Over 30 Hockey League

Week of September 18 (Game 1) – After missing half their team last week and getting blown out, Top Secret was a different team this week, as they bounced back strong playing solid team defense, while scoring timely goals, beating Loose Cannons by a 4 – 1 score.

Halfway through the first period, fill in player Rick Cassano was set up by the passing of Tim Hickey and fill in player Joe Shannon for the game’s first goal.  Loose Cannons was storming the net and had a couple of clean breakaways, but goalie Sean Roach stopped every shot thrown at him.

After a scoreless second period, halfway through the third period, in a span of two minutes, Top Secret scored three unanswered goals.  Jamie Kehoe scored his second goal in consecutive games, set up by Tony Fosco at 5:34.  Twenty-seven seconds later saw fill in player Mike Duggan score from the point off a feed from Jamie and Carlos Machado.  Rounding out the scoring for Top Secret had Tim Hickey use his breakaway speed to score on a clean breakaway.  Nick Doherty broke up the shutout bid with only nineteen seconds to play in the game, as he was set up out front by Jason Carrien and Don Maccini. 

“Paul Correia Night”

This week’s top story has to be seeing Paul Correia back on the dek surface.

Thank you to Tony Medeiros, Tony Correia and Karen Doria who made “Paul Correia Night” such a special occasion.  Paul’s son Christian Correia (9) is still 21-years away from his debut in the Over-30 League.., but you could how proud Paul was watching his son shooting around in warmups with his former teammates. 

The kid even buried a few goals on Scotty Rosato (which isn’t hard to do lately) and Jeff Deharo (who emailed the league to make sure they didn’t count towards his stats)

Paul’s road to recovery is still a long one.., but having him around the rink and talking hockey is something I’m sure Paul misses and the guys really appreciated seeing him in person in lieu of Facebook updates.

Here’s this week’s ceremonial faceoff with Paul along with a couple of extra group photos.

Second Fiddle

While the top billing went to Paul Correia..., the second biggest story of the evening was seeing Doug Sedille don his formally retired #16 jersey and put it on after a 10-year hiatus.  For a guy that was retired for the last 10-years.., he looked good (a little rusty, but still good).

Once the WD40 kicks in… Look for Doug to still be an impact player.  In fact just his presence tonight was enough to earn Top Secret their first win X-x, just one week after their opening night stinker.

We observed two things about Doug’s un-retirement performance:

• He slides more than Jim Barber and dives more than Greg Louganis
• What’s the deal with the old school 2pc Aluminum stick?

Can someone tell Doug its 2021 and show him the new 1pc designs.  Maybe let him try out a Vulcan Stick.., I’m sure John Kelleher would like to add a high-caliber player like Doug on his endorsement list.

Guest to Player

One week he’s dropping a ceremonial faceoff.., the next week he’s filling in on defense for Top Secret. 

Joe Shannon’s last official season was in 2017.., but Joe’s another person whose skill level will never let him suck.

At one point it was like 2006 all over again watching Joe pass it up to Doug.., as that was during the one (and only time) they won a championship together with Help Wanted.., and yes, Ed Nigro was on that team too for one of his league leading 16-champioships. 

Speaking of Ed, did anyone tell him the season started?

Note:  None of Joe’s future goals counts towards Joe now chasing Matty’s 508-record (now 512) after last week’s pair.  Joe is strictly a non-rostered “gun for hire”.

Almost

Jamie Kehoe had two of the biggest legends of the game helping him and his goaltender Sean Roach get their first win and shutout of the season. 

(Sorry, what’s that?)  Jamie’s mental lapse with 20-seconds left cost Sean the first shutout of the season?  (Sorry Roach).., if it makes you feel any better you played unbelievable last week just giving up just 1-goal instead of 8.

In fact Sean your breakaway shutdown percentage was 100%... and ironically Nick Doherty’s breakaway “missed breakaway opportunities” percentage was also 100% with his (0-2) performance. 

