Ice Dragons

Memorial City Tournament - March 2010

markus@code-magazine.com — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 4:56:31 GMT

Memorial City Tournament - March 2010

Memorial City is putting on a tournament from March 19th-21st (Friday through Sunday). The Ice Dragons are invited to participate if we can get a team together. (We may have to fill up with a few other skaters if need be).

The basic idea is this:

4 Teams in the competition
Each team gets 4 guaranteed games (1 on Friday, 2 on Saturday, and the finals as well as the game for the third place are held on Sunday)
A cool commemorative t-shirt (gotta have one of those!)
Food and drink is included. This includes professionally catered meals (catered by Berry Hill) as well as drinks (including alcohol served by bartenders).
There also is a very cool experience-thing going on that will make this quite a unique tournament, but I am sworn to secrecy! :-)
The rink charges the teams a team fee, but assuming a normal lineup with 15 or so players, the cost comes out to about $135 per player.

I think this is a unique and cool experience. The price is in line with other tournaments and as far as I can tell, the values offered are beyond what you get elsewhere. So this should be a pretty good deal and worth doing.

If you are interested in playing with the Ice Dragons in this tournament, send an email to Markus (Egger) at megger@eps-software.com

Posted @ 10:56 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Ice Dragons Goings On

markus@code-magazine.com — Sat, 6 Feb 2010 17:22:57 GMT

Ice Dragons Goings On

Lots of stuff is going on for the Dragons! For one, we have our playoff game tonight against the shooters. It’s our second chance after the debacle last weekend, so let’s put up a good fight as the underdogs and lets send the shooters home!

In addition to that, there are several other interesting things going on, some of which I need your feedback on! (See below for what I am looking for in reply). Here is the list of stuff happening:

We are ordering new jerseys. (Bill is handling this one). We will be using those jerseys for all leagues we play in, so if you do not have a light and dark Dragons jersey, this is probably a good time. :-)
A new season in Memorial City league is coming up soon as well, and we will of course continue playing in that league.
There is going to be a tournament in Memorial City. I am still waiting for more details. Should be around March 14^th or March 20^th. I will let you know once I get more detail, but I would like to know whether there is any interest on your end to get a team together? (I will be out of town myself, unfortunately).
I have committed for the Ice Dragons to play in the Sugarland league, which starts February 24^th and runs for 14 weeks. (more details below).
There are preliminary talks for the Ice Dragons to enter the HHS (Houston Hockey Series) which is a year-long league played at the Toyota Center either before or after the Aeros. I have attached the info the league gave out this year. Next year’s league will be slightly changed, but somewhat similar. I am trying to gage interest before I make the commitment to that.
There might be some opportunity to play a Dragons team in the Sunday night league at Memorial City. (A/B/C level I guess).
We are also still trying to get more ice time for practice. Ice time is always hard to get, so no permanent weekly slot has materialized yet, but there is a good chance we will get a practice slot at Memorial for a few weeks later this year again. We will keep pushing for a permanent slot though.
There also are some thoughts around turning the Dragons into more of a regular club with other benefits, such as discount on gear or tickets. It’s very early to talk about that though.
We now also have a new Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/IceDragons. We are using it to share a lot of stuff, so please go ahead and join it. (And we of course also still have this as our main page (http://www.IceDragons.info, in case you are reading this through an RSS Feed Catcher), which will probably have to grow with all this stuff going on!)

So lots of cool stuff going on, with the Ice Dragons moving from being yet another team at a single league to being a team that plays in various leagues. (Of course the actual teams in each league will be somewhat different, but hopefully there will be a number of overlapping players).

Call To Action

So what’s I’d need to know from you is whether or not you are interested in any of this. If not, that’s OK too, but I would like to know for planning. So please send me an email (markus@eps-software.com) and paste the following list with appropriate indications:

I want a Jersey/Jerseys: Yes/No
Next standard Memorial City Season: Yes/No
Memorial City Tournament: Yes/No
Sugarland League: Yes/No
Houston Hockey Series 2010/2011: Yes/No
Memorial City Sunday League: Yes/No
I would like to see a regular hour of ice time every week: Yes/No
I would like the Dragons to be a more formal club with other benefits: Yes/No

Note that this is preliminary, so if it turns out you change your mind later, I can live with that. But I need to do some planning. Thanks!

