97 Cleveland Jr. Lumberjacks

                         Sometimes it helps to see the finished product and compare it to the current state of things in order to see where the improvement and changes need to happen to get better.  In business, they call this a gap analysis or bench-marking.  At home, when I try to apply this to our household affairs, my wife and kids call this being a critical !@@#$$%$$#.  The Columbus Capitals served as the yardstick to measure the upstart 97 LumberJacks’ progress toward becoming an elite AAA team.  The result, the Jacks are better than anyone expected at the start of the season (19-7 with a tournament win and 2 semi-final appearances) and proved that when they skate hard AND as a team they can hang with the best the state of Ohio has to offer but there is still a long way to go to reach the elite club level.

                        The visiting Capitals started the 2-game scrimmage in impressive fashion, dominating the Jacks in every aspect – speed, puck handling, positioning, passing, defense and surprisingly -  intensity.  The LumberJacks looked overmatched and out-gunned as the Capitals surged to a 5-0 lead midway through the second period.  Inexplicably, the Jacks reverted to “mite” one on 3 breakaway tactics with minimal passing, low percentage shots and sluggish skating (take away the skates and paint their helmets gold and you would have had a dead wringer for Notre Lame Football  - as an alum Mad Dog is a little bitter).  By contrast, the Capitals, lead by Czech phenom Jack Roslovic (#98)’s 3 goals, put on a clinic that could have been entitled: “How To Play Team Hockey  -- Passing and Positioning With Power and Passion.”  But then Coach Menges called a strategic time out to put his players in a time out to ensure that they were paying attention to the lessons being taught.

                        Lessons Learned.  After the time out, the  lethargic LumberJacks found a pulse and began to play for pride.   Kreuger, Weemhoff and Van Bokkelen tallied unanswered goals to close the gap to 5-3 while the defense stiffened, holding the Capitals scoreless for over 10 minutes.  This stretch of play was by itself a moral victory for the Jacks but as General Patton used to say, “Moral Victories are for Sissies!”  The Jacks agreed and after a cheap Columbus goal with 3 seconds left in the second period, they entered the third period with a renewed sense of urgency and ferocity, focused on victory.  Hello Houston?  -- I think we have liftoff!

                        The reeling Columbus team was temporarily settled by Roslovic’s 4^th goal of the day, restoring a seemingly insurmountable 4-goal lead.  Before the Columbus faithful could exhale their sigh of relief, however, the Jacks again ran off three unanswered goals by Yarko, J-Meister and Krash to close the gap to 7-6 with a full six minutes remaining in the game.  Vicious back-checking kept the puck in the hands of the Junior Jacks as they fired shot after shot after shot at the Columbus Goalie.  Give credit where credit is due however and the goalie was up to the challenge using all his skills to block, deflect  and kick every potentially game tying shot away.   In the end, although the LumberJacks fell one goal short,  they took three giant steps toward becoming a great team --- Let’s review  --  (1) one-on-one  --- doesn’t  get it done; (2) Speed + Intensity = Strength;  (3)  The arms and legs are the wheels --- but the heart is the engine and desire is the fuel!

                        Unfortunately, repetition is often the only way to learn valuable lessons. The afternoon session was another instructive seminar in how to play team hockey.  Columbus was refocused and prepared to play from the opening face-off.  For the first two periods, despite a lot of effort, the LumberJacks’ tank appeared empty as, just like in the morning, they dug a deep 5 goal deficit before the end of two periods.  Two amazing comebacks in the span of 4 hours was a lot to ask however, as the LumberJacks could not find the magic dust or the net for that matter to make a miracle happen.  To their credit, the Junior Jacks skated hard and earned a 0-0 tie for the last 20 minutes of the game.  Columbus left town with two wins and some new found respect for the LumberJacks who demonstrated that they can play with anyone when they are focused.  Me thinks a rematch at the end of the season might be graduation day for the young LumberJacks.

                        On Sunday, the LumberJacks slowed things down a bit and got back on the winning track with two easy victories over the outgunned Cincinnati Cyclones.  Like an expensive private school, the Coach to Player ratio was nearing 1 to 1, as the Jacks had barely enough kids to fill two full lines of skaters.  The finely conditioned Jacks (must be the Skittles’ pancakes) did not miss a beat however, and showed no mercy in the morning session with a 10-1 victory.  The score sheet looked like the Jacks’ telephone directory with all 11 LumberJacks that were present (except the Terminator of course) tallying at least one point.  In the afternoon session, an even thinner Jacks’ bench survived the final contest in the weekend hockey marathon with a 3-1 win in a game that was not as close as the score would indicate.

                        All in all, a lot of valuable lessons learned in a full weekend of hockey.  I wonder if the lessons will translate well north of the border this weekend.  I know our young hockey scholars are studying hard for the next exam.  See you at the next chalk talk!!!!

