It starts in passing conversation, Burton Hockey? Chances slim to none. An old face this time represented by Nathan Robson comes back to home looking for a piece of their lost youth. Then a keen post-boom player in Jesse Gimbel calls for one of his annual visits to the area and the hopeful lure is cast into the player abyss. The Orrs are go and pull cousin James in whose late arrival ends up balancing the session perfectly. Justin Gordon returns with Dylan Stevens, Watsy represents a true local and Noel Ballard who will game any game rounds out an old school and tight group that really cranks the nostalgia. Into the emotional time machine. A time free from the obligations, commitments and expectations that multiply with the years. More by cosmic circumstance sessions occur now. Gone are the days of abundant numbers, an embarrassment of riches enjoyed in the years with close proximity to the Decasession, our true peak. For us the true shared vestige of that youth is Burton Hockey. It's our ethereal ethos and it's locked in time. Every time we step onto John McCormack we are breathing rarefied air and we know it, on this May Long weekend a ball game was concurrently running and the park was bustling like it was in days of yore. This one felt truly special and if B.U.S.H. suffers the prophesied death it doesn't deserve in the near future I can't think of a more poetic setting for it's final act.

The changes from the past are apparent, 6-8 balls flying around in warmup, 3 players on brand new skates, a bag of wheels, lightly used or brand new sticks all around (except Gimbel, rook ;). People arrive solo or in groups of two flexing our ability to burn fossil fuels. Everyone is stocked in customary Burton refreshments that would have made our younger selves green with envy. Same old shitty goalie pads though! Some things never change. Sticks got thrown, Nathan and Justin pulled and patched the pads on and of we went.

Game 1
Wats, Graeme and Lee with Nate 3-5 Dylan, Seamus, Jesse and Noel with Justin
Goalie and defensive grinder with fresh legs that lasted close to 40 min. Shots 35-18 For Dylan's team. Seamus and Jesse lead with 2 goals and assists a piece.

Game 2
Same teams with switched goalies 5-1 Dylan over Wats
Floodgates opened up as it took all of 14 total shots for the game to finish. Seamus leads all scorers with 2 and 2.

Game 3
Jesse, Lee, James and Graeme with Nate 5-2 Seamus, Wats, Noel and Dyl with Justin.
After losing his third game in net and not getting much help defensively Justin throws off the pads in disgust and the uneven series is over as it started. Jesse collects 4 assists to lead all scorers and Lee starts to heat up with 2 and 1.

Game 4
Lee, Seamus, James with Nate 5-2 Jesse, Justin, Noel with Graeme in net!!
It took Lee and Seamus 10 shots to solve the leaning tower of Gore in his first game in net in forever.

Game 5
Lee, Seamus, James with Nate 5-2 Jesse, Justin, Noel with Graeme
Same score, vastly different game. This one was way closer than the score suggested. Graeme would face 38 shots but still take the loss as Nathan was dominant all day on route to an undefeated afternoon.

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Thanks, Seamus! A shame I couldn't be there for this great celebration of Burton Hockey. 15 years after the first session, we saw Justin and Dylan (both in the first-ever session), Lee (from the second-ever session), Seamus (the first-season Most Outstanding Goalie), and Watsy (one of the pre-McCormack parking lot pioneers) today, alongside BUSH's most legendary goalie (Nathan), the all-time most improved player in BUSH history (Graeme), a beloved guest star (Jesse), and two of the key figures in the 2009-11 BUSH resurgence (Noel and James). Seamus (8G-8A) edged Jesse (8G-7A) by a point to take first star. Lee led all players with 9G and finished at 12P. In goal, Nathan was his forever-dominant self at .880 while Graeme finished at .771 and Justin at .675. It should also be noted that Lee completed the 16-Season Club today, joining Stefan Klopp and the Koth-Kappus brothers to have played in all 16 seasons of Burton Hockey.

Elo Ratings
Seamus O'Connor 2138 (+19)
Lee Orr 2005 (+3)
Jesse Gimbel 1921 (+36)
Graeme Orr 1857 (-23)
James Hewlitt 1805 (+23)
Dylan Stevens 1797 (+7)
Justin Gordon 1775 (-24)
Noel Ballard 1667 (-14)
Andrew Watson 1529 (-19)

Season Stats: With this being the only BUSH session of the year, and the stats themselves only arriving two weeks after the fact, there's no real need for a season stats summary other than to point out some session highs... Seamus' 16 points tie for the fifth-highest result of the year... Lee's nine goals rank fourth-highest, while Seamus and Jesse's eight apiece tie for fifth... Jesse'46 shots on goal tie for fourth-highest... Nathan's .880 is the third-best goaltending session of the year, and his 980 PPS ranks fourth-highest in sessions so far this year.

All-Time Session Milestones & Streaks:
Seamus becomes the sixth player to score 800 goals... Lee becomes the second player to score 1,300 assists... Lee needs 27 shots for an incredible 7,500... Seamus is 23 shots on goal behind Kyle Grenier for fourth... Nathan is 126 saves behind Laird Bilinski for fourth... Graeme ties Sam Lam for 12th in games played... Nathan passes Laird for 15th in games played... Nathan passed Joern Hornhardt for sixth in games goaltended... Justin passes Sam for ninth in games goaltended... Nathan is three points behind Shem Hanna for fifth in points scored from goal... Lee becomes the first player with 1,500 three-star points... Seamus' ten-assister streak ends at three... Seamus has nine straight 15-pointers; Jesse has three... Justin's drop from .906 in his last session to .675 today is the largest difference between two consecutive goaltending sessions in history... Nathan ties Alex Elischer and Justin for fourth in .810s with 25... Nathan becomes the seventh goalie with ten .850s... Nathan ties Bron for third in.860s with ten... Nathan records his fifth .880s, tied for third all-time... Nathan ties Seamus for fifth in 80-savers with 26... Justin's 80-saver streak ends at five.. Seamus played his 12th consecutive session in BUSH today. Should BUSH remain inactive, the streak would be considered ended as the end of 2015... Seamus ties Laird for fifth in seasons played at 13... Dylan almost became the first player to go five years without playing on two separate occasions; he missed the mark by eight days.