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B Grade Finals
Yes that’s right, as the Senators knock over the Sabres and advance to the Stanley Cup finals, so our B graders advance to their own finals tonight.
Before the big game, we’ll have some pre-final entertainment as Bears take on Johnnies in the battle for third. The teams have met twice this season, the first a stirring draw, and the second a 6-1 hammering inflicted on the Bears last week. Bears will be looking to the first game, and trying not to think too much about the second tonight. Johnnies, have gone from champions to missing the final, and they’ll be looking to finish on a high with a good win. Key for Bears – same story all season – speed on the ice. There’s a bunch of good players out there, they just need to keep their legs moving and keep their pace up. If they can get into the zone and take good shots, the goals will come. Key for Johnnies – as has been the story for Johnnies all season, who they have standing between the posts – and I have no idea who this will be tonight. My pick: Johnnies to take it 3-1.
The big final however, I think is going to be tight. Kings and Beasts have shared the spoils this season with a win each, so it’s all going to be fired up tonight for a good game. Key for Beasts – they play well as a team, and it was a good team game that got them through last week with a narrow win. Working hard on special teams, moving the puck around, and putting on good shots. Williams should be standing in goal for Kings, so those wiffly shots from out at point aren’t doing any good, get in closer and fire it in hard. Key for Kings – some of these kids are showing real benefits from playing juniors and midgets this year, they’ve picked up a lot and for a few of them, this should be the last time they’re allowed in the B grade – they’ll be A graders next DIHL. That individual talent could see them through, but if they tie that with good team play, I think they’ll have it over the Beasts.
My pick: I think it’ll be close, and we might be looking at over time, but I think either way, Kings will take it out 4-3.
Presentation at the end of the game, Stampede-Canterbury tickets on sale from me… and other people. Pretty much anyone who owns a peewee kid is hocking them off. $10. Next weekend. Stampede’s first game of the season. Friday _and_ Saturday. Bring it on.
I can get the low resolution one to stream, but not the high resolution one – that might be a bandwidth problem.
Neither of the linked files are working for me – it says it’s downloaded the files in a second, but nothing is there.
Well on the night is when it’s happening.
For reasons that totally escape me, Tom Wilson was playing for the Sharks last night. I have no idea who put him on their team, it’s not like they’re short, and he’s not up to A grade standard.
"rookie#19":35u02v4l wrote:Although I agree with your idea of balancing the teams kyle, i dont think we should get into changing the teams too much on the night. To keep this league competitive we need to establish “teams”, that play together, as when you start mixing teams on the night, it does turn the league into social hockey, rather than one bunch of players battling all season to make the finals, with a goal at the end of it.Even though the idea of balancing would make for better hockey, ultimately it is up to the teams to get their players there, and so with players not showing up on occasions, it probably balances out quite nicely. Im too lazy to get all our players there, thats kind of why our team has dropped in numbers, but my idea is that i shouldnt chase players, if they really want to play they will come.[/quote:35u02v4l]
Well, I agree with that to an extent.
There’s two problems with it however. Since the season A grade rosters were made up the weekend before it started, we had five people turn up and say they wanted to play. Most of them got added to one team. Then we’ve had five people who said they were going to play, not turn up at all. Unfortunately they’re all from other teams. There’s no incentive for several of those people to make it, as they haven’t paid any money.
The first problem is that every person who signs up and plays in either grade, either casually or fully, fulfils a hole in a roster, and some of the teams are pretty short. When both Bullfrogs and Phantoms have played games with 6 skaters, it doesn’t make sense to turn people away. Probably more importantly, all the profit from the DIHL is going to pay Jenel to coach prems and intermediate hockey. If the DIHL doesn’t make sufficient money, it’ll be less likely that we’ll be able to have Jenel, or someone similar next season. To cover the costs of the DIHL itself, we need to have 10 paying players on each team when they take to the ice. That covers ice time, referees, and money for the prize giving. But Phantoms and Bullfrogs only have 8 skaters, so we’re short to start with. Sharks have 14 or 15 now, so they make it up. Johnnies are paying as a team, so they work out at 11 skaters, no matter how many people they have. So while it’s not the main driving factor, we’re only just covering our costs, and the coaching funding arrangement requires us to do a lot better than that.
Secondly, it’d be good if teams did stick together like that, but none are doing it. The closest that we have is the Sharks, because we consistently stick all the juniors together, but that’s more to do with me than with them. None of the teams have stuck together at all from last DIHL. And teams are losing players – Bullfrogs have now lost two premiere players, possibly three if Toby doesn’t get over his injury. So we will replace them if we can. Jacques is now in the roster, and if David Bulling doesn’t get over his injury, we’ll probably add someone else to cover.