Mr. Mad Dog   

                        The newcomer 97 LumberJacks’ inaugural season road show continued to surprise and impress their competition.  The Jacks raised their Empire West League record to 3-0 with a dominating 10-1 win over the host Buffalo Regals on Sunday, October 21.  This followed a non-league 6-0 victory over the same Regals the night before.  Even a short bench (averaging 4’4.25” – including Coaches not to mention being down 3 players) did not stop the Jacks from dethroning the Regals and spreading their reputation in Western NY.

                        In the first contest, both teams started very slowly probably due to the dimly lit 1940’s style rink built when they had to haul the ice by hand from the ice-house down the street.    Buffalo native Rob Krueger took a stroll down memory lane, “When I was a kid, I remember hitching up my knickers and hiking 5 miles in the dead of winter at 5am before school to the ice house to load 300-pound blocks of ice onto the horseless carriage.”  Yeah Rob, and by the looks of it, you probably played goalie in the days before they had masks.

                        At 11:37 of the 1^st period, M-1 broke the scoring ice with his trademark flying left-handed wrist shot from penalty box range off a nice breakout feed from the Comet.  The J-Meister followed with a top shelf chip shot over the stunned goalie’s glove off a sweeeeet feed from Tommy Hook Harrison who was flying up the left boards.  End of 1  -- 2-0.  The Jacks looked lethargic in the second period and although they had several scoring opportunities, they failed to convert.  Fortunately, the D smothered the Regals and permitted a paltry 4 shots on goal in the second period.

                        The flood gates finally opened in the 3^rd period and the 3,233 Kreuger family relatives witnessed real Lumberjacks’ hockey.  Krash dazzled the relatives with a coast to coast dinger at 12:37 of the 3^rd.  The Fat Lady began warming up the wind pipes a few minutes later when Blades Yonel took a back door feed from the Orr Man to put the Jacks up 4-0 and the contest out of reach, even for royalty.  With 2:49 remaining the Fat Lady burst into full warble when the J-Meister bagged his second goal of the  night.  Javorsky put the finishing touches on a 6-0 victory with 1 second remaining on an end to end breakaway.  In what is becoming the norm, the Terminator quietly had another solid night in net that resulted in a shut out.  As the famous Yogi Berra once said,  “No matter what, a win is a win is a win, it’s better than a loss because in a loss you lose.”  Got it.

                        After feasting on world famous wings Saturday night, the Jacks got down to business on Sunday for the league game.  This one was never in doubt as the Jacks raced to a 5-0 lead by the end of 1.  M-1 Yarcusko took a page from the old man’s St. Ed’s yearbook and had a monster game  -- 4 goals and 1 assist in all.  Said M-1,  “All my Dad talks about is the “Glory Days”  --  blah, blah, blah  … what’s with these parents . . .  sometimes you just have to remind them their old school!  School’s Out!”

                        The Hook Harrison joined the Yarco party with a nasty wrist shot off the post from the point with the velocity of a Josh Beckett fastball.  Top Gun Van Bokkelen got in on the feast early and displayed the results of the intense off-ice conditioning program implemented earlier this year by the Admiral.  Van Bokkelen crossed three time zones going end to end on an unassisted breakaway culminating with a deke left-right-left move that had the Regals’ goaltender collecting various pieces of his protective hockey equipment from around the net.  The second period was more of the same as the names of Weemoff, Van Bokkelen and Krueger  plastered the scoresheet with goals and assists.  At the end of the second period the score was a lop-sided 7-1.

                        Not to be left out, Tommy Pinball Bradshaw got on the board in the third with a nice rebound wrist shot that found the top right corner of the net off a J-Meister feed.  Casper quickly followed with an unassisted goal of his own and fittingly, Yarco capped the scoring on his day with the final tally of the contest.  Final score 10-1. 

                        Kids these days  ---  Like homework involving the “new math”, parents may not “get it” and simply may not be able to help the kids with this new school of hockey!  Take note – the Glory Days may be NOW!

Mad “Dunce” Dog

            “If you don’t skate hard today, you better bring a bucket to tomorrow night’s practice!!!”    -  Cleveland Lumberjacks Coaching Staff

                        Finding the right words to motivate (let alone focus) a group of 9 and 10-year olds at 7am on a Sunday morning can be a subtle, complex task.  It requires a lot of thought, strategy and planning.  I mean you have a lot of issues to deal with that early in the morning -- did everyone remember all their equipment, does anyone know how to tie their own skates yet, has everyone had breakfast and gone to the bathroom, etc..  Last Fall, as my journalism career was drifting into the Bermuda Triangle for youth hockey team reporters, also known as the CSHL Message Board, I took charge and ordered the latest Tony Robins “Master Of Your Domain” motivational tapes for 11 easy installments of $99.99 plus shipping and handling. By the way, I got a free set of Ginsu steak knives for being one of the first  500,000 callers.  After faithfully listening to all 37 tapes every night for two months while I slept, I learned that motivation is really just a simple 3 step process: (1) Identify a “concrete” desired mental state or goal; (2) Get buy-in from your target audience; and (3) Communicate a simple, clear, visual message that the audience understands.   As I reviewed the transcript of the coaches’ pre-game talk, I thought WOW!, I could have saved a lot of money and gotten group discount had I known that the Lumberjack’s coaching staff bought the same tapes.

