In what can only be described as a night of freaky occurances, the Reapers opened their season tonight.
First, the Reapers had a freak accident right before game time that made an emergency roster change necessary. Andy Sutton went to put his helmet on his head after the anthem finished, and accidentally knocked himself unconscious.
This prompted a rush move with no time to think, so the Reaper team activated Randy Jones who happened to be at ice level at the time being interviewed by Elliot Friedman about the possibility he would be placed on waivers tonight.
Jones very confused by the sudden turn from waste of space to active, played like a waste of space and cost the Reapers the win. He turned over the puck on a critical blind pass that allowed GPS forward Rick Nash to tie the game in the third. That forced Overtime and of course the Reapers lost in the extra frame, in a game that should never have seen OT. Randy Jones was on the ice again for the OT PP goal against.
That however was just the start of the freakiness on this evening. Marian Hossa showed up like never before, as he ripped 18 shots on goal. The next closest Reaper had 6 shots. Hossa however did not find the net once in his 18 shots.
Another freaky stat was the play of Jeff Finger. Finger picked up where he left off last year as the team leader in Blocked Shots. However on this night, Finger would block 7 shots in total. This was a new Reaper single game record. The Reapers were deadly on the draw, well except Tim Connolly. Tim was 7 for 23 while the rest of the team won 35 of 50.
Lastly Nikolai Khabibulin allowed 5 goals, exactly the amount he allowed in his first ever start as a Reaper, and again in his first start last year upon returning to the Reapers. It seems the first game of a season for Khabibulin is always destined to be 5 goals against.
Oh, and this team went undefeated in the preseason, only to lose its first regular season game. I am sure the coach would sooner the team had went winless in preseason to have this first win out of the gate.
The Reapers will try to pull it together tonight, and are hoping for a full healthy lineup.
Reporting for your Reapers,
Sal Trachan
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