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After extensive contract negotiations, the Mighty Pirates organization is extremely pleased to welcome back Howie for another season of insightful, amusing, and extremely addictive commentary! Yes, Howie tells it like it is!

You'll find links to each and every Howie Report right here after each game.

The Howie Report
2004-09-20: Mighty Pirates 2 at Loch Monsters 2

Dear All,

It would not be an understatement that the changes to the Mighty Pirates roster for the 2004/2005 season have been monumental, especially given the relative stability within the ranks that has characterized your heroes over the past many seasons. It is a truism in the world of real hockey that the Mighty Pirates, with their venerable history, evolve over time and eschew revolutionary change. Nevertheless, this year has wroth huge shifts, with the retirement of mighty defenseman Peter Toth and rookie defenseman Michael Levine, and the sidelining of power defenseman Blair Dimock and utilityman Kapil Khatter, who has been known as one who could play up and back with equal skill. Even pinch skater Brian Vandenberg did not return the call to strap on the skates for the new season.

With such stalwart departures and the off-season signing of rookie Summer Pirates defenseman Todd Kitchen to a winter contract, the changes were bound to affect the feel of the boys in yellow and black, as they took to the ice in their first game of the TNHC Monday Night Dry Division (and the Pirates are intent to ensure that the division name is true only in name and not in fact!) against the Loch Monsters, sporting their nifty new "Puff the Magic Dragon" white jerseys. First of all, with only thirteen active skaters on the roster, the Pirates are still on the lookout for a free agency signing of another defenseman. And with the decision to start the season with 14 players out in order to keep the space open for Blair Dimock as soon as he is cleared for action by the MP medical staff, you knew that a sweaty night of skating was in the offing. Then, when it became known that Todd Kitchen, Richard Bingham and Jim Jezioranski would be unable to make the game due to unavoidable obligations (prompting MP legal staff to check the wording of their player contracts), it was clear that it was going to be a long night for your heroes.

In the end, with regular goalie Matthew Lella on critical baby-watch, Summer Pirate stalwart Tim "Super" Sturgeon ("always working") stood tall between the pipes, and two full lines of Pirates took the ice. Playing centre were Jonathan Gallivan and John Mutch (closing rapidly in on the all-time Pirate scoring title held by black and gold legend Mike Stein), wingers were Mark Sager, Dave Turner, Nick Perri and Auby Mandell, and defensemen were Captain Vito Mola, Shaun Leggett, Rob Kwinter and Les Klein. Eight of the eleven Pirates had just come off a record-smashing Summer Pirate season, which had ended just a scant seven days previous in a heart-wrenching loss in the final game of the playoffs for the championship. And perhaps it was just tiredness that was to blame, as the team seemed sluggish to start and slow to get into the game, not getting their stride until well into the second period. Indeed, the players exhibiting the most speed were those three who had enjoyed a summer off, namely Kwinter, Perri and Mandell. Hmm, we hope that does not bode poorly for next summer's recruitment drive...

But luckily, the Monsters also started off slowly, with only three skaters on the bench, and the game lurched scorelessly through the first period. In the second period, however, the Pirates were caught napping on two ugly odd man rushes, and before you could say "Loch Ness Monster," the dragoneers had a 2-0 lead. While it was a clean game, there were certainly plenty of occasions with "incidental" contact, and some of them hurt! So the Pirates had to turn to their stalwarts on the charge, and the third period was wholly owned by the good guys, as John Mutch scored his first two goals of the new campaign, one assisted by Auby Mandell and the other by a booming shot from the point off the stick of Vito Mola. In the end, the boys scraped out a tie, and it was a good thing too, given the scrutiny with which TNHC is viewing their performance and their final placement for the 2004/2005 season.

What with plenty of more challenging action ahead, including a sleep-defying 11:15 game in RINX 1 next Monday, 27 September against the York Wolfpack, who dominated the Summer Pirates in 2004, it is clear that the Pirates will have to step it up a notch (or more) to stay competitive. With a full roster turnout and pressure to return to Pirate Brand Hockey® yet to appear, the true potential of this team is also yet to be experienced. On the other hand, what else do you hockey fanatics have to look forward to this winter anyway?

Come out and check out what the experts are calling "the grittiest, most honest display of pure hockey enthusiasm to be had anywhere..." (The Howie Report)

GO PIRATES!!! VIVA LOS PIRATAS!!!

Howie