Updates

Hey, boys - a couple of important updates - mark 'em in your calendars:

1. Ringers Summer Season: Final regular season game next week at 7:30pm against O'Dwyers. Family night. Pilkington will be bringing the beer. Sean, you'll have to pretend you're someone else next week.
2. Summer Season Playoffs: No, we can't win it all, but we can still save our dignity. Playoff schedule is out, but final positions won't be set until the dust has settled. Since we'll likely be in the 7th or 8th place, we'll be playing after 9pm on Aug 22 and Aug 29.
3. Next Season - B/C League will be alternating on Tuesdays AND Thursdays, and first game starts September 5 - we'll need to have final confirmations for our roster no later than Monday, August 22!!!
   
4. Labatt's Tourney - September 22-24. Cost per player will likely be in the $65 range for at least 3 good games, beer, and a hat. As soon as you check in with your head offices, SEND ME AN EMAIL to confirm - please include your date of birth and level of play you've been to in the past (high school, rec only, NHL, whatever...)
5. USA Hockey Registration - To play next season and/or the tourney, you'll need to register for 2006-07 to play. (Everyone's current USA Hockey registration ends August 31.) You can sign up any time before you play, but you'll need to print out the confirmation page and bring it before the first game. I just signed up - took about 2 minutes, $38. Go here to register.
6. Shooting Clinic at the Sportsplex - Mark "Hammer" Hamlett is now running the Triangle Sportsplex in Hillsborough (just beyond Chapel Hill). Bit of a drive, but a great facility. Of note, they'll be hosting a shooting clinic by Players Edge on August 28 and the 29th from 7:15pm – 8:45pm. Check out more about this "On Net" Shooting Clinic by clicking here. All ages welcome, $95 for players, $60 for goalies.
   
   

That's all for now, kids!!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

The seven Canadians on our team can relate to the fact that we all feel a calling to return to the old country each summer. Maybe it's to visit with relatives or maybe it's to reacquaint ourselves to Tim Hortons, butter tarts, and real beer. Or maybe it's a mandatory debriefing with the RCMP on what we've learned about Americans in preparation for our eventual invasion. Er, ... liberation.

On our way to the beautiful Bruce Peninsula, The Fam and I decided to visit the Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) in downtown Toronto. It was gratifying to see all the Hurricanes gear and an actual Stanley Cup display case featuring lots of details about our beloved 2005-6 team.
It felt so overwhelming that when my youngest spilled his Dr. Pepper on the floor, I insisted that my wife clean it up at once, so as not to sully this hallowed hall.

All was not glory and grace, however. It was my sad duty to debunk what I suppose now was a family myth - that my great Uncle Les' name was on the cup. I was told that he played on the Red Wings team one of the 2 times they won it in the late 30's. Searching HockeyDB, I only found Les Tooke playing for the '38-9 Hershey Cubs. Convinced that the hardware would prove otherwise, I eagerly scanned all of the retired rings...but found nada. Nothing. Nyet. Bupkiss.

My whole Canadian hockey heritage gone up in smoke - like my skills would magically reconnect with the dormant hockey genes deep within... But all is not lost - my grandfather (Bert Tooke) played a couple of seasons with professional teams until a skate sliced his knee and prevented him from continuing.

Our trip to Canada was beset by waiting, delays, and obstacles, and even resulted in a missed-plane layover in Buffalo (me having nothing to wear but a Brind' Amour T-shirt). Got up at 4:30a this morning, but determined to play tonight. And as if the Hockey Gods wanted to punctuate my disappointment a little further, I managed to ruin our chances to beat the league-leading Eye Care Center by centering a pass right to an opponent's tape, which he promptly delivered to the back of our goal. Final score: Ringers 3; Eye Care Center 5.

Maybe a trip to Tim Horton's would make me feel better...

Ringers Add New Vocabulary to Dictionary

Top Six new words added to the American Dictionary:Counting down in order
6.Robert Yamagucci-(meaning- Robert Todds diving head first slide at a slap shot on goal with a half sheild: it also derives from his smooth transition of skating forwards to backwards equaling the turns of the famous Christy Yamagucci
5. Snyder-(meaning- vomiting in the garbage can at the start of the third period. Great for team moral.Used in sentences like you pulled a Snyder.
4.TooKed-(meaning-breaking your stick in the deep offensive zone then skating the full length of the ice expecting your team to throw you a stick to return to your short handed team but instead the stick was handed to Richard and used to pull him off the ice after a 4 minute shift. used in sentences like you got Tooked.
3.Chowder-(meaning- we all know this one. It is 1 goal :2 assists: and 6 minutes in the box. used in sentences like ," great game you got a chowder." Fans have caught onto this and during games instead of throwing hats on the ice for a hat trick are now dumping cans of New england Clam Chowder on the ice upon the completion of a chowder. He's not from new england.
2. A peterson-( that is a call 2 minutes before game time and announcing you can't make it. It's nice to have a reliable goalie.. I don't want to use this one in a sentence. Rob Todd our back up goalie I'm sure could come up with one as he gets pelted with slapshots from six feet out wearing a half shield.
And finally our number one word spreading across the United States is the Infamous:
1.Saunderpack-(This word was created by Joe Saundercook returning to our team in the fall.
It is when it is your turn to bring the beer for 16 thristy beer drinking hockey players and you bring 11 beers of all different makes to the game warm. I was afraid to check born on dates I really enjoyed sipping on a beer and sharing with my brother in law Rob. That was priceless.

