Season 14-15. Game 1. 11/2/2014

It's time to fire up the engines, rouse the old goose, crank up the bandwagon, and reach for the stars: It's another season of Madison Lightnin' Hockey!

After taking a year off to attend to The Droplet, I'm back to keep all of y'alls updated with my favorite hockey team next to the New Jersey Devils. And as with the new look New Jersey Devils, there's been a lot of changes in the roster of the Madison Lightnin'. So much so that I didn't know what was what. I was able to suss these facts: Warren Peas was in goal, the Bourbon Wall was [gasp] skating out, Vapo Rub as well as Pre-Rub were on the ice, Black Locust was out there causing the usual havoc. Snootch and Gimme Shelter (aka Shelter, nee Nicole's Friend) were also skating around.

It was good to see the familiar gang!

 

 

All five Lightnin' skaters and the goalie in one action shot!

 

 

None of the above included Timbers and Amanita. Timbers has gone the way of the Bruin, and Amanita reportedly got lured away to another WCHL team, whose name shall not be mentioned here. So sadly, there will be no cries from the bleachers, or in this blog, of "Amanita ... STONED!"

But there were some new skaters. Most notably, Scotch Seven:

Scotch Seven works the boards

In my playin' days, you always had to watch out for the skater with the scotch-taped jersey number. Or the player with the mis-matched jersey. This person had both! But alas, her skills - indeed the entirety of the team - were all for naught. Yes, naught. Against the mighty Madison Meteorites, they of the top division, they of the actual slap-shot taking variety, they of the cycling down low, the Lightning failed to register a goal.

Warren Peas stood tall for the first 8 minutes of the tilt. And then - BOOM. Boom, boom, boom. I took a bite from my sandwich, and then BOOM, another goal. By the end of the game, the Meteorites had scored 9. Top-shelf like it was Saturday night at the 2001 Odyssey.

I let in 9 goals several times in my playin' days. A bolstering thought: "They're not going to get 10!" I wonder what Warren Peas thought.

But eh ... first game of the season. And by all accounts, it was The Droplet's second-ever Lightnin' Game!

The Droplet pressing his bePackered butt against the glass - take that Meteorites!

Notes: With Asperatus gone, it is possible that I am become The Lightning's #1 Fan. Scary thought for I have too many responsibilities as it is (read: The Droplet).

Game 18. Playoff Game 1.

Playoff Game 1
Romeoville, IL

The Women's Central Hockey League playoffs have begun and I'm stuck in Madison watching the NHL. 

Schneider, one of four goalies I have in my fantasy hockey team

What's the Lightning's #2 fan doing?  As has happened several times this season, I'm missing a game because of work.  Tomorrow, I'm to board a bus to Milwaukee and teach for six hours.  

But I just got a text from Vito:

"Yo!  We won!  I potted one!  How was Lillyhammer?!  It suck?"

(I had told Vito that I was going to stay home, eat spaghetti, drink beer, and watch a Netflix original series.  That Netflix original series is called Lillyhammer, and it stars Steve Van Zandt, the guitarist for the E Street Band.  It didn't suck.)

I texted back.

"It has potential."

A1 rounded out the scoring in a game that was chippy, featured some questionable calls, and not a little bit of pushin' and shovin'.

The Lightning play two more tomorrow.  I'll keep all of y'all updated.

Game 17. Freeze Blue (H) (L)

Game 17. Freeze Blue (H) (L)

1. Hoover.

2. Warren Peas hurls a shutout - yes she only faced nine shots, but it is hard to keep your concentration when the puck is on the other side of the rink.  You start to think of what you're going to have for lunch, your husband in the stands, life in general.

3. I was waiting for this match-up all season: Pope versus Pope.  And when the Lightning was up by eight goals in the third, the forwards switched up with the defensemen and it was real Pope on Pope action!

4. This was the last game on the regular season, and most of the team convened at the old watering hall.  By my records, the Lightning went 17-1-1 and head into next month's playoffs heavy favorites. 

