-, 90-, and 100-savers; his 100-save streak is the third-longest ever... Carter picks up a 90-saver in his first session... Dom takes the lead from Alex in all-time 100- and 110-savers (27 and 22)... Sam has back-to-back 120-savers, while Dom has back-to-back 130-savers... Dom takes the all-time lead in 130-savers from Alex with 16... Oliver and Lee now have the third and fourth-longest consecutive session streaks ever at 36 and 35, respectively... Dom has the eighth-longest streak ever at 27... Bernie’s goes to 15.