Following last week events, we really needed to get a new discipline committee together. The committee will be led this season by the Vice President of Hockey Operations of the LFA, Mr.Laurent Quesnel. The committee barely formed and already an incident that needed their attention. In fact, at the end of the game between the Avengers and Loggers, the goalie of the later attacked the captain of the "men in blue" with two-minutes left in the game after a collision in the blue paint. Wheather or not goaltender Martin Jacques Aubert of the Cabane Loggers towards Patrice Vichier was justified is not the issue. Just like in real life, we can not take the law into our hands and decide right from wrong, it's doesn't work like that even if sometimes ..... Here are some excerpts from the league regulations:

Still in my bed, several titles for my weekly article come to mind, and as I open the curtains, the first snow of the season wiped my canvas clean, that leads me into the unknown week after week. For you see, even if some headlines need to be addressed through my writing, it is often time that tells and influences the tone of the article. It is certain that what happened last night is a key fact but it is often what is said in my interactions with the various characters that make up our group, the players, their girlfriends, their parents, and their friends, that decide the final outcome. Often it is the final banter on the ice, in the room, and during that post game that dictates the importance of the events, for the next day when in front of my laptop screen I find myself at the threshold of the unknown.

Following a wave of trades to balance our clubs again in this ever lasting begining of the season that is now stretching into the gray autumn,  I am satisfied with what we saw this week with the new rosters. After two draws and a blowout defeat, the scores alone are not the only indicator of the truth.

Being in charge of a hockey league made up of about 400 guys and communicating with several others groups in various spheres of activity, I thought it was important to get involved with Movember. I decided to sign up our league, so that it could help this movement and help men in psycological distress, and ultimately aid in the research on prostate cancer and testicular cancer. Patrice Vichier, a captain in our league who is guiding the Avengers to a great start this season, joined me earlier this month to discuss Movember as he took part in it two years ago.

The LFA administration is proud to announce a partnership agreement with Sher-Wood Hockey, who will be officially honoring the LFA player of the month. After several months of negotiating we have finally reached an agreement in which the honoree will receive an awesome gift on behalf of Sher-Wood. I will let you build up the suspense in your minds and we will all know what the gift in question will be once the LFA player for October is announced. The union between the two parties as well as the coveted gift marks an appreciable step in the prize for the winner. In fact, if we go back to the start of the LFA, those who were around then will remember what Martin Desjardins, our first ever honoree, won. His prize was a shepherd’s pie made with love from the president’s bare hands.

It is the day after one of our more or less successful experiments that we reflect on this long beginning of the season. With 32 new faces among us and 37 who were not part of the "original four" at the beginning of last season, we are still experimenting with the right mix for our teams. There is a fine line between harmony and turmoil as a single player can make a big difference on a team while beeing just another player on an other. Characters, egos and devotion to the game are not always obvious and palpable when building squads unless you've played with everyone, again a good guy to one person, may be an asshole to another.  You understand that like a priest in the confessional I get all sorts of comments throughout a season. The post-game is often a place where some of you share your views regarding your team,  other players and the guys who make-up our hockey family. 

Wednesday was the launch of the regular season activities of the LFA as well as the NHL with the Habs playing the Maple Leafs shown by our friends at the Windsor Hyper Bar & Grill located on the Main. For this event, 40 or so members and friends of the league came together to celebrate the beginning of what promises to be one hell of a season, if what I have seen from the Canadians so far continues, which will surely have a mirror effect on the LFA players because when things are going well up in the big team, it is the city and its people who feel the benefits.

In the hockey player’s arsenal, the stick is often the key weapon. Certainly comfortable skates, helmet and gloves are important, but the stick, and especially its curve, is often the most personal and the toughest to get right. From one model to another, the manufacturers tweak them and not always for the better. It’s especially true for snipers that it’s not only the curve but the lie of the blade that is part of the calculation.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but when a player has cement hands, you could hand him a curtain rod and it will work as well as any curve or lie. But when you’re the type of player who has the puck more often than your share, the stick becomes a surgical tool that you use to carve up the game. And as you recount the the play-by-play post mortem at the bar, the moves get even better leading up to lighting the lamp.

It's the day after the first Saturday of REAL league activities. Finally, the regular season has started with a first look at the revamped teams. Despite some missing regulars yesterday, particularly from the Loggers, we could see the LFA " remixed " teams at work. After an attempt to balance the teams without having to move too many pieces, and all while accommodating various buddies who want to play together during this expansion year, I see that we have not quite hit our target; Close but no cigar !

The date was known by all but the result of the selection committee meeting to shake things up and choose new players to fill the teams remained hypothetical. Who was going to move and where were they going to end up? In addition to the arrival of a plethora of new players to fill the positions we were also going to shuffle the deck. The good thing about all of this is that a minimal number of the 53 regular players and goalies, before the arrival of the new 13 players, had to pack up their bags, change their socks and switch squads. In a strange and lucky way, all but one of the players traded (eight in all) will face their old team on Saturday, so this will facilitate the coordination for jersey switching.