Over 30 Hockey League

Article 265 September 20, 2014

Game results and Player(s) of the Week

Week of September 13 (Game 1) – In an early season battle of undefeated teams, Who Needs Superstars put an early end to any dreams of going undefeated that FOURget About-it had in chasing league history with their four-peat quest.  Using a balanced offensive attack with strong performances from both their lines, Who Needs Superstars broke a tie game open in the second period to earn a 5 – 4 victory over FOURget About-it.  Leading the way for Who Needs Superstars was the first line combination of rookie Mike O’Neil (2-goals & 1-assist) performance together with Derek Shaw (1-goal & 1-assist).  Complementing this offensive output was the second line contribution from Sergio Costa and John Mastrocola each scoring a goal.  Keeping pace from FOURget About-it was another strong offensive performance by John Desmond scoring 2-goals for the second straight game while adding an assist.  He may not update the website timely but Jim Barber did his part for his team scoring a timely goal and adding an assist. 

Week of September 13 (Game 2) – The Portuguese Power duo of Dominic Defrancisco and Tony Medeiros picked up right where they left off last year (during the regular season) to lead the way for That’s a Plus winning their opening game over Goodfellas by the score of 4 – 1.  Dominic scored 2-goals and added an assist, while Tony assisted on 3-goals while the defense and goalie completely shut down the Goodfellas forwards.  What hindered the Goodfellas team from the start was the fact that they only had 4 out of 12 regular roster players available for this game.  A rash of team injuries and players unavailable to play has depleted the Goodfellas roster causing them to play short-handed in back-to-back weeks.  Until we see a full team roster, it will be difficult to assess this team.  So Carlos, how did Naz actually score his goal?

Week of September 6 (Game 1) – It was fitting that the FOURget About-it team opened up the new winter 2014 season in their chase for league history as the new Big 3 of Stickney-Desmond-Barber try to become the only three players to win an unprecedented 4 consecutive Over-30 championships.  Dez led the way, breaking open a close game in the third period by scoring 2-goals early to pace FOURget About-it to a convincing 4 – 1 win over the Goodfellas.  Helping Dez in his offensive outburst was the defensive pairing of Matt Reghitto and Mike Hollingsworth, each contributing 2-assists.  Team mate Umberto “Papa Smurf” Biancardi did his part by scoring a key second period goal to break this game wide open.  Angelo “Kato” Deluca scored the lone goal for the Goodfellas as the shot totals told the whole story of this game with FOURget About-it widely outshooting Goodfellas by a 24 – 12 margin!

Week of September 6 (Game 2) – Coming into this game, there were a lot of question marks for both teams.  Would Legends Last Stand be able to compensate and overcome having 3 of their four defensemen out with injuries?  Would the second line of Legends Last Stand add speed and offensive production to make this a balanced team?  Would having three assistant captains running this team rather than one captain pan out for Who Needs Superstars?  Would the first line of Who Needs Superstars consisting of two players coming back from and recovering from season long injuries last year together with an unproven but highly touted rookie mesh?  The answer to all the previous questions was an emphatic yes!  Who Needs Superstars held on to a well-earned 4 – 3 victory over Legends Last Stand.  In a wide open second period that saw both teams combining for five goals, Derek Shaw of Who Needs Superstars scored twice then completed his natural hat trick in the third period, scoring the game winner with four minutes to play.  Team mate Sergio Costa scored a big goal for his team in the second period.  For Legends Last Stand, the offense was led by Anthony Lauletta, Niko Vramis and Mauro Colucciello each scoring a goal, while Niko and Mauro each assisted on another goal.  He may deny it but Niko’s goal was more of an “excuse me look what I found” goal rather than a goal scorers goal, right Niko?

Welcome back veterans and rookies… aside from the Wins, Losses, Goals and Assists that are already underway this season.., it’s time to start calling players out in the press.

First up this season… John Colucciello whose new motto is “If you can’t beat them... join them”

Coming off back-to-back dismal seasons in the points column as a centerman, Cooch has decided since he can’t beat (even the slowest of defenseman)…, he might as well join them.   It could also have been all the side bets that were floating around the last (2) seasons based on his lack of goal production.  Whatever the reason, Cooch’s migration to Defense should also speed up the game times as John is no longer doing his animated (and often mocked) faceoff rituals.

Nick Romano kicked off the scoring race by tallying the first goal of the season on the unanimously voted and ranked #1 goalie in the league; Billy Gardynski Jr.  Although Billy Jr did not look like a #1 goal as FOURget About-it buried 4-goals against the highly decorated goalie to begin their quest for a FOUR-pete for the new BIG Three (Jim Barber-Mark Stickney-John Desmond).  Side note: Nick Romano also proclaimed that if we pull the first game sheets from every season… Nick claims that he has buried the first goal 7 or more times in league’s history (our head statistician is looking into Nick’s alleged claims).

Speaking of voting and ranking the goalies… It seems that during the recent Over-30 Fantasy Draft it was decided the Jeff Deharo was the #2 goalie in the league.  Did you hear that Billy Gardynski Sr, Scott Rosato and Alby Luise… now you all have corkboard material for this season.  None of you are #1 or #2 worthy.  Speaking of being the #2 goal in the fantasy draft… it seems Jeff wasn’t even picked until the 4^th round of goalie picks only after Jr & Sr (who was picked twice and this reporters vote for #2) were drafted.

The Girl Scouts might have to file Chapter 11 Bankruptcy as Assist League Director Mike Naczas will not be supplying Billy Gardynski Sr and Ray Nickerson with their sweet tooth and large cookie addictions.  The traditional Assist League Director shake-down will not occur this year… so everyone can rest assure that Mr Naczas will stay out of your pockets this season.

Speaking of Mike Nacas and his now infamous “That’s a Minus #5” chanting from the sidelines at our Hall of Fame Legend Dan Broderick… Mike is now teamed up with his defenseman idol Dan for what is now the oldest defensive pairing in the leagues history.  Next time Naz yell’s “That’s a Minus” most likely he’ll be yelling at himself as well.  But… If Mike forgets to self-deprecate himself, there is a whole new cheering squad by the sign-in table whose job it is to remind him.  The new “That’s a Minus” squad was ready to pounce on the generic duo for the only goal of the game that was let in… but before the squad could taunt Naz and Dan… Mike quickly made it known to his cheering section that he was on the bench (with Dan) during the goal of the game that That’s a Plus let up.

For Dan Broderick… The old man, the legend, the real #5… Call him what you want, but Dan knows how to motivate his team.  In an effort to get That’s a Minus off to a good start this season, Dan gathered his team pre-game for one of the most inspirational speeches to caught on video.