Over 30 Hockey League

Compliment Sandwich

This week we open the forum with a compliment sandwich.

What’s a compliment sandwich?   Here, we’ll let Stewie explain:

Hall of Fame Inductee

The Over-30 League is pleased to announce the latest inductee into the Over-30 League Hall of Fame.

Please join us October 19^th at 5:30 as we celebrate and recognize Billy Mack as the 9^th inductee.

Billy was an original 6 player starting back in 1992 (Season #1).  He was also part of the “Twin Towers” defensive pairing with Mike Hollingsworth.   He was one of the first “Back-to-back” champions in 1992-1993 with Gangreene Slugs who also included two other familiar (and still current players) with Pat Pirone and Paul White.

ZERO Tolerance Policy Reminder

This is a reminder that the league has a “Zero Tolerance Policy” in effect.  When you participate in the league you acknowledge that it’s your responsibility to be respectful of all players, referees, scorekeepers, administrative support individuals, and the facilities. 

You are responsible for your actions, stick, and emotions at all times. 

The following are (some) examples of actions that will not be tolerated and will lead to disciplinary actions up to (and include) suspensions, along with a possible expulsion from the league:

• Verbal abuse of Players, Referees, or League Officials.
• Any physical contact with Referees or League Officials.

(The above infractions include both inside and outside the facility)

• Defamation to the League, its Players and/or League Officials, via all electronic communications including email and social media.
• Throwing or slamming sticks.
• Defacing or damaging the facilities.
• Any intent to injure occurrences (including fighting).

League Officials include: Director(s), Timekeeper(s) and Game Statistician.

All incidents are reviewed by the League Director with input from the Board of Directors and all decisions are final.  There is no appeals process.

Frustration

We get it…, the reasons range from being frustrated by your under-performance…, (to) you think you (or your team) got screwed in the draft…, or you don’t like playing with this person (or that person).  But that’s the beauty of the Over-30 Draft.

Every team is drafted with an intended purpose…, and what looks good on paper doesn’t necessarily mean its going to transition to success (without a little work and effort). 

Let us remind you of Captain’s Mutiny (Winter 2022) and Huff & Puff (Winter 2004)..., and what they had in common.  Both teams finished dead last in the regular season and then ran the table in the playoffs for a championship.

Between now and the playoffs, players need to figure out how to gel as a team, take a Saturday night chemistry class, and work together as teammates…, and not focus on the frustration aspect of your game.

This sounds like a subliminal message for the players on M*A*S*H with their 0-5 start…, but it goes out to anyone having that frustrated feeling.  The league does not intentionally screw or stack teams, success is what you make of it…, and Dominic DeFrancisco is a perfect example of getting players to buy in.

Street Hockey is supposed to be fun…, and it’s up to you to make it that way.  Have fun either way (win or lose) as you still have the physical ability to play the sport.

Line-Up!!

Before we move on to happier storylines and ball-busting…. We have one more piece of serious business to address and that’s “lining up” to start the games.

There are 3-games every week and they are supposed to “start” at 4:30-5:30-6:30 respectively. 

So as a team you can choose to have a team meeting…, warm up your goalie…, stretch out your limbs and muscles…, talk to your other hockey peers…, or bribe the referee’s pre-game. 

But, when that horn sounds and the referee blows the whistle…, it’s time to line up.

We’re seeing a trend of teams taking extra time holding pre-game meetings, setting lines and talking strategies when they need to be lining up for the ball to be dropped.

Be warned:  If your team is not ready and lined up when the whistle blows…, the referees are being instructed to drop the ball and start the game clock.

You can choose to use your (1) timeout and continue the pre-game meeting…, but if the ball drops and you have 6-players on the rink still…, then the Referees can assess a bench minor for too many men.

You’ve been warned… we’re keeping the games moving along and on time to the best of our ability (barring any Hockeytown infrastructure delays).

Mustaches

Thank you to those players who are making a conscious effort to put a mustache disguise on their adult beverages.  “Out of sight – out of mind” is where we like to keep them.

We’d like to thank Timmy “Tito” Burke for providing the black mustache koozies…, they are still available at the sign-up table.

For those players who are still not “covering it up”…. We see you, and we encourage you, to visit the signup table (no questions asked).

Couple of Jokers

Congratulations to Dave Wilson & Lee Nogler for each winning $200 in the new Jokers Wild Card Game.  Dave was the 4:30 (Away) winner and Lee was the 5:30 (Home) winner as each of them was lucky enough to sign the Red & Black Joker cards.

