NH Whalers 2010 - 3 For 3 - 1 In Awesome Wonder

June 10, 2023 – NH Whalers 2010 – 3 For 3. The 2010 NH Whalers entered Saturday having already beaten the other two teams in their division. Now they had to face the NYC Falcons again.

We woke up to a warmer, more sunny day, Saturday, day two of the Ocean State Lobsterfest tournament. New day, game 3, different rink. West Warwick, RI this time. The NH Whalers were playing their third game of the tournament in their third different rink. Kind of cool actually.

West Warwick was incorporated in 1913, making it the youngest town in the state of Rhode Island. And boy, could you tell! Just kidding. West Warwick became its own town because of political reasons. Democrats wanted to circle the wagons to maintain their power and isolate from the Republicans who were farming the lands to the east. I am guessing that the farmers did not offer any of their wagons up for the circling.

Anyways, eventually they built a rink in West Warwick. They put new ice in the rink recently, and will be upgrading the boards soon. The rink was renamed to the Benny Magiera Memorial Ice Rink some time ago. The 2010 NH Whalers got to play at this rink on Saturday. They were looking to go 3 for 3 in the win column at the Ocean State Lobsterfest. To do so, they would have to win a rematch with the NYC Falcons.

Ordinary Extra

: Before the game, outside the rink in West Warwick. Always drawn to the flag.

: I ducked under the branches of this cool looking tree along the side of the parking lot. And as my patriotic spirit would have it, I found the Liberty Tree.

: The Liberty Tree was even better from inside the green canopy provided by the tree.

: Before I went inside the rink, I rushed (in my sauntering way) back to the end of the parking lot so I could get a better sight line for this clash of the clouds.

Inside this rink there was a silent auction being held up in the seating area which was pretty neat. There were some autographed jerseys and signed pictures among other things laid out on a couple of tables. I did no bidding, but there was some pretty good stuff.

Eventually, it was time for game three of the tournament. The NH Whalers played well. In fact, they were playing better and better each time they took the ice. On the other side of the ice, the NYC Falcons were also playing better each time out. Now, the final score might not reflect that fact, but they were coming together too.

At the end of the first half, the NH Whalers held a 2-0 lead. The first half had been well played by both teams.

The Whalers took three straight penalties in the second half. If the Falcons were going to get back into this game, this would have been the time to do it. Even though they had some pretty good scoring chances, the Whalers were able to keep NYC off of the scoreboard.

Then, NH struck for a goal to make it, 3-0. After that it seemed that the dominos started to fall for the Falcons. 4-0. 5-0. And finally, a 7-0 final. The NH Whalers were 3 for 3 in the tournament.

You might look at the score and think, ya that wasn’t that big a deal. 7-0. I would say that the Falcons played better. I would also say that the Whalers played better too. In fact, with both teams playing better, and both teams having experienced the same history together, it was a credit to both teams. The Whalers didn’t let down and the Falcons didn’t lay down, they just ran out of gas.

There was another game to play on Saturday and we will get to that later. For now…

…Please enjoy. It really is all about the kids. And my hope is that the kids get to see themselves in some decent hockey pictures along the way.

Here we go…

Click on the pictures to zoom in and have a look around. Pictures really do contain so many little details and surprises.

As the tournament wore on I thought I should try to get pictures of everyone. Actually, I always thought that but I hadn’t focused on it. So then I did. Fast forward to this week, and I realized that sooo many of my pictures were useless because they were dark, or they were blurry, or some other excuse. Either way, as Detective Allen Gamble said, “Look, they’re not all first-round picks, okay?” You know who Allen Gamble is, right?

: Jax comes rumbling through my corner. Nobody seemed to want to get in his way.

: GC turns the net and starts to look for someone to pass the puck to.

: Playin’ hockey. Kid with the puck. Teammates in front. Defense defending. Goalie aware. As it should be.

: STP turns to the inside with the puck. Meanwhile the ref is skating like his alarm just went off and he realized he was supposed to be positioned inside the zone…10 minutes ago!

: AW, not to be confused with A&W, leans into his turn, armed with a backhand that he’s not afraid to use.

: McGee puts his back into his work at the face-off dot. Jaden wonders how his bid on the Gretzky autograph is doing in the silent auction upstairs.

: You can take the kids out of their regular season team joy, but you can’t take their regular season team joy out of the kids.

: After the first game I figured I would stand in the offensive zone for the games, to catch the Whalers action. Actually, I was outside the boards but you know what I mean. This left me a long ways from our goalies. That’s my fault. I think this is Travis at the other end of the rink.

: The Whalers were on the rush and Jacob let a shot fly as the defense collapsed on him.

: Everything matters. Every little thing, from how you think to how hard you play. Someone is always watching.

: The NH Whalers celebrate another goal by surrounding the ref. Or they have six hockey helmets on the ice.

Chase lets a shot rip while on the fly. In his overseas league he (Chang) would never do such a thing as this. Chang is a Chinese name that dates back more than 4500 years. It means flourish; prosper; sunlight; smooth; free; unrestrained. p.s. this shot was saved.

Teddy sees an opportunity to run into something and he’s pretty happy about it. Jacob thinks, “Oh no. There he goes again. I better get over there.”

: Yes! Whalers scored! Come here and give me a hug! What a team! I love this team.

: Keanu finds some room to get a shot away and he rips this one against the NYC Falcons.

: Warble wires a shot at point blank range. Connor is there for a rebound. There was no rebound on this one. It found the twine.

After the game, and a quick stop at the ice cream truck in the parking lot, several of us ended up at Apponaug Brewing Company which sits in the mill buildings alongside the Pawtuxet River. It was a pretty cool place.

Eventually, my son and I made it back to our hotel room. But that was just for some down time. Because there was still another game to be played that evening. And of course, that game was back in Smithfield.

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.