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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-Les Report
2004-12-27: Mighty Pirates 1 at Loch Monsters 2

Sometimes the good guys don't wear white...

Monday night should have been a great night. John Mutch notched his all-time Mighty Pirate leading 98th point on a beautiful goal and the MPs generally out-skated, out-paced, and out-chanced the Loch Monsters; BUT, the Loch Monsters capitalized on the lone Mighty Pirate penalty, and then the sole defensive zone breakdown, and somehow squeaked out a 1-2 victory over the good guys.

Well, it's no secret how that happened (as revealed on the homepage of PirateHockey.ca). They poached an upper tier goalie, and when even that seemed in danger of failing them they resorted to gooning it up in spectacular fashion. In fact, last night's tilt was one of the roughest and most out of control hockey games this reporter has ever seen the Mighty Pirates endure. The Loch Monsters not only played the body instead of the puck all night long, hitting from behind with impunity, they hacked, slashed, and cross-checked like they were in the movie Slap Shot. The only things that saved the Mighty Pirates were keeping their cool, and the fact that the Loch Monsters are generally poor skaters and generally more aggressive than they are strong, which is not to say that you heroes did not suffer some dangerous and injury producing hits.

But I am getting way ahead of myself.

Missing and missed Monday night were Les Klein, Rob Kwinter, Matthew Lella, Auby Mandell and Mark Sager. Tim "Super" Sturgeon filled-in between the pipes and did a man-sized job in a difficult game while Captain Mola went with the defense pairings of Bingham & Dimock and Kitchen & Butler. The even number of forwards resulted in a three man rotation on the left wing: Dave Turner, Shaun Leggett & Vito Mola; two right wingers in Jim Jezioranski & Nick Perri; and centers Jonathan Gallivan & John Mutch. The continuous forward line reshuffle did not seem to dampen the creative passing or scoring opportunities.

The first period saw an awesome display of puck control by the Mighty Pirates. The defensemen skated smoothly and cleared the zone with composure, never seeming to be in any danger from the Monster forecheck. But in spite of the creative passing in the Monster zone, the Monsters effectively scrambled the front of their net, which allowed the superb goaltending of the Longshots goalie to shine. Gallivan left a nifty drop pass for Leggett, ultimately to no effect. Perri also set up Leggett with some nifty "string" passing from the corner, also to no avail. (Are you starting to get the message? Stop passing to Leggett!) Mutch, Gallivan and Jezioranski also enjoyed some fine chances produced from passes and their strong skating in the opposition zone but nothing got by the Longshot goalie.

Turner, part of the three man left wing corps, kept claiming he'd be out for short shifts and that he couldn't keep up with his fast skating centerman, but then outlasted his shift and was seen throwing his weight around on the off-wing long after his linemates were on the bench.

The defence produced some fine opportunities with beautiful rushes from Dimock and Kitchen. In fact, it was a blatant and vicious check on a Dimock rush that produced the first power play of the game, but unfortunately the Pirates could not capitalize. Butler and Bingham kept the puck in on the right side with timely pinches while Kitchen worked the give-and-go on the left side with the winger in the corner. All in all, there was a lot of real hockey played by the Pirates which made it all the more bitter when Bingham was sent off for hooking in the third, at 8:27, and the Monsters made their sole power play advantage pay off.

But it wasn't even a minute later when Leggett went in deep on the forecheck, and missed the check, only to have the ever perfectly positioned Mutch squeeze off the clearing attempt and trap the puck in the Monsters' zone. Mutch dished the puck off to Leggett deep in the corner and headed for the net where he blasted the return pass low and to the right of the Longshots' goalie to tie the game. On the same shift, Mutch then hit the post after walking in alone and was then viciously checked behind the net. The infraction was actually called but the all-star center had to rest a few shifts on the bench before he could once again take to the ice.

Then with under two minutes left, the Mighty Pirates executed their single defensive lapse of the game, and it was a doozie! With all five Pirates collapsed around the net, the Monsters got the puck back out to the point where the puck was sent cross ice to an open Monster, at the doorstep, to Sturgeon's right. From the bench it looked like a flubbed golf chip, but it still managed to bulge twine.

So, say what you want to say. The Monsters managed only five shots all game, couldn't pass out of their zone, couldn't skate, and wouldn't have won the game without the goalie upgrade. But, the Monsters made the most out of their two scoring opportunities and won the game. The serious elevation in head-hunting and body-checking of the second period also wore on the Mighty Pirates attack as the forwards began to keep one eye out for the inevitable blind-sides and attacks from behind. Whatever. It still says here that next time the Mighty Pirates will come out harder and shoot more. If they can put in two in the first period and force the Monsters to have to attack, thus effectively neutralizing their goon game, the Monsters won't stand a chance. And then there will be the opportunity to run up the score on the counter attack. You read it here first.

And there is a lot to be proud of in this game: great skating and play making; keeping cool (for the most part); and when it mattered during the game, in spite of some extreme adversity and incompetent officiating. And Johnny Mutch, the Mighty Pirates' all-time scoring leader. Yeah, some pundits will talk about the Modern Era, but we all know that NO Pirate, or Mighty Pirate, has ever had 98 points until now. From here on in, every game, John Mutch will be rewriting the Mighty Pirates' record book. Rumour has it that he might retire on attaining 100 points and join the circus, but we think that is just sour grapes being mashed by Neal Weinstein. And everyone knows that Jezioranski doesn't want it just handed to him.