FRIDAY NIGHT HOCKEY NEWS      

Friday January 7th, 2011

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FIRST GAME OF 2011 A BLOWOUT

Score - Blue Team A Lot, White Team Not Much

The much anticipated first game for the Friday Night Leafs White Team under the leadership of Jeff Bugden was, to say the least, somewhat of a disappointment.   The Commish was quoted as saying “there was a lot of hype following the draft but not much there to back it up”.   Following the game there has been some question as to the cause of this defeat with all fingers pointing back to leadership and the Captain and GM of the White Team’s organization.    The fan 590 had a common theme on the after game show that pointed fingers at Jeff Bugden who was unable to bring his unit together to produce any sort of results that should have been realized by the talent that was drafted to this team.  One caller summed it up by saying “there is no shortage of talent on the White Team, it all points back to poor leadership and strategic vision”.

On the other side the Blue Team, under the direction of Captain Bill Carr, was a shining example of what can happen when you have quality leadership combined with seasoned players with a strong desire to win.   Following the draft there was a lot of discussion centred on Bill’s decisions and draft choices but the naysayers were quickly silenced by the Friday nights decisive win.   “We have a vision and strategy that we were able to successfully execute,  our team came through with every player contributing to our domination for all 60 minutes of this game”, commented Captain Bill Carr.  “I am proud of the team and looking forward to continued success through the remainder of the 2011 season”.   The general opinion is that Bill is definitely on the right track and if he continues to employ the “family member clause” in the draft agreement, he will continue to see domination on Friday nights.   This was well proven with the addition of young Miles to the line up this past game.   This Captain is headed for Captain and GM of the year, a true example of quality leadership and a solid strategic vision.

In the after game press conference, Jeff’s comments were centered on the rebuilding process that needs to take place before the White Team will realize success.  “I played on the White Team for 14 years and after a brief hiatus of a year and a half have been placed in charge of what was a floundering team.   We are in the process of rebuilding and will require time to successfully develop the players and the team to reach their full potential”.   Critics are sceptical of this and have been quoted as saying “we have heard this many times before from Jeff, we are not convinced he can pull this off.   There is a lot of talk with not much walk, but time will tell”. 

FRIDAY NIGHT HOCKEY NEWS      

Friday February 11th, 2011

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The Blue Team Bounces Back

Score - Blue Team 7, White Team 6

It has been an interesting few weeks since our last article following the first game of the post Christmas season. After a rough first game, under the strong leadership of their captain Jeff Bugden, the white team rebounded back with consecutive and decisive wins over the struggling blue team. "We were very disappointed as a team after our first game and loss and knew we needed turn this around", Jeff was quoted as saying, "it has been a collective team effort and we are now very pleased with the results we are seeing". These results being, for lack of a better word, a hammering of the blue team.

Not surprising this past week was the trade of Ferguson to the blue team for future considerations. When asked about this latest move, Jeff responded with "are you surprised? You are only as strong as your weakest link. We had high hopes for what Ferguson could bring to the team but his sloppy play in our own end and lack lustre performance in the scoring side of things left us only one option".

Captain Bill Carr was not available for comment but GM Mike Gleeson was very pleased with the change and addition of Ferguson to the blue team line-up. “I wouldn’t say it was the decisive factor tonight as there were a number of changes we made that led to the turn around in this game”.

And a turn around it was. After four consecutive “beatings” at the hands of the white team, the blue team came out strong scoring early and maintaining the lead throughout the course of the game to a nail biting 7 to 6 win over the white team. The addition of Dan Gleeson back into the line up and the return of Doug Sirrs added the extra punch that was needed to rally the team around GM and acting Captain Mike Gleeson to show the white team that they still mean business. “A strong defensive line with Doug, Gil and Kelley, some added speed up front and outstanding goal tending from Paul Robataille gave us the edge we needed to turn this around, we are very positive about what the future holds and for a great rest of the season”.

This in addition to hat tricks from Dan Gleeson and Geoff Quayle with a last minute game winner from Jules Valeri definitely made the difference. “They came out strong and caught us back on our heals to start” said Bugden, ”but we rallied back and made this a close game and almost pulled the win out of it. Overall the team played very well, I am not the least bit disappointed, next week is a new week and we will be ready to turn this back around”.

As the trade deadline of February 28th approaches, we will be watching closely for any additional moves that may be made as we near the end of regular season play for the Friday Night Leafs. Hold onto your hats as the ride will likely get more interesting!