Look for another board in the future… but next up is the raffle for the Bruins tickets.

Replacement Goalies

This week Dave Giusti is taking the week off to visit a couple of Tibetan Monks to help him find some inner peace and strength…, or he’s home resting his shoulders (and back) from carrying the team for the first 5-weeks…, or he’s at a Pitmasters BBQ event…, or we just don’t know and like to speculate.

With Dave’s AWOL in process…, the league is sending in reinforcements by having AJ Larabee fill in and either help M*A*S*H get their first win of the season…, or they are going to help AJ get his first (unofficial) loss of the season.  Tune in at 6:30 to find out which outcome it will be.

After hearing that AJ Larabee was filling in…, Hammertime’s goaltender Dale McIssac is calling in sick too…, and his replacement will be none other than “Mr. Perfect” Steve Taddonio.

Hey Gary Goodwin…, don’t forget Steve’s celebratory “Spark Plug” this week.

Week Early

Looks like Jake Deehan was back a week earlier than expected for Azores Express. 

Hammertime was licking their chops at the sight of Jake in net, as opposed to fill-in goalie Mike Viera…, but the only licking, was to their wounds, as they quickly went down 2-0 before the halfway point of the first period…, and down 4-1 before they tried a last-minute comeback, only to close the gap and make it a 4-3 loss instead.

The Azores Express passengers will try and make it 3-in-a-row this week…, but theirs another hot team standing on the tracks waiting for them.

Delay of Game

Hey Donny Maccini, consider this your warning…, if you keep getting stupid penalties and then taking 10-minutes to climb the boards to serve it, the referees have been given the green light to ring you up for a “Delay of Game” penalty as well. 

Maybe the league has to talk to Tony Medeiros about a fundraising effort to install new “Donny Doors” in the penalty boxes.

Plethora of “firsts”

The 4:30 game featured a plethora of “firsts” this season for several players.

For Azores Express, newly engaged Pedro Fontes posted his “first” hat trick of the season… followed by Brian “Cappy” Capodilupo, who was spoon fed his “first” goal of the season from his Captain Dave Costa with his “first” assist…, and lastly Jake Deehan posted his “first” win of the season.

“Not Even Close”

Nice shot Ricky Cassano…, we can’t even apply the laws of physics to figure out how you missed that shot so bad last week.

Ricky took a shot that we thought was “tipped” 20ft into the netting above the goal…, but the faceoff was waived for outside the zone (meaning it wasn’t “tipped”)…, and as Ricky was exiting the offensive zone he raised his hands like he just kicked a game winning field goal.

But just in case you missed it…, it wasn’t “good”…, in fact it “wasn’t even close” and this video reflects a comparable visual of how bad Ricky missed the net.

It’s a Walrus

“Attaboy Duncan”… Sorry, we mean Sean Roach.  What a solid performance in net last week stopping all 24-shots you faced.  This “Blind Goalie Challenge” has really helped to elevate your game.

You made last week’s game look easy… in fact, you made that shutout look Geico easy;

Grant it, you faced a struggling 0-4 team…, but if you keep posting those shutouts with the help of your defense and the backchecking of your Captain Dominic DeFrancisco…, poor Scotty Rosato might never get out of that pink warm-up jersey.

Just when we thought you were going to make a move on the inside turn on lap 5, and take the lead on the leaderboard…, the #3 car driven by AJ Larabee also posted a shutout and wouldn’t let you pass… with just a mere 0.20 lead on you, turn 6 is straight ahead today for another passing attempt.

With Mike Duggan out of the lineup this week, and Phoenix Rising facing the red-hot Azores Express…, this could be the week we see you on the top of the leaderboard.

How Many Losses?

Well, they just went to 0-5 and there’s only one clip worthy enough of a situation like this:

Come on Captain Jamie Kehoe time to step up vocally and motivate your slumping team

Try some of these one-liners;

"Let's play it smart out there tonight. I wanna see a lot of work from you guys."

"Use your heads on the dek out there, will ya?'

"We all know how to play hockey. Just play it smart."

'We need this win. We've a lot of losses..." 

"Play heads-up out there. Let's be smart. We're better than any club if we try."

International Goal

Once again, the referees screwed an unsuspecting player out of an assist. 

Last week we watched what we thought was the leagues first “International Goal” courtesy of the United Nations between Portugal-China-Ireland.

Jose Silva (Portugal) sent a pass down low to Eddie Chin (China) who without hesitation, sent a beautiful pass across to John Kelleher (Ireland) who was camped just outside of Scotty Rosato’s crease for a one-timer.