The other thing is about players that haven’t bothered to show up. If people put in a team with people on it who haven’t paid yet, I assume they’re going to show up and pay. That hasn’t proven to be the case, which is pretty frustrating, and isn’t really the fault of the players, presumably they’re not turning up because they never intended to do so.
And lastly, I can’t speak for any of the other teams, but my team is finding it really hard playing with the lineup that we’ve got left from our original roster. That’s not social hockey, that’s anti-social hockey. I’d prefer to make permanent changes to rosters, but if we don’t have players that are willing to sign up and play, then we’ll take someone who’s happy to play on the night.
"Kyle":1iihteac wrote:A grade tonight.First up – Johnnies OB take on Phantoms. If that keeps up, then I’m picking Phantoms to take it 4-2.
[/quote:1iihteac]Ah, Phantoms take it… 6-1? The mighty Phantoms roll on. A lovely goal to King off Pielak-Jones, where he literally deflects the puck in as it comes to him on the far post – at waist height. Smith did well, but that Phantoms offense, even with only six skaters, too professional and smooth. Phantoms goalie Metzger has a big grin when he’s pulled to the bench when there’s a delayed penalty, and is the only member of his team sitting there.
"Kyle":1iihteac wrote:Second up Bullfrogs take on the Sharks. If the frogs get their lineup sorted, I’m picking they’ll take it 3-1. If they don’t… Sharks are in with a big sniff and if the Bullfrogs defense isn’t on song, then it could easily go the other way.
[/quote:1iihteac]Frogs can’t get it sorted and go down 5-0 against a solid Sharks outfit. The defense was letting Sharks get around behind them and go one on one with the goalie, and the offense just really wasn’t happening at all – lots of hitting the puck up the boards and giving it back to the other team. Sharks keep up good pressure and take their chances. That’s really evened out the competition for second place, with Johnnies, Bullfrogs, and Sharks only separated by two points with two games to go in the round-robin.
"Tom":1qul0rs8 wrote:I thought you had quick internet Joe so why don’t you just download them?
[/quote:1qul0rs8]I’ve found the effort of downloading games off the internet really unrewarding. My computer is a mac, and the bizarre varieties of files that people post are really unhelpful. Some of them are windows-specific files. I’ve also downloaded half-gigabyte files which just don’t play because they’re corrupt. It’s an underground community so it’s very unreliable.
If some people have gotten it working that’s great, but I’ve found it’s just not worth the effort – I enjoy watching good hockey, but I don’t want to spend hours mucking around to get no result. If anyone had dvds that they could bring down to the rink I’d take them away and watch them, but otherwise I’ll just deal with the fact that we don’t get it and miss out.
I always forget that ‘at the net’ in the excitement of having the opportunity to take a shot.
Sunday proves that I shoot better when I get so tangled up with my long limbs and the puck, that I’m looking down rather than at the net/goalie.
If I look up I just tend to knock it into their pads.
Late breaking news – Johnnies OB have Sam Smith in goal (in the first game between these two teams, he played in the Phantoms goal!). I’m still picking Phantoms.
Bullfrogs goalie Toby Schuck injured himself over the weekend (playing for the prems?), so he’s out. Nick Metzger will double-shift and cover for the Bullfrogs as well. Here’s hoping he has a blinder!
Yeah. I checked the sky tv online guide this morning to see, but it only went forward about 9 days, which was just at the end of the conference finals. Anyone who has the whole month or next month in that magazine might be able to tell us if they’re going to play the finals again.
A grade tonight.
First up – Johnnies OB take on Phantoms. Last time around this was a hiding – 15-3 or so to Phantoms. Johnnies have been twice the team since then though, winning both their last games. They’re in and out of goalie trouble however, so it’s really hard to pick depending on who plays for them on the night. Johnnies have got a decent sized lineup, and Phantom will likely be short, so if they play a pacey game and try and grind down the Phantoms with good forechecking and committed defense with quick changes, they’re in with a good chance. Phantoms are however the money team so far. They’re a potent attacking force, and their defense has been keeping the number of shots on goalie Metzger down. If that keeps up, then I’m picking Phantoms to take it 4-2.
Second up Bullfrogs take on the Sharks. The frogs took this game 4-1 first time around, but both teams are looking a little different now. Similar to the first game, Sharks have a big lineup, and Bullfrogs are a bit short – Bulling is out with a dodgy back, but the froggies might bring in another casual to replace him. If the frogs get their lineup sorted, I’m picking they’ll take it 3-1. If they don’t… Sharks are in with a big sniff and if the Bullfrogs defense isn’t on song, then it could easily go the other way.