Sugarland Information

So here are the details on the Sugarland deal: The league plays at a B/C level, so *slightly* higher than the Memorial City league we are currently in. I have played in that league before and know that many people on other teams are the same as they are in our Memorial City league on Saturday. So we should fit in well, especially if we can find just a handful of better players. (The league had a few teams that were too good, but they are now gone).

The league is a 14 week league that plays every Wednesday starting February 24^th. (Exact schedule can be found on www.SugarlandIce.com). As the name suggests, the league plays at the Sugarland Ice Rink. It isn’t as nice as Memorial City, but it is still a pretty decent facility. (This is where the Aeros practice). If you are coming from up north, it takes about an extra 10 to 15 minutes to drive to the Sugarland rink at that time of day. (I come almost from the Woodlands myself, but when I played there in the past, the drive wasn’t as bad as I expected).

Cost is $250 a person. I (Markus) have to pay the team fee ($3600 I think) within the next week or so, so I will be collecting from players as of today, in the hopes to not get screwed :-). (Note: This league also alternatively collects directly from players, in which case they collect $270 each. So we are in fact $20 cheaper).

That’s about all there is to know there. Other than that, just show up and play :-).

Posted @ 11:22 AM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

July 4th Drop-In

markus@code-magazine.com — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:29:42 GMT

July 4th Drop-In

From Travis (the Memorial City Hockey Director):

So since there are no games this weekend and I know some of you still want to skate ISUSA will be having a 'C' level drop-in this Saturday at 8pm to 9:15pm. Cost will be $15 a player with goalies skating for free.

Please send this out to your teams and have them call up and reserve a spot. 713 463 9296

Posted @ 5:29 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Free Hockey Training Videos

markus@code-magazine.com — Tue, 2 Jun 2009 1:39:10 GMT

Free Hockey Training Videos

From Mike, here is a link to some free hockey training videos:

http://www.planethockey.com/content/487.html

Posted @ 8:39 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Space City Tournament - June 12th-14th

markus@code-magazine.com — Mon, 1 Jun 2009 21:55:7 GMT

Space City Tournament - June 12th-14th

Now is the time to signup for the Novice Hockey Tournament in Space City!

The Tournament is being held on June 12 - 14 with a 4-game guarantee.

For more details go to the website or contact Justin Popoff, SCIS Hockey Director at 281-486-7979. Email: hockey@spacecityice.com.

http://spacecityice.net/tournaments.html

Posted @ 4:55 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

A Quick Review of Some Rules

markus@code-magazine.com — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:24:44 GMT

A Quick Review of Some Rules

No game this weekend, so I decided to look up a few rules. After all, we played a kick-ass game last weekend against the all-time unbeaten Puck Heads (former "Bruins") and we almost came away with a victory. (I guess the 3:3 tie was not too bad, but a disappointment in the end since we were ahead up to just a few minutes before the end). And I think we all felt that once again - and this seems to be a common theme this season - lots of ref calls didn't go our way. I am not sure what happened and whether we did anything to piss of the referees, but just looking at the plain stats and how many penalties we have taken vs. how many the teams get we are playing, then it is pretty obvious, that something is going on. After all, none of the games we played so far I would consider "dirty" or unfair in any way where one would think a lot of penalties should go to one team and not the other. And that was certainly true for this last game too. Why that slash against my arm (which I can still feel today) was not called (arguably a 5 minute penalty as I would argue that I sustained an injury). The same is true for many other situations a well, where we can't be within 3 feet of a player and get penalties while we can get slashed, tripped, and cross-checked without any calls. Another issue that has been bugging me is that whenever we seem to be in front of the other goal, the play is whistled dead as soon as the puck gets near the goalie, while on our end, it always seems to take forever to get a whistle.

