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.

Haircut Day!

Before...

...and after.

In case you are wondering, his inspiration was Liam something or another from the boy band One Direction. Sigh...

2016 Massachusetts Trip #2, Part 3

My mom asked if I would be posting more videos of Lucas riding a horse from our second trip, and since there are a bunch of them in my folder, I figured I'd do that today.

During our second trip, we made it up to the barn twice, and Lucas rode both times. He did a couple more "advanced" things this time, such as riding with no hands and riding by himself so he definitely made some progress. It'll be interesting to see how this summer goes.

These videos (8 of them) are from my camera, my mom's phone, and possibly my (or Marilu's) phone. So the quality is better in some than others, but let's face it, they all look better than the hockey videos. :) Also, I didn't watch all of these through since I could only take so much horse riding, but hopefully y'all will enjoy them.

















Yep, that was a lot of horse riding. I'll return to photos in our next exciting entry.

Just a little somethin'

Whoops, got sidetracked earlier and almost forgot to update, but here's a quick picture before I go to bed.

I'll be sure to put up a full update tomorrow. See you then!

Semifinal

So it turns out that the team the Zombies played yesterday was definitely up to no good. Apparently, I was just one of many people who contacted the convenor yesterday, and she talked to that coach prior to today's final to let him know he is not allowed to double-shift their best players. From what I heard from someone who watched both games, that team didn't play nearly as well today and consequently lost. It's a shame that our kids didn't get to go to the finals as as result of this, but as I said to one of the other dads, the silver lining is knowing that even though the other team cheated, they needed two overtimes and a shootout to beat us.

Pictures from hockey games are never as good as watching them, but since none of you are here, I guess this will have to be the next best thing. As mentioned yesterday, I was really into the game so I didn't take that many pictures, but here are the highlights.

The other Novice B semifinal was right before ours, and the kids came out of the locker room early to watch the end of the game.

You may notice Lucas's different colored socks. He wanted to wear them like that after watching his friend Carson do the same thing a couple of weeks ago, In that case, though, it was because Carson's parents forgot one of the socks. The superstitious sports fan in me didn't want to let him do it, but I acquiesced and sure enough, they lost. Never again!

The warmup skate.

Last minute huddle by the bench prior to the start of the game.

These next three show an example of Lucas using his body to break up a play. Kid has the puck, Lucas knocks him off of it, and the play goes the other way. Woohoo! Apologies for a bit of blurriness. The net around the ice makes it difficult to focus with the camera sometimes.

Doing some defensin'. :) Incidentally, the kid in white next to him is in his class.

Bringing the puck out from behind the net.

Lucas waiting for the whistle when it was his turn in the shootout. Words can't describe how nerve-wracking this moment was for me. I remember yelling out, "If you score, I will buy you literally anything!" Alas, it was not to be. Both goalies were phenomenal.

The boys congratulate their goalie Matthias on a good game after the shootout. What a great group of kids.

So that's that for Zombie hockey this year. Like I think I said in the last post, they have their year-end party next weekend, and then Lucas's first 4-on-4 game is about 2 hours after that is over. There will still be a little Zombie influence as his good friend Matthew (#12 in the picture above) is on his team. Should be fun!

The Result

Alas, the Zombies season has come to an end. But what a way to go! After a back-and-forth game where the lead changed several times, the final score was 3-3. Since this was a semifinal game, that meant overtime. The first OT was four-on-four, and when no one scored, there was a second OT that was three-on-three. And still, no score! So on they went to a shootout, the first one we've seen at the youth level. It looked like it would be a quick affair as the other team scored on their first shot, but then our final shooter (of the group of 3) tied it up. Both goalies then went on to shutout the ENTIRE rest of the lineup (11 more kids on each side) and restart it from the top. The kid who scored in the first round repeated with a second goal, and when our first shooter was unable to match it, the other team emerged victorious.

So we lost, but it was probably the most exciting and nerve-wracking game of hockey I've seen in my life, NHL included. There was even a bit of controversy! The other team played their two best players back-to-back at center for the entire game. Prior to the playoffs, the coaches were specifically told by the convenor that they couldn't double shift or shorten their bench so this gave the team a considerable advantage. I actually intend to email her so she can keep an eye out for it tomorrow in the finals. Hate to see a team win it all by circumventing the rules.