                        In any event, the Junior Jacks got the message and delivered an unpaid  testimonial to the Robins’ Motivational method and fought for 2 victories over the tough and talented Hershey Bears.  With both wins, the Lumberjacks raised their season record to 15-5 and a solid 2-0 start against Empire West Hockey League opponents.  The victories were not easy however, as the surly Bears’ and their kids let it be known early that the games were not going to be a trip to the zoo.

                        The first 10 minutes of the morning match was hard-nosed, steel-town hockey with lots of physical play.  Despite the size advantage of the Hershey Bears, the Jacks came out fired up and loaded for Bear and matched Hershey’s speed and intensity.  At 4:16 in the First Period, expert hunter, Mad Czech “Elmer Fudd” Mazanec, set a Bear Trap behind the Bears’ net by letting the Bears defenseman think he had won control of the puck and then, as the Bear started his breakout, Elmer snuck up behind, stole the puck and triggered a top shelf wrist shot for the game’s first goal.  Mazanec commented,  “HaaaaHaaaaHHaaaa, I got that wascal wabbit, I mean bear!”  Elmer carved his second notch on his ACME weapon with 46 seconds left in the period courtesy of a B- E- A – UTIFUL feed from Kevin M-1 Yarcusko and the Hook Harrison. End of 1  --  Jacks - 2 and Bears – 0.

                        The bears were not ready to go into hibernation just yet and in the second period to the delight of the vociferous Hershey parents, Donovan Ott slipped behind the Jacks’ defense and chipped in an unassisted goal to make the score 2-1.  Less than a minute later, the J-Meister got some bear meat of his own on a nifty slap shot from point blank range off a picture perfect feed from Elmer and the Orr Man.  The back and forth continued with these evenly matched teams as Hershey temporarily evened the score at 2-2.  Relentless backchecking by PinBall Bradshaw, Krash Kreuger and Top Gun Van Bokkelen created scoring opportunities for this Jumping Jacks line.  Twice this trio converted the opportunities into scores to give the LumberJacks a 5-2 lead heading into the third period.  That was the final score as a tense, well played third period resulted in a lot of action but no goals.  The Jacks’ fan faithful exhaled a sigh of relief at the end of this one and headed for the exits to catch their collective breath before the afternoon face-off.

                        At the start of the afternoon contest, it seemed as if the Lumberjacks had an amnesia attack and forgot the mornings’ Motivational Talk.  Hershey came out of the gate fast and posted three quick goals to take a 3-0 lead as the Lumberjacks looked like a bunch of salmon swimming upstream waiting to be picked off one at a time by wading the Bears.   The crafty veteran coach Bill Menges call a timely time out and “gently” reminded his team of the morning promise.  A wide-eyed group of Junior Jacks lead by Krash and the J-Meister returned to the ice and notched 2 quick goals inside of a minute to keep the game from getting out of hand.   The Bears would not leave the camp site however and added a late second period goal to take a commanding 4-2 lead into the final period.

                        That was it for the Bears however as the Jacks sent Yogi and BooBoo back to the land of chocolate with a dominating third period performance.  With the game on the line, the Jacks played perhaps their best period of the year against a very tough opponent and scored 3 goals  while the defensive units of Menges, Harrison, Johnson and Javorsky smothered the advancing dancing bears limiting their shots on goal to three and shutting the Bears out in the crucial final period.  As customary these days, Mr. Terminator played excellently in net all day long, displaying a variety of skills – kick saves, glove saves, stick deflections, etc., etc., etc,   and on and on.  Stay healthy dude – we need you!  Speaking of health, to a standing ovation, one of the team’s spiritual leaders and offensive geniuses, Marcus Treppo, returned to action after career-threatening microfracture surgery to repair an injured funny bone (you know – the one connected to the ham bone) for a brief 25 second shift to kick-start the third period into high gear.  Welcome back!!

                        The Bears headed back to their den and the Jacks can leave their buckets in the closet for now.  Anyone interested in purchasing some slightly used motivational tapes for the incredibly low price of six installments of $59.95? 

Mad “Still Master of My Domain” Dog