Year-End Hockey Party (or would that be Hockey Year-End Party?)

This past Saturday, the Zombies had their year-end affair. While it was sad for the season to end since it's been the best one yet, the kids had a great time. It was held at a local martial arts place that does a lot of these parties so they know how to keep the kids entertained. There were LOTS of relay races, which was a good thing since the energy level in that room was through the roof.

Here they are, preparing for one of the relay races.

This relay race was particularly funny. There was a tunnel that Lucas was a tad too large for so he found his own way of getting through it.



Once the coaches were done helping out with the races, they got hugs from all the kids. Cute moment.

One final hockey game for the Zombies, albeit with mini sticks.

All that running deserved a pizza party!

Coach Lucas cuts the cake with the coolest cutting knife ever.

Afterwards, the kids got trophies and hats with their logos.



Lucas shows off his trophy and (in my opinion) the really cool Zombies hat.

Later that afternoon, Lucas started his 4-on-4 season. Coming on the heels of the party (and a great season with the Zombies), it was a major letdown. First off, let me explain how it works. Each session consists of two 25-minute games. Depending on the schedule, they could be either back-to-back or with another game in between. There are refs but no coaches (parents work the door), and every minute and half, the horn blows, and the kids have a line change. Also, there is no offsides or icing so the whole thing falls closer to a pick-up game than organized hockey.

All that said, no biggie. Everything sounds good. Here's where Saturday started going south. In the first game, our team was missing one kid in the first game so we had 6 players (plus goalie), and the other team had 8. It doesn't sound like much, but two full lines makes a difference stamina-wise. It probably doesn't help that Lucas and Matthew (another Zombie who is on his 4 on 4 team) were likely worn out from the party. As a result, they ended up losing 7-0.

It got way worse in the second game. Two of the kids had to leave so we had a whopping 4 players. That meant they had to play the full game with no line changes. If this was a pickup game on a community rink, it wouldn't be a problem since they'd just take players from the other team to even things out. In this case, though, the other team had 9 players (8 plus the goalie). Surprisingly, they had a much better showing, only losing 6-3, with Matthew pulling off a hat trick. Still, the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

All that said, there is still hope for the season. Because they don't do sortouts and just place kids on teams randomly, they apparently do some reorganization after the first weeks to try and balance the teams. In addition, I just noticed today that one of Lucas's classmates got placed on his team so I'm assuming his parents must have signed him up late. Whatever the case, it's good to have another body in case other people fall through like on Saturday.

I'll keep you apprised of how it goes as the season progresses, but I wouldn't expect the same kind of enthusiasm as I've had with the Zombies.