Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

This C2 thing is gonna be...well...it's gonna be something, that's for sure. The opening game of the 2008-2009 season was at the lovely St Louis Park Rec center vs a team we'd never played; The Spartans. I was worried they'd eschew the usual jersey and hockey gear for just a helmet and a loincloth a la 300, but they seemed a little old and out of shape for it.

What they could do was play some hockey. Whew. Let's start at the ending

2-10 loss for the AK Bars.

In all truth it started out pretty well. Through the first period and part of the second, we actually were sort of hanging in there. We were only behind 2-3 until about the halfway mark in the game, when they just opened the gates and piled it on. Both our goals were scored by the Ah-Nye-Hilator, who for his first, managed to just skate in alone, deke a few guys and take a nifty little shot, all while Anton and I were getting over the boards. Let's just say the line changes for the forwards were less than polished this particular game. My personal observation is that they don't really have better teams up in C2, they just have smaller rinks! It seemed like everything was going at a fast forward speed. This is, of course, one of the neat things about hockey, the blinding speed, but holy cats it will take some getting used to.

The Ah-Nye-Hilator got another nice little goal after some gritty play by the freshly back from the East, Anton "Crazy Legs" Petsan, who is rapidly getting his old form back. Those lads comprise my linemates and I couldn't be happier about it, although it forces me to REALLY need to step up MY game. I mean, the Ah-Nye-Hilator is starting to get passes over to me, but he must think I skate as fast as he does because I seem to be always behind them! But I figure that a bit of practice will help there, and I should start shedding some of this excess weight I've picked up this summer as we go along.

On the penalty front, as all you regular readers will expect, our resident goon, Pavel, got a penalty,as did Trevor and so did I. It was a tripping call on a 2 on 1 right in the low slot. Seemed like the thing to do, although they scored with about 20 seconds left on my time on the box, damn it all to hell.

C2 is going to be....it seems...a LOT rougher than we've been used to. I was boarded and sent to the ice (but I got the guy's stick away!), and had a guy sorta check me before a faceoff. And our playmaker Jaren "Sweet Hands" Anderson reported no less than a guy PUNCHING him in the chest near their net. None of this was called by the two blind mice they called refs that night.

But mostly they just scrored. Five goals in the third no less. It was rather demoralizing. One was this sloppy shot from the high slot that Trey had tracked all the way, but it hit the ice and took a perfect bounce over his pads. He did see 34 shots (to our measly 14), but the quality of shooting is much better.

Around the League:

I was looking at the website, and to my astonishment, the Nemesis (whom we've played in D1) managed to rack up 25 penalty minutes in their first game. One guy--forgot his name--got a 10 minute game misconduct and a fighting major. What the fuck is up with that? I thought that fighting got you kicked out of the league--I guess we'll see. But it looks like we're going to have to add a few tools to the box to play here. Personally, I don't mind the rough stuff; it can be very motivating and exhilerating once you get going. I just never really expect it so I rarely start off with a dirty mindset. But once it gets going I do okay I think. Maybe I'll just have to channel my inner Dave Bannister to get a tad more furious about it.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to saturday when we meet the Rack Attack; whom I already give points for originality as far as their team's name. But I heard they are pretty good. Kirk told me,

"Well...if you guys play hard and Trey is REALLY on his game you should only lose 12-0."

Fuck you too Kirk.

Well....I guess if it was easy then everyone'd be doing it, right?

See you all soon

-Kai #10