Season Openerdavuer! New look Suds dominate!

Cadavers (1) vs Schlitz(1)

Monday Septermber 26

BU 9:10pm

Suds 6

Cads 1

The winter 2012 season kicked off Monday night at Boston University’s Walter Brown Arena with a Seasonopendaveur featuring a bunch of new and old faces among the Gold and Red. Management was very happy to be able to field two squads again this season after a trimmed down Summer season. Great to have another Schlidaveur really… these games are one of the best features of the two team setup.

The teams broke out hastily just hours before the game ended up being a little of the new guys versus the old guys.
The Schlitz would feature three new skaters, all free agent pickups signed in the offseason. Jared Gorden came over from the Sitniks and was a force at center all night long. Geoff Marietta, a Mike Daley connection played D for the gold, and Josh Bittker, from the Mass Skaters waiver wire, played forward. All three looked like solid players that will certainly help us out, we welcome you all aboard.

Here’s the breakdown of the rosters.
Schlitz

Randy Dudek in Net

D1: Reynolds, iJosh

D2: George, Geoff Marietta

O1: Jared Gorden, Matvey, and Roman

O2: Daley,  Gregson, and Josh Bittker

Cadavers

Jim Sullivan in Net

D1: Parker, Bauer

D2: Campbell, Fosdick

O1: Larry, Nelson, and Elliot

O2: Baker, Pounds, Goldenberg

The game tone was set by the New Look Suds immediately. Winning the opening face off and streaking right up ice Jared Gorden walked through Campbell and Fosdick and right to the net where he laid one in for the lead. Just like that, 15 seconds in and it looked like it was going to be a long night for the “old guys” in Red.

Things settled right down after that but it was clear the Red would have to keep a close eye on Jared all night and really the Gold did a good job keeping the Red off balance and only occasionally productive.

The first would turn into a grind as the teams settled in, both goalies would get going and were making nice stops. Campbell would go for a trip for Red, and Mark Reynolds would go for a check for Gold before the period was out but no blood on the penalties.

It took until halfway through the second period for Gold to score again. This time Dan Gregson would finish up the work on a shot/pass from iJosh and popping the rebound under Sully (defensemen no where to be seen) the Gold were up 2-0.

This is roughly when the new look Suds took over the game. At the start of the third period Josh Bittker, playing the right side, would score unassisted, after some nice work in the offensive zone. This was less than a minute in and things were getting harder for the Dead in Red.

As the grind went on, Mike Capmbell would be called for a minor assault at 12:35. As the ensuing power play wound down, Josh Bittker would assist Mike Daley who would score on a nice play and with 11 minutes left it was 4-0 Gold.

Then the play got more and more contentious as the Red desperation level rose as they just tried to get on the board. George would go for the Gold on a hook but there was no scoring on the power play for Red.

The Bittker-Daley combo would work again with 3 minutes left as Daley would land his second goal of the night. His success was well deserved as he had a great night, wheeling and dealing on offense and doing his usual solid job of covering the entire ice sheet.

The Gold would get called on a retalliation again and this time Geoff Marietta would get a High Stick call and the Red would have one last chance.

Larry would make good on the chance… but it was all Eric Bauer who afterward, quite deservedly said “I’m taking credit for that.” Bauer made a nice play at the top of the zone with the puck and then sent a great shot through traffic that deflected off of Larry’s stick and into the net. This was the only time all night that Red could solve Randy Dudek who got better as the game went on. He’s turned into a nice solid option in the pipes for us, and his work has been well appreciated.

That was how this one would end. 6-1 with the New Look Suds on top.

Big welcomes to Josh Bittker, Geoff Marietta, and Jared Gorden who all look to be quality pick ups by management.

Game Stars

3^rd Star: Randy Dudek. Another very nice performance in the pipes snuffing out everything that got close to him. Nice job.

2^nd Star: Josh Bittker. Early candidate for Rookie of the Year, Josh jumped right in and started producing, looking very at home as Daley’s winger.  He was able to rack up a goal and 2 assists in his franchise debut.

