NH Whalers 2010 - Win The Opener - 1 In Awesome Wonder

June 9, 2023 – NH Whalers Win The Opener. The 2010 NH Whalers were down in Rhode Island for the Ocean State Lobsterfest Hockey Tournament and they won their first game, 4-1.

After game one of the weekend, the NH Whalers 2010 team gathered for this quick picture in front of snow removed from the ice by the Zamboni.

Yes, it’s June, but our team was playing ice hockey in the Ocean State, Rhode Island. In a nutshell this tournament, Ocean State Lobsterfest is a rather large hockey tournament. On Sunday alone, there were 43 games scheduled, and that was just playoff games. Within this massive tournament there were numerous divisions and age groups. Some divisions were actually smaller than the state of Rhode Island.

In this scenario, our team is the NH Whalers, the 2010 edition. For our family, we reunited with friends from the 2010 Flames season, as well as friends from previous Flames teams, and then new friends from other teams, and maybe even a player or two from our school district.

Then again, this isn’t really about us though. It’s about the players that were selected to be on this team. Okay, it’s about the coaches too, a little bit. I will say this, the team played better as the tournament went on. They learned each other’s tendencies quickly, and made good hockey plays all over the ice.

Here we are just talking about game one of the tournament in a match up against the NYC Falcons. The NYC Falcons come from Long Island City, NY. Their website gets right to the point. “The NYC Falcons is an elite, select-only spring youth hockey travel program. Born out of the NYC Skyliners youth travel program based in Long Island City, the Falcons program seeks to expand the skills of committed players looking to continue their development past the traditional season.”

Anyways, the NYC Falcons were the first opponent and they had some seriously tall players. The Whalers have some big boys too. But when it came right down to skating and team play, the NH Whalers were in pretty good shape.

I kept no stats for any of the games although it is likely that I will make some up for emphasis. For the most part, the rinks were dark and I was standing behind glass that had seen its share of being struck by the puck and leaving marks. Even so, I will try to tell some sort of a story through the pictures that my little old camera captured.

Maybe I will mix in some ordinary extra moments along the way. And keep in mind that the game I am seeing might differ from the one you see. Eventually, I come back to reality for a moment or two along the way. I will have some fun along the way.

Please enjoy. I honestly stand along the boards game after game and just give thanks for being able to be there and enjoy watching kids play, as they learn along the way. I even enjoy watching my kid. It really is all about the kids.

Here we go…

The first picture I took in Rhode Island was this one. Don’t worry, there’s only 44 more. Click on the pictures to zoom in and have a look around.

I have no idea what kids I got, or didn’t get in the pictures. I took a lot more pictures than 44, but as Detective Allen Gamble said, “Look, they’re not all first-round picks, okay?”

I took this picture because I love our Flag. I take a lot of pictures of Old Glory, at rinks, and really, all over the place. Then of course there are the 2010 NH Whalers in their sharp uniforms. You may also notice that the glass is well, not pristine.

: These games were played in two 18-minute halves. In NH that’s a 36-minute game. Anyway, here we see Jordan Hawkes flying up the ice against the Falcons.

: Travis skated over to my corner during one stoppage to make sure that my camera was on and running properly. He is always looking out for me.

: Roger Williams wrote about whales in Rhode Island all the way back in 1643. But, I am guessing that these NH Whalers were after something different.

: Travis plays the ole ‘hidden puck’ trick with the referees. They love it.

: Alex Panitz, yes that Alex of ‘Panitz! At The Disco’ fame, takes a knee and proposes a shot toward the net.

: Here we see Garrett Courchaine let a shot rip toward the net with some traffic in front of the net.

: A little later on Jax Diachenko scored from the point. The team celebrates. Jax is the big kid in the middle.

: Jax shows a sliver of emotion from 150′ away. I had to really work the zoom and crop to capture this miracle.

: I have to say that these uniforms are pretty sharp (that’s what us old people say when something looks exceptionally and fashionably excellent).

: I apologize for this shot. I told Teddy to stand still so I could take a good picture of him. Or maybe he was just thinking about the upcoming face-off.

: In goalie speak, Travis holds the nearside post while tracking the puck visually. Then there is Jaden who is looking in that direction without fully committing the rest of his head to the gaze, as to keep it secret. I get it.

: Jaden Booth gets low and lays into a shot toward the net against the NYC Falcons during a game in Smithfield, RI.

: Travis played two and a half games, all against the NYC Falcons. He allowed just this one goal. I kept this picture because, well it was a great shot, and nobody is perfect. But that’s more than okay.

: Whalers celebrate their second goal!

: After the first half of their first game, the NH Whalers lead the NYC Falcons, 2-1. There was no halftime entertainment that I was aware of.

The 2010 NH Whalers gather at the bench in between halves of their first game in RI. Here I also apologize to Liam Duchesne because I didn’t get many pictures of him. I will explain more later.

