Over 30 Hockey League

Week of October 8 (Game 1) – With Shawn Miville out on IR, Steve Witkus missing for the third straight week things did not look promising for the Pylons heading into this match-up with Yellow Submarine, undefeated in five straight games.  

For two periods though, the Pylons as a team outplayed their opponent, yet were done in from an unexpected source as Yellow Submarine scored two goals in the third period to hold on for a hard earned win over the Pylons by the score of 3 – 2.

With both teams missing some key players, it looked like Yellow Submarine was ready for the picking to be knocked off and handed their first loss of the season.  In the first period, the Pylons were playing a suffocating team defense and not giving Yellow Submarine any room to get their offensive game in gear.  In addition, they were attacking with speed to generate the better offensive chances.

After a scoreless first period, the prodigal son returned for the Pylons after a five game absence, as Anthony Lauletta returned to the lineup scoring on his second shot of the season, set up by Joe Mancinelli, a minute into the second period.  Five minutes later, needing something on offense, it was the unexpected goal of Umberto “Papa Smurf” Biancardi who gave his team a much needed boost, converting a pass from Brian Kehoe. Unfazed by this potential momentum swing, the Pylons stormed right back to grab control of this game as Nick Romano scored set up by Joe.

In the third period, with the lead and carrying the overall play, the Pylons suffered a change in momentum just over a minute into the period, as their fill-in defenseman made a bad decision and turned the ball over that resulted in Matty Iannello finding Papa on the right wing to score his second goal of the game.  Papa the goal scorer!  This play changed the game and fortune around for Yellow Submarine as two minutes later, Brian took a great pass from Dez giving their team its first lead of the game and holding on for the victory.  

Week of October 8 (Game 2) – Can the addition of one player made that much of a difference to the fortunes of an Over-30 team?  Just ask Sour Grapes as they finally got that damn monkey off their backs with the debut of Dave Costa playing for them winning their first game of the season by defeating 11 Guys, 1 Ball, 3 – 1.  How much of an impact did Dave have?  Read on.

Six minutes into the first period, Dave was set up out front by Steve Medeiros, giving his new team the early lead.  What we noticed early about Sour Grapes was they were playing an effective team strategy whereby every player was locked in and doing their jobs.

Late in the second period, with their team needing something, Shawn Wyatt crashed the net after some strong cycling play by Dominic Defrancisco and Tony Medeiros to be in the right place at the right time to bang home his second goal of the season.  Both teams were playing a fast wide-open pace and at this point it was anyone’s game to win.

Job Opening

Last week was a first for the Over-30 League… The first time we had to play both games without a functioning scoreboard.

As a result we had a job opening for a "Time Clock Crier" to vocally announce the remaining minutes and seconds of the games.  Thank you to Jim Barber and Mike Naczas for shouting out the times... It reminded us of this classic SNL skit

"A" for Anarchy

There is a new controversy surrounding Nick Romano and his "A" status.

Last week saw our first coup d'état of the season as Nick was not only stripped of his "A" but stripped of his entire jersey.

Assistant league director Mike Naczas demanded that Nicky swap shirts with him as Nick's dismal production lead to him being stripped of the #21 jersey his "A"

Ironically the move worked… As Nick recorded his first goal of the season

Rib(s) Injury

If only Shawn Miville was available last Saturday for the Pylons the outcome may have been different as they were on the verge of handing Yellow Submarine their first loss of the season.

Shawn was reduced to a vapor smoking doorman as he was sidelined due to an undisclosed and undetermined rib injury.

Shawn's "rib" injury is a little more painful than when Mike Naczas was sidelined do to his "McRib" injury.., when he gained 30-pounds and was forced to referee for a season.

Returning Players

What do Anthony Lauletta and Tom Brady have in common?

They both returned last week after missing the beginning of their seasons and sparked their team’s offense.

Hired Gun

Dave Costa is officially a "Gun for hire"... First he was hired to fill the role of Steve Witkus on defense for the Pylons and now he will be playing the role of a speedy Paisano (but without the actual speed) Gino Tammaro who is on the long term IR list.

Dave will bring the scoring touch that Gino had as he scored two goals in his debut as a forward… but we cannot emphasize enough he will not bring the speed that Gino had.

What’s the “Pointless”

“Point Watch” is officially on… who will be the 1^st of the remaining three “pointless” players in the league to register their first point of the season… and even more importantly who will be the last player remaining and pitching a perfect game 0-0-0.

Jason Glista (Sour Grapes) 5- Games played 0-0-0

Sergio Costa (Sour Grapes) 4-Games played 0-0-0

Ed Nigro (Yellow Submarine) 3- Games played 0-0-0

Not to add additional pressure to those three pointless players… but we welcome new guy Ron Aquino who joins the league this week with Shark Attack and his challenge will be to prove himself  and beat those guys to a 1^st point and beat his Captain Jim Barber in notching a 1^st goal of the season.

Rust-oleum 

A couple more games and two more cans of Rust-oleum should help cover up the rust that John "Judas" Desmond has acquired from taking a few seasons off from the Over-30 league.

Captain Matty "The Great One" Iannello's hand-selected first round pick was seen missing (two) point blank power-play opportunities… The only saving grace for "Judas" was that Ray Nickerson was not there to yell at him. 

Vick's Cough Drops

Holy cow can someone on the Pylons please bring some Vicks cough drops for your defense… We have never seen a defense cough up that many balls.

When you have Umberto "Papa Smurf" Biancardi scoring (not once) but twice on his "less than speedy" fore-checking.., it may be time to reevaluate your defense… Or you may have been a victim of sabotage buy a "former centerman" disguised as a "defenseman" who's famous for "blind behind the back passes". 

Without naming names we gave you "enough clues" to figure out who the mystery "ball cougher-upper" and fill-in was for the Pylons.   

And lastly our apologies to the Pylons you had that game... you out played Yellow Submarine but in the end… you got "Smurfed"

Two Left Feet

Poor Mike Naczas... We think he might be exhibiting early warning signs of dementia.  It seems Mike is getting confused between "shutdown defense" and "fall down defense" as the last couple of games he's found himself lying face down on the dek.

In the midst of his pending failure of the Pink Stick Bag Challenge, the seasoned veteran defenseman found himself assisting on the game-winning goal for Yellow Submarine. 

The pass from John Desmond to Brian Kehoe was deflected off Naz' ankle that was 3-feet in the air as he was doing his superman impression by tripping (own his own) and flying face first into the dek.  #TheNewSteve

You think it's easy??

You think it’s easy refereeing in the over 30 league?  Last week we watched the League Director himself Bill Abcunas fill in as a Referee and on three different occasions had his ear chewed off by three players (Matty Iannello, Scott Young, and a very disgruntled penalized Mike Surette) and not to mention he had to be spoken to by head referee Jon Picard to help him explain the offside rule.

It was a tough day all around from the scoreboard to the fill in player and referee.