It was a thing of beauty…, “Tic-Tac-Toe” for the 2-0 nail in the coffin for Barney & Friends

But somehow Garvin Chan was credited on the game sheet instead of Jose.  The only thing Garvin should have been credited with is getting Mike Duggan suspended for a week.

Trivia Question

For 100-points and control of the board…, to whoever answers this question correctly.

After 5-weeks of play…, Matty “The Great One” Iannello has 11-points and his teammate Eddie “The Chin” Chin has 6-points.

Which of those two players has the most goals scored so far this season? (no cheating and peeking)

But since you must know…, Eddie Chin is the new “Papa Smurf” of the league.  For those who don’t know Umberto “Papa Smurf” Biancardi is…, he was an 11^th player who scored just 2-goals (per season) in the 5-seasons prior to playing with “The Great One”.

Back in 2016, once “Papa Smurf” was on a team and started playing with “The Great One”… Boom!! 6-goals on the season and “Papa Smurf” won the Bill Mayne Memorial (7th Player) Award that season.

Fast-forward 8-years later, Eddie “The Chin” Chin scores (3-g, 2a and 3g, 3a) in his first two seasons in the league… but after only 5-games this season he has (3g, 3a) with 10-games to go.

I’m no “Naz”tradamus” but if I were you Eddie…, I would start clearing a space on your mantel for a potential Over-30 Award in December…, unless you screw it up.

Award Case

After last week’s 2-0 shutout (his 2^nd of the season) Phoenix Rising goaltender AJ Larabee should also be making room in his award case or mantel too.

Sitting in the #1 spot with a 4-0-1 record and 1.80 GAA…, AJ could find his name being called in December (along with Eddie)…, unless he screws it up too.

But hey AJ…, we shared some league records for your teammate Mike O’Neill to shoot for this season, so we’ll do the same for you. 

Here’s a couple of goalie records:

1998-Spring: Denny Beaupre (HoF 2024) 7-games played (6-1-0) with (8) goals against and a 1.14 GAA

2006-Spring: Jimmy Osgood 11-games played (10-0-1) with (14) goals against and a 1.27 GAA

For the record: Jimmy played 4-more games than Denny (who technically holds the record for GAA)…, and both of those players probably would have qualified for the Spring Season Challenge, had their been one (back in the day), but that’s one of the “Fresh new ideas” by the “New Regime”

But, the GAA record for a 15-game season is held by Sean “Duncan” Roach (10-4-1) with (41) goals against and a 2.73 GAA.  Remember that season “Duncan”? 

2022 Winter with the Goombahs…, it’s still a league record despite the dismal playoff run.

Not the UFC?

Don’t left the expression “I went to a hockey game and a fight broke out” become a reality…, as the league will strictly enforce fighting (up to and including long-term suspensions).

Last week’s battle between Barney & Friends and Phoenix Rising was an epic battle between two teams with highly skilled players and even more emotional players.  It was a great game with both goalies making huge saves and shutting down the other team’s offense.

We get the “heat of the battle” but when it goes beyond words and turns physical the league will step in (no matter who you are)…. and, that’s all we are going to say about that.

Theme Song

Perfection to Perfection

ALD Mike Naczas, Steve Silveria and Todd Bryson are all chasing history again.

Those three players were all part of the Roadrunners “Team Perfection” with a 17-0 record…, now they are all 0-5 with M*A*S*H and not wanting this current quest for “Perfection” on their permanent records.

Pre-Season Prediction

Over the summer at one of the Board of Directors meetings at an undisclosed location…, wages, betting lines and predictions were flying across the table as the meeting concluded.

Someone had one too many orange juices with their breakfast and made a bold prediction for the number of “Goals” they will score this season.

After Week #5…, his goal production matches his team’s record…, 0-5!

Here’s a tip to scoring 5-goals this season (with only 10-games left)…and from the real “Great One” himself Wayne Gretzky; “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.”

Time to start shooting Naz…, and stop begging for assists.

Apology Oversight

The Over-30 League wants to send Elder Lopes a formal apology for not acknowledging your summer accomplishment with the Hockeytown D1 Champions – Azores Xpress.

The original grainy “bigfoot” like photo wasn’t clear enough to see you peeking your dome from the back.

Now new clearer footage exists, and we see you now… So, congratulations Elder. 

Now try doing something for your Hammertime team (besides missing games) and hiding behind Doug Sedille and John Carey.

Time to lead by “Ex-“A”-mple”!!