Patch, the hero

So team Gunnison Brewery pulled out the championship. Pretty excited no doubt. The Final was top notch, heading into overtime and then a double shootout (8 shooters in all). We ultimately won 4-3 (3 shootout goals to 2). Obviously in a shootout the goalie bears a lot of the weight on his shoulders and Patch stepped up to the moment (WARNING: this may be a cliche rich post).


So hockey gives out three "stars" of the game to each game's most valuable players. This was featured effectively in Segas Genesis' NHL '94 (my greatest achievement was scoring 22 goals in one game with Pavel Bure, ah the good ole days).


Star 1 - Corey. Corey plays defense but we encourage him to switch to offense when he has a good chance to score. All year long he has been aggressive but for one reason or another was having trouble scoring goals. In the playoffs, however, the floodgates finally opened. Corey scored a hat-trick in the final. This is pretty impressive considering he accounted for all of our goals in regulation.

Star 2 - Erica - Erica was our last shooter for the first shoot-out. Her chance came up as we were down 2 goals to 1. Thus, she had to score to push us into the second shoot-out. No goal, game over. Before the game I guess she took a couple of shots and was a little giddy to say the least in the locker-room, not inspiring a ton of confidence. I would have assumed by the end of the game she would have sufficiently sobered up, but before her turn to take her shot she was sitting on the bench sort of shaking her shoulders dancing a little bit. She seemed like she was just chillin out to Dylan playing in her head. Naturally, she was up for the moment, scoring the goal and sending us to the second shootout. Honorable mentions would be Mike and John. Mike scored our first shoot-out goal, which was big because it answered our opponents' first goal. John, ended up scoring the game winner in the second shootout.

Star 3 - last but certainly not least, Patch. Patch played solid all game long giving up a couple goals during regulation to one of the leagues best two players (don't worry, Patch had his revenge by stoning this guy in the shoot-out). The third and game tying goal was a little frustrating, it was a turnaround, blind, back-handed shot that found its way into the corner of the goal, Patch didn't see it until it was too late. Regardless, his true heroics came in the shootout. After stopping our opponents' best two players he gave up a solid goal to the same guy who scored the blind backhand (as a side note this guy skated in so slowly on his shootout try that it nearly drove me insane. I think it was effective. Everyone else pretty much skated up at a good speed allowing the goalie just to react to what was happening, this guy, on the other hand, let everybody at the rink think and think and think before finally shooting a quick wrister). The second goal (leading to Erica's heroics) was a nice shot matched with a bit of tough luck, Patch got his stick on the puck but the puck still hit the top of the net. In the second shootout I liked our chances a little bit better. We had already stopped their best two players (probably 2 of the 3 best players in the league) but even though they were tougher up top we definitely had more depth. I had a good bit of confidence in our shooters 6 through 8 whereas I was pretty sure Patch could lay down the law on their shooters. As it worked out, our second shooter scored (John) giving Patch the opportunity to win the game with a save (had he not made the save we would have had a chance to win with our last skater). Naturally, Patch came up huge and we won it all. Pretty good stuff. Not sure if Gunnison Valley Hockey League (GVHL) Intermediate championship is bettter than Team Gibson Newport Beach "C" League Hoops championship but it's definitely up there. Plus it leads me to the following consideration...

Am I the greatest team player in GVHL Intermediate hockey history? Short answer, probably. Although our team lost one game, I wasn't there due to the flu bug I mentioned before. So not only did the team I was on win the championship, but I never lost a game. Considering, unfortunately, this will very likely be my last winter in Gunnison and probably the last time I play hockey (just when I was developing some mad skills) I will likely end my career with one season, one championship, and no losses. The fact that I was as good or better than maybe one guy on the team seems largely irrelevant in light of these other facts (please pick up on the tongue and cheek here).

Our team championship picture made the local paper, I'll try to get on that and put the picture of the picture on the blog. Basically Gunnison Brewery has reached KROQ status and is world famous.


(how I spent my week with the cup - we went on vacation)

Put me in Coach

So our playoffs started last Thursday and we were able to pull off a win in a shootout (one on one, skater v. goalie). I threw my name in the hat to try to take one of the shots and in response our captain just looked at the ground and didn't say a word. Maybe next time... We have another game tomorrow night.

Finally caught

So the past two weekends have been pretty fun, but in between was lame. I finally caught the flu/cold bug that has been going around and it knocked me out. I even missed a few hockey games because of it, so lame.




Hard to say getting sick is worth it, but I did have some fun in the process. Last Friday night I went to a Led Zeppelin cover band full of chicks called Zeparella. It. Was. Awesome. They rocked out pretty hard. To the left is the Jimmy Page of the group, she was good, she even brought out the violin strings for a couple songs.