1^st Star: Mike Mr. Everywhere Daley. Only two goals on the night, neither of which I can really remember all that well, but this is chiefly because I was probably just beaten badly by Mr. Daley or a teammate on his way to the net.  Great work as always formed the backbone of the Gold attack.

Honorable Mention: Jared Gorden. Especially given his impressive game opening goal, Jared looks like he is going to be a force to reckon with.

Fourth period goodness provided by Eric Bauer and Matt Elliot.

Nice to see a big Post-Daveur group hanging out in the BU parking lot. Feels good to be back. 

Welcome back also needs to be said to a few returning players that it was great to see again.

Mark Reynolds showed he hasn't accumulated any rust over the summer.

iJosh Greenstein was also a frisky competitor holding the line very well at his D position. Nice to see him... and Superfan Heather after the game. 

Final Summer Stats

Team,
Here are the final statistics from the Summer 2011 campaign.
A loss in the Championship game wasn't so bad to take and it dropped us to 8-8-3 on the season which seemed about right.
After a 5-0 blistering start we then went 9 weeks without a W and really the run we made at the end saved the .500 season.
Good numbers here in particular we have to start with Steve Baker who finishes first in points (14) and first in penalties (8) for the Stat whore's dream double championship. Nice work Steve.
Jim Sullivan finishes second with 13 points on a nice comeback year for him. Nice to have him out there on the forward lines making things happen.
Rounding out the top five are Larry and Jeff (11) and Mike Daley (10) all of whom turned in nice performances over the summer. Good work boys.

As mentioned before the Mike Campbell Award goes to Baker. Eric Bauer was close behind Steve with 7 penalties but couldn't get over the top. It should be noted that the Namesake of the award had 6 penalties but this was only in 8 games played so his Pen Per Game number dwarfs the two guys ahead of him on the list. Just sayin'...

Clearly we've had a changing of the guard in the Nets this summer. Jon Cole who was an excellent find last winter continued his solid work playing about half of our games this summer. A 3.37 GAA is certainly acceptable for a D league hockey team.
Interesting that Jon's replacement Randy Dudek finished with a similar 3.60 GAA after playing 5 games with us.
We only saw last Winter's playoff star Jacob Marks once and he did win, and we'd love to see more of Jacob... if only he lived closer.

Good season everyone. Thanks for playing and see you in the winter!

Championship Game vs SLJ

Cadavers (3) VS SLJ (1)

Thursday 9/22

Dedham 9:30pm

Coyote Division Championship

7-2 loss

The Dead in Red took to the sheet at the Boch Ice Palace in Dedham last night, not only later than scheduled, but incredibly playing for the division championship despite a less than sparkly 8-7-3 overall record. The 3 seed Cadavers would take on the always difficult SLJ. These guys are all around good with a few standouts as well. They wore a black version of the old Phoenix Coyotes jersey and it should have been an omen that the Blogger caught even before the game began.

Here is your Title Game Zombie Roster

Jay McNamara in Net

D1: George, Bauer

D2: Jeff, Parker

O1: Larry, Sully and Gregson

O2: Baker, Daley and Elliot

O3: Roman, Matvey and Doc Pounds

Team Zombie was enthusiastic despite the delayed start time. Not jumping up and down mind you… but the potty training discussion had an expectant edge to it during the pregame locker room.  As Doc Pounds said not that long ago… “Didn’t we used to talk about hot chicks?” Now… peeing. Sigh.

Anyway… if we were going to win this one it would take a whole bunch of what we brought with us to last week’s game against the Blues. Some scoring, hard shifting, and great overall team play. We got some of that stuff but whatever we did get only lasted so long. I’ll tell you what we did get, and was another terrific performance in net from Jay McNamara who has turned out to be quite a find. Hope we much more of him going forward this winter.

It was clear we had our hands full from the open. Very fast pace and it was all we could do to play them even up and down the ice. Its nice to report that not only were we holding our own in the first 5 minutes but we also generated a few scoring chances.

Just after the 12 minute mark the play would go around the attacking zone due to some excellent work by the Daley, Baker, Elliot line. Mike Daley would zip a pass out to Baker who was open about 15 feet out. Steve ripped a famous slapper that went top shelf and the good guys were up 1-0. Good stuff.

