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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.

Adding Insult to Injury
2005-11-14: Mighty Pirates 3 at Tigers 3

It has taken Howie the week to absorb the events of last Monday night's Pirate Game against the Tigers. Why? Because the game was a bundle of contradictions, mostly on the Pirate end of things. This was after all a game the boys in yellow were playing against a team that has never bested them, but in the end, the tie felt like a loss (see last week's Howie Report analysis of when a tie feels like a win, and when it feels like a loss). This was also a team that has always gotten under the Pirates' skin — what with the long history of harassment and dirty play from some unnamed Tigers' to the long list of tight games filled with penalties — and one that easily succumbs to Pirate Brand Hockey®, but no PBH was there to be seen. This was a game against a team that has nowhere near the balance up and down the roster that the Pirates feature, and yet the Pirates relied on just a few players for their scoring. And in the end, the Pirates — a team blessed (though some would say cursed) with a high level of education — still allowed themselves to be dragged down to an industrial beer league level of play by the Tigers.

So how in the world did this game end up a 3-3 tie? It started in the locker room, with Captain Mola enjoying a nearly full bench, with just Shaun Leggett out of the lineup due to an injury to his thumbnail — which hopefully was not as painful as it sounded — ouch! So, with Matthew Lella in net and a Pirate defense determined to respond heroically and rebound from last week's six goals allowed, the Pirates sent Richard Bingham (yes, THAT Bingham for the second game in a row!), Blair Dimock, Mark Cooper, Rob Kwinter and Paul Matusek to protect the goal and patrol the blue line. That set up three full forward lines, consisting of Nick Perri, Auby Mandell and Les Klein; John Mutch, Vito Mola and Mark Sager; and Jonathan Gallivan, Jim Jezioranski and Dave Turner (I think!).

But in fact, Shaun's absence — including his gritty play on the ice and cool head on the bench — were sorely missed almost from the start of the game. Within the first minute, Nick Perri, who virtually wears a halo on the ice, was called for tripping, and the Tigers capitalized on that power play opportunity to take a 1-0 lead. And that first interaction set the tone for the game early. The Pirates thought that the call was a cheap one, the tussling began in the corners, and the play was pressed at both ends of the ice. It was not until the end of the first period that John Mutch was able to connect with the twine on a lovely pass from Blair Dimock, who as a rushing defenseman, pressed the attack hard into the Tigers end all night. That goal, John Mutch's third in two games, tied the score at 1-1. In the second period, the silliness accelerated, as an unnamed Tigers' player set off a bruhaha in front of the Pirates' net by bumping (on purpose from the Pirate point of view, especially given this player's history) into Matthew Lella. Alas, that call was not made by the refs, signaling to this player that it was open season on brutish play, his specialty. Shortly thereafter, Captain Mola was called for body contact, though he was the one that was contacted, because the bumper fell to the ice while the bumpee managed to stay on his feet. The resulting power play allowed the Tigers to notch another goal, and take a 2-1 lead into the third quarter.

As the third period wore on, the circus really came to town. On one rush toward the Pirate net, an unnamed Tiger skated at full speed straight towards the goal, though the puck was nowhere near there, and as Matthew ducked to avoid a collision, the Tiger jumped over him and landed squarely on his back, jarring Matthew's ribs, which remain sore today, leading him to bow out of this coming Monday's game! But guess what — no call from the men wearing the stripes! A short time later, with open season now declared on all players with yellow jerseys, Jonathan Gallivan was cross-checked from behind in front of the Tiger goal, and crashed hard into the metal frame of the net. He was forced to leave the game with signs of a concussion — ashen complexion, dizziness and disorientation (he later went to the hospital to be checked and was told to avoid strenuous activity to be on the safe side). It was left to Richard Bingham to tie up the game with a dazzling steal of a puck, beating the Tiger defense and fooling Lambert, the Tigers' goalie. A short time later, another incident in the Pirate end with the "unnamed one" saw him again come into contact with Matthew Lella, but this too was judged to be just coincidental contact by the refs. This was the last straw for the Pirates, who by this time had lost all sense of calm and were providing extended commentary on the performance of the referees from the bench, against all better judgment and advice from the few level heads left on the team.

But the best revenge is a victory, and with 2:35 left in the game, Auby Mandell and John Mutch combined on a textbook give-and-go to tuck the puck past Lambert once again and give the Pirates a 3-2 lead. Unfortunately, a Pirate defensive lapse in the dying minutes of the game, with the Tigers' net empty, allowed them to tie it up with 1:10 to go

What can we say? We can insist on better reffing from TNHC, we can try to inform TNHC of this on-going situation which seems to us to lead down a road to a serious injury at some point in the future, we can ask for more careful monitoring of the games this offending player plays from the tier administrator, but in the end, it is not up to us. The Pirates can only decide to play Pirate Brand Hockey® or Tiger Brand Hockey, and on this day, they chose the latter. It is not a style of play at which they excel, but the Pirates — though clearly blessed with a high level of intelligence — appear to still not have gelled into a team that can focus on playing their game rather than the one their opponents choose to play. Until they do, they will likely face more uneven performances, more unsatisfying outcomes, more ties and maybe more losses.

So what to do? Well, you can show up for the Wednesday Night Pirate Skate™ — where everyone wins — and you can also be at RINX 2 to see your eternal heroes take on another nemesis of campaign of yore, the Mid-Ice Crisis at 9:10 p.m. Both could be fun!

Howie