The long rainy days during this week of rat race
Have rendered Vancouver a soggy, dreary place.
One can only float on the memories of days gone by,
When the sun shone strong, and the pavement was dry.

There was much struggle to get to the rink,
Traffic backed-up because of a bridge-climbing dink.
Most crew arrived, at Ambleside Beach for the meet
While BernieOllieRob played pass on Pender St.

Game 1? I don’t know, I wasn’t even there,
But J-BoRileyRyno and Dom showed some flare.
They fought hard to win, the first game of the day,
Whatever, hurry up, I just wanna play.

Game 2, new teams, and now we shall fly.
The slippery ground by the wall, made elbows and knees cry.
Andrew got injured, Griff was shooting blanks,
I hit my stride, Ryno laid down some spanks.

Game 3 saw some rage, redemption on their minds,
Riley came up real big, with points of all kinds.
Twas not to be had, though they had dished-out much pain
Dom stood on his head and the result was the same.

Game 4, switch it up, J-Bo out JS in,
Sam didn’t really care; he just wanted a Win.
We were down 4-1, situation looking bad,
Ollie to the rescue; his assists were pretty rad.
Scotty spent the day, being hard on himself,
But lo and behold, thrice found the top shelf.

And so we were happy, no fun did we lack,
The write up is done, so get off my back.

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This session saw the very rare occurrence of a rookie leading the session in scoring, as Riley debuted with 12 points in his four-game rookie session to lead the way. With so many players missing games today, points were all across the board. Had he not missed Game 1, Rob likely would have led the day as he finished second with 5G-5A. Ryan picked up third at 4G-4A, playing all four games. Andy Smart led the day in PPG, scoring 7P in just two games. Ollie had no goals but led the day with 7A. Over in goal, it was a big day for Dom with .867 and 91 saves in just four games, plus 3A! Sam was very good, too: he led the session in saves with 95 (including 46 in Game 3 alone) and had a solid .833 save percentage.

Game Scores:
Jordan Ryan Riley Dom def . Scotty Andy Griff Sam 5-3
Jordan Ryan Rob Scotty Dom def. Bernie Riley Griff Oliver Sam 5-2
Jordan Ryan Rob Scotty Dom Markus def. Bernie Riley Griff Oliver Sam 5-4
Scotty Rob Oliver Riley Sam def. Markus Bernie Andy Ryan Dom 5-4

Elo Ratings
Andrew Smart 2111 (-32)
Rob Hajdu 2046 (+22)
Ryan Disterheft 1915 (+31)
Oliver Koth-Kappus 1883 (+10)
Jordan Barlow 1877 (-25)
Griff Jones 1803 (-54)
Scotty Edison 1725 (+9)
Bernie Koth-Kappus 1522 (-19)

Provisional Elo Ratings (fewer than three sessions)
Riley Webb 1876 (n/a)
Markus Lohuaru 1721 (-18)

Season Stats: Two sessions in, the scoring race is predictably jumbled, with today’s session only serving to complicate things further. Andy Smart leads at 24 points ahead of Rob (23), Jordan (22), Ryan (22), and Oliver (19)... Andrew also leads in goals (11) followed closely by Ryan (10), Jordan (9), Riley (9), and Rob (8)... With 15 assists, Rob has a lead of two over Oliver, Jordan, and Andrew who are all at 13... Ryan leads Rob in shots, 60-52... The absent Stefan Klopp leads in shooting percentage at 23.80%... Dom leads in save percentage at .867 but Sam leads in saves at 95... Just two sessions in and already Ryan is left standing alone as the only player to have played all nine games so far... Andrew and Riley are tied for the lead in three-star points with 15, as are Sam and Dominik in the goalie star point race; all four are tied for the lead in total star points... Smart leads in PPG (3.43), Riley leads in GPG (2.25), Rob leads in APG (1.88), Scotty leads in shots per game (9.75), and Sam leads in saves per game (23.75)... Riley’s 12 points rank as the fifth-highest scoring session of the young season so far, while his nine goals rank tops... Scotty’s six goals are the third-highest total so far... Oliver’s seven assists rank fifth-highest for a session this year... Four of the top five highest-shooting session totals were recorded today, led by Riley’s 39... Dom and Sam post the top two PPS ratings of the season at 958 and 928, respectively.

SDF/GDF: Sam leads for a fifth time on the SDF with his massive lead being eroded only a tiny bit by Andrew... Kellan surges as a lower-scoring session drops off for him; he’s the only Arena/BUSH player left above the minimum number of sessions to qualify for full ranking points. Again, the remaining Arena leaguers plummet this week, leading to big moves up the charts for Ryan, Stefan, and Oliver despite their ratings barely moving... Riley debuts an impressive 11th... Stuart leads the GDF for a third straight session but he has now almost been caught by Dom and could very well be knocked to second next week... Sam’s still fourth but climbs back over the .8000 level.

All-Time Session Milestones & Streaks

On the All-Time Front: Oliver is now just 12 points behind Lee Orr for the all-time scoring lead, and is now poised to take lead in a session or perhaps two. If the first BUSH session does indeed take place on the weekend of 23-24 March as anticipated, he may just break it in the very presence of the injured Lee... Rob is five points away from catching Graeme Orr and becoming the first VRH-bred player to enter the top ten in all-time scoring... Andrew needs 14 points for 900... Jordan becomes the 14th player with 800 points... Ryan is 12 points behind Tony Hajdu for 16th... Bernie still needs six goals for 700... Ryan needs eleven goals for 400... Andrew ties Mitch Detta for 15th in goals and is four behind Ryan... Sam is 110 saves behind Lyle Detta for 11th all-time... Andrew becomes the 22nd player to play 300 games... Sam passes Chris Jackins for ninth in goalie star points with 205... Rob becomes the 11th player 300 three-star points... Dom’s eight consecutive .800s is the third-longest streak of all time... Dom has four straight .810s... Sam passes Lyle for tenth in .820s with nine... Dom has back-to-back .820s... Sam ties Lyle for tenth in .830s with six... Dom takes the all-time lead in .850s from Alex Elischer with 15... Dom ties Nathan Robson for second in .860s with nine and is one behind Seamus O’Connor for the all-time lead... Sam ties Lyle and Shem for eighth in 80-savers with 21 and ties Shem and Seamus for seventh in 90-savers with 17... Rob plays in tenth consecutive session, while Stefan’s streak ends at seven, Oliver’s streak goes to six... Bernie joins Stefan and Oliver as players to play in all 14 Burton Hockey seasons.

VRH should be right back with another Sam Lam-organised session on either 16 or 17 March. Good news for those of you in the Arrow Lakes missing roller hockey: the ice was removed from the Nakusp arena this week, meaning the Arena League looks to be back soon for a second season. To top it all off, things are looking promising for the long-awaited return of BUSH on the 23-24 March weekend, as the visiting Koth-Kappi and Kloppster look to stir things up, and Seamus O’Connor, among others, looks to join in!