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SUNDAYS #7 vs. JAGUARS B:

(vol. 8S, no. 7; newsletter by b.n..)
It used to be that you watched the Super Bowl just to see the commercials. The game never lived up to the hype and it seemed that most years (especially last year) the game was over early. Often were left with that hollow, unfulfilled feeling. - The only thing that could hold you over was knowing that the next commercial might just blow you away. All that changed this year, for once the game was actually worth watching & by contrast, the commercials sucked. Yeah, there was a couple funny Budweiser commercials -- but other than that - nothing. Not one. But perhaps the most bizarre commercial was the one I was fortunate enough to tape during the post game. It is the subject of this week's attachment. It is a hefty 2.1 Meg -- so if you limit the size of your downloads - you may want to adjust it now.

And now for the review: Unlike the Eatontown Roller Hockey league, which cares about its players by cancelling games on Super Bowl Sunday, Good Sports USA of Allaire chose to schedule hockey games on perhaps the biggest single night of sports for the entire year. But hey, we are hockey players... right? How many games have been cancelled due to the Stanley Cup finals? (That would be 0) So since I couldn't get my usual Sunday fix of hockey in my hometown of Eatontown, I had to venture out into the unfamiliar setting of Wall Township on a Sunday night. Granted its not really that unfamiliar considering I play there every Wednesday and coach there on Saturday mornings with Russ, but still --- it is somewhat uncommon to find me there on a Sunday night. And it's not like I haven't played with each and every player on the roster at some time or another - whether it be someone filling in on a Wednesday night or that infamous WTC benefit - playing on Sunday is in fact much different than playing on Wednesday night. Then again ... maybe it was the fact that it was Super Bowl Sunday that made things seem different.... Oh, nevermind.

While I am no longer on the subject of how different things are on Sunday, I must admit that the opponent was in fact a familiar one. On this night of perhaps one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time, the Coastal Pirates found themselves up against the Jaguars.

The game began uneventfully (well in relation to the Super Bowl it was pretty uneventful). The offense for the night consisted of Chris, Russ, Tim, Scott L and #67; while on D the blue line was guarded by Roger, Dan and Scooby. The first period began with some tight play before #67 fed a streaking Russ at the blueline who fired a shot that the Jaguar goalie got most - but not all - of. With the puck sitting on the goal line & the goalie unable to locate it - Russ pounced on it to give us the early lead. The lead was short lived though, because very shortly thereafter (and Harris can correct me on this if I'm wrong) the Jags were able to pounce on the puck and beat Harris over the shoulder for the even-up score. Things got really interesting when Harris tried to play a puck to the right of his crease with a Jag bearing down on him. The Jag player was able to get the puck in the corner and break for the net well ahead of Harris who was seriously lollygaging around. Somehow #67 ended up in the crease with the puck in front of him --- he tried twice to swat it away with his glove - but he was unsuccessful. On his third attempt, he was finally able to swat the puck but unfortunately it deflected off Dan's stick and was heading directly for the net. It was about this time that Harris finally returned to the crease and pounced on the puck. The game remained tight in the first until Tim took a puck off a faceoff and skated deep into the corner (as in just about behind the net) and scored on a deflection off either the goalie or defenseman. The first period ended with the score 2-1.

The 2nd Period began with some serious pressure by the Pirates. For almost a complete shift - the puck was in the Jags end. Shot after shot were registered, with the Pirates chasing down rebounds and outhustling the Jags, but the puck would just not go in the net. Perhaps the save of the period was made by none other than Scott LeMatty (fix it if its wrong Harris). With Harris infected by another case of Happy Feet - he decided to try to chase down a puck somewhere near the blueline while the the Jag player skated around him like he was a traffic cone - it was Scott who gave up his body to block the centering pass to a wide open Jag in front of the empty net. Before the period was out, Tim would score his second of the night (and according to him his first multi-goal game of his Pirate career) with a blistering shot that beat the Jags goalie through the fivehole. The period ended with the score 3-1.

There was a certain amount of concern on the Pirates bench as the third period progressed. Afterall, the Pirates had a boatload of chances to score, but the puck was not going in. Realistically, the game could have been 6-1, but instead the Jags were just one goal away from making it a one goal game. The tandem of Russ and Chris would remedy that situation when Russ chased a puck into the corner and fed Chris who was breaking to the net. The goalie had no chance when Chris one timed the pass into the net for the final tally of the night.