The SLJ (they need a snappy knickname) didn’t take kindly to being down a goal and a whole minute of playing time later they bing bang boomed a great play that left the Red spinning and the game tied at 1.

Things still looked pretty good for the puffing Cads, including two penalties that went our way, but there were no breakthroughs and really we kind of chugged into the first intermission tied.

The Second would see much more of the same grind. I’m happy to say that the Red momentum would continue. No more than 2 minutes in Mike Daley, after an exhausting shift would come to the bench as the play went into our end… not ideal but Mike had to get off… and Sully jumped over the boards. The play was already coming back up the ice and Sully would pick up the loose puck in the neutral zone and charge into the Black end. Jim made a nice move shaking the D and then buried his bid and the Zombies were up a goal again.

Of course, once again SLJ would take all of one exact minute of playing time to put together a play in our end and tie the game at 2. After a few more shifts the game went by the midway point, 8 minutes in the second and we were still in a tie game for the trophy.
Pretty good… the Blogger thinks… all you can ask for the last game of the year really. Just wanted to get that in, given that the momentum was fading, and even though we were in it, the feeling that the game was quickly slipping away would be in full effect by the end of the frame.

At 7 minutes the SLJ would pot another one to take their first lead. Baker would go for a trip after taking down one of their speedsters in a play he had no choice on. Red stood strong on the PK but at the 2 minute mark they would land another one and the period would end 4-2. The fourth was a cheepey… shot along the “baseline” that slipped through a narrow space.

Team Zombie had the heart but not the legs to make it through the third let alone mount a comeback. Black would turn up the heat , like all good teams looking to finish and would score at 14 minutes and again at 12.  Red was just hanging on for the ride at this point but the shifts stayed short and the effort was there for everyone, despite the fact that we couldn’t get anything going.
Sully had another almost breakaway in the third but the defenseman knocked him off his balance and he couldn’t finish the play. There was good work all the way around and really Jay kept it close by making lots of quality stops as the period wore on.

Matvey would tackle a guy coming out of our end at the 5 minute mark and we would play down most of the rest of the way. SLJ would land one last parting shot with one minute left, just to let us know they had this one wrapped up.

So that was how this one would end up. No joy. A good skate, a lot of Zombie Pride in effort and desire. It just wasn’t going to happen.

We even gave them a run in the 4^th period. Sporting 5 coolers we stood out in the warm humid air and sipped a salve to our sorrows. Of course they weren’t f-ing around here either and soon they had a huge cooler hemmoraging beers and a grill going on the back of one of their pickups. The oversized trophy sitting on the edge of the group, closest to us I noticed, a reminder of what they’d done. 

It wasn’t easy to take as it became clear they were going to outlast us in the lot, five coolers or not.


Doc Pounds told Jeff to “let it go” as the victorious scent of Cheeseburgers wafted over our consolation gathering as he muttered curses under his breath, sidelong glancing at the trophy… or maybe the burgers.

Night over. 4^th period lost. Game lost. The Summer of mediocrity appropriately wrapped up with a 8-8-3 overall record.

Last one out turn off the lights… see you in the winter… I mean Monday.

Coyote Division Championship! Tonight!

Cadavers (3) vs SLJ (1)
Thursday 9/22
Dedham 9:00pm
Coyote Division Championship Game

This ought to get the blood flowing...

This guy has the right message for us...

We play for hardware tonight lads.
A banner in the rafters if you will...
After a summer season rife with mediocrity... a chance to put one on the board.
A notch in the franchise belt... a pelt for the wall.
We may be a bunch of phoney baloneys playing in a phoney baloney league... but tonight, if we play with our guts, and our brains, and most importantly our hearts... we can be the top phoney baloney dogs. Who could ask for anything more?
See you at the rink.

Playoff Showdown with Les Blues

Cadavers (3) vs Blues (2)
Thursday 9/15
BU 10:00pm
Coyote Division Semifinal


5-2 WIN!