WebMaster Wanted

Webmaster Wanted! After months of unwritten game summaries and stats that get updated once a season the Ringers team has made a request that Captain Richard Tooke step down as Webmaster and pass this duty onto a new RInger computer Techy. Who his replacement is has not been determined. Our website has been performing as well as our summer team. One goal short. On a better topic. Mulligans has started a keroke night on Tuesadays. After 3 pitchers of beer it still was one of the most horrifying experiences I have ever been through. Wake forest has yet to open a bar that isn't packed with rednecks. When I asked the bar owner where this redneck crowd was coming from. He said," We are getting clients mostly from the Heritage." Mark Lavergne new everybody in the place.

Catching up

OK. First off, the site has been fixed. Call it Murphy's Law or a bad real estate agent, but the two most obnoxious players that NEED to have their stats updated right away happen to be my next door neighbors. And adding insult to injury, they both happened to score last week. This pesky job thing is really hurting the RECREATIONAL-hockey documentation effort, so Karin has gone back to work part-time to give me enough time to keep things up-to-date.

So we've got a little catching up to do. Let's start with the Weevils. OK, we got handed a big, fat L from a team whose fanny is rosy red from all the spankings we used to give 'em. You want the play-by-play? Blah, blah, blah. Besides, they've documented it well enough on their site.

Hey, you win some, you lose some - but the more important thing is that this dynasty v. dynasty rivalry has fueled some amazing hockey, sparked region-wide interest in the sport, and turned the meek into men. Without Ringers v. Weevils, Raleigh was just another faceless top-50 market town with the requisite number of Quizno's, Best Buys, and minivans. Frankly, they went a bit overboard with the number of Moe's.

In 2002, when a cinderella team of professional hockey players took a run at the cup, people got excited, but more because it was a novelty - hicks with sticks. Toronto fans loved coming down (for less than a single ticket at home) and tee-heeing when puzzled North Carolinians asked about the two-line pass. What was missing was the culture to support it - the generation of enthusiasts that really understood the game, who lived, breathed, and ate hockey.

Well, in 2004 that culture was born as the Front Row Boll Weevils first faced off against the unsponsored Ringers. And from that moment, rolling you over like the smells from Shrek's gear, the fever grew. It lit up the community and set a fire under the Carolina Hurricanes - don't forget Jason Karmonous, playing for the Renegades during the lockout, bore witness to the knobby styles of both our squads.

And so, the latest iteration of the Ringers v. Weevils contest is small potatoes compared to the magnificent achievement that our Hurricanes accomplished last week to prove to the world what we already knew; that Raleigh, NC is a hockey town.


And while NBC cut away before he could say it, Marc Lavergne caught Brindy on CBC saying, "we couldn't have done it without all the great inspiration from local teams like the Ringers and Weevils. Particularly the Ringers..."

This Website Blows

What's a guy to do do get his stats updated. Score 2 goals in shootout and win shootout for team. Or perhaps score 2 goals , one with 16 secounds left to tie a game and take a slapper to the johny cakes from chowder. If this is all thats necessary then update my stats please.

Weeeeeeeeeeeevils

Time for another epic battle between good and weeeeevil...

At 10:30pm on Tuesday night we'll see two of the "original 6" teams to play at the Factory square off for another contest to see who's sponsor should be more disappointed.

The Summer 2006 Ringers are sporting some new talent, but like the addition of Doug Weight to the Hurricanes roster, it's taking some time to blend the new talent into the standard Ringers playbook of pinching and no backchecking. That and a few front office snafus regarding goalies, and the Ringers have posted a shaky start with only 1 win.

The Weevils have rebuilt after what can only be described as a season of constant torture, humiliation, and shame. They now field a C team in addition to their B/C team, so they can send players down to the minors, if you will. The B/C team has about 3 new players, and so far, their formla is working, since the Weevils are 4 and 0.

So Las Vegas lists the Ringers as underdogs, although I think we know better...

Oh No! O'Dwyers Overcomes Ringers

Reports are in from GM Greg Weiss that despite having the Ringers top blue-line scorers on the bench last night, our boys were bested by Armand Denuzzio and his band of misfits.  Even with Nia "pink laces" Kelly between the pipes, Marty "X" Clarke, or Marc "Hatty-in-20-minutes" Lavergne, the O'Dwyers team outscored 3 to 2, and with an empty net in the final seconds of play, brought the final score to 4 to 2.

Greg didn't offer a lot of insight as to where things broke down other than the lines getting all messed up with some folks taking long shifts.  Funny we didn't have that problem last week...

Anyway, goal 1 was by Phil from Brian C.  Not sure who got goal 2.  [click on the comments link below to add details, if you know what happened...]

Next week:  Weevils at 10:30pm

'CANES WIN!! 'CANES WIN!!!

Rod Brind'Amour scores the game winner in Game 7 of the Eastern Finals - next stop? Stanley Cup Finals against Edmonton on Sunday!!!