Game puck: Hlin (2 goals, 2 assists, +8, 24:03 TOI).  Incidentally, she earned the season's first game puck.

And now … on to the second season.

Game 16. Janesville Jaguars (H) (L)

Game 16. Janesville Jaguars (H) (L)

The Jaguars, now fully mad, came up to Madison to try to finally (finally!) defeat the Lightning.  I was just happy to witness it.  I can't call myself Lightning's #2 fan if I miss three games in a row, can I?  (Meanwhile, the Lightning's #1 fan was nowhere to be seen.)

The Jags looked leaner; their hair, more colorful, indicative of a youthfulness usually accompanied by a swiftness of foot.  I don't remember seeing that player before?  And where was Specs? 

Assistant Coach Johnny Bye-Bye was behind the bench, calling the shots, putting a calming hand on the excitable Vapo Rub.

Assistant Coach Johnny Bye-Bye settles the troops

The Lightning started out horribly, inept even.  Even with the Bourbon Wall in net, within two minutes the Jaguars scored two goals.  But Nicole and I weren't worried.  No, not at all. 

It was when the Lightning couldn't muster up the equalizers that we began to worry.  But then, this happened:

With less than ten seconds left, Nicole's Friend takes a desperation shot from behind the blue line.  The goaltender, obviously aware of how little time there was, kicks the puck away with her skate blade.  I repeat: she kicked the puck away with her skate blade.  Instead of re-directing the puck to the corner or covering it up with her glove, she kicked it away with her skate blade.  And as you know, you can't really kick it all that far. 

The goalie was obviously unaware that Nicole's Friend's line mate, Vito, was doing what all the kids should be doing: playing to the whistle!  Vito was to the goalie's right, exactly where the puck had been clicked.  She collected the puck, collected her thoughts, and lifted the puck over the surprised goalie's left pad and glove.  The horn sound: she scored!  The period ended! 

The game would end like that: 2-2. 

Game puck goes to Vito.

Game 15. Madison Thunder (A) (L)

Game 15. Madison Thunder (A) (L)
Saturday, February 9

Oh what a game to miss!  Any game where it was reported that Amanita had to help break up a fight - even now, typing these words a few weeks later I can't believe it - is a game I would've loved to have seen.

Apparently, some player on the Thunder got pissed at Snootch and punched her in the face mask.  After the game, this same player came over to Snootch and called her something like "the dirtiest player ever."  Tempers flared.  Amanita and The Bearcat, who actually coaches the Thunder, intervened. 

Might've been different had the Thunder won.  It's one thing to be a sore loser, and yet another thing entirely to be a sore winner.  (In my other life as a tournament Scrabble player, I've definitely met my share of sore winners - a strange group.) 

But let's give that Thunder player some play: what does it take to be called "the dirtiest player ever."  What is Snootch actually doing?  She may be the chattiest player on the ice, but dirtiest?  Again: C'mon!

Game puck goes to Snootch, just 'cause. 

Incidentally, this was the first game Vito missed.  In another life, Vito used to play for a club in California, and this weekend, a few of those players came to Wisconsin to participate in the Eagle River Pond Hockey Championship.  Playing for the San Francisco Treats, she got to hoist the cup!

Game 14. Janesville Jaguars (A) (L)

Game 14. Janesville Jaguars (A) (L)
February 2

Six skaters and Warren Peas against the increasingly angry Janesville Jaguars.  I certainly picked the wrong game to miss; I always liked watching undermanned teams prevail.  Yes, despite our numbers, the Lightning escaped with a win.  Despite racing out to a 6-1 lead, the Jaguars regrouped and nearly beat the depleted Lightning, rallying for four goals.  With less than thirty seconds left, the Lightning were clinging tenuously to a 1-goal lead. 

Those thirty seconds must've felt like hours!  But they gritted it out. 

Game puck goes to the Black Locust.  Why?  C'mon, despite logging in 36 minutes, you know she was flying all over the place!

