2010 Flames - Opening Weekend - Face Your Opponent

It’s early September and although the temperatures are still quite warm, hockey season is underway here in New Hampshire. It was opening weekend for the 2010 Flames and they hosted a pair of games at West Side Arena to begin the new campaign.

There was much work done on the rink itself and the infrastructure outside such as a minor facelift to the building and a beautiful new parking lot, with lines and everything. We are fortunate to have such a place to call home for our youth hockey players.

Anyway, it was opening weekend and the Flames played the North Shore Shamrocks and the IHC (Islanders). While the Flames dropped a pair of decisions, 2-1 and 5-3, there is always something to build on and opportunity for growth. As the second game closed the weekend of play on Saturday afternoon emotions bubbled into action on the ice. Player vs. player, team vs. team. It didn’t get out of control but it could have likely been avoided. Either way, just seconds after the teams had heated to their respective boiling points, they had to line up and shake hands. This, to me, is one of the great hockey traditions.

I know that it has become easy to avoid this tradition with all the fear in the world and the unwillingness of officials to tackle, for a moment, the leadership opportunity they possess to make sure these things go off without a hitch. But for young kids learning how to be a good teammate and an accountable competitor, facing your opponent for a few seconds in a lineup without blowing your cool or acting irresponsibly is a good lesson to learn, over and over again.

Well, I realized that as I started taking pictures of the first game, that I am really rusty. I hope to get better as we go through the season. As always, though, this is all about the kids. Every shift, or every game, some kid might be having the best day of their sports life. Or maybe life, family, school has got a kid down and on the ice is his or her place to be at peace and find joy for long enough periods of time to learn how to find peace in joy in nearly everything that life throws our way. It’s their story and may parents and coaches may be ‘too’ caught up in their team or their dream pressed upon their own offspring to tell the story or even recognize it for it what it should be.

We are Americans. Right or wrong, we wait for nothing. We play more games per practice than much of the world because we take the shortcut to things that we can measure. Like goals and points and wins and losses, as if this the only to measure progress.

Kids play games in many cases to live up to an unreal expectation that parents and adults create for them because we want to be entertained and numerically satisfied. The program cannot be that good if we don’t play games constantly is the mindset.

With this approach we nearly lose sight of the kids entirely. Or at least losing touch with the pure joy that we were hopefully blessed to know as youngsters ourselves. I never played organized hockey as a kid, but I can honestly say that I did experience joy and unadulterated freedom while playing hockey on my own, for hours and hours on any back woods piece of ice could find. Honestly, I felt that way about any sport I played, even in our yard. For love of the game.

The Islanders and the 2010 Flames line up and shake hands at the end of their game on Saturday. The Islanders jumped out to a 4-0 lead and hung on to win, 5-3. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

On Friday night, prime time, the Flames played the Shamrocks before a packed house for an 8:00 pm start. As it usually happens when these two teams meet, the game was close all the way through. The Shamrocks played well enough to earn a 2-1 win.

Score by period: Friday, September 9, 2022.

Shamrocks 0-1-1 = 2

Flames 0-0-1 = 1

As always with these galleries, please feel free to click on the pictures, read the captions, and zoom in and have a look around. Also, please enjoy! This is for the kids. I will get to everyone on the roster as weekends continue. Thank you for your time.

Game one: Flames 1 vs. Shamrocks 2

: 2022-23 season opening face-off. New team. New season. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Jacob gets a good look at a shot against the Shamrocks. Their goaltender played a solid game. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Head’s up! This puck found the net but, ummm, it didn’t count for anything on the scoreboard. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

$The Math Line$: When I was growing up, 2 + 7 = 9. We called it math. And thus I give you, “The Math Line”. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Travis is squared up to face this shot from the Shamrocks. The defense helped to reduce this attempt to ‘non-threatening’. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: I love these chats. I think a lot of the players do. They love to play for Coach Nick. Meanwhile, Coach Soucy is given a warning for trying to run off with the team’s water bottles.

: When competing it is valuable to know that filling space is not the same as commanding the space you are in. Taking an opponent out of their comfort zone is often times is proportionate to the expansion of your own comfort zone. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Travis makes a save up high and the puck glances up and off of the crossbar. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Teddy carries the puck up the boards on the breakout of the defensive zone. This was a moment before he got checked against the wall.

: New to the team this season, Lucas “Locks” Ouellette finds some open space in the offensive zone.

