Special "Howie-Les" Report
2003-10-27: Mighty Pirates 5 vs. Finger Lickin' Good 1

Courtesy the Leggett Media Network

Missing and missed: Les Klein, Kapil Khatter, Mark Sager, Captain Vito Mola (reportedly walking with a cane now), and Richard Bingham.

Usually, it is my lot to tap out a wearisome critique of our game in the absence of the true touchstone of Pirate Brand Hockey®, Les Klein. Quite simply, without that benchmark, we are often at loose ends and odds in delivering a pop-gun performance but something strange and wonderful happened near midnight on the pond known as Rinx 1 up on Orfus Road.

Your heroes showed every sign of having grown into a mature and responsible team dedicated to their signature Mighty Pirate brand of hockey no matter how few or how many Pirates show up.

And they kicked a lot of ass.

Who were those guys sporting the FLG jerseys? Some said they were a bunch of lead footed hacks. Some said they must have bought the shirts and team name from the FLG team of last year that battled us to a draw with their fast skating and tireless attack. Others pointed out that they only had four subs and still others that their goalie was weak and dispirited. Well, you try having your ass kicked for 32 minutes while the team in front of you falls all over themselves chasing the perfect machine that is Mighty Pirate hockey. You'd go weak in the knees and throw in the towel too.

No, there are no excuses in this game ... only the nearest thing to perfect hockey we've played in a long time. While the 5 - 1 victory may have looked like and easy cruise taken by the Mighty Pirates there was not single Pirate not drenched with sweat and flushed with effort at game's end. Even Lella elevated his game coming out to play the puck, make passes, and clear the puck into the corners to keep the flow in our favour. And when that was not enough, he staked FLG through the heart in the dying minutes of the game with a glove save usually only seen on TSN's highlights of the week.

The forward combinations of Kwinter-Mutch-Levine and Turner-Jezioranski-Perri were awesome in pressing the attack, creating opportunities, and boxing FLG in their end. They actually eclipsed this performance with a dedicated back checking that ground the FLG attack into dust at our blue line.

Jezioranski continues to show no sign of flagging in the inspired play he erupted into last season by opening the scoring with his third goal in three games on the wrap around.

Shortly after this, in the second period, the Mighty Pirates started to feel the game was in their control and some sloppy play (started by yours truly tripping over our blue line) led to the lone FLG goal. But again, character was the name of the MP game this night and the FLG goal only firmed up the MP resolve to bury their opponent.

Mutch set the tone by breaking up an FLG rush in the neutral zone and then dipsy-doodling through three FLG players in order to walk in alone on their goalie where Mutch had his way with him too. I was embarrassed for FLG.

It did not help when a short time later Gallivan, not to be outdone by Mutch, intercepted another neutral zone pass, went around the two defencemen, and again made it look easy. Ouch.

Kwinter and Levine were not about to let FLG think that the Mighty Pirates couldn't do it in the trenches as well and scored during goal mouth scrums; admittedly, Levine was accused of making his goal look like a Sunday afternoon putt on the third hole but style is style.

The defence pairings of Toth-Gallivan and Dimock-Leggett worked hard all night but were not overly tested which allowed them to skate and carry the puck with confidence. As a testament to the overall system, they did a lot of their night's work in the neutral zone and executed a savvy physical presence in our zone which was remarked with great delight by Lella.

Welcome back Peter!

At the end of the night, stowing my equipment in the car, I enjoyed overhearing FLG team members expressing relief that the game was over.

Did I say we kicked a lot of ass?

Unable to change my stripes, I must caution that this could very well be our arch-nemesis from last year. Add three strong skaters as a backbone to this team and the script would change. At the very least, the next time we play these guys, they're gonna have a hate on for us.

On that note, I hope that next week we'll enjoy the sage words of Les and not this Howie-Les stuff.

Go Pirates!