But other than that it was a great game. The parents on the other team are probably the only team that is as loud, if not louder, than our parents so suffice to say it was a noisy affair. By the time the shootout started, I was wondering if my heart could take the excitement. I was literally shaking, and I'm quite sure I have a few more gray hairs.

I did take a bunch of photos, which I will post as soon as I can, but I'll admit they probably aren't that great. I was too focused on the game to pay much attention to the camera. Still, keep an eye out for those.

Oh, lest I forget, Lucas had a pretty good game. Not his best, but he didn't make any mistakes that resulted in a goal. I was happy to see that he was one of the 2 starting defensemen on the 4 on 4 period and the only defenseman at the start of the 3 on 3 period. It's good to know the coaches have that much confidence in him.

Lucas's team has their end-of-the-year party next Saturday, and then a couple hours after that, Lucas has his first game of 4-on-4 hockey, which is something he'll be doing until the summer. So the hockey never stops! :)

2016 Massachusetts Trip #2, Part 2

While going through my photos, I realized I'd missed a folder of photos that I downloaded from my mom's iPhone from both trips. Almost all of the photo subjects from our first trip were covered by photos I've already posted, but I liked this one so here it is for your viewing pleasure. Just a nice shot of Lucas with Grammy and Grampy Kevin.

In keeping with the posing theme, here's Lucas with Jared and my dad.

Let's close out the poses with one of the family.

Looking at that photo, I figured now would be a good time to show how much weight we've lost since last summer. This next photo was taken last month during our trip to Washington DC. Quite a difference, eh? Trust me, it was a LOT of work.

In hockey news, Lucas has his semifinal game at 9 AM tomorrow morning. In the regular season, they easily beat tomorrow's opponent 4-1. However, if the playoffs have proven anything, it's that the regular season means nothing as the team that went 13-1 didn't make it out of the round robin so they'll still need to play hard. I'll be sure to update as soon as we get home to let you know how it went.

2016 Massachusetts Trip #2, Part 1

As part of catching up, I want to get the big sets of photos out of the way first. The biggest of them tend to be vacations so those are at the front of the queue. I've already posted pictures from our first trip to Massachusetts, which was just me and Lucas. We had such a good time that we ended up going back later in the summer, this time with Marilu.

I think this first one is from the drive down to Massachusetts. I got a kick out of it since it's WWE overload. Not only does Lucas have the John Cena shirt on, but he's holding the championship belt, has a wrestling figure on his lap, and if you look closely on the right side of the picture, you can see part of a cage for the action figures. That's some serious wrestling love!

Once again, we went up to Kevin's barn so Lucas could ride the horse. Here are some photos from that visit.

Showing off my 4th of July shirt with my dad. On a side note, ugh, I was looking awful. I'm glad we've been working out since that trip.

No idea what Kevin was laughing at, but it sure looks like it was funny.

And for today's final picture, Lucas brushes down the horse (Honey?) before riding her. He really enjoyed the riding and taking care of the horse so I expect he'll be back up at the barn at least once this summer.

For those of you keeping score, in between the Massachusetts trips, Marilu and Lucas had a trip to Newfoundland, in which she took loads of photos, However, unlike past trips where I've gone through the photos and tried to guess as to what was happening and who was who, I've decided to let Marilu do her own blog posts at some point in the future for that trip. So if anyone wants to nag about that, you now have the appropriate point of contact. :)

The deluge begins...

I don't know why I couldn't remember how Lucas's team did in the playoffs last year, but thanks to the magic of the blog, I was able to look at this post and see the exact details. Turns out they did almost as well as this year, coming in 2nd place in their pool but losing their semifinal game. Hopefully, it'll be a better result this time around. Interestingly enough, I made the comment, "The Coyotes had far more scoring chances, but the bounces just never went their way..."  That's the story of this season! Good to know some things are consistent year to year.

