It's an MJAHL playoff game on the road tonight for the Pictou County Weeks Crushers, and the local Junior A club needs this one. They haven't officially reached the do-or-die stage, but the possibility of a 3-1 series deficit looms large as they head into Game 4 of their best-of-seven series against the Halifax Lions.
We're just three games in, so we can't throw anyone under the team bus (remember the endless chatter about Sidney Crosby going two games without a point in the Olympics? Indeed, he almost went three games without one... and we all know how Sidney ended that "slump").
Geoff Hum and Dan Joyce are supposed to create goals, a scarce commodity the past week for Pictou County, who have had stretches of dominance over the quick and resilient Lions but haven't gotten the bounces. Hum and Joyce aren't alone (to be fair, Joyce buried the game-winner on Tuesday and has three points in three games), but the Crushers need more from their top two guns.
Random Thoughts: So, the drum intro to Hot for Teacher starts at JBM during a lull in the proceedings in Game 3 and a guy beside me in the stands voices approval, to which I agreed (with the nets coming off the moorings every two minutes, there's been plenty of lulls in the proceedings). They cued up 'Panama', too – another Van Halen classic.
I thought one of our goldfish was ready to do a long float last week; wasn't moving much, drooped over at a 45 degree angle, seemed groggy and close to the end. We did a desperation water change and Flash has perked up, swimming around, looking for food like his normal self. Bubbles, the other goldfish, is more self-sufficient, a better hunter who probably will live longer. Hard to know with fish though.
Later in Game 3, me and another guy in the cheap seats wondered why Sean Hoyt was called for an unsportsmanlike penalty when all he seemed to be doing was yapping at a Lion: it's a one-goal game in the third period of a playoff game, and suddenly we're politically correct, Kerry Fraser is in the building and all the players are wearing Timbits sweaters. It's not that it cost the Crushers Game 3, but it didn't help things, either.
During the second intermission when a bunch of us congregated outside for a breath of fresh air, another guy swore the puck was in the net when the Crushers looked like they had scored a second-period goal: the light went on but the referee waved it off.
Opportunity is at hand for both of these teams: with the Bridgewater Lumberjacks giving the Truro Bearcats everything they can handle in the other Maurice Bent division semifinal, who knows who will be playing who 10 days from now? * * *
If you'd asked Weeks Major Midgets coach Dave MacIntyre four months ago – or four weeks ago – if he saw his club getting this close to a trip to Atlantics, I don't know what his answer would have been, but I think I know what most others would have thought. Now, the Major Midgets have clawed back from a wretched 2-7 start to their season, proving again that what you do in September isn't as meaningful as what you do in February and March. They're not finished their work of course, but getting hot at just the right time has gotten them three wins away from a provincial title.
