Finally back and getting back into our normal routine after a week off for Christmas and we're 2 and 0 without even having to play a game yet! Some issues kept Detroit from coming to play us this past weekend and we were able to come away with two wins due to forfeit, bringing us back to the .500 mark. We've been told everything is fine now and the league will continue without a hitch for the rest of the season.
Last week was nice to be able to get away from the rink and now think about hockey. We play hockey because love it, but it's good to get a break every now and then especially with all the happenings going on lately. During our break we made a trade with Evansville and acquired Dan Kohanchuk for Jesse Farley, Aaron Naphan, and Paul Hannah. Danny's a good player and a welcome addition to the team, a good Canadian boy. Naph, Paulie, and Jesse will be missed around here but the move is allowing them to get more playing time and hopefully further their careers as well.
Now that we're back it's all business as we prepare for Evansville and Chi-Town this week on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Then we go back to Chi-Town Saturday and Sunday, a nice 4 games in 6 nights will be tough after a break, but also will be good to get our timing back. It will also be good to finally see a team other than Detroit, playing the last 5 games in a row was getting old. But it was good also as it is brewing up as a bit of a rivalry, not just on the ice but in the stands and on the message boards as well.
Speaking of the message boards it's always nice to check in and read up on what the fans have to say. Some of it is good, some bad and some just out of this world. I respect it though I like reading what our fans are saying. It's always a good conversation piece amongst the boys to see who the people like and dislike. We love our supporters and we also love the people bash us because either way they are the ones paying to watch us play and paying our salaries.
Over break I was featured in an article on ProHockeyNews.com written by Don Money. It takes you through a bit of my background and highlights my blog. If you have time and haven't already read it here is the link, http://www.prohockeynews.com/hockey/publish/aaha/Hutcheon_living_the_dream_in_blog.shtml go ahead and check it out. Also for you first timers who read the article already and this may be your first time on the blog I'd like to say thank you for checking it out and welcome to the blog.
Until next time, Happy Holidays.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Detroit Series
AAHA Player of the MonthBest Body in the League
Ugliest Player on the Team
As you know we play Detroit 8 times this month and it's getting a little ridiculous. It feels like the movie Groundhog Day right now; we played them twice this past weekend, twice the weekend before that and we played them today. And we have to play them this Saturday at home and again the following Saturday at home. Today we played in Detroit at 11am, it was supposed to be school day for Detroit local schools except someone might have forgotten to tell the schools. No kids showed up. Nothing surprises me anymore. Back when I started this blog I wrote that I know I haven't seen it all....with everything I'm seeing this season that statement could not be more true.
So we loaded up the vans this morning at 6:15am for our departure from "The Rink" in B.C. and were on the way to face our beloved rivals. We're just sick of playing each other and it's starting to show on the ice. Emotions are beginning to run high and you can tell there is a true rivalry brewing. We came out flat in the first period and were down 3-0 by the end of the first. Missing Mark and Nigel hurts us, but we also lost Brett Riley and Kyryll Katrich after the first period and that left us really short on the bench.
Charles Harvey played really well for us today scoring 4 goals, netting a natural hat trick in the 2nd period. Our power play is starting to slowly show signs of improvement, but we haven't been a complete team all season. Whether it's injuries or sickness or not playing a complete 60 minutes, we haven't shown our full potential yet. And when we do pull it all together we're going to be a great team. Young guys are starting to realize their roles on the team and playing more of a pro style game. I think after Christmas you'll see a big turn around from our team.
This Friday will be our team Xmas shindig, I think the boys are headed out to Richland Lanes for bowling and some fun. I'm sure there will be plenty of stories to tell from that night, like who wears the ugliest Christmas sweater and whatnot. While we're on the ugly note, it has been determined that the ugliest player on the team award goes to Nigel Hawryliw. The panel of judges was madeup of girls around the area and other girls who know Nigel, including my girl and some of her friends. Nigel made the mistake of sending out some headshots to the ladies and things were not ruled in his favor.