So, as promised, today begins Operation Post-A-Bunch-Of-Pictures. Or Operation PAPOP for short. I've got summer vacation, winter vacation, sports, family visits, March Break, and all kinds of other stuff ready to go. In order to keep it manageable though, I think I'm going to limit it to 5 photos a day, unless it's a series of photos that requires more. And like I said, I will be doing my very best to post at least every other day. Every day if I'm feeling productive.

So without any further adieu, let's get it started. In my post last month from our first Massachusetts visit last year, I said I would follow up with some videos. It took a while, but here they are.









We'll close out today with Marilu and I looking our best at the Agriculture Museum back in September.

Semifinals!

As mentioned yesterday, the Zombies were already a lock for the semifinals before playing their final round robin game. However, they finished the round out in style, beating today's team 4-2. And to be honest, the score wasn't as close as it sounds. Lucas's team was up 4-0 late in the 3rd period and they stopped playing hard, at which point the other team scored 2 garbage goals in the last couple of minutes.

Zach's team won their game handily as well, 6-0, so both of their teams end the round robin with 3 wins and 1 tie, earning them the #1 seeds. Next Saturday, they will play the #2 seeds, and on Sunday, the winners of those games will play in the championship game. We're keeping our fingers crossed for a Zombies vs Panthers (Zach) final!

In other news, Marilu and I had a fantastic time at the Garth Brooks concert last night. I can't remember all the concerts I've been to so I don't know if this was the best concert I've ever been to, but it was at the very least top 3. I'm so glad I finally got a chance to see him since I've been wanting to since the mid-1990s. Rather than post another picture of Lucas playing hockey, here's a snippet of Marilu and I singing along to "Friends in Low Places" last night.

So tomorrow will begin what I hope is a deluge of photo posts so with any luck, my mom won't be nagging me about the blog for a couple of months. :) Love you, Mom!

The Blog Lives!

Whoops, it's been just under a month since my last post. My bad. I guess the combination of us going to DC over March break and then my mom visiting for about a week made it slip my mind. The plus side is that I now have a bunch of pictures to post, which I'll be doing shortly. My plan right now is that starting Monday, I'm going to update with a photo post every other day until I am all caught up. Considering the large number of photos I have, that'll keep you entertained for at least the next month.

Before that, though, I'll update you with the latest hockey news, for those of you who don't already know. Last week (on Easter Sunday, actually), Lucas's team had their third playoff game, which they won 3-0. This puts their record at 2-0-1 with one more game tomorrow morning. However, as luck would have it, one of the other games that was played today guaranteed the Zombies no lower than #2 in their pool, which puts them in the semifinals. We've elected to not tell Lucas though so he plays hard since #1 is always better than #2! On top of that, his best friend Zach's team is likely going to be #1 in the other pool so I don't want him to throw the game so he plays Zach in the semis. That can wait until the finals! :)

I'll be sure to update with the results tomorrow and probably add a few photos in advance of Monday's post. I'd post some now, but Marilu and I are getting ready to go see the Garth Brooks concert (woohoo!) so it'll have to wait. *humming "Friends in Low Places"*

Playoffs - Game 2

Today's game was a prime example of how a large part of the Zombies' season has gone. They completely dominated the game, in pretty much every category, but they couldn't find the back of the other team's net. As a result, it was a 1-1 tie against a team that they had previously outscored 13-2 in 3 games. I know a tie is better than a loss, but it was still disappointing given how much better they played. Oh well, it's 2 weeks off now since the next 2 weekends are the bookends of March break. They'll have a couple of practices, but the next game isn't until March 27 so hopefully the kids won't have forgotten how to skate by then.

Since I haven't posted any new pictures lately, here's a random one for you.

 

The Playoffs Begin!

Today was the first day of the playoffs for Lucas's hockey league. There are 10 teams so they split it into two 5 team pools based on the end of the season rankings (1,3,5,7,9 and 2,4,6,8,10). The Zombies ended the season in 2nd place so they are in the second pool. It's round robin style so they'll play 4 games total in the first round, one against each team in their pool. Then the top 2 teams at the end of the round robin will move on to the semifinals with the #1 team from each pool playing the #2 from the other pool.

