Half-an-hour before departure time, there were eleven players lined up for a big session. Ten minutes later, there were seven players and no goalies. This was going to be a weird one, and weird it was. Would the shorthanded BUSHwhackers impress the eyes of the visiting Stefan Klopp? And how would our old friend Nathan Robson do in his return? We would find out, but not after repairing all of the boards some kids had stripped off the side of the rink and left lying in the middle of the court.

To start the day off, Kyle Grenier (who was the first to arrive along with Jamie and myself) decided en route that he needed a healthy bowel movement before the first game. Unfortunately, there was no toilet paper in the McCormack Park washroom; only paper towel. And Kyle was not about to clog the park’s only toilet with paper towel. Instead, he walked all the way down to the Burton Historical Park campground. By the time he came back 40 minutes later, not only had everyone else arrived, but the first series was already in the bank!

With Grenier on bathroom patrol, the first series would be straight-up 2-on-2. But who would swallow their pride and go in net? Upon discovering that he had forgotten his skates, Nathan immediately grabbed the good set of gear (as well as someone else’s shoes since he forgot those as well) and would face the enigmatic goaltending of Lee in the other net. Lee got Terryn and Graeme; Nate got K.J. and James. K.J. immediately scored on Lee, and Terryn immediately scored on Nathan. This pretty much set the tone for the series. K.J. was a goalscoring machine, notching all seven for his side in the series (James assisted on five of them, including four in Game 2), but the teamwork of Terryn and Graeme got them nine points each en route to a 5-3, 5-4 series win. Lee took home three assists from his sojourn in goal, in which he faced just 24 shots. And best of all, the ambiguity was removed from the score sheet thanks to K.J.’s new laminated scoring flip board, which proved to be hugely successful in its debut and will, from here on in, be an integral part of BUSH equipment. No more yelling and confusion about what the score is – now players can just look over at the flip board and see for themselves! Game 2 was also notable for Terryn starting out with possession off an out-of-play ball, only to immediately wind up slowly lobbing it straight back out of play on a poorly-attempted dump-and-pump. The unforced error to end all unforced errors.

Kyle returned at the end of Game 2, so the rest of the session would see one team with a sub. And with Lee and Nathan having paid their dues, it was time for two more players to pay the piper. In what must be considered the most unlikely goaltending match-up to this point in Burton Hockey history (and that’s saying a lot), James Hewlitt would do battle against Graeme Orr (you can read that sentence over again if you like). Just in time, too, for Stefan (with help from a visiting Andrew Watson taking a break from fixing his dirtbike) mounted a tripod on top of the cage in order to take a timelapse video of the rest of the session, forever immortalising Graeme in goal on film. When Klopp gets back to Vancouver later this week, look for it on YouTube! Graeme would get the sub team of Lee, K.J. and Terryn; James got Nathan (playing on Graeme’s wheels) and Kyle. James’ start was pretty rocky, as Lee made up for lost time by pairing with Terryn on some goals while K.J. was on the bench (a recurring theme throughout the rest of the evening, which explains K.J.’s point total). Team Graeme won the first game 5-3. The two points Kyle and Nathan didn’t score in that game would ultimately be the only two they didn’t in the entire. Both men pointed out in two tightly-fought golden goal games to come back and take the series. The goaltending was erratic, but both James and Graeme managed to make some pretty good saves to go on their personal highlight reels. Graeme even took three points from his experience in goal.

Nathan swapped back in for Graeme, and more than made up for his performance in Series 1 with .840 in the final series. He would get Terryn and Kyle; James got the Orrs and K.J. Once again, both games went down to the wire. In both games, Team James got up early (3-0 and 4-2, respectively), only to have the Kyle-Terryn combo storm back and take the victories. James had four points from goal in this series, giving him six alone from goal on the night. He also pulled his save percentage from the mid-.600s into the .700s. It was a very disjointed, but oddly rewarding session today that wound up being pretty fun with all of its twists and turns. It may be the last one for a little while because of Nakusp Music Fest next weekend, so we’ll see what happens. Lots of fun hanging out with the Kloppster at the stats table for all three hours of today’s session, who ensured that our figures were accurate. And again, I can’t say enough about the flip board. That’s a game-changer. Best of all, we’ve got Graeme and James on film in goal. Enjoy the photos from my camera today (Klopp and I both pitched in with those), and look for Stefan’s timelapse video later in the week!

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A very weird day on the scoresheet. K.J. had eight points (all goals) after two games, only to finish with 15 after seven. Terryn led most of the day, but Kyle came screaming back despite missing the first series. In the end, both Terryn and Kyle would end up with 10G-11A to share first place on the day. Lee and K.J. tied for the lead in goals with 12 each. Lee would be third with 19 points, closely followed by Graeme at 17. Despite just three games on skates, Nathan put up 16 points, including 13 in his 3 games on skates alone. And James put up 11 assists with just two games skated. Wackiness. As for the volatile situation in net, Nathan shook off the .729 from the first series to climb all the way to .793 by the end of the day, proving that he still more than has it even in a crazy session like this one. It was goaltender armageddon otherwise, with three unlikely candidate stepping up to the plate. Graeme finished at .727, Lee .708, and James .701 in his debut in net.

Game Scores:
Terryn Graeme Lee def Nathan K.J. James 5-3 5-4
Nathan Kyle James def. Lee K.J. Terryn Graeme 3-5 5-4 5-4
Nathan Terryn Kyle def. James Lee Graeme K.J. 5-4 5-4

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
Graeme Orr 4/5 (80.00%)
Terryn Stenseth 10/15 (66.67%)
Kyle Grenier 12/19 (63.16%)
Nathan Robson 4/8 (50.00%)
K.J. O’Connor 6/16 (37.50%)
Lee Orr 7/22 (31.82%)
James Hewlitt 0/1 (0.00%)

It was another VRH/BUSH doubleheader today, so look for the big stats summary in the VRH boxscore when it gets posted!