First win of the year: Emerson 11, RISD 4

That Wings' loss on Friday night annoyed me and I was in no mood to write a recap.  Writing one now would be a little dated, so instead I'm going to present you with a recap my hockey game tonight. 

I have no idea what the Rhode Island School of Design's record was before the game, but we were 0-2 entering the contest with two pretty lopsided losses to Berklee School of Music (13-0 and 11-2).  We've never lost to RISD...ever.  So we were pretty confident we'd get our first W of the season and, well, as you can see by the 11-4 score, we did.

The first period actually started out pretty slow.  RISD ended up scoring the first goal of the game in the first few minutes.  Our goalie Alfonso "Fonzie" Carrion made a sick save when I think the score was either 1-1 or 2-1.  It was a two-on-one and the RISD forward passed to his teammate who shot the puck.  Fonzie dove to his right and stopped the shot with his stick.  We ended the period on a high note though with a lead of 3-1.

We scored a few more goals in the second period and ended up leading after two by a score of 6-2.  At one point during the period one of the RISD defensemen was skating behind their net to start the breakout.  I was on the forecheck and laid a nice solid, hard check on the defenseman...who turned out to be a girl.  Oops.  Now, a lot of teams we play are co-ed and we are not really supposed to check the girls.  In my defense, I have to make it known that her ponytail was tucked into her shoulder pads and it looked like she had short hair.  Oh, and she totally looked like a dude.  I was all jacked up after my shift when I got back to the bench and everyone was looking at me like, 'Dude, you just hit a girl."  My bad...my bad.

Now the third period?  That was a lot of fun.  All game I played right wing on the second line.  My line-mates had been lighting up the score sheet all night.  My center Scott had 3 goals and 3 assists.  My left winger Ian had a goal and 3 assists.  I don't have the best hands in the business by any means, so since the first period Scott and Ian kept telling me to crash the net and they'll get me the puck.  Over the course of the game they set me up with three b-e-a-utiful opportunities right in front of the net...I'm talking a surefire goal...and I whiffed on the first two and the goalie made a nice save on the third.  But finally in the third period I cashed in.

My defenseman passed me the puck on the wing in our own zone for the breakout.  The RISD d-man pinched in and I hit Ian with the pass and we off on a two-on-one.  He lost the puck just over the blue line but was able to regain control for a shot, the goalie made the save and the puck bounced perfectly to my stick and tapped it home into the empty net.  It was our 10th goal of the game. 

But wait! There's more!  My very next shift Scott ripped a shot from the slot.  As usual, I just crashed the net, found the rebound, the goalie stopped my first attempt, but I got a second whack and didn't miss this time.  It was our 11th and final goal of the game.  After the goal, the ref came up to me as we skated back to the bench and laughed as he told me, and I quote, "that was the ugliest goal I've ever seen."  I responded with, "that's the only way I know how."  And trust me, it was UGLY.  It was a Tomas Holmstrom like garbage goal....just the way I like it.

The Boylston Cup

The Cup is on the line tonight.

Emerson College takes Berklee College of Music for the coveted Boylston Cup.  Boylston is a street in Boston that both of our campuses are located on...hence the name. 

I'll be playing defense on the third pair tonight and may see a little action at third line center.   We'll see.  The game is being broadcast over the internet by Nick Coit and Bryan Drozda.  They're going to try to set up video, but if they can't the game will definitely have a radio feed.  You can watch/listen by clicking here or enjoy the game right here at BSI.

"The Numerical Decision"

Recently, I've had the tough decision of choosing a number to wear on the back of my Emerson College hockey jersey as I come out of retirement this fall.  As I stated in a previous post, I've never worn the same number twice (7, 24, 33, 10, 17, 96, 41, and 66) and plan to continue that trend this season.  There has been a lot of speculation and information from "sources" regarding what number I've chosen.  I've read rumors of me wearing 67 or 29.  I've received a lot of suggestions from many people too.  My girlfriend Jillian, as well as a secret commenter named Anonymous, think I should wear 5.  More ideas include TheNorm41 and my pal Gannon suggested 14 because it's 41 (my favorite number) backwards and Shanny used to wear 14 for the Wings, plus my dog is named Shanny.  Liam suggested threve.  Baroque suggested pi.  Andy suggested 9, 19, 25, or 92.

With eight previously worn numbers off the board, plus 16, 18, and 62 already taken by members of Emerson's team, it left me with 88 different numbers to choose from.  First, I decided to eliminate the obvious numbers that I personally refuse to wear.  That meant that 87 was out the window and I had to say goodbye to any number that Mikael Samuelsson wore, so 26 (Vancouver), 37 (Detroit/Pittsburgh/NY Rangers), 11 (Panthers), and 28 (Sharks) were all eliminated.

