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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.

Howie Report, 30 November 2006
2006-10-30: Mighty Pirates 1 vs. Loch Monsters 1

You would think that the Mighty Pirates, having been roasted on a spit like clockwork almost every Monday night of the preseason in the TNHC Monday Canadian Division, would have been happy finally chalking up a point against the Loch Monsters with a tie last Monday night. But memories in hockey are short. Having recorded a 3-0 win against the Suicide Wings in the final game of the preseason, the boys in yellow and black wanted nothing more than another W, this despite their historic lack of success against the deep lake dwellers over many seasons. Well, in contrast to the Howie-Les report of the Suicide Wing game, which saw little to be happy about and much to condemn despite the win, Howie saw much to praise and far less to vilify despite the tie.

Firstly, the Pirates are finally getting the attendance from their roster that they need to put a coherent team on the ice. Despite the ongoing uncertainty about Kwinter (whose "good" knee is now reportedly suspect) and Jezioranski (whose return to the lineup in imminent, subject to his collarbone healing soon — LATE BREAKING NEWS — HE'S BACK NEXT WEEK!!!), the rest of the Pirate roster was there for the 7:00 p.m. tilt in plenty of time (though at 15 minutes before the puck was scheduled to drop, there were exactly three Pirates in the locker room!). As a result, Captain Vito Mola had the luxury of constructing three full forward lines (John Mutch with Auby Mandell and Tim Sturgeon; Nick Perri with Allan Phillips and Mark Sager, and Jonathan Gallivan with Dave Turner and Shaun Leggett) and two pairs of defence (Chris Besant with Evan Mintz and Paul Matusek with Les Klein). The ever-stalwart Matthew Lella was in net.

The first period was a fierce and hotly contested one, with the Monsters definitely taking the attack to the Pirates. Your heroes found themselves trapped in their own end of the ice for extended periods, unable to clear the puck, unable to clear the Monsters from in front of the net and unable to freeze the play to stop the clock and change lines. This scenario was replayed at least three times in the first ten minutes, and was a cause of some concern. In fact, it should have been the source of some serious scoring by the LMs but for the absolutely stellar play of Matthew Lella in net. Coming off his shutout of the Suicide Wings the week before, he appeared to have eyes in all directions and lightning-fast reflexes, as he turned away point-blank shots, stymied wrap-arounds, frustrated men in front of the net with kick-saves and was johnny-on-the-spot whenever it was needed.

The Pirates also noted early in the game that the referees appeared to be of a different school than they had previously encountered in the upper tiers of TNHC. The strict interpretations of obstruction, interference and body contact seem to not be applied with the same vigor in this division, and the Loch Monsters seemed to know this, as they consistently rode the Pirates into the boards, ran blatant interference and generally used their bodies to their advantage. The Pirates were clearly nonplussed as they could not understand why obvious penalties in the previous five weeks were suddenly being ignored. This was a difficult situation to deal with, given that they had come to believe that a new era of peace and nonviolence had come to TNHC. How this will play out in the weeks ahead could tell a great deal about how this season will go for the MPs.

So when no penalties were called in the first, scoreless period, in the second, the actions escalated, and soon calls that could no longer be ignored — for interference and roughing — were assessed, first against Besant, then the LMs and finally against the captain himself, Vito Mola. Irony of ironies, it was while El Capitano was serving his time, that Paul Matusek threaded a perfect clearing pass through several LM defenders to a streaking John Mutch, who beat the opposing goalie for the first tally of the game, a short-handed goal.

As the third period began, the LMs turned the heat up even more, riding several Pirates hard into the boards, garnering a penalty early in the frame, and then a blatant hip check that upended John Mutch and sent him to the bench, clearly shaken up. In this closing phase of the game, the Pirates suddenly gave up their until then cool and successful Pirate Brand Hockey® against the heavy pressure of the Loch Monsters, and started to worry about preserving the shutout for Lella. Suddenly, defencemen were out of position, forwards were collapsing into the goal and there were free Monsters floating all over the Pirate end of the ice. Thus, it was while their Chouinard was serving his penalty that the Loch Monsters broke through the Pirate lines and notched the tying goal with 2:23 left in the game in a short-handed situation. A disappointment to MP fans everywhere, it was — alas — a fate that the Pirates brought on themselves. And in this case, the tie felt not like a win, and not like a tie, but very much like a loss — a loss of concentration that cost the MPs the crucial W.

For while Howie wants to heap praise on the Pirates for 29+ minutes of gritty hard work and sticking by and large to the game plan, there was a consistent failure to do two key things:

Cover the defencemen at our own blue line, to take away the clear shots from the point, to tie up the defencemen at the blue line to allow the puck to be cleared and to be in position to receive a clearing pass along the boards.
Get the wingers to clear ice along the boards so that the Pirate defence has a target when they have cleared the puck out of our zone and speed up the process of getting the puck up the ice.

On the other hand, special commendations need to be given to all three centres for providing the extra man support in front of the net (it is the centre's job, not the wingers, to get back and help out at the net!). And the team as a whole must be given its due for (by and large) not losing their cool in the face of the heavy artillery from the Loch Monsters.

Bottom line? The Pirates played a hard game, gained a point, and have arrived at the Coors Light Division knowing what they already knew before — the competition at this level will be no less challenging than before, and it will be for the Pirates themselves to show if they can play PBH consistently through each and every game, to maximize their chances for success. The Loch Monsters greeted the Pirates during the handshakes after the game with "Welcome Back." So they are! As the effects of the new lineup, the new division, the start of the Wednesday Night Pirate Skate™ and the (hoped for) returns of Jim Jezioranski and Rob Kwinter start to kick in, we should see a steady improvement in your heroes' fortunes. Let's see how they do next week on RINX 3 at 10:00 p.m. on Monday night, November 6 against the Scorpions, a team that they have never faced before. It will be a long climb out of the cellar, but the boys are determined to be at the top by the end of the season. Be there and cheer them on!

GO PIRATES!!! VIVA LOS PIRATAS!!!

Howie