Also, there were a few specific situations last Saturday that I really wondered about and decided to do some research on. (Note: What makes matters worse is that both refs from last week's games are very capable refs. So it bugs me that they are not doing as good as job as they are capable of. After all, we are paying them to do good job!). Note that you can actually download the USA hockey rules in PDF format yourself. I also have the rules in my iPhone in case we ever need to look something up.

Here are my findings for those things:

Talking to the Referee

First of all, I took an extremely stupid penalty talking back to the ref. This was my first misconduct penalty ever, and it was a really stupid penalty to take. I am really sorry I did that. (Although I maintain that the actual call was extremely poor, as the ref was right in front of us and either must have seen it clearly, or really isn't fit to ref). In any event, I started to wonder what one can actually say to the referee either as a regular player or as a caption/ assistant captain. The results surprised me a little bit, as the rules are quite tough on the matter, and it seems that referees call them relatively lenient. Here is what the general rule is around talking back to the ref and criticizing calls:

Rule 601 - Abuse of Officials and Other Misconduct

(a) Any player who challenges or disputes the rulings of any Official or endeavors to incite an opponent (including taunting) or create a disturbance during the game shall be assessed a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. If the player persists in such challenge or dispute, he shall be assessed a misconduct penalty, and any further dispute by the same player will result in a game misconduct penalty being assessed.

So that is pretty tough and I guess we need to be really careful with talking back to the refs, no matter how frustrating the qualify of officiating may be. (And on a personal note: Compared to the officiating in some of the other leagues around town, I am really happy with the officiating at Memorial City).

I did wonder however, when the captains could talk to the referees. I couldn't find much conclusive about it, so I sent an inquiry to USA Hockey, and this is what I got back:

The captain(s) can consult with the official to ask for an interpretation at any time. However, they cannot question judgment or calls. It is also appropriate for the officials to address the captain for unusual situations such as multiple penalty situations, on-ice strength or penalty terminations that are not clear.

So that is good to know, I guess.

Falling on the Puck

This was the penalty shot situation we had that we all scratched our heads about. Basically, there was some pushing and shoving in front of our goal, and eventually I got pushed and (admittedly) decided to go down pretty easy and the puck got covered up. The ref called a penalty shot, which he said was an "automatic" in a situation where a player falls on the puck in the crease. I guess the puck probably was in the crease, although it moved in and out the side of the crease and I think the situation should at least be called "up to a judgement call". Besides, with everything going on in front of the goal, there was no way they could have seen the puck during the entire situation, and the play should have been whistled dead long before (especially considering how they call these situations on the other end). But let's focus on the situation at hand and see what the rule book says:

Rule 612 - Falling on Puck

(c) No defending player, except the goalkeeper, shall be permitted to fall on the puck or hold the puck or gather the puck into the body or hands when the puck is within the goal crease.

For an infringement of this rule, play shall immediately be stopped and a penalty shot/optional minor shall be awarded to the nonoffending team. However, if the goalkeeper has been removed from the ice when the infraction occurs, a goal shall be awarded to the nonoffending team and no penalty shot shall be awarded, if the action of the offending player prevents an obvious and imminent goal.

(Note) This rule shall be interpreted so that a penalty shot/optional minor will be awarded only when the puck is in the crease at the instant the infraction occurs. However, in cases where the puck is outside the crease, Rule 612(a) may still apply and a minor penalty may be imposed, even though no penalty shot is awarded.

So this fundamentally supports the call (although it is not an "automatic" but a judgement call instead). However, there are some additional aspects here that are not really covered by this rule since I didn't just blatantly jump on the puck but was pushed. So I asked USA Hockey for clarification on what the situation is when a player gets pushed down. Also, I asked for clarification on the exact situation of the puck. For instance, what happens if you actually grab the puck and push it under the goalie. Here is what USA Hockey says:

If the player intentionally falls on the puck, gathers it into his body or closes his hand on the puck, then that is definitely a penalty regardless as to where it occurs - if in the crease the penalty shot applies. If he is in the crease and pushes or hand passes the puck to the goalkeeper, who then actually covers the puck and causes the stoppage, that is a legal play and no penalty is assessed. The tricky one is when he is knocked down on the puck by the opponent. In the instance where the puck is in the crease, the player does still have an obligation to work the puck loose and not cause a stoppage of play and failure to do so would still result in a penalty shot. However, in that instance you may give him an extra second or so to do so prior to stopping play in order to give him every opportunity to avoid the stoppage. In the other instances, the whistle would be blown to stop play as it is in any other circumstance when the goalkeeper is freezing the puck.

