The beauty of Vancouver is that with a little co-operation from the weather gods, outdoor hockey can be played virtually any time of year. Despite a low turnout, the good weather and two goalies was too much to pass up, and VRH would have its first session of 2014 only 4 days into the new year.

With a couple 'maybes' being unable to make it and Andy being pegged as a late arrival, the day would begin with 5 skaters and a 3-on-2 format. Bernie's occasional breaks would mitigate the 3-man advantage somewhat, as would Dom's otherworldly goaltending.

The first game would see Ollie-Stefan-Bernie-Sam (G) take on Rob-Tony-Dom (G). Team Dom would score a few quick ones to get an early lead. Eventually the 3-man team was able to buckle down defensively and take control of the game play-wise (according to the Corsi metrics). This would result in a long drawn out battle with team Sam slowly clawing their way back into the game. With the score 4-3 for Team Dom, the game would drag on and on, with Dom making miraculous save after save. In the end though, Rob would score the winner for his team, his 5th goal of the game.

In the next game, a few quick early goals by Rob-Ollie-Dom (G) would be too much to overcome for Stefan-Tony-Bernie-Sam (G) and although the game would still last a fair amount of time, the end result would be a 5-1 victory for team Dom.

At this point Tony had to quit due to an extremely lower body injury. We were expecting Andy to show up any minute, which would allow us to continue the same format but alas Andy was no-where to be seen. So the only option left was to play the ever grueling 2-on-2 format: Bernie-Rob-Dom (G) would take on Stef-Ollie-Sam (G). By implementing a trapping, more passive defensive system (allowing Dom to do the bulk of the work) and capitalizing on their breaks, Rob & Bernie managed to keep the game even at 2-2 for the first half hour or so, but eventually the constant O-zone pressure of Ollie & Stefan would wear them down. Dom was absolutely brilliant in this game but he could only make so many spectacular saves on great chances before a couple quick ones went in. The game would end at a 5-2 score.

Despite only 3 games being played, the session lasted over 3 hours and left everyone more than satisfied. With Sam back in town more regularly now (giving us a second goalie) and the potential for decent hockey weather almost any weekend, look for VRH to keep getting in a session here-and-there throughout the winter.

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Thanks, Bern! How great it is to be back for a 15th season of Burton Hockey. Hard to believe, isn’t it? What’s not hard to believe is the prowess of Dom and Sam in net, as they held the shooters at bay and only let them get three games in during the three-hour session. Dom finished narrowly ahead of Sam, .864-.859, while Sam beat Dom in Saves, 73-57. Scoring wise, Rob led the day although Oliver nearly caught him by the end. Rob finished first with 10G-2A, just one point ahead of Ollie at 6G-5A. Stefan was solid in third at 2G-7A.

Game Scores:
Rob Tony Dom def. Oliver Stefan Bernie Sam 5-3
Rob Oliver Dom def. Stefan Tony Bernie 5-1
Stefan Oliver Sam def. Rob Bernie Dom 5-2

Elo Ratings
Stefan Klopp 2015 (-11)
Tony Hajdu 1987 (-41)
Rob Hajdu 1938 (+29)
Oliver Koth-Kappus 1937 (+13)
Bernie Koth-Kappus 1536 (+11)

Season Stats: Well, the season stats are the session stats, being that this was the first session of the year, so there really no point in expounding it since you can see them for yourselves at the top of the screen.

SDF/GDF: Seamus has comfortable view from the top of the SDF for the moment as the biggest gain goes to the absent Ryno, who loses a bad session off of his average. Ollie and Rob do make some gains thanks to a good day today… We have the fourth different leader in the last four rankings over on the GDF as Dom edges ahead of previous leader Bron, who in turn knocked out Lee, who in turn knocked out Justin.

All-Time Session Milestones & Streaks

On the All-Time Front: Stefan needs 29 points to become the third player with 2,000… Rob passes the 1,100 point plateau and moves past Justin Gordon into ninth in all-time scoring… Tony is nine points behind Pat Elischer for 15th… Rob passes Graeme Orr for 11th in goals and is 16 behind Pat for 10th… Bernie needs six assists for 1,000… Sam becomes the tenth goalie to make 3,000 saves… Dom needs five games for 700… Rob ties Laird Bilinski for 14th in games played… Sam is five games behind Seamus O’Connor for ninth in games goaltended… Stefan passes Kyle Grenier for third in three-star points, 855-850… Oliver passes Lorne Bilinski for fourth in total star points, 880-875… Bernie is now just two points ahead of Rob for third in all-time VRH scoring… Sam records his 15th career .800 session… Rob scores 10 goals for the 15th time… Rob’s consecutive session streak becomes increasingly impressive as he extends it to 24 straight sessions, tied for the 11th-longest streak ever… Oliver has played 16 straight, Dominik 15, and Bernie 8… Stefan, Bernie, and Oliver have now played in 15 consecutive seasons; only Lee Orr can join them in that group for 2014.