Hardest Working Player

Here is a blog worthy post to enter back after my hiatus...

Joel was at hockey camp this week at the University of Calgary. Today they had a final big game and then an awards ceremony. He was one of 30 Atom kids and walked away with one of the three awards up for grabs - the hardest working player!

I was blown away when the coach called him to the front and asked him to pick a stick. If you run in hockey circles you'll know that a one piece composite is an expensive weapon even for a jr. Put it this way, til now Joel has been using $8 wooden sticks - wacka, wacka, wacka ol' skool. This stick he picked up as part of his award today runs at a whopping 60 bones!

Joel deserved it. He's been crawling into bed with sore legs each night and taking the stairs like an old man in the morning. Joel plays end to end as a hard workin', legs & heart pumpin' defensive offenseman.

The coach giving the award wanted to throw in ten bucks for a haircut too. Joel wasn't accepting that!

Joel - Hardest Working Player Award

w/Dinos Puck & Vapor Velocity Composite Stick

Congrats Joel!

As I call it...

The Flyers owned Montreal tonight, playing very well and providing every assurance that they can win this series.

What happened?

Here's what I saw:

1) an obvious high stick on a goal that the refs chose to count instead of calling it truthfully as a high stick (probably for fear of not getting out of Montreal in one piece).

2) a bogus call with 1:05 left in the third period that put Montreal on the power play (six on four) in the dying seconds. It was neither a kneeing infraction nor a tripping infraction (as was called). Richards put his shoulder into the Montreal player, there was no kneeing motion. And, who calls a penalty in the last minute of a playoff game?

On another note, Bell Centre fans are rude, disrespectful & ignorant. They boo during the U.S. anthem, they boo opposing team super stars, they boo the home team when they are displeased and what's with showering the opposing team with beer when he's helplessly in the penalty box?

What a bunch of clowns!

Most Dedicated Player

Joel's hockey team had a wind up party over the weekend that I missed. Joel received highest honors on his team, the "most dedicated player" award! I'm so proud of him for working so hard every game. He had great hockey sense for his age - he seems to know where his teammates are and is very unselfish with the puck as he is a great passer. He skates hard, plays his best and comes off the ice every time with wet hockey hair - the sign of a hard worker!

Congrats Joel - bring on Atom!

In action!

Check out the practice jersey (unfortunately he's switched to Penguins).

4 & 0!!!

We were in Edmonton this weekend for Joel's final hockey tournament of the season. The team played unbelievably winning all four of their games: 11-7; 9-1; 7-1; 9-1!

Congrats Bullets!

After a slow start in the early part of the season the team began playing as a team - working together, communicating, passing the puck, great defense (puck off the boards & out), great goaltending - and it was obvious in the results.

Great job coaches!

Joel got the hard hat in the first game with 3 goals 2 assissts! He had 9 goals & 8 assissts in four games for the tournament! He also had a penalty for his Gordie Howe hat trick in the third game!

Booya Joel!

(Pics to follow)

We be movin' on up!

After a ten game losing streak and going from 2nd in the conference to 9th (out of a playoff spot) my Flyers have turned it around!

Last night against Buffalo a shoot out win for the Flyers and especially sweet for Biron & Briere (who after being booed for the duration of the game won it for them in the shoot out - stick that in your pipe and smoke it!)!

Called Up

It's a long weekend here in Alberta & as such one of the Atom teams in our community was short players. Joel is a Novice 3 player and was asked to play for an Atom 5 team. Despite being a little nervous and having had ice time last night and this morning 2 hours before the Atom game - he rose to the opportunity.

Joel scored the first goal, taking a sweet pass from his winger in the corner & sliding it under the goalie!

The team was down 2-0 at the time. Joel made it 2-1. They then went down 3-1 before coming back in the third period to tie it up 3-3. Joel's teammate also played D today and did a great job as well.

Great job Joel & Robbie!

Flames, Penguins & Hitmen

Jake & I were blessed enough to snag tickets to the much coveted Flames/Penguins game this week. Friends of ours won game day tickets too - we had a blast together! Here's a pic of Harvey the Hound catching site of Jake decked out in his Pens hat & Crosby jersey. We were in the first row of this section. Harvey grabbed the railing, stood over Jake & put Jacob's head into his mouth.

Here's the opening face off. The game went to a shoot out - Pittsburgh won 3-2. Jake was thrilled. Although Crosby was held off the scoresheet he was quite something to watch. He has great hockey sense, very smooth & strong on his skates.

The warm up!

The whole fam attended the Hitmen game last Sunday with Joel's hockey team. The game featured the annual teddy bear toss. Fans bring teddy bears to the game to toss on the ice after the Hitmen score their first goal.

The Hitmen scored within the first five minutes of the opening period - the rain of teddy bears began and continued for 1/2 an hour!

When the bears were all collected they totalled 26,919 (a new record) which the Hitmen distributed to local charities & hospitals.

Ron Hextall the Great

Twenty years ago today Hexy became the first goalie to shoot the puck down the length of the ice & into an empty net!

You can read more in this article or view it here.

The Shot Heard 'round the Stadium!

We were in Edmonton last weekend for Joel's final hockey tournament of the season.

On Friday morning, Joel's team, Shaw Meadows Ironheads, won their first game 3-1 against an equally matched team from Edmonton.

On Saturday morning, the Ironheads won their second game 3-1 against another equally matched team from Edmonton. In fact, this one went down to the wire with the score being 2-1 Ironheads with 2 minutes left. The other team pulled their goalie and we got an empty netter. (We would meet this team in the final!)

Following this game was a skills competition and then the kids went to West Edmonton Mall for the afternoon.

In the evening, the Ironheads played another Calgary team. There wasn't a heck of a lot of gas left in the tank. Despite this team not having won a game to that point and we not having lost a game to that point - we lost 4-2. Good for those guys. As a parent it stinks to watch your kids work so hard yet come out on the winless end of a tournament - NOT THAT I CAN RELATE, BOOYA!!

Sunday morning, the Ironheads played the Edmonton team from Saturday morning. Both teams had 2 wins & 1 lose. It was a well fought game. Tied at 1 all for the first 2 1/2 periods when the other team scored with 4 minutes left in the third period. With 29 seconds left in the third one of our guys (an unlikely hero who stayed up until 1:30 a.m. that morning) took a one time slap shot from 6 feet out and beat their goalie tying the game. No overtime. Straight to a 4 man shoot out.

First shooters for each team didn't score.
Second shooters for each team scored 1-1.
Third shooters for each team scored 2-2.
Fourth shooters for each team didn't score....
We go through 4 more shooters from each team without scoring.
Shooter #9 from Edmonton - saved by our goalie.

I look at the bench and see Joel with his stick up motioning to the coach to put him in. The coach does!

Shooter #9 from our team is Joel. I yell out "shoot it hard Joel!" He gets the whistle and makes his way down the ice toward the goalie. Back and forth, back and forth he stick handles the puck until reaching the hash marks. He keeps skating as he spots the opening between the goalies legs. He shoots hard...the puck goes five hole & hits the back of the net! The ref points to the back of the net! Joel's arms and stick goes into the air as his teammates pour off the bench and mob him! His coach makes his way to the center of little bodies where he picks Joel up and carries him on his shoulders back to the gathering crowd around our other hero, our goalie!

What a great game! I'm biased but seriously one of the best games and best finishes I've witnessed in any hockey game, even professional.

Hip Hip Hooray Ironheads!