So I guess the call is fundamentally right (asides from the fact that the play should have been whistled down a lot earlier as the refs lost track of the puck). However, for the future, we need to keep in mind that we can grab the puck and push it under the goalie with your hands (don't pick it up though!) and it is considered a hand pass to the goalie, which is legal in your own defensive zone. (Although I guess one could argue over whether this happened Saturday, and if not, how would the ref know?).

I maintain that this was not a great call overall, especially considering how long it took them to blow the whistle.

Shooting the Puck Away

There was another interesting situation in the late game after us, which I played as well. During a running clock situation, the goalie held the puck and the play was whistled dead. This happened in the later parts of the game, so it was running clock. All the players lined up for the faceoff, but the ref hadn't retrieved the puck yet. At that point, the goalie came out of his goal and tried to shoot the puck away. He didn't succeed at first, so he ran out a little further and shot the puck all the way to the other end. The obvious intention being to run the clock down. The refs didn't assess any penalty of any kind. I thought a delay of game penalty should have been called. Here is what USA Hockey had to say about that:

Definitely a delay of game penalty would be appropriate. I would also say that if the goalkeeper obviously did it to knock the puck away from the official, a misconduct penalty in addition to the minor would be added on. In a non-running clock situation, the misconduct only would be the correct call.

So it should have been a 4 minute penalty. A double-awful call by the refs, who just really didn't have a good night. They told us "we told him not to do it again". WTF?!? Can you imagine a tripping situation where instead of getting a penalty the ref tells the player not to do it again?!? I fail to see why this situation was any different. I guess they just wanted to go home...

Posted @ 4:24 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Practive Anyone?

markus@code-magazine.com — Mon, 4 May 2009 15:56:43 GMT

Practive Anyone?

We have an opportunity to pick up some ice time from for 7 weeks beginning in a few weeks on Tuesday nights from 7:30 to 8:30 pm. The cost is $300 per hour for the ice or $2,100 for the entire 7 weeks. If everyone were to sign up, it would be about $115 each or about $16.50 per practice.

Please let me know if you would be willing to participate!

Posted @ 10:56 AM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Scott's Turning 50!

markus@code-magazine.com — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 3:17:29 GMT

Scott's Turning 50!

Our long time Ice Dragon Scotty Jasmer is turning 50! Can you believe it? Please see the attached invitation and join us as we celebrate his 50th birthday. Plan the date:

Sunday May 3, 2009
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

9819 Mossy Tree Lane
Houston, Tx

Contact his wife Renette at 281-970-6773 with regrets only.

Here is a map link:
http://maps.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTExNmIycG51BF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEc2VjA2ZwLWJ1dHRvbgRzbGsDbGluaw--#mvt=m&lat=29.913444&lon=-95.558654&zoom=13&q1=9819%2520Mossy%2520Tree%2520Lane%2520Houston%252C%2520Tx

See you at the party!

Posted @ 10:17 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Spring Season 2009 Starts

markus@code-magazine.com — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:0:11 GMT

Spring Season 2009 Starts

Hey Dragons! Spring Season 2009 is about to start this weekend, and I think we got a great team together. It should def. be our goal this season to win it all.

For that, we should try to get the season off the ground with a few solid games. Our first 4 games this season (before we have our first by-week) are against the bottom half of last season's standings (Vipers, Gunners, Enforcers, Shooters). So our goal has to be to put together a 4-game winning streak! I think it is very doable!

Talking about streaks: We didn't quite manage to put together the streak we needed during the play-offs, but it was pretty darn close and we played some great games in the last 2 months. If we can keep that up, we should be the team to beat!

Posted @ 1:00 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Basic Breakout Options...

markus@code-magazine.com — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 4:7:29 GMT

Basic Breakout Options...