: Garrett looks please to be getting back to play the puck. Or he’s amused by the 27th icing call against the Falcons in this game.

: Remember when they used to hand out uniform numbers by the size of the player? The higher numbers always went to the bigger kids. The Whalers though, their players have earned their numbers. Or were just asked what they wanted for a number.

: Again, the boys looking great! Jacob, Jax, and Keanu, from left to right.

: All of the Whalers lines were a royal pain to play against, in a good way. They forechecked with such ferocity that teams constantly turned the puck over or could not clear their zone. As seen here, Teddy rips a shot off of the goalie’s shoulder after the Whalers held the zone..

: Then, to drive the point home, Teddy picked the player’s pocket and got another shot on goal after NYC thought they were breaking out the puck.

: In the seconds that make up moments that are remembered as some of the best of one’s life, friendships develop then grow and even become galvanized.

: From left to right, Jordan, Sean, Jaden, and Lucas all glide back to the Whalers bench. In a distant corner I whisper to the glass in front of me, “Good shift boys.”

: Courchaine let’s ‘er fly against NYC. Did you know that Courchaine translates to, ” topographic name for someone living at a farm with an oak tree in the farmyard?” I think that sounds awesome.

: Aaron Warble just missed the net with this shot as Logan Ercha looks on. These two were literally everywhere in this game. I think NYC had enough of these two in this game.

: Logan “The Freight Train” McCain demonstrates a ‘skate-by’ which is similar to a ‘fly-by’ as seen in the movies. Except the bench is like, “It’s just Logan. Keep watching the action at the other end.”

: The rules stated that there was checking allowed in this division. So the players did get a taste of some physicality in the games over the weekend.

: Jax pounds a shot at the net down in Smithfield, RI. The Town of Smithfield was named after John Smith, “The Miller,” who was granted land by Roger Williams. Smith was one of the original party of six men headed by Roger Williams that formed the first settlement in Rhode Island.

: Chase (known as Chang in the league he plays in overseas) finds himself in the corner between a couple of very tall Falcons. But that did not phase Chase.

: McCain sees that the puck is in the net and it’s another Whalers goal in their opening game. Ouellette and McGee are stunned.

: Five Whalers skate up ice after scoring against NYC. Logan, Sean, Jordan (in the back), Lucas, and Garrett carrying on like they have been playing together for years.

: The Falcons learned that where there was a Warble, there is also an Ercha. Honestly, if you’re old enough to remember, they have powers while playing together like when the Wonder Twins would activate their super powers.

: Warble gets all wound up at Ocean State Lobsterfest.

: Teddy digs a puck out of the corner and fires a pass to the slot against the Falcons.

: Jacob quietly sneaks into an open area on the ice. He was there for nine minutes before someone noticed.

: Unfamiliar with Sean McGee’s face-off prowess the ref and NYC player look in amazement at how far the puck traveled after the puck dropped.

: Travis keeps track of the puck’s path. See, Liam I didn’t know that they played hockey in Rhode Island where teams don’t switch ends at any point during the game.

: Watching these kids grow is part of the joy of youth sports. Like when Jax was the ‘smaller than large engine that could’, and now he is the “I could run you over engine that should’.

: Chase caps the scoring with the Whalers 4th goal. Chase is a French name that means, “to hunt”. Bingo!

: Everyone should celebrate the 4th. Jacob, Chase, and Teddy more than held their own against the team from Long Island City.

: Chase flashes a smile after Teddy and Jacob both said that they had tried smiling once and it was pretty cool.

: NH Whalers win their opener, 4-1. Travel to RI and play, they said, play a big team from NY, they said. They came. They played, They triumphed. Together.

: Believe it or not, goals, games, plays, and rinks run together on a short 5-game run over a 52-hour span. So I take pictures to remember. Like the score for instance.

: The players line up to shake hands after a hard fought game by both teams. The Whalers prevailed, but these teams would meet again.

You can follow other NH Whalers 2010 Hockey stories, here.

You can also follow this blog here. I write a lot about hockey. It’s a long season. It’s not all just about the hockey, but rather about lessons and takeaways that come up throughout these seasons. Yes, I am biased. I am biased toward the truth and the right way to do things, whether anyone is watching or not.

The players play the games. The kids score the goals and make the saves. Most of the time, the kids band together for something that is bigger than themselves; the team. The kids do so many things right on any given play, on any given day. I have found that more often than not, the kids pleasantly surprise us all. It’s awesome. It’s all about the kids.

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.

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it: If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.” ~ Jim Valvano on how to live life, during his ESPY speech.

“I started writing sports stories 20 years ago. I still do. I write because somewhere, in some game, a kid might be having the time of his or her life. That’s awesome to think about. It’s all about the kids.” ~ Steve Beal Sr.