Lucas's team had a tough first opponent as they were playing against a team that they tied and lost to during the regular season. I can't recall if I mentioned it on here, but the loss was the game where the Zombies outshot and outplayed them, but their goalie was on fire and stole the game. None of that mattered today though as the Zombies had a hell of a game this morning, winning 2-1 in a game that had all the parents on the edge of their seat. 

On paper, that was the toughest team we'll play so hopefully it'll all be smooth sailing from here, but obviously, you can never look past an opponent. Tomorrow morning, they play a team that they have beat 3 times this season so it shouldn't be quite as nerve-wracking as today's game. Then it's a couple of weekends off due to March break. I'll be sure to check in tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

Snow Day

Today was yet another snow day for the schools. The name is a bit of a misnomer since it's the ice that causes the cancellation, not the snow, but I suspect the kids don't care one way or the other. I took this photo while Lucas and I made the most of the relatively warm weather.

July Trip to Massachusetts

Lucas's team had their last game of the regular season this morning. They lost 3-2, but man, if it wasn't for the other goalie! As a conservative estimate, we think the Zombies outshot the other team 3 or 4 to 1. It was that incredibly lopsided. The problem was that the other team's goalie was phenomenal. There's really not much else the Zombies could do. Oh well, they have a couple of practices next weekend and then the playoffs start in March. The latest standings aren't up yet, but since they won their previous two games (4-0 and 4-2), I expect the Zombies to finish the season in 2nd or 3rd place. I'll keep you updated once they playoffs begin.

I decided yesterday that it's about time I catch up on the summer photos so here's the start of the deluge. The following photos were taken during our first trip to Massachusetts in July. It's when Lucas and I went on our own, giving Marilu a weeklong break from our zaniness. I'll be posting videos from this trip as well as photos from the second Massachusetts trip (with Marilu) and their trip to Newfoundland and Labrador soon.

Much time was spent in the backyard by the fire pit. You really can't go wrong with fire and beer. Or maybe you can go really wrong with that combination. I can't remember.

I love the expression on Lucas's face as he stuffs toasted marshmallows in his mouth. That's his friend Kyle who lives next door to my mom. Talk about a contrast in size!

We were lucky enough to be down there for the 4th of July so after we watched the fireworks, we lit off some of our own.

My mom and Lucas with Quick Dick, another neighbor and probably the strongest 80-something you'll ever meet.

During that trip, Lucas also got a chance to ride one of Kevin's horses. He had a blast. One of the videos I'll post later has an extended look at his ride.

A random photo from the bubble bath. I may have put in a tad bit too many bubbles, especially since the tub has jacuzzi jets.

Fishing at the lake.

I think this might be Lucas's first game of Scrabble.

A couple of goofy ones.

Pictures from our visit with Jack and Dominic at the miniature golf course. It says something about me that the highlight of that trip was the patty melt I had at the diner immediately before golfing. Best sandwich ever.

Swimming at Nancy and Bobby's.

And potentially summoning dark spirits.

That's it for now. Like I said before, be on the lookout for LOTS of pictures soon.

CTC Hockey

As promised (to my dad, at least), I've linked a video from Lucas's hockey game at the Canadian Tire Centre last Thursday. It's part of the Future Sens program that gives youth hockey players a chance to play on the pro ice. This was the third year in a row that one of Lucas's teams got to play. They also got to see the Sens game that night. It was a pretty fun time since the kids got to fill up a whole row sitting next to one another.

As for the early game, they played against a team from Nepean and lost a really close game 3-2. It was a rare stress-free game though since it didn't count against the standings. They followed up on Friday night with a 4-0 victory against another Kanata team in league play. I believe there are 2 more games before the playoffs, and at this point, it looks like the Zombies will finish in either 2nd or 3rd place (out of 10).

So without any further adieu, here's the video. The Zombies are in white, and Lucas is #5, playing defense. This was one of the first times I've taken video of a game so it's a little fuzzy, but I think it came out okay.