The Dead in Red took the ice at storied Walter Brown Arena against long time rival The Blues for a semi-final playoff match up. The two teams skated to a 1-1 draw not long ago and the familiarity between the squads meant this game was sure to be close as well. We have a long history of battles with the guys in Blue and everyone on Team Zombie was anxious to get the win and knock those guys out of the "tournament".
Here's how things would work out.
First off the Blogger wants to thank the rowdy members of the Betley Lab for setting Jeff's night off on the right foot. Thanks go out to The Mexican Tom Cruise and his special Fresca enhanced Margaritas and Dave Harris for his booming pep-talk toast that got the blood flowing. Suffice to say Jeff was well lubricated before he made it across the river to BU.
That was fine as he was slated as the 14th man on a full roster and apparently it suited him fine as he got early results when the puck dropped.

But first... lets have the lineups.
Jay McNamara in NET
D: George, Bauer; Campbell, and Parker with Jeff rotating in.
O1: Baker, Daley, Elliot
O2: Larry, Sully, Gregson
O3: Roman, Matvey, Doc Pounds

 It was clear that the Blues had their regulars as well as the talent they've picked up in the last few seasons. In particular number 6 a forward with black and green socks, and number 43 wearing a dark blue league jersey would clearly need minding all night as they were able to make plays with their legs and hands at any time.
The Blogger is happy to report that the energy level was great on the Cadaver bench and Red took the game right at the Blues right from the start. No hard to do with the lineup we had. The Baker-Daley experience would get shots immediately and it was clear Baker was into it from the start. Funny... for the first time he was seen with beer in hand in the pregame locker room. When asked he told the team he wasn't missing out on the Shipyard Pumpkin Head ale this year like last. "I went back to the store and it was all gone!" Apparently he stocked up and has been drinking nothing else all week.
We waded into the game and there was plenty of give and take between the sides to get things warmed right up in a hurry. Mike Campbell would barrel through someone less than four minutes in and Blue would go on the power play. Red fought hard and played well on the PK and just as it ended good things started to happen.
Jeff would make a outlet pass to Doc Pounds up on the left side. Jeff had a head of steam and was hollering to the good Doctor to send it back. He did just that and laid a perfect pass across the blue line right to Jeff as he turned the crossed up defender and streaked to the net to bury a shot over the keepers far shoulder. Red up 1-0 and Jeff banging his stick on the ice on his way back.
Campbell would go again to the box for his second penalty of the night on an iffy call that no one seemed to see. Suddenly the extra defender was looking good as chances were Mike wasn't going to make the whole game (3 penalties and you are out). Again, good work by Red on the PK meant the Blues got not much going and the first would end 1-0.
The Second would open with more good things for the Cads. Kevin Parker would headman the puck up to Steve Baker who would make a nice play to Matt Elliot who was parked on the right side of the crease. Matty would score from the short side on a fast shot and the good guys had a 2 goal lead. Couple of things here... nice to see Matt score in the playoffs as he had a very productive regular season, and also there couldn't have been a better time for high scorer Steve Baker to pick up his FIRST assist of the year. Now how you score 12 goals with no assists the Blogger doesn't know... or care. Now hes got at least one helper and those are just as good.
About halfway through the period Parker and a Blue would go for matching roughing calls and the teams played 5 on 5. Other than that the period was a full on grind and the Red never let up. After 2... 2-0 good guys.
Now you know it couldn't be easy. You know we couldn't go the whole night without some drama and anxious times... right? Of course. Five minutes into the third period the Blues would start to get thier momentum going. The play went around the Red end and we started to scramble. If not for the very steady hand of Jay McNamara in net the lead would have been gone in a flash. Instead the Blues kept knocking on the door and Jay kept turning them aside. That is... until this happened. Jeff would try to take down number 43 who was winding up and driving to the net. The ref's arm went up as he hauled him down but the puck went to a Blue behind our net who passed to a guy right in front and he put it past Jay to cut the lead to one. No penalty after the goal saved Jeff a trip to the box... but the Red bench was already on edge.
Another 5 minutes of playing time, a lot of it with Red on their heels went by. Then Mike Daley would make a great play. The puck would come up from Mike Campbell then to Elliot in the neutral zone. He would spring Daley with a nice pass and Mike was off on a breakaway to the Blue net. Daley's shot was wicked and the Red bench cheered when the puck went in giving us back a two goal lead, now with 7 minutes left in the game.
Blue was desperate. Six and 43 were all over the place trying to make something happen. It was only a minute after Daley's goal that they did just that. Another scramble in our end and the loose puck ended up with 43 who rifled one into the net to cut the lead back to 1, 3-2, now with 5 and a half minutes left.
Another minute of tense playing time later a strange play gave great results. George tried a clearing pass to Doc Pounds that missed the mark but hit the Good Doctor off the helmet and bounced back to George. The ranging defense man then barreled up ice hell bent for glory and he found it, burying the puck for a nice finish and some insurance.
Now with time winding down and the Blues in full desperation they would pull their keeper in the final minute and Red would do a good job squashing the play. Roman would hustle down and grab a loose clearing play and would pot the empty netter for the nail in the coffin.
Great work by all the Cadavers and a very sweet win.

