TOM-TASTIC!

I was going to title this post "He Shoots, He Scores", which would've been fitting, but I thought good ol' Tom deserved something a little more dramatic. After all, he rescued the shootout. (Ok, so I'm being a bit over-dramatic now, but stay with me here.)

After a low-scoring scrimmage (Red and White tied 1-1), I was pretty excited for the shootout -- but then, as several shooters failed to score, I thought "Perhaps a shootout wasn't the most well-thought-out idea by Mike Eaves". Because a poor shootout showing would put a bit of a damper on the festivities, not to mention reinforcing the already present concerns about the ability of the Badgers to score.

But then Tom Gorowsky took the ice. And scored a beautiful goal. BEAUTIFUL. You might even say it was Tom-tastic! Admittedly, I'm not exactly unbiased, but nubeetle said it was beautiful, too, and I think most would agree that it was a pretty nice goal. Nice work, Tom.

Anyway, here's Todd's account of the scrimmage. He's right; there weren't a lot of scoring opportunities, and that's a bit disappointing. But I heard that the boys were a bit tired, as they had done quite a bit of strength and conditioning work, and they played 60 minutes (2 30-minute halves) with just 2 or 3 lines per team. (The 5th line played for White in the 1st half and Red in the 2nd half.) So perhaps fatigue was a contributing factor. And perhaps our strong defensive corps had something to do with it.

But yeah, it did feel a little bit like last year, struggling to score. At one point I asked if the lack of scoring was due to good defense or struggling offense, and I received the answer "Yes". I thought I was asking an either-or question, not a yes-no question, but the answer is perhaps a little (or a lot) of both. I guess we'll have to see how it all plays out.

Despite the lack of scoring, it was great to see the boys back on the ice. And I gotta tell ya (as if you didn't already know), I'm pretty fired-up about the upcoming season.

Getting back to Tom, as after all the title of this post bears his name -- let's hope he continues to be Tom-tastic in in practices and gets himself into the lineup. Keep working hard and scoring those goals, Tom!

(Photo courtesy of Redheat15)