These are two clips Raul dug up that explain some basic breakout options that should help us to get out of our own zone a bit better (and judging by our last game, we need it!):

The first one is a moving chalk board:

This second one is an actual clip:

Hope this helps! I'll see you all Saturday!

Posted @ 10:07 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Adult Developmental Summer Hockey Clinic - Memorial City

markus@code-magazine.com — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 15:38:49 GMT

Adult Developmental Summer Hockey Clinic - Memorial City

This summer, there will be a hockey clinic at the Memorial City rink. It is an hour each, 6 weeks in a row, on Monday nights. Here is the information from Travis Adams:

June 30 (8:30pm - 9:30pm)
July 7 (7pm - 8pm)
July 14 (8:30pm - 9:30pm)
July 21 (8:30pm - 9:30pm)
July 28 (8:30pm - 9:30pm)
August 4 (8:30pm - 9:30pm)

The clinic focusses on:

Skill Development
Skating
Stick Handling
Positioning
Shooting
Game Development

Clinic cost is $125 with a maximum of 30 players. Please sign up with Travis Adams to reserve a spot. (Travis has a signup form for you as well) Payment for clinic will be due on or before June 30^th. Sign up begins June 2^nd through June 30^th.

Contact:
Travis Adams
Hockey Director ISUSA
713-463-9296
hockey.director@skatememorialcity.com

Posted @ 10:38 AM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

USA Hockey Adult Skills Clinic

markus@code-magazine.com — Tue, 3 Jun 2008 22:6:8 GMT

USA Hockey Adult Skills Clinic

From USA Hockey:

Attention Adult Hockey Players,

USA Hockey is pleased to announce an Adult Skills Clinic to be held at the Aerodrome-Willowbrook Arena in Houston, TX July 25th – 27th, 2008. This clinic is designed for men and women that are beginner to novice level players who want to improve the basic hockey skills of passing, shooting and skating.

The clinic will include eight hours of on ice instruction beginning Friday evening and ending at approximately Noon on Sunday. The entry fee is $300 and the entry deadline is Friday July 11th.

For more clinic details please visit http://usahockey.com/adult or contact me here at our National Office at 800-566-3288 ext. 174 or mailto:scotta@usahockey.org.

You are never too old to improve your hockey skills!

Scott Aldrich
Adult Department
USA Hockey

Posted @ 5:06 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

A Good Season Opener...

markus@code-magazine.com — Sun, 1 Jun 2008 21:44:32 GMT

A Good Season Opener...

We played our first game this season. It was against the Shooters, the successors to the Thunders, who have been broken up (now there is a 7th team in the league called the Bruins). The Shooters don't have all the people from the Thunders, so they are a bit weaker in that respect (and they have a brand new goalie who played his first game ever last night). However, they managed to pick up 2 players from the Hornets (my Sunday night team) as well as Tom from the Vipers. So they were quite a bit stronger than we had anticipated.

We also lost a few people from last season, but on the other hand, we also picked up a bunch of new guys (welcome, btw!) and we have a few former Dragons back. So we might actually be a stronger team this season than we ever were. (Note: There is a new rule in the league where Travis - the Hockey Director - can cap a player to 1 goal per game for several games or the entire season at his discretion. Chris is the first victim of that rule, it seems).

The game itself was a bit chaotic. It took as a while to get organized, and we never played our best in terms of passing and speed. Nevertheless, we managed to get up ahead. To my surprise however, the Shooters fought back and managed a 3:3 tie after the first period. The second period started out pretty slow and it was a stalemate for quite some time, but towards the end of the second period, we managed to score 2 more goals to put us up 5:3. The final period was reasonably fun to play, but we couldn't do more than a 2:2 tie for that period, making the final score 7:5 for us.

So it was a reasonably good season opener. We didn't pass as well as we can and we didn't run as fast as we are capable of either. But then on the other hand, we had a lot of new players who had never played together. So I think we will take it as a nice victory, but we also know the team has a lot more potential. Probably our biggest weakness is shooting. We had this problem towards the end of the last season, and it showed again in this game. We really have a hard time scoring and need a lot more chances than we should. Maybe we can improve on that somehow. (Considering the weak goalie the Shooters had this week, I would have expected several more goals on our end).