The most successful thing Nick did last week was retake his player photo that upgraded him from a creepy wino, to someone you might ask for a ride to the store with.

Black Listed?

Enquiring minds want to know...

How dies Ricky Cassano lead the league and his team in points and yet isn't even mentioned as one of the "Top 3 Weekly Stars"?

For two weeks in a row its Gino Tammaro, Angelo De Luca and Garvin Chan.  Ricky has 8-points and Garvin has 2-points, yet Garvin has two stars (and Ricky has none).

Is Ricky on some secret black list?  

Cassano Development is a paying sponsor and he should be privaleged to the same "Phantom Assists" and "Fake Acknowledgments" that other sponsors like Ray Nickerson and Nick Romano get.

For the second straight week in a row we watched Mike side-step an opponent’s shot that resulted in a goal.  We’re not sure if Mike is trying not to screen the goalie.., or if he suffers PTSD from an old blocked shot.

Nonetheless, the goalies best friend is the post and his second best friend is a blocked shot.  So Mike.., help Scott out by not giving up the “Olé” and hanging him out to dry.., a defenseman has to sacrifice himself as the first line of defense for a goalie.

No Momentum

It was back-to-back losses to start ReUnited’s season… and the second was even uglier than the first.  The good news is they tripled their goal production from 2-weeks ago.., the bad news they’ve given up a league leading 13-goals in only two games (and) they didn’t even face the points hungry Manny Nunes yet.

ReUnited couldn’t get any momentum last week… giving up 3-unanswered goals twice during the game.., and even when they did score… they gave it right back in under a minute.

Reward

Gino Tammaro, do the right thing (take the reward) and turn yourself in next time. 

The only two people who didn’t notice you were 3-feet off-sides before scoring was the two Referees. 

Everyone one on ReUnited watched you jump off sides and then collect the ball.., but at that point no one wearing blue really cared because the game was all but over.

What an honor

How does a team that has Paul Correia as an honorary member (honor) the man in the stands watching?

They do it by not only posting a unbelievable shutout by Jeff Deharo against the team who posted 8-goals last week.., but his own cousin Tony Medeiros upped the ante and scored a hattrick on “Paul Correia Night”. 

Oh, and we should also note that the Gold Miners had only 7-players against Omertà’s 9-players.  Total team effort to honor their teammate.

For the record: there is zero proof that Loose Cannon’s goaltender Dave Giusti was paid off by Paul’s brother Tony.., but when you have three Portuguese players Tony Medeiros, Dominic DeFrancisco and even Elder Lopes (a defenseman who scores on a breakaway).., the League has to conduct some kind of internal investigation.

Waiver Wire

The League’s front office is making a roster change after ReUnited’s second ugly loss in a row. 

Joe “Guido” Conray (winger) who was taking the roster spot for John “Cooch” Colucciello (center) while John recovers from a shoulder injury has been placed on waivers.

After last week’s IR Report update.., “Cooch’s” shoulder injury was overshadowed and further compounded by his Freddie Kruger impersonation thus upgrading his status from “Season IR” to “Indefinite IR”.

“Guido” is being replaced by Mike Duggan (center) to allow Rich Pelletier to go back to his normal winger position.

After Joe Conray’s Week #1 Goalie (fill-in) and 5-2 win for Last Call… Joe is now the #1 fill-in Goalie and (Forward Sub) when teams are missing a goalie and/or short players.  With the 6-team format, the Over-30 League wants to move away from the “doubling up” model of fill-in players.

Grammar Lessons

First the jerseys and now the banner… the season of screw-ups continues.

Sorry Todd, although you are winning the award, we can’t let you take all the blame. 

Two people in upper management had to sign off on the proof for the banner (and neither one caught it.)

Just remember these simple rules of grammar: "I before E except after C"… “There’s no “I” in Team”… “No two “U”’s in word “League”.