Results

Well, the bad news is that the Zombies lost this morning, 3-1. Despite the score, it was a very close game. It was 0-0 until halfway through the second period, and the 3rd goal by the other team was very strange. I'm not sure if our goalie was distracted by the coaches or what, but he was standing on the completely opposite side of the goal, turned away, when they scored. So it was basically an empty net goal. The Zombies had several good chances, but as has been the norm this season, they almost always seem to be just inches away from the rebounds. Whatever the case, I definitely look forward to meeting up with this team in the playoffs since our boys can definitely hang with them.

The good news is that Lucas had a great game. The only goal that happened when he was on the ice was the aforementioned one so it doesn't really count since there is nothing the defense could have done about it. And as far as I can remember, the other team only had one shot (besides the goal) while he was playing.

On Thursday, Lucas will be playing at the Canadian Tire Centre in the annual game on "pro" ice. I'll definitely be taking pictures for that so more hockey photos are definitely coming. In the meantime, I need to attack my backlog of photos. I have a bunch from last year's vacations to Newfoundland and Massachusetts that need to be sorted and uploaded so watch for those soon.

Super Bowl? Pfft, this game is bigger!

Although the game will probably be over by the time most of you read this, tonight is the eve of what is probably Lucas's biggest game of the year so far. It's the Zombies' second game against the #1 team in his division, which currently has an 12-0 record and the most goals in the league with 50 (the next closest is the Zombies with 36). They also have the least goals allowed with 13 (once again, the Zombies are in second place at that stat with 18). They won the first meeting 2-1, which was the closest anyone has played them, and it quite honestly could have gone either way. On a more personal note, the coach of the other team is Lucas's coach from his first year in IP so a win over him would be twice as big.

One of the big differences in this game is that the Zombies finally have set lines with kids playing the positions they are best at whereas earlier in the season the coaches were still getting a feel for that. So hopefully that will help. I've given Lucas a little bit of monetary motivation. I told him if he can prevent any goals while on the ice (since he is defense), I'll bring him to get a toy/reward worth $30. If he can keep them shotless? $50. I don't really expect the latter, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be out $30 of birthday money.

Anyway, I'll pop back on sometime before the Super Bowl tomorrow with an update to let you know how it went.

Oh, I didn't mention it anywhere, but the game's at 7 AM on Sunday morning.

More hockey news

I know, it seems like hockey news is all I ever talk about lately. What can I say? It's winter. We're in Canada. There's going to be hockey.

This past weekend, Lucas's team definitely fell back into their winning ways. As I mentioned before, they won their game on Saturday 3-1, avenging a loss to a team that beat them by the same score earlier in the year. Then, to top it off, they won their game on Sunday 9-0. Wow! Two kids had hat tricks and another one had two goals. On the defensive side of the game (which is what Lucas played), he only allowed one shot during his shifts. Pretty damn good!

Speaking of Lucas, we received an email from Lucas's coach (also named Lucas, amusingly enough) earlier in the week, providing us with some feedback about his play this season. I've included some of the highlights below:

"I wanted to let you both know what a great year Lucas has been having. First, and foremost, he is an excellent kid, teammate, extremely positive in the dressing room and on the bench. He has a great smile, and really loves his hockey!!

From a hockey perspective, he has been really developing into a great player on defence. He has been taking cues and positional guidance and applying them (and improving) every game. The coaches and his teammates have really been relying on him, and it's a big reason for a lot of our success lately."

He then went on to ask us if we wanted to play Lucas at forward anymore this season since he's been a defenseman since before Christmas. They would prefer him at defense since he is one of the best players back there. As it so happens, Lucas wants to play defense so it's not a problem. I've been telling him for a while now that scoring isn't all there is to hockey. If you're playing defense, it's just as important that you don't allow goals, and he's been pretty good at that this season, and he's learned to rate his performance on that rather than goals.

This weekend will be interesting since they are playing the top team in the league on Sunday. They are undefeated at 11-0, but last time they played, they just barely beat the Zombies 2-1 so we're hoping for another revenge win like this past weekend. Whatever happens, I'll be sure to let you know.

No pictures this time, but plenty in the next update!