I thought about my the suggestions I received and my favorite Wings' players too.  The obvious number choices when it comes to Red Wings are 9 and 19, but I really didn't want to wear those numbers.  In the past when I've picked a number because of a Wing, I never picked the obvious, most popular Wings' number.  I've picked 33 and 96 for Draper and Homer.  There was a big push by Jillian for 5 and it made sense.  As a defenseman, I'm a huge Lidstrom fan (in the future, my first born son's name will be spelled Nicklas). 

In the end though, I did choose a Wings' number and my choice makes a lot of sense (to me at least).  So without further ado...

In this fall...this is very tough...in this fall I'm going to take my talents to downtown Boston with the Emerson College Lions hockey team and wear the number...

I need a number!

My second stint with the Rangers. I'm second row, center with the 'A'

There really hasn't been much Red Wings' news lately other than the current Modano will-he-won't-he Brett Favre-like soap oprea...The Young and the Modano...Days of our Modano...General Modano...One Modano to Live...The Bold and the Modano...or All My Modano.  Daytime soap opera names with Modano in the title aside, this post is not about him.

This post is about me needing your help!

This fall I will be coming out of retirement to lace up the skates once again.  I will be playing competitive ice hockey for the first time since I was 16-years-old and sophomore in high school (I'm now 22 and about to begin my last semester of college).  So it's truly been awhile.

The reason for the post though, clearly given away by my clever title, is that I need a number for my sweater.  To briefly provide some background for you, I've never wore the same number twice.  I didn't start skating super early like most hockey players.  The first time I ever played competitively was in the spring of 3rd grade.  I played two spring seasons and wore #7 and #24, respectively (and this was before I really knew anything about Chris Chelios).

After my second spring season, I made it off the waiting list and got to join the 'apprentice' program, which was for kids of the 'squirt' level just beginning hockey.  I wore #33 that season (I liked Draper).

Then next year, in my first season of peewee hockey, I played for the Lakeland *gasp!* Avalanche (Yes, I wore the Avs logo and colors for a season. I had no choice).  That season I wore #10.  I wasn't very good my first year.  I was small, I wasn't the best skater, and I had no hands (still don't!).  My coach moved me back-and-forth between forward and defense all season. Never really found a grove.  I have no idea how many points I had.  Probably around 5-7 goals?  Most all were garbage goals in front of the net.  Highlight of the season that I'll always remember is scoring two goals in the opening shift of a game and then hitting the post on a wide open net on my very next shift.  Closest I ever came to a hat trick.  Honestly have no memory if I have had a two goal game ever again.

Second year of peewee,  I played for the Lakeland Rangers.  I wore #17 that year because in the offseason I went to Michigan Tech hockey camp and was given #17 for the week. I ended up scoring a goal on a penalty shot in the final game on the final day of camp.

Between this season and the season before, I grew like 8 inches and stood 6'1" (Which is my current height. Yes, I haven't grown since 7th grade). This is were my coach Bobby (and still my current barber back home today!) asked me what position I was.  I said I played both offense and defense.  He looked at me and said, "No. You'll play defense and you'll protect the net."  Worked for me.  They slapped an 'A' on the front of my sweater and I've been what I'd like to consider a stay-at-home-defenseman ever since.  Clear the front of the net and muck it up in the corners.  That's my game.  I still credit Bobby to this day for teaching me how to truly understand the game of hockey (but Coach Jeff gets the credit for teaching me my mean poke check).  If you're ever in the White Lake, MI area, stop by the White Lake Square Barber shoppe at M59 and Teggerdine and tell Bobby I said hello.

The next season, my first year of bantam, with the Lakeland Prowlers I wore #96.  This was the most successful team I've ever been on.  A lot of fun too.  I wore #96 in honor of Tomas Holmstrom.  Still played my defensive role.

My second bantam season I was back with Coach Bobby and the Rangers.  This time I wore #41.  It's probably my favorite number ever.  The story comes from running cross-country all my life.  I told my xc coach that I would run 309 miles in the summer before 8th grade...well I ran 41 that summer and my xc coach Mr. Stevenson decided to call my "41" instead of Jeff all season.  In fact, he still calls me "41" to this day. 

My final season of hockey was in midget.  A teammate from the year before, well, his dad owned the ice rink we played at.  When Mike didn't make the Brother Rice JV team, he still wanted to play, so his dad created a midget team for him and Mike called all his old friends and teammates to see if they wanted to play.  I joined it.  I wore #66 that year because it was the only jersey left that was my size.

So long story short, I need to decide on a new number for this upcoming season with Emerson College.  Originally, my thought was to go with #41.  But, I've never worn the same number twice...so why start now.  I've worn 7, 24, 33, 10, 17, 96, 41, 66...and ?????????????????  So please, leave a comment and tell my your number suggestion!  (So far I know that 16, 17, 18, 24, and 62 are already unavailable.)

Lets Go Red Wings