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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.

A review without the game sheet.
2008-10-27: Mighty Pirates 3 at Silver Blades 1

In net: Sturgeon
D-Unit: Besant / Jezioranski; Mintz / Tassone
Forwards: Turner / Sousa / Sager; Phillips / Mutch/ Mola

We learned a long time ago that "attitude is everything" in so many ways. We have also learned that the greatest likelihood of a loss is feeling that you have a "sure win". Thankfully, the reverse is often true in Pirate Brand Hockey®™. Last week we played the Toronto Blades, and this week the Silver Blades... well, the potential confusion just starts there. Like the T-Blades, the S-Blades are good sports to a man, and we would play them any time — win, loose or draw. We were missing some key players. We knew we had our work cut out for us.

Their big guys were bigger than our big guys, and their little guys were fast. They know enough about the Pirates to come on strong right out of the gate, and we were pinned in our own end for most of the first period. It was nearly the end of the first frame before we had any shots on net. Defense was our prime goal, and we did our best to keep their hot-shots at bay. Still, Sturgeon had to come up with some pretty fancy moves as these Blades were aiming at a win. We were clearly on our heels, and at some point were hoping for minimal embarrassment.

The single referee doing the game was very fair and let us play. At the end of the first period, he paused the game to check on his missing partner's whereabouts. This was a gift from the Hockey Gods to the Pirates, as we were "end of the second" tired at the end of the first. The only penalty of the game came from an accidental collision between a fast Blade and a slow Pirate. While the ref thought the Pirate should have avoided the impact, the Blade was, well, moving pretty fast.

The Pirates did shine a few times with some great give-an'-go moves that got us past the generally solid Blade defense. You were unlikely to beat their goalie on an unassisted shot, so we had to set up — at minimum — a 3-man play to even have a chance. And, we had to make that play with their best defenseman off the ice. Wingers were all good at coming back to let out defensemen get their shots. Keeping one man back is not enough against teams like the Blades' visor-less offense.

The game was much closer than 3-1 would show. Basically, we stuck to our game, even while feeling we were up against a possibly better team (that day). Getting moved up a little bit is good for the Pirates as we would all — honestly — rather loose by a goal to a team like the Blades than to run over a bunch of guys right out of the legendary Brian Curlie's Skate-Biz Hockey Skuul.

Go Pirates!

— Special Howie-Les Report by Dave Turner (#5)