Unfortunately, that was a late night that backed up into "Partners' Ski Day" So I got about 5 hours of sleep and then went boarding all day with my mentee (picture to come - potentially). I had a lot of fun but wore myself out and was done by the time I got home. I was sick pretty much that night through the whole week. Starts in your head moves to your face (as weird as that sounds my face felt weird for a good day) and then down into my throat. Right now it is chilling out in my chest although it is pretty much gone.


This past weekend I went with bro and fam up to Denver for a couple days. We cruised to see the St. Louis Blues play the Colorado Avalanche. Plus we had to drop off my bro with some friends so he can go do some mountain biking for the week in Moab, not too shabby.


(Something for the ladies, my brother tells me this is heartbreaker on the team, TJ Oshi, #74)


The game was pretty fun although the Blues got it handed to them. The final was 7-3, but I am glad to report that the Blues kept playing hard to the last second. It had to be disappointing for them, they are trying to push and pull their ways into the playoffs and had brought a 5 game winning streak to Denver.

I also learned how terrifying a mall can be with kids. Kids are short and malls have towers and sets of clothes everywhere. So your kid can be three feet away from you but just on the other side of a merchandise tower and you suddenly have no idea where they are. Combine that factor with Keziah and Jo's desire to wander to and fro and it definitely keeps you on your toes. But it can be fun too, all that stuff you always ignore is interesting to them. I also determined that Build-a-Bear is a terifying place although I was a fan of this guy.



Ok, my buddy Jon keeps bugging me to throw one of the songs he sends me on my blog. Well I like this one a good bit, a happy song. As an added bonus, I happened to find on YouTube a video of this band having some fun in Aspen, so it is topical as well. Enjoy.

All Apologies

So I'm sorry it's been a while since my last post. Things have been good and I'll try to update you on what's been going on.

1. Team Gunnison Brewery has won two more games and tied two more games. I have also scored another goal, although this one was less exciting beause my shot deflected off of two guys before finding its way into the net. But, it still counts and I'll definitely take it. In one of our games we were down 3 goals heading into the 3rd period but were able to rally back for the tie. It was a pretty nice comeback to keep our undefeated season alive. Next week we play the second best team twice, so that will show us what we are made of.

2. So, I also have the chance to play up pick-up hockey now and again. I played last week and for some reason they put me and my brother on different teams. And... wait for it... I scored on him. Pretty pumped. I kept wanting to make it happen all game long and finally in the 3rd I was able to put one through. Pretty sweet.


3. It dumped out here this past weekend. Here's the view from my window of my car getting covered. It snowed pretty much all day Friday big chuncks of hard falling snow and kept snowing throughout the weekend. It's like Christmas around here when that happens. Everyone and their mom was on the mountain Saturday, including me. I've never run in so much powder before, I was drowning in it.



I went for it Saturday because in really cuddly powder even if you wreck yourself you can catch a pretty soft landing, of course the flip side is you get pretty wet. More than once I used my head to melt the snow in my beanie.

5. I'm engaged**

6. I've been really enjoying the Church I've been going to out here. It's called Bethany Baptist and I'm trying to get more involved with the college guys, so far that has been slow going but there are a couple good guys so I hope it starts to gain momentum. Here's the website in case you are interested. www.gunnisonbethany.com

7. I am also working with an orginization called Partners, which is basically Colorado's version of Big Brothers and Big Sisters. I have been matched up with a 15 year old guy. It's been pretty good, we have only hung out a three times but the last time we seemed to connect better. I'm meeting up with him today to grab lunch and Saturday Crested Butte is sponsoring Partners and letting us take the kids up to the mountain for a free day of skiing/boarding, so that's legit. My kid likes to listen to death metal or as I like to call it scream rock. I tried to check it out on Pandora to be a good mentor, not happening.

** No I'm not

Well, that's it, I'll try to be a bit more consistent.

Officially a Goal Scorer

So I scored my second goal of the season last night. Pretty legit. Our center won the face-off, the puck came straight to me, I stopped it with my skate, and then backhanded it in the opposite corner off the post. A guy on the other team even said "great goal, nothing you can do about that." To say the least I was pretty stoked. However, I need to work on my celebration, I was pretty amped and just raised my fist and yelled "yes!" over and over. I can do better, and the fans deserve better. That's where you all come in. Yes, another poll, what should my goal scored celebration be?

So my hockey scoring mentality isn't much different from basketball. If I can shoot it, shoot it (just ask "my buddy Mike" from the last post, I am definitely a gunner when it comes to hoops). Don't think about it just shoot it. In hoops I feel like I have a bit (a lot) more control over what happens, but it seems to be the general strategy to always get the puck on goal if you can.

So with no further ado, here are your voting/celebration options

Machine gun


Ride Stick


Moonwalk


Swim on ice


Dive through glass


And unfortunately not in the running (although we do have a couple chicks on our team) (Warning: adult content)

the District and Cassidy's v. Tomichi Tavern and the Wine Bar

Sorry about the delay but here goes the exceptional nightlife blog.