BTW: Rob (the ref) said this was by far the fastest game all night. One of the other teams didn't play (each team now has a by-week every so often, since we have an odd number of teams... on the upside, having more teams lowers the price for everyone), but I think this still gives us a pretty good idea that we are the team to beat this season.

Unfortunately, Horsley (Steve) has to sit this season out due to injury. That's a bummer, but he is still coming out to games to do some coordination and coaching. That was very helpful last night. I believe if we can coordinate ourselves well, we can get a pretty good extra advantage over the other teams! So let's keep doing this as often as Steve can come out...

Let's get the title back this season guys! We only came up a tad short last season!!!

Posted @ 4:44 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Different Kind of Ice Dragon

markus@code-magazine.com — Mon, 19 May 2008 6:9:44 GMT

Different Kind of Ice Dragon

How about this for a new team mascot:

Posted @ 1:09 AM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Going to the Hockey Hall of Fame...

markus@code-magazine.com — Thu, 15 May 2008 4:1:7 GMT

Going to the Hockey Hall of Fame...

...just to visit it, of course. Here is a re-post from my personal Travel Blog:
-------------------------------------------

Since I am in Toronto this week, I took advantage of the opportunity and visited the Hockey Hall of Fame! :-)

This was actually much cooler than I expected. At first, I wasn't even sure whether I wanted to go. To be honest, I only decided to go because Ellen had suggested it, and I thought "well... it will give me something to blog about". And now I am really glad I went. It was well worth seeing. I even found the building cool, which says "Temple du Hockey" on the outside:

Inside, you can see a whole bunch of stuff. Anything from display cases dedicated to individual "hall-of-famers" (like the one for Wayne Gretzky below) to just cool gear, videos, and even an area where you can shoot the puck or try your luck as a goalie.

Even my home country of Austria has a small appearance there, but only in the form of a few jerseys:

Well, maybe Thomas Vanek (Buffalo Sabres, and former "Zeller Eisbaeren" player... the club where I played as a kid) will be a hall-of-famer one day.

Anyway: The coolest display is the Stanley Cup. This is the closest I will ever get to it, unless the Ice Dragons go on a heck of a winning streak:

It was quite impressive in a way to see this thing up close. I actually didn't realize that the cup looked different before, with quite a few of its pieces cut off and put on a wall. I guess that makes sense considering that they have been doing this for over 100 years now. (Every winning player's name gets engraved on the cup, so they keep running out of room).

Of course they also have a gift-shop there. I considered buying a jersey or two, but holy-moly! Anywhere between $130 and $200 for a stupid jersey?!? They gotta be kidding. And that isn't even with a number or personalized or anything! (So I ended up going on NHL.com later, buying a personalized jersey with my name and number, which I can wear at some of my hobby games...for less than $100).

Anyway: This was a cool experience. If you are a hockey fan, I recommend you check this out if you ever have the chance...

Posted @ 11:01 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Great Season

markus@code-magazine.com — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:29:52 GMT

Great Season

OK, that's it! The season came to an end last night with a referee-less scrimmage. Earlier last night, the North Stars defeated the Gunners 2:1 in overtime for the championship! Gunners lead up until a few minutes before the end. Then, the North Stars managed to tie it up and ended up winning in overtime. Pretty cool.

I think we had a pretty awesome season. We came out well ahead as #1 after the regular season. We took a tough loss against the Gunners in the semifinals. Really, we only came up 1 goal short for the whole season. Bummer! I think we finished #3 as far as the playoffs are concerned. I expected we'd have a real game against the Thunders for third place, but that didn't happen, so I am assuming that we are #3 as the highest ranking eliminated team after the regular season.

The scrimmage last night was good too. We had a few people play with us that hadn't played with us before, and we played an awesome game. Probably the best we ever played. Great passing, great control. We completely dominated the Vipers in this scrimmage. They hardly ever made it past the red line. At some point Zach sat in the goal with his gloves off waiting for something to happen. I was concerned he might get hemorrhoids before the night was over. (No, I haven't heard any more details about that one way or another, and I don't want to :-) ). I think if we always played the way we played last night, we would even be competitive in the Sunday league. It looked a bit like an A team playing a D team.