More updates to come this weekend.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Weekend from Hell
After taking 3 of 4 points from Detroit last weekend we were on a nice little roll finally. This past weekend was another tough one with 3 games in 3 nights, 2 of which were on the road and playing Detroit twice again. Friday night we made the trek to play the Evansville Ice Men, who play 1 mile away from the middle of no where. 7 hours in a 15 passenger van doesn't make for the most comfortable travel, but welcome to single A hockey. We got to Evansville early to eat dinner and decided on a Chili's, anyone who has been with twenty hockey players for an extended period of time knows there are always pranks going on. At Chili's we had our first shoe check of the year, little guy Brett Riley was able to squeeze his 5'7" frame underneath the table and load up 1st year guy Kevin Demers' shoe full of ketchup. The ensuing clinks off the glasses came and the audible worried groans turned into laughter when Demers realized he was the sucker of this one.
We had heard all week that Evansville was loading up on new guys to play us, but when we got there not much had changed other than the fact that they traded their best defenseman to Chi-Town. We were all over them for the whole and cruised to an 8-1 win and we were back in the vans to make the long journey home. We had to play at 1pm at home against the Dragons on Saturday afternoon. 17 guys split between 2 vans and hockey equipment doesn't make for comfortable sleeping arrangements. We tried to sleep but I think most guys only managed 3 hours of sleep at most. We got home at about 7:30am I slept until 10:30 and was back in the dressing room around 11:15 for the 1 o'clock start. Playing hockey sleep deprived is not an easy task and our play proved it. We hung around with Detroit for a little while, but we lost both Nigel Hawryliw and Mark Allen indefinately to concussions in the 2nd period. It unravelled in the 3rd and we lost 6-2. The only good thing about Saturday was that our work day was done at 4pm and we had plenty of time to rest before going to Detroit on Sunday night to finish out our long weekend.
There was talk on the message boards about "Bounty" night in Detroit, that some fans were placing bounties on some of our players heads. Guys like Brett Aimone, Demers, Mason Cossette and Wes Baughman were targeted. In my opinion, there is no room for these kinds of shenanigans in hockey. It gives the sport a bad name and there is no need for it. That's all I'll say on that subject. Anyways, well rested and ready to go we came out flying and gave it to Detroit all night in their home barn. Even without Mark and Nigel we were able to put up 8 goals for the second time this weekend and come away with an 8-5 win. Newcomer Charles Harvey stepped up to the plate with a 3 point night and both Brett Riley and myself had 4 point nights to lead the team to a big win and hand the Dragons their first loss at home.
We're now slowly climbing the standings and are in the right direction. We play again in Detroit this Wednesday and then play them at home on Saturday before getting a few days off for Christmas.
We had heard all week that Evansville was loading up on new guys to play us, but when we got there not much had changed other than the fact that they traded their best defenseman to Chi-Town. We were all over them for the whole and cruised to an 8-1 win and we were back in the vans to make the long journey home. We had to play at 1pm at home against the Dragons on Saturday afternoon. 17 guys split between 2 vans and hockey equipment doesn't make for comfortable sleeping arrangements. We tried to sleep but I think most guys only managed 3 hours of sleep at most. We got home at about 7:30am I slept until 10:30 and was back in the dressing room around 11:15 for the 1 o'clock start. Playing hockey sleep deprived is not an easy task and our play proved it. We hung around with Detroit for a little while, but we lost both Nigel Hawryliw and Mark Allen indefinately to concussions in the 2nd period. It unravelled in the 3rd and we lost 6-2. The only good thing about Saturday was that our work day was done at 4pm and we had plenty of time to rest before going to Detroit on Sunday night to finish out our long weekend.
There was talk on the message boards about "Bounty" night in Detroit, that some fans were placing bounties on some of our players heads. Guys like Brett Aimone, Demers, Mason Cossette and Wes Baughman were targeted. In my opinion, there is no room for these kinds of shenanigans in hockey. It gives the sport a bad name and there is no need for it. That's all I'll say on that subject. Anyways, well rested and ready to go we came out flying and gave it to Detroit all night in their home barn. Even without Mark and Nigel we were able to put up 8 goals for the second time this weekend and come away with an 8-5 win. Newcomer Charles Harvey stepped up to the plate with a 3 point night and both Brett Riley and myself had 4 point nights to lead the team to a big win and hand the Dragons their first loss at home.