This means we advance to the Division Championship Game next week. Stay tuned... its always exciting to play for hardware.


Game Stars
3rd Star: Jay McNamara for some great work in the pipes. He didn't think he worked that hard, but he made covers and eliminated rebounds at critical times all night. Nice job
2nd Star: Matt Elliot for a goal and an assist and some hard work all night.
1st Star: The other goal scorers... George, Daley, Roman and Jeff. 

Really... everyone played really well. There was great energy and focus on the bench and this one was a nice victory to have against a well know... and ill regarded... opponent.


Beerman Honor Roll: Bauer and Fosdick.
Always nice to enjoy post-game beverages in the BU parking lot... thankfully no sign of malicious meter maids or BUPD... 

TONIGHT! PLAYOFFS!

This ought to put you in the mood for tonight
Click this ^

If not than this will...

Playoff Fever Thursday Night!

The Cads are in the playoffs and by virtue of a 7-7-3 finish, 3rd place in the Coyote Division. This gets us a match up with the Blues (2 seed) on Thursday night.
A win and we'll advance to the "championship" game for the division against the remaining team.
We played the Blues very tight last week and provided there are no ringers in play it should be another tremendous game.

So. See you Thursday night. Win or go home.
BU 10pm.

Cads and Blues tangle to tie in regular season finale!

Cadavers vs Blues

Thursday 9/1

Canton 10:30pm

1-1 tie

The Dead in Red faced old time rival the Blues last night in Canton for the last game of the summer regular season with, amazingly, a chance to secure a winning record. Team Zombie would turn in their best period of work in a season or more but would still let the prize slip away in the waning moments as momentum faded and the game got late.

The Blues have had a solid group for some time and it would be a good matchup as the Zombies sported a strong lineup for the season closer.

Here you have it.

Randy Dudek in Net

D1: George and Geoff Marietta

D2: Jeff and Campbell

O1: Larry, Sully, Daley

O2: Baker, Nelson, Matvey and Gregson floated.

Randy Dudek was back in net, and really has been a nice find during the last ¼ of this season and he’s turned in some fine work helping to keep the Cads competitive, and last night was no different.

The Defensive corps were supplemented by newcomer Geoff Marietta who the organization has been scouting for a spot on the winter roster. Contract negotiations have been ongoing but very positive for Marietta who despite some rust on his wheels have a very solid evening on the blue line. Look for him to make the winter club…

The offensive pace was set by Larry, Daley and Baker who alternated at center and kept the tempo brisk as the Dead played a very strong first period. Sully  and Nelson had multiple chances as well and the passing and hustle was the best its been for the dead in some time.

The Cads really took the game right at the Blues for that whole first frame making smart hard plays that generated good things all over the place. The Blue goalie did a great job keeping rebounds down and smothering the many plays that ended up at his feet.

There was nice work from the D making strong outlets and pinching occasionally and that was how the ice would be broken midway through the period. Mike Campbell would push the play up into the attack zone after picking up a loose puck in the neutral zone then with a back and forth to Steve Baker in the slot ended up with a great chance that Steve would eventually chip over the sprawling keeper for the 1-0 lead.

