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WEDNESDAYS #1 vs. CRUNCH:

(vol. 7W, no. 1; newsletter by b.n.)
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? If you are traveling in the dark at the speed of light & you turn your headlights on ... do you see anything? If a tree falls in the forest ... and no one is there to hear it ... does it make a noise? These are all questions that I have pondered since ... well since last night. Here's another one: Is the glass half full or half empty? I guess an optimist would tell you that the glass is half full, the pessimist would say half empty. Roger, on the other hand, would tell you "Who's been drinking my beer? 50% of it is no longer in the container where I last observed it" ... that's an engineer for you... What does any of this have to do with anything? Well nothing ... and everything ... but mostly nothing.

One could argue that the opening game was the perfect example of the glass half full/half empty argument .. but I'm tired of arguing - let's get to the game: The game began with the Pirates fielding a complete team of 10 skaters / while our opponents, the Crunch had just one substitute. Familiar faces on the Crunch include Scott "my kid will kick your kid's ass" LeMatty as well as former pirate Ed Gesior. Perhaps it was the late start (the game started well after 11:00) or maybe it was just a carryover from last season, but whatever the reason, we were unable to take advantage of the Crunch's short bench and tire them out. The Crunch scored first on a shortside goal* (it might not have been short side, but I think it was) by the Brian Leetch look-alike (he might not look exactly like Brian Leetch, but he definitely looks a lot more like Brian Leetch than say, Allen).

The Crunch carried their lead late into the third until #67 took a puck at the blueline and fed a speeding Scott Miller who tasted the back of the net for the first Pirate goal of the season. The pair teamed up later for the highlight of the night when #67 hit Miller from the side of the net who one timed it into the empty net! WAIT! IT DIDN'T GO IN! To most everyone's astonishment, the Crunch goalie (who had a great night) was able to come up with an incredible no look / falling down glove save that perhaps was the turning point of the night. The first period ended with the score knotted at 1-1.** After changing sides, the momentum shifted to the Crunch who scored not one, not two, but three straight goals (the fourth was by Eddie Gesior, I believe, who was able to squeeze one past Harris). There were a number of great individual plays including BB who seemed to able to skate around players at will ... but we couldn't seem to get the puck in the net.

The period ended (I think) with the score 4-1. The 3rd period brought the revelation that there is more to Nick G's game that scrapping with 16 year olds -- he can score goals occasionally. And inconvincing fashion. The scoring in the 3rd began with Nick winding up and launching a slapshot from the blueline that flat out beat the Crunch goalie. Just like that, we were back in the game, down 4-2. And just like that we let in another goal (I forget how it happened) and once again we were down by 3. The Pirates did not give up and with under 5:00 minutes to play Roger popped in the goal to make it 5-3. Even with pulling the goalie and a power play to give us the 6-on-4 advantage to close out the game, we were unable to get any closer.

*editor's note: this was a weaving, breakaway goal.

**editor's note: the score at the end of the 1st was 1-0 Crunch. We scored
in the 2nd, but I didn't want to "edit" Brian's writing.