We're now slowly climbing the standings and are in the right direction. We play again in Detroit this Wednesday and then play them at home on Saturday before getting a few days off for Christmas.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Huge Weekend
Heading into the month of December we were 2-4-0 on the season, not exactly where we envisioned ourselves when training camp broke almost a month ago. This month we play the 1st place Detroit Dragons 8 times and that series started this weekend with 2 games at home. Our team has really been coming together lately and we are starting to show signs that we will emerge as a championship contender in this league. The young guys are starting to learn how to play the pro style effectively and that is huge for us considering we have 14 1st year professionals. I've played on teams with 5 or 6 but 14 is a huge number.
Friday night we beat the Dragons 9-2 in a game where it seemed like we could do no wrong. Three seconds into the game Mason Cossette, a 21 year old from Texas, fought Jason Simon of the Dragons. Simon has years of pro experience, he is a tough guy and plays that role to a T, he also has played in the NHL when he was younger. Mason has been out of the line up since our opening night loss in Detroit and was itching to get back into a game for 3 weeks now. Mason won the fight pretty convincingly and broke Simon's nose in the process, 12 seconds after the fight we scored. Talk about good early momentum. We popped home 3 more goals in the opening stanza and were up 4-0. Our momentum carried into the 2nd and we scored 3 more goals making it 7-0 after 2 before Detroit scored 30 seconds into the 3rd period. Our first line of Mike Podelnyk, Nigel Hawrilyiw and Mark Allen were absolutely dominant. My line of Steve Koich, Brett Riley and myself factored in for 3 goals also. It was the best game we played all season by far.
Last night we went back to the rink to find out that Detroit had brought in a new goalie and only had 12 skaters to dress. I don't know if we thought it would be another landslide or what but we broke down in our defensive zone and our forecheck wasn't pretty either, but we managed to walk out of the building with an 8-7 overtime loss. Taking 3 out of 4 possible points on the weekend and making a statement to the league that we will be there in the end.
Earlier tonight I was watching a video with Nigel about the Muskegon Fury's league championship run in 2004. We saw how hard those guys battled through the playoffs to win the United Hockey League and what they went thru. The sacrifices, the injuries, the bad days, the good days. The peaks and valleys, as their head coach put it in the locker room after they won it all. It made us realize why we play hockey, being hundreds of miles away from home, missing your family, your girlfriend, your buddies that you grew up with. It is all worth it to win that coveted championship at the end of the long journey. It's why we play the game. When it comes down to it we are a team of brothers, 18 guys, who 2 months ago didn't know each other have now come together to form a team. We go to battle every night together and in the end we all want to be there together raising the trophy as league champions.
Friday night we beat the Dragons 9-2 in a game where it seemed like we could do no wrong. Three seconds into the game Mason Cossette, a 21 year old from Texas, fought Jason Simon of the Dragons. Simon has years of pro experience, he is a tough guy and plays that role to a T, he also has played in the NHL when he was younger. Mason has been out of the line up since our opening night loss in Detroit and was itching to get back into a game for 3 weeks now. Mason won the fight pretty convincingly and broke Simon's nose in the process, 12 seconds after the fight we scored. Talk about good early momentum. We popped home 3 more goals in the opening stanza and were up 4-0. Our momentum carried into the 2nd and we scored 3 more goals making it 7-0 after 2 before Detroit scored 30 seconds into the 3rd period. Our first line of Mike Podelnyk, Nigel Hawrilyiw and Mark Allen were absolutely dominant. My line of Steve Koich, Brett Riley and myself factored in for 3 goals also. It was the best game we played all season by far.
Last night we went back to the rink to find out that Detroit had brought in a new goalie and only had 12 skaters to dress. I don't know if we thought it would be another landslide or what but we broke down in our defensive zone and our forecheck wasn't pretty either, but we managed to walk out of the building with an 8-7 overtime loss. Taking 3 out of 4 possible points on the weekend and making a statement to the league that we will be there in the end.
Earlier tonight I was watching a video with Nigel about the Muskegon Fury's league championship run in 2004. We saw how hard those guys battled through the playoffs to win the United Hockey League and what they went thru. The sacrifices, the injuries, the bad days, the good days. The peaks and valleys, as their head coach put it in the locker room after they won it all. It made us realize why we play hockey, being hundreds of miles away from home, missing your family, your girlfriend, your buddies that you grew up with. It is all worth it to win that coveted championship at the end of the long journey. It's why we play the game. When it comes down to it we are a team of brothers, 18 guys, who 2 months ago didn't know each other have now come together to form a team. We go to battle every night together and in the end we all want to be there together raising the trophy as league champions.
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