Steve was excited, as he’d already had a run in with Captain Douchebag, no. 3 Kevin Feury from the Blues. Feury had blatantly held Steve’s stick earlier in the play and the two had exchanged pleasantries (and hacks) back up the ice.
Fuery is no stranger to douchebaggery and last night he tangled frequently with Steve and any other forward that came near usually felt his stick or shoulder.You have to watch your back with that prick on the ice.

The first would end with the Red holding good momentum and the precious one goal lead, but things would become more heated in the second.

About 5 minutes in, Mike Daley would get caught up with a defender and despite taking most of the abuse in the exchange Mike would go to the box for a rough. The Red would play well enough to escape the penalty but as the time wound down Geoff Marietta and a Blue defender would go for matching roughs as the two wrestled in the Blue crease.
Again no blood on the penalty, and when Daley returned the teams were even. Unfortunately Red wasn’t done sending guys to the box and this time Larry would go for a hook with 6 minutes remaining in the period.

The play had been slowing from the fast paced first period and the Red was slowly loosing the traction they had built in the beginning after killing all the penalties. The Blues were slowly but steadily turning the momentum as the game got later and the second would close with the Cads still clinging to the one goal lead.

Well… there you have it. A one goal lead going into the final period of the regular season. A winning record on the line if we can pull out the W. I’m glad to say that the Dead did open the period strong and quickly got a couple chances. The Blues would counter punch however and the Red was clearly playing a bit more conservatively trying to keep the game under their collective thumb.

Matvey would take down a rushing Blue forward and would go to the box for the trip only 3 minutes in. Team Zombie would stomp out the penalty though with great work by Daley and Nelson as the blogger recalls. Still… you can see it coming… right?

Baker and no.3 Feury would reacquaint themselves in the high slot and this exchange ended up with Feury chopping away at Steve who got back up and in his face only to get clouted a few times by the true D-bag. The refs would send them both to the box, which of course sent Steve apoplectic. Luckily Steve kept his yapping to only ¾ volume or something but the Zeebs didn’t toss him and finally after throwing a bucket of water (I wish) on him he settled down. These matching penalties came at 8:30.
The play came down to the wire, and if you are frequent reader of this space you may see what is coming about a mile and a half away.

The Blues were pressing the play and as Red backpedaled and played more shut down, they started to get better chances.

With the game under 3 mintues the Blues center man with the green socks, number 16 Russel Jewel would force the play into the Red end. Campbell made a play on him but he slipped away. Then he worked Jeff over and plunged into the zone as Jeff couldn’t shake the puck from him. He sent  a pass down low to the streaking wing who made a couple of good hacks as Randy made the first stop but the puck ended up in the net and the game tied at 2:27 remaining.

This took a considerable amount of wind out of the Zombies sails as you can imagine, but the Red kept fighting until the end. Baker ended up with an open field tackle (better than the Pats punt coverage) and went back to the box with 1:35 remaining.
The Red would stand strong in the closing minute and would manage to salvage the tie. Despite the dissapointment of letting the W slip away it really was a well matched and fairly well played game. Conincidentally we will almost certainly see the Blues in playoff round one so this is a matchup we will be revisiting within two weeks time.

On another note, Steve’s running mouth couldn’t find a handle on the reigns and he spent several minutes chatting up the Zeebs outside their room. Jeff headed over 2 -3 times in the early going… trying to save the franchise from some unwanted attention… but the Zeebs seemed to be cool and waved him off the 2^nd and 3^rd visit as they were “just talking” which I think was code for “letting Steve get it all out in hopes that Christ Almighty he might just SHUT UP.”

Steve has played a very strong summer and hasn’t let his temper and mouth get him into many scrapes but he really needs to just let it go sometimes. The reality is that there will always be inconsistancys and blown calls at this level.
His best and most helpful response is when he kicks it into gear like he did for shifts in the first and third where he was everywhere at once. The other team has their hands full whenever he plays with anger and puts all his effort into making a play and not runnig his mouth.

Anyway. Beerman honor roll for Dr.s Campbell, Daley and Bell who supplied some chilly refreshment after the game.
Campbell said it all when dropping the tailgate of his truck declared “I think this my favorite bar”.

Well. 7-7-3 for the Summer. Not bad given a 9 game winless streak… but not stellar given a 5 game winning streak.

On to the playoffs.