Only Nine

With the demise of my Wednesday hockey game, it was time to look elsewhere for my hockey fix. I'm not ahockey junkie. I don't give a rats ass that the NHL is taking the season off, and when it comes out it will be competing with snooker and bowling for fifth place on the sports scene behind football, baseball, hoops and NASCAR.

As far as that goes, I hope Free Stanley is successful in its lawsuit trying to take back the Stanley Cup from the NHL. The NHL sucks, and they are all about gouging the customer. NBA also sucks. Any league where players take a night off because the grind of the season is too long for them to concentrate all winter long might as well fold.

You never see NFL players take a day off. That's a real sport.

But back to hockey. I found a floor hockey league where you don't have to be in a wheelchair in order to play. Minimum size roster is nine, max is fifteen, and since I found the league, I have to organize the team.

For starters, we are going with a nine man roster. It's a four on four game, and there is no way i want to figure out how to get 13 people into a game.

Roster spots 1-5 are filled with players from the old game. Probably the top five players in the game, including a goalie, and someone who can play back up goalie in a pinch.

That leaves four spots open. One was offered to a guy who used to play, but quit after a few months. I question his committment to the game and his ability. He hasn't played since he turned 30 almost two years ago, and this should be a very competitive league. Also, durability may be a problem.

Assuming he takes a spot, that leaves 3. Our top player moved back to NY a few months ago, but rumor has it he may be moving back. He's a gamebreaker. Can handle the puck, and always seems to find his way around the net.

And then there are two brothers. The older brother is about 35, but runs 40 minutes a day, stays in great shape, and has a nice touch with the puck when he passes. His younger brother has mad skills, but stickhandles too much, and loses the puck a lot.

There are still four or five other people who occasionally to usually show up for our Wednesday night games, but I don't think they make the cut. At least not until I find out from top prospects who can play.