The Ditch part deux

My hockey story goes down like this – being the youngest of 8 kids in the 1970’s, 4 of my siblings grew up watching the Flyers play in three straight Stanley Cup Finals, winning two of them. My older sister and brother ditched High School and went to the Flyers Cup Parade in 1975! I was 4 yrs old. I started watching the Flyers in 1982-83 and my first game vs the Boston Bruins at the Spectrum in a pre-season game in 1984. I was 13 years old and recall a lot of fights!

Thankfully, three of my four older brothers played street hockey in various leagues around NE Philly in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Ice Hockey was not as popular or as common for kids to play and it cost too damn much. There was no ice to play on, but asphalt and abandoned tennis courts were everywhere. So for us-street hockey was a cheap way of life. A Mylec street hockey stick cost $9.99 and an orange Mylec hockey ball cost $2.99. That’s all you really needed. Someone always had a beat up, taped together net.

I would play against my three older brothers and as the youngest, they would beat me up. They would grab, hack and slash me as they couldn’t catch me and I was smaller, faster and quicker. And my slap shot was deadly accurate and hurt like hell if you blocked it. And I noticed if you hit the ball off a certain spot on the wall by the goal, it would deflect in, so if you were the goalie, my oldest brother, the shot looks wide until it hits that spot and deflects past you. It took 3 of those goals before they changed the rule stopping that. They even named it after me! Great ! Thanks a lot.

So me and the neighborhood kids played in the fall in our one friends driveway. We would split up teams every day after school. The one problem was one team always got the 1 kid who was a real goalie and the other team put someone in net who didn’t want to play goal and the results showed. I ditched the Mylec stick for a $50.00 Easton Aluminum Hockey Stick. It was expensive for 1984 and no one had one but me! My paper route money to good use! I stay have the stick to this day!

Many other kids in my grade school had their own sections of neighborhoods and teams and used me as a bridge to organize games between us. That went well except for the fact that as a group vs other teams our neighborhood team sucked and we would get destroyed! Then I had to face those kids back at school, whereas some of my neighborhood teammates went to Public School and escape the wrath of laughter and jokes. Sometimes I joined their team when they would play other neighborhoods teams from our school, if they were short on players. It was nice to see a different result with better athletes.

In 1987, two of my friends could drive and got up the great idea to join in a men’s league at an indoor street hockey and indoor soccer facility called “Woodhaven Sports Centre.” We were 16 years old vs real men out for blood. Brilliant. They had 6 Tiers or levels of experience. Tier I was almost semi-pro and if your team won the Tier I Title, your team banner went to their rafters. For us, it was the NHL of Street Hockey-a rink, lights, indoors, grandstands, fans! So me and my ragtag bunch of neighborhood kids joined the lowest Tier, Tier 6 or second lowest, Tier 5. The problem was if you lost a Tier II or III Final and wanted an easy Trophy, you would drop down to Tier 4, 5 or 6 and kick everyone’s asses, like my teams and win the title. They didn’t stop that. Of course all teams that won got fancy jackets made and wore them to school. Another “in your face” moment.

We would a bad team with some kids who knew how to play, some kids who sucked and some kids who could barely hold a stick correctly. Another problem was egos. Some kids wanted to be Captain. Some kids wanted to play on the top line. Some kids wanted to play every shift. It was a disaster. I actually scored in my first game ever at Woodhaven, which was a highlight for me.

Woodhaven had a fall, winter, spring and summer season, so we played all the time. It was expensive-$750 a team to play and $2 admission to get in and Ref fees per game, but it was worth it. The next season, I recruited 4 kids from a team I used to play against in dead-ends and abandoned courts to play on our Woodhaven Team. These kids were all good and all play-makers. So when it came time to make lines, I said I’ll play with two of them as they didn’t know anyone else and we were going to have 2 top lines. Well, my childhood friends saw me as a traitor and couldn’t believe I didn’t want to be on their line anymore. So as payback, they put me on the 3rd line, which never started a game or on any Power Play lines. So we played and we lost in the Quarterfinals of the Playoffs. I left the team and joined with my old buddies who we faced in many asphalt battles when we were in grade school, as they were the new Tier III Champs. Of course, we play my former team one game and the moment I get on the floor, I hear “kill him!” This coming from my NEIGHBOR who lives two houses down from me! I happily scored 2 goals and an assist in a blowout win. I went to another team my Senior Year in High School, who were the reigning Tier IV Champs, as two of my neighborhood buddies went off to college and the old shitty neighborhood team collapsed. Somehow this team who were Champs month earlier, suddenly sucked. We didn’t even make the playoffs! That summer of High School graduation, the old neighborhood team got back together and we got killed that summer. Shockingly one of our FEW victories came against my buddies team that used to beat us previously years before. Ironically years later, my one childhood friend went back in his late 20’s and won a title! The building was torn down years later sadly.