: Soucy gets back on defense to break up this scoring bid. Travis looks pretty intimidating in his pads, helmet, and intense stance. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Andy ‘Soucy’ gets a beautiful backhand shot on net against the Shamrocks. Does that mean it should be called a “backhAndy”? Ya, I didn’t think so. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: The Shamrocks turn a 3-on-1 into a goal. Meanwhile, someone might interpret the goaltenders thoughts. Will “I am (see what I did there) not a miracle worker, but I do expect to save every single shot.” © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Teddy looks for the puck in the slot. Jacob looks for the best way to play the puck into a scoring chance for the Flames. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Logan “The Freight Train” McCain skates unencumbered to the net as would be checks fall away like scenery along the route. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Coach Warren layin’ down straight wisdom. Coach Soucy is giddy with delight as he collects the prized water bottles. Coach Ouellette thinks, “I am new here, but this guy might have a problem. Although he does look really happy and seems so positive. Hmmm.” © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Teddy looks to make a centering pass to newcomer, Jacob, but he didn’t make clean contact with the puck. The pass was too slow and was behind Jacob, ending the scoring chance. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: “STP” rips a shot on net against the Shamrocks. The shot hit the goaltender and caromed wide and into the corner.

: Will gave nothing to shoot at but the Shamrocks scored on this play when the shot hit the post and glanced into the net. This came right after the Flames had a few chances to take the lead at the other end of the ice. Tough break. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: The Flames opted for the extra attacker in trying to tie the game late. This shot was blocked out high and the comeback bid fell short. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

Score by period: Saturday, September 10, 2022.

Islanders 4-1-0 = 5

Flames 0-2-1 = 3

Game two: Flames 3 vs. IHC Islanders 5

: Jaden joined the team this season. Here he shows some good hustle getting back on defense.

: Will made a nice save on the initial shot but the Islanders were all over the rebound and put the puck in the net. It appears that the Flames had proper numbers to better defend this scoring chance. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: The Flames gathered at the bench after fifteen minutes, trailing 4-0. This may have been their actual wake up call. Or…Coach Soucy is at it again…Coach Ouellette ponders the reality that summer is coming to an end. Travis wonders, “Wait, was my goalie stick always this long?” Also, “The Freight Train” and “Locks” compare notes on their hockey flo.

: If you look closely you will notice that the puck from Soucy’s tough angle shot gets past the goaltenders glove. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: After Soucy’s shot got into the crease it is very hard to tell if the puck crossed the line. The play was called ‘no goal’. My imagination makes me wonder where the puck is in this picture. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Caleb Powers “International Man of Mystery” takes ‘facing his opponent’ literally. Coach Tim (behind the glass) looks on, thinking, “Mmmm hmmm, it has been a long, long time since I have seen something like that.” © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

The Flames dug themselves a big hole, falling behind, 4-0. They did battle back and dominated most of the second and third period. They could not come all the way back, though they continued to exert effort and a never die mindset. They lost, 5-3, ending up 0-2 on the weekend. Over the six periods of hockey played this weekend, the Flames tied two periods, lost two periods, and won two periods. In a nutshell, these two games were very close.

: Jaden steps into a shot against the Islanders. There was plenty of room and Flames in front of the net. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: The shot made it through traffic and hit the goaltender. But the puck caromed off of the goaltender. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Gavin “Pear Tree” Petrie and Jordan Hawkes are in the area but unable to corral the puck for a rebound shot on goal. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: Logan lets fly on a shot from the Zamboni door. The stick bends in defiance of the force being exerted on it. Later, the stick asked Logan to sign it.

: I only counted 2 shots on goal from the Islanders in the final 12 minutes of the game. Despite this, the Flames could not score enough goals to make the comeback complete. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

: On the bench, Sean and Teddy discuss the finer points of the mental game they were playing on the ice. Gavin curls with the puck at the blue line while wondering, “How in the world do I have two shadows?”

The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the individual contributors, mostly mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the schools, coaches, players, or characters listed in any of these blog posts. Or, maybe they do, but you would have to ask them directly.

Either way, “It’s a great day for hockey” ~ the late “Badger” Bob Johnson.

“We should be dreaming. We grew up as kids having dreams, but now we’re too sophisticated as adults, as a nation. We stopped dreaming. We should always have dreams.” ~ the late Herb Brooks.