As with everyone, whether you have a good time going out it is largely due to who you are going out with. In Newport it was almost always with this guy:

(dude standing tall)

We went to Michigan together but really got to become friends working at Gibson and more directly via the "Team Gibson" basketball team. The night would usually start at Mike's house, where'd we have a couple beers and watch hoops while people gradually gathered to go out. We'd chill at Mike's until we finally hit the boiling point and left. The boilling point usually manifested itself when someone would just pull rank and call a cab without really clarifying with everyone if they wanted to go yet or not. To be fair this is usually the only way I'd ever go out, I'm more than happy hanging out with Mike, drinking a couple beers, and watching hoops.

In Gunnison, I usually go out with this guy:

He doesn't live in Gunnison, he lives in Lake City about an hour a way, but it's good when he comes up because he brings the party with him. As opposed to meeting at Mike's awesome Newport Beach pad I've noticed going out in Gunnison usually starts at the hockey rink. I can't complain too much, it usually lends itself to a pretty good group of people.

Location:

In Newport Beach, not surprisingly, we were near the beach, so location was hard to beat. First off the weather was usually very near perfect. In fact, I would almost always ride my beach cruiser to Mike's place as opposed to driving (not really a lot of parking in Newport in the summer so the beach cruiser is definitely the better option). Plus, during the summer months I'd usually be heading up to Mike's just after sunset, which made for a beautiful ride along the boardwalk running parallel to the ocean. Very good way of starting the night.

In Gunnison, it's a bit chillier. I did wear my flips out one night but pretty quickly regretted that decision as the weather dropped from 40 to 20. There isn't a night in Newport all year long that you can't get away with wearing flips. While realizing that you won't be spending much time outside (not a lot of smokers here in Gunni during the winter months) you still have to bundle up a bit. Most people will wear long underwear and a few layers up top. Also, you can't just stumble home out here. You need a ride. Fortunately they have "Dude-a-ride" which is a free shuttle service that will pick you up at the bar and take you straight home. They don't have cabs in Gunnison. Seriously.

Also, I feel compelled to add that some people, even in the dead of winter, will ride their bikes to the bar. Out here beach cruisers are called "townies."

The bars themselves are pretty similar. I prefered the dive bars out in Newport and in Gunnison that's pretty much all you've got. The difference, sadly, is you can find a few full bars out in Newport, usually in Gunnison your best bet is half full.

Apparel

In Newport fools usually look just a little less ridiculous than the cast of jersey shore. That's not exactly accurate, you certainly have the very strong laid back surfer-wear contingent. Unfortunately, on the other hand, you also have the strong Ed Hardy contingent. Every time we'd go out, one of my friends would tell me "Mark it looks like you just woke up" or some other dig at my appearance. To be fair a lot of times he was fairly accurate, but he also was wearing shirts like this:

(no matter how bad I looked I reckon I still came out ahead)

(unfortunately this is not uncommon in Newport)

In Gunnison, the story is quite different. As you can see from the following picture, the guy on the left is wearing a camoflauge hat and Wade on the right is wearing camo pants. Also, a lot of people when they go to the bar don't bother getting rid of their jackets but just keep them on for the night. So instead of jeans, a plain t and flips in Newport, I wear jeans, a jacket and boots (sometimes my flannel if I dress to impress). Really not too much of a difference. However, because people traded in their Ed Hardy's for Bass Pro Shop I suddenly went from "homeless" to "preppy" without really changing my look.

Pick-up Lines:

In Newport, the same friend that would tell me I looked like I just woke up would go up to girls I was talking to and tell them that I was a lawyer at a big law firm. Classy. In Gunnison my buddy asked a girl if she'd want to go hunting with him some time. He later confided in me that he was intimated by the fact that this chick had taken down a 300 point buck, whatever that means. Both of the stories, believe it or not, are 100% true. Personally I prefer the hunting angle.

Women:

I'm going to leave this one alone, but there is definitely a distinct difference.

Conclusion:

If you like the people you are going out with you are going to have a good time whether it's in Newport or Gunnison. The only real difference is that in Newport you don't need a shot of whiskey to stay warm.

Wedding

Here's a picture of the groom with his groomsmen. The wedding was cool and definitely a fun weekend but getting to and fro was a bit of a hassle with apparent apocolyptic weather throughout. A lot of snow, which was great for scenic driving but made the trip take a bit longer.

(Jonny, the groom, in white)

So, sorry about the nightlife blog delay, but I should get to it Thursday. Also Gunnison Brewery was able to pull off another win despite the absence of the Pollitt bros. We aer now 4-0 looking to stay undefeated tonight against Unity PC. Plus I'll be sporting a new stick tonight.

Here are some pics on the road.