This Week in SCOHA – January 13th, 2022

Well fellas, as we lean up against the wall and wait this one out, a few SCOHA players are trying to come up with a loop-hole way to be able to play in the Olympics next month. League president and all around nice guy, Terry Gudgeon, said in a statement this afternoon that no player under contract in SCOHA is permitted to play in the upcoming Olympics, something that brought about some ire from a few players.

Masters wiley veteran Guy Shaver was all clean-shaven and ready to board the plane early to avoid air traffic when Gudgeon’s announcement came to light this afternoon. Shaver was ready to play for team Switzerland, a definite underdog in the tournament but he was offered a 3rd line spot on the club. Word from the Swiss team is that a young goaltender by the name of Jonas Toblerone will make his debut. A “nougat” of information for you: He plays a “triangle” style of play, he is “nuts”, and he likes to hang out at Swiss Chalet around Christmas. Toblerone doesn’t take to losing very lightly. He has been seen acting pretty crunchy and salty after some sub-par games in the net.

At any rate, fingers are crossed for our season to continue. Your buddy Doug Ford holds the key to Ontario arenas and me thinks we will be back skating very soon but who knows, there are still more cases than Matlock has ever seen.

Stick tap to Cable 14 who are replaying some classic SCOHA games to keep us all entertained. This week’s game was the 1982 “Massacre on the Mountain” masters championship game which saw a young goaltender Brian Deanes score not 1 but 2 empty net goals as his team won the cup. Thick fog filled the rink but the players soldiered on. TV cameras couldn’t follow the puck, broadcasters had to come down from the gondola to call the play-by-play, and Dale Brons glued a damn lightbulb to the puck to help everyone out.

Intermediate Blackhawks coach and GM Paul McGraw mailed out off-ice training regiments to his squad this week. Covid or not, McGraw sits at the top of the Kenilworth stairs with his clipboard every morning at 8am and expects his team to adhere to the training.

Other than that, that’s about all that’s happening from this end of the ice. Let’s hope everyone is keeping well. We’ve been lucky to play the games we did. If I didn’t have a cat, I would be doing puzzles every night. Hope to see everyone soon…

Chris Marttila

SCOHA Blogologist