Anyway: We have a break now. The next season starts up on June 7th, since there is Memorial Day in between and a bunch of other stuff going on apparently. We will make more details available as soon as we get them...

Posted @ 3:29 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Game Over

markus@code-magazine.com — Fri, 9 May 2008 17:53:21 GMT

Game Over

Well, that's it! Eliminated in the semifinals. I am really disappointed, but in some ways, it wasn't all that surprising. We have been having trouble with lower-ranked teams all season. Not sure what it is, but we can't seem to get our game together when we think the team isn't all that strong. We didn't play horrible, but it sure wasn't a good game. The Gunners on the other hand played pretty good for their standards and deserved to move on. The game was still very close. We had tons of shots in the general direction of the goal, but we were off target too much.

There was an upset in the other semifinals game too. The North Stars beat the Thunders. I would have bet against that too. The Thunders told me they had been looking forward to playing us in the finals, and now we are both out. Oh, the irony! What really surprises me is that we do not play Thunders this weekend. I would have assumed that there is a consolation game for third place, but instead, it looks like there are only scrimmages. Well, I will still go. Should be a fun skate...

Posted @ 12:53 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Top Ten Hockey Bloopers

markus@code-magazine.com — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:48:58 GMT

Top Ten Hockey Bloopers

Enjoy: http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=tX5hQeD71ns&feature=related

OK, here is one more: http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=gdKI4Fg2hVA&feature=related

Oh, alright, one final one: http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=XPWNivV1BKs&feature=related

Posted @ 10:48 AM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

The game against the Gunners was more interesting than expected

markus@code-magazine.com — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:2:53 GMT

The game against the Gunners was more interesting than expected

For some reason, we always seem to have a harder time playing against weaker teams. This last game against the Gunners was more interesting than expected. We pulled through in the end with a 5:2 victory, but it sure was much closer than it should have been. We didn't play as fast as usual. We didn't pass all that well either. And we just didn't want the puck enough for some reason. Shame on us. But in the end, it made for a fun game and we came away with 2 points. This means we are still maintaining a 3 point lead with 2 games to go in the regular season.

Note: We spent 8 or 10 minutes of the first period in the penalty box. Rob (the ref) had an "interesting" day. On one of the penalties we got, we weren't even within 6 feet of the other player. But that is how it goes sometimes, i guess. As always, when playing against the girls: They are getting away with just about anything, and the other team is hardly allowed on the ice. That's the name of the game, and we all know it, so let's keep that in mind the next time we play them. (Not sure how to avoid some of the penalties though, to be perfectly honest...).

Next up: The North Stars again. We beat them 8:1 in the last game, so they will be pissed and want revenge. So this is going to be a tough game I believe. We need to play hard and fast, and win battles at the boards and in the corners. And lets put shots on goal!

If we win this game, we have won the regular season, so lets wrap this one up!!!

Posted @ 3:02 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)

Kicked the South-Bound End of the North-Bound Stars

markus@code-magazine.com — Tue, 1 Apr 2008 20:45:0 GMT

Kicked the South-Bound End of the North-Bound Stars

Great game last weekend, guys!

8:1 against the second place team (well, they were at the time). We leveled them! :-)

This game was a good example of what happens when a team gets ahead by 2 or 3 goals. It totally changes the dynamic of a game, with the team being down having to play much more offensively. We have been on the receiving end of that too, where we got leveled by teams we thought we had a good shot against. This is something to keep in mind for future games. Get ahead early and you are in full control! (Surprise, surprise... :-)... but still... a lot of people don't think about it like this and start out too slowly...).

Of course now they are in third place and the Thunders moved up to second place, 3 points behind us. 3 games to go in the regular season. So we are in pretty decent shape, but let's not get complacent.

Next game is against the Gunners. They have fallen to 5th place after starting out strong, but they are still in the mid-field bulk it seems. So let's take this game serious. (Also, my parents are here from Austria and are likely to watch the game, so don't embarrass me!!! :-)).

Posted @ 3:45 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)