I took my skills to Miami, ah, no wait Illinois and the College Intramural League. The first year, we couldn’t use our own sticks and had to use some fake plastic pieces of crap. They were awful. I played with kids on my dorm room floor. One kid, who was tall and fast, had this rumor attached to him... that he played 4 sports in High School. Well he did, but HE WAS ON THE BENCH IN EVERY SPORT! Because there was no off-side, he never played defense. This was a big problem. We lost to the eventual Champions who were called “The Charlestown Chiefs” and could’ve been the real team! They were goons and were hacks and cheap shot artists. Their leader was no lie a 400 pound guy who would stand in front of their net as a defenseman and block every shot for their goalie or just knock people down! Their ace in the hole was a kid who played with Eddie Olczyk on some under 21 Team USA Team. The kid was a superstar and had no business playing Intramural Hockey. They fed him and he scored and they hacked their way to the Title.

My second year, the school’s soccer players took over control of the Intramural League and put it on the main floor of the gym, which was rubber. So it was the size of a NCAA Basketball court and with 4 Basketball side courts – 2 on each side of the main court wide and add twenty yards behind each goal!!! It was massive. It was wider than an Olympic size rink. Those soccer kids ran us into the ground. My only highlight, the soccer kids were undefeated and already 6-0 and in a 2-2 game, I got the ball and went on a breakaway and scored with 50 seconds left to give them their only blemish for the season, as they coasted to win the league with a 10-0-1 record.

I got smart and join the soccer kids and won the Intramural Title my 3rd Year. Our last year, the Freshman and Sophomore soccer kids wanted our Title. They recruited some stud Outfielder from the baseball team to be their goalie and he was the difference. We also lost our star center to graduation. We face them in the Finals and we go to Overtime. Our idiot Captain with the option of Sudden Death or a 5 min--no sudden death period, takes the 5 min period! Of course we score in the opening minute, but had to play on and allowed two late goals to lose the Title to these upstarts. On a face-off in overtime, with a minute left tied 3-3. we won the face-off and it was passed to me and I took a slap shot that was headed to the upper right corner of the goal. The goalie, at the last second went from the left post to the right post and put up his glove and saved it. That was my final shot of my college career. I asked him afterwards “how did he ever see it?” He said he didn’t and just put his glove there as a reaction. I told him he was the difference maker. This was the last game I ever played in.

My only consolation was in the semi-final I scored 6 goals in 5 minutes of the first period before being pulled. I sat the rest of the first half and second half until a kid broke his stick. I came onto the floor and got a pass and cranked it for goal #7 ! The moment I scored, I hear from the bench “Catfish – OUT!” My 7 goals made the School’s Intramural Sports Letter the next week !

 

This league was called the Canadian Multi-Cultural Hockey leauge, they had to shut down, there was a crazy brawl between the russians and ukraines, crazy.

 

How is Frank Zamboni not in the hall of fame?

 

Natural hatrick for tuevo tonight.

 

The Hurricanes had a great 3rd period... Darling was good.

 

Frank Zamboni not in the Hall? Really ? That seems kind of odd.

 

Where would hockey be without the invention of the zamboni?

 

playing on shitty ice that's where !

 

Yeah, that and a million interuptions because of crews coming onto the ice with bins and shovels.

 

i hate that shit now. too many delays!

the worst was during the frigid Winter Classic in Philly - there was a small problem on the ice and every stoppage, they sent out a team to patch and fix it. this lead to prolonging the game. well it was freezing out. a 3 hr game took close to 4 hrs and i was shivering to death and couldn't feel my toes, which is the first sign of frostbite! during the OT i wanted someone to score so i could go home. i was dressed to the tilt and still freezing with all these delays and stoppages 4 hours later ! i slowly walked home in pain and dethawed in the tub for 2 hours!

 

Pittsburgh gets a late goal... after 20, 2-1, Buffalo.

 

Reinharts best game of the year.

 

Flyers still can't figure out how to beat Minnesota! Skunked 3-0!

 

Wings score an octopus tonight, 8-2.