EARLY Saturday Update

By Daryn Goodwin

It’s 5am and getting ready to embark on day 2 of WINTERNATIONALS.  Unfortunately for me, this old school alarm clock has a second hand that must attached to a sub-woofer, so the tick-tick-tick might as well be water dripping between my eyes.

Today will be our busiest day of the tourney, with 105 games being played over the next 19 hours.  We’re leaning in the Irvine Facility as well to get all of our games in, and luckily the hockey gods are smiling down, with a beautiful day forecasted.  It takes a lot to run this NARCh Machine, especially today.  12 refs, 6 scorekeepers, lots of various staff.  About 30 NARCh Employees in total working every hour when both facilities are in play, not including rink staff.

The sponsors are motivated in ’17.  Many have new products and they look great!  Cypress Skate by Verbero is one that stands out, check it out!   Most sponsors also have new faces representing their Pro Teams.  Any team can take the title at this point.  Mudcats and Black Ice are both 2-0, but like with anything hockey, playoffs are when the games start to count, you just have to get there.   Actually that’s not always true, as in the case with our Men’s Platinum Division.  With a 5 team division it’s a round robin format, and every game means something to get to the championship game.  This is our most competitive division, as none of the teams have 2 wins after two games.  Here’s how tight it is so far.

Michael Hunt and his wife Milly made the trip down from Winnipeg.  I haven’t seen Michael for a few years.  He’s lacing them up with the Hockey House Army.  I remember Mike’s first WINTERNATIONALS back in Vegas, ’00 I believe.  He brought a bunch of guys from Boston, or around there.   They wore sort of cheap looking black and red jerseys, but all ice guys that brought the wood.  They didn’t win, but they left an impression, and some hack marks.  Mike is really pushing roller hockey growth in Manitoba and has the support of the Winnipeg Jets.  We would love to see some new NARCh Teams from the middle of Canada!

Some noticed some time goofs on the schedule.  The games after midnight showed on the wrong day.  I believe we got everything sorted, but if you notice something that varies online from our original schedule, please feel free to give us the heads up ASAP.

Yesterday was awesome in every way, except one.  I got a little frustrated at some Men’s Silver Teams for not having matching jerseys.  We’ve done a TON of announcements about this and want to make sure the sport is represented well and looks good.   We have always felt this way, but are enforcing it more now.   If you’ve had the same jerseys for 5 years and have old players not playing that kept jerseys, it’s time to replace them anyway!   LOOK GOOD - PLAY GOOD.  Also, no way we’re promoting pictures or videos of games that look like pick up hockey.

We start today the same way we did yesterday, with 12s and 16s in early action.  High Rollers AA are rolling and should grab the #1 seed in squirt.   They’ll be seeded early this morning and I’m hoping that the playoff seeding lands us some competitive matchups.

Without looking through game scores in bantam, from what I saw yesterday Revo Black 01’s and the San Jose Inline Sharks were cruising, as well as the Hockey House Army A Team.   Looking forward to watching more of the 16’s this morning.

Every team in the tournament plays today, so it’s going to be a very long one.  We wish you the best of luck and thanks for playing WINTERNATIONALS!