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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.

Pirates, Mighty Pirates!
2009-10-05: Mighty Pirates 4 vs. Silver Blades 2

The 2009-2010 Hap Day Division of Monday night True North Hockey, though early yet and still the preseason, is shaping up to be one highly competitive division!The six teams are tightly bunched, and while the Mongolian Horde (0-3-0) have yet to notch a victory and the Loch Monsters (3-0-0) — with an 11 goal differential — look pretty sure to be moved up, there is lots of good hockey to come. That was evidenced in bunches last Monday night when the yellow and black took to the ice against the Silver Blades (1-1-1).

In addition to the strong opposition, the Mighty Pirates (2-1-0) have also had to battle against inconsistency in their line-ups from game to game. The Pirates have had to deal with a severely depleted squad, relying on its talented pool of subs to fill out the roster. With Captain Mola and Mandell still nursing their slowly-healing knees, Leggett down with the flu, Gallivan fending off women's undergarments being thrown at him from frenzied rock star groupies, and Besant seconded to overhaul the Canadian commercial legal system (not to mention subs Tassone, P. Sinclair and N. Sinclair being unavailable), the Bucs called up S. Klein, Brown and Siddons to bolster both the front and back lines. Alternate Captain Turner chose to go with three full forward lines (Mutch, Sousa and Brown at centres; Bingham, Phillips and L. Klein on right; and Turner, Sager and Sturgeon on left) and two sets of defence (S. Klein, Sousa, Jezioranski and Kwinter). Lella stood tall between the pipes.

With relatively unfamiliar lines and some players taking on new roles for the game, it was clear that the Pirates would have to rely on Pirate Brand Hockey® to compete. That — as all fans of the team know — involves strong defence and opportunistic offence. The Pirates also had the advantage of extra legs, so the focus was on quick, hard shifts.

The game was a fast-moving affair from the start, with the Silver Blades combining their quickness and strong passing to press in on the Pirates in the early going. But the blue line of our heroes was solid and managed to break up several fast breaks and 3-on-2s early to foil scoring chances. Lella was also solid, smothering shots and denying fat chances in front of the net. It was in the dying minutes of the first period that the deadlock was finally broken, when Mutch took a pass from S. Klein at the blue line and tipped the puck over the shoulder of the very surprised Blades goalie to make it 1-0. That first goal energized the Pirates and momentarily demoralized the Blades, and three minutes into the second period, the Pirates managed to convincingly hem the Blades in their own end for an extended shift. As they passed the puck confidently around, Sturgeon parked himself firmly in front of the goalie. Bingham shovelled the puck to Mutch, he positioned himself where Sturgeon could screen the shot, and as the bullet hit the ice in front of the goalie, the Sturgeonator deflected it into the twine. Pirates 2, Blades 0. This was a stunning blow to the confident Blades, and they subtly shifted their play from teamwork to individual efforts by their most skilled players. While this ploy could have helped them against other teams, the Pirate defence was wise to the change, and managed to keep their shooters to the outside, denying them the slots and the centre of the ice. Any shots that did get through the iron wall were easily handled by Lella, who was superb in his comeback from the previous week's flu. And with 1:46 left in the second, on yet another charge into Blades territory, Sousa let loose one of his patented cannon slap shots which the hapless Blades goalie never saw, lighting up the red light yet again, and the second period ended with the good guys up 3-0.

With the prospect of further pressure from the Blades in the third period, the Pirates stepped up their commitment to clearing the puck from their zone, and letting the Blades do the hard skating. Aggressive forechecking and backchecking ensured that their skaters never had a clear route to the Pirate net, and play after play was broken up in the neutral zone, giving the Pirates time to man their posts on defence. However, with four minutes gone in the final frame, Sturgeon — arguably the Pirates' impact player of the game — was uncharacteristically caught up in an altercation with the Blades' Galati and both were rewarded with a four minute rest in their respective sin bins. With the Pirate lines in disarray as a result — the Pirates at one point icing just four players as Klein decided to catch up on his leisure reading on the bench instead of taking their shift — the Blades were finally able to capitalize and a puck that was not cleared ended up sneaking behind Lella for the Blades' first goal. However, this was quickly countered two and a half minutes later as Mutch and Bingham mounted a 2-on-1 rush and Richard buried both the puck and the Blades' hope with a solid shot low and wide. That left Mutch and Bingham tied for the lead in team scoring at four points each. Pirate Brand Hockey® prevailed for the balance of the match, though the Blades did manage to score one more time with less than two minutes left to make it a contest.

All in all, the game was a fine performance for the Bucs, who showed that they can rise to the challenge when faced with very tough opponents. Mutch tallied three points (a goal and two assists), Bingham had two (1G and 1A), Sturgeon and Sousa notched one goal apiece, and S. Klein tagged on his first assist of the season. With the notable exception of the offsetting penalties in the third, the game was clean and penalty-free, and the flow was a thing of beauty to behold.

The question on the minds of all Pirate fans is whether the one week layoff for the Thanksgiving weekend will affect the way the team is gelling. Knowing that, once again, several key players will be gone for the game (including Kwinter), the Pirates will be waiting with anticipation for the possible return to the ice of both Captain Mola and smart playmaker Auby Mandell after long knee-related layoffs. See the boys in ebony and goldenrod take on the Ice Demons for their historic first meeting on Monday, October 19 at 6:30 pm in their first game of the season at Ricoh Coliseum. Now that is a game no one will want to miss!

GO PIRATES!!! VIVEN LOS PIRATAS!!!

Howie