Eggs from Nicole and Nicole's Friend's Chickens

Game 13. Rockford Hot Wings (H) (L)

Game 13. Rockford Hot Wings (H) (L)

The Bearcat Scowls

In another life, I wrote reviews of church rummage sales on Chicago's tony north shore.  Towns like Winnetka, Kenilworth, Wilmette, and Lake Forest featured the best church rummage sales I've ever had the honor to sneeze through.  These sales would take place in the recesses of the church grounds, featuring dusty rooms connected by warrens crowded with crazed deal-finders.  Whole rooms were devoted to "devotional objects", "baby", "a/v", "unctions."  It was heaven.

So when I caught wind of the annual United Methodist Church rummage sale on Madison's north side about a week ago, I made sure that I went.  Vito came along.  While I did not expect there to be multiple rooms, I did expect there to be at least some good junk. 

Alas.  My one "find" was a spoken word record that promised to cure me of "excusitis." 

A pastry at Manna Cafe and Bakery and then off to the Shell for a league game against the Hot Wings of Rockford, Illinois.  When I think of Rockford I think of poet Matt Cook who wrote a poem (or found a poem) about Rockford.  The essential element of that poem was that Rockford had a metal factory of some sort back "in the day" and that printed on the brick factory building - at the top so it could be seen from the interstate - was a huge sign that said: Rockford Screw.

Which caused me and the rest of the Cloud Posse - Asperatus and Nimbus in full effect - to at least worry for our one-loss Lightning.  Well, we also were worried because we were without Amanita, Gloster, and Hlin.  That's a lot of firepower missing!  (Also, no cries of "Amanita … STONED!" would sail forth in the cavernous ice arena.  Also also, I would offer no kind of overly officious salutes but thankfully unnoticed salutes to Hlin as she skated stoically off the ice.)

The first period fulfilled some worry.  The Lightning were playing as if they had hangovers!  Very unorganized.  Lots of bunching up on one side of the ice.  And even though somebody collides with teammate Black Locust every game … well, I was worried.  The Hot Wings were playing with a  lot of moxie.  JP Specs (# 54) was rocking her Kurt Rambus-like epnymous specs.  Plus, their coach was of the yelling variety. 

But the first goal proved to be the only one the Lightning needed.  While the play resulted in one goal, it resulted in multiple style points: another perfect give-go-give-go between the Bearcat and MJ, with MJ getting the goal.

The Lightning would eventually win 7-0.  The game was close for one and a half periods.  In the third period, it was all Lightning.  The Hot Wing failed to register a shot on net for all of 12 minutes!  Meanwhile, the Lightning turned it on.  The period began 3-0.  Two minutes in and the score was 6-0.  There were some excellent goals.  None of which were caught on video, but many were witnessed by a bunch of hockey dudes, waiting to get on the ice.

Hockey Dudes look on as the Bourbon Wall signals the icing

I will at least attempt to describe some of the goals, for many were quite beautiful.  Like this one in the 2nd period: Snutch takes a shot from near the blue line, and Nicole's Friend tips it in.  Just like they do in the NHL!

Vito had a couple of goals.  The first into a wide-open net, the goalie down after deflecting a terrific shot from Nicole's Friend, Vito smartly skating down the slot unmarked.  Her second, and this would end the scoring, was a very Hlin-like skate to the slot and shoot.

Alone time

The game puck goes to Nicole's Friend, who registered 4 points with 2 goals and 2 assists. 

Notes: Vito and I eschewed the post-game beers and lunch.  Instead, we drove west to Black Earth to get some really good meat (we bought a pork shoulder and a couple of ribeye steaks) at Black Earth Meats.  We also bought some shoes at The Shoe Box.  At home, I would take a stunning hour-long nap.  In contrast, after the game MJ went out for a run up and down a hill in preparation for a 50-km cross-country skiing race at the end of February.  In contrast, the Bourbon Wall and Nicole's Friend stuck around downtown waiting for the 2 PM game skating for the Meteorites. 



Finally, here's a link to a poem by Matt Cook:

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2009/11/23