Hey boys, here goes. It was an eventful week-end so this post will be
long, sorry, you don't have to read if you ar not interested. :-)

First off, plans were changed because of a massive snow storm watch.
Guys scrambled and many of us decided to leave on Friday night
instead of Saturday morning. I will mention the Montreal boys as this
is what I know. It would be great to hear John Power's adventures (as
they were very animated), Maybe Lou's, and Greg Scoma's as well? Also
would be great to hear the Quebec and Sherbrooke guys adventure in
all this?

Okay, Pat, Francois, Eric and Gino left at 18:30. They got about the
first 45 minutes of the storm before they got there so all in all
they were okay. I left with Alain P at 21:30. Did not get so lucky,
it took me 1 hour and 15 minutes more than the normal 2 hour drive as
I was right in the storm!!!! None the less I got there at 1am. It
would have been better to leave like Michel who when he left with the
Anoussis brothers in the morning of Saturday, the 1st part of the
storm had passed and everything was clear, 1st bad move on my part!!!!

Well, back to Friday. I call the boys to see what hotel they checked
into. Offcourse, they were at a happening night club (La boite a
chanson). I then knew that spelled trouble! Okay, I will come join
you. I get there, everyone is already tippsy! Eric is passing around
the shooters as if it was medecin!!!! Okay, 1,2,3- 8 shooters later
combined with my antibiotics meds and I was flying. Pat, Francois,
Eric, Alain, Gino and myself were flying around the dance floor, with
hot chicks (let me tell you the girls there were really hot!!!!) non
stop dancing untill the clossing 3am time. That was the 2nd
mistake!!!!

Okay, its going to be hell at the tournament right? It gets worst.
We cannot find my Bros!!!! At 3:30 we decide to leave as we are
thinking he might of gotten a ride by one of the girls that were
hoovering around him. By this time, Gino and Eric were the 2 that
were the most smashed and really smashed beleive you me. So I compose
myself, Pat does as well and we drive the 5 minutes to the Hotel. No
sign of Gino!!!! Turns out he was in the bathrooms!!!! So 5 drunks
looking for another, not good as we never saw him there!!!! Might
have been in another bathroom, maybe even the ladies side!!!!

Finally he turns in at 5am, I sleept from 5am until 6 and then I was
awake!!!! Both him (Gino) and Eric were awakenned at 8am and wanted
to declare forfit, they couldn't even barely stand up!!!! It was
quite a sight! So we finally get at the event sight on time, 9am.

Out of 32 registered, only 6 declared forfit because of the bad
whether which is very good. When we say bad whether, this was the
mother of bad whether!!!! Over 35cm in Motreal and 45cm in Gatineau
with crazy, crazy windy conditions. Everyone stayed put on Saturday
night and the driving conditions where surprisingly good on Sunday
morning.

Okay so we started at 10:45am instead of 10 because 3 guys who we
knew had left had not gotten there and we were unable to communicate
with them. After the 1st games of the first round, they arrive! Turns
out Michel had gotten a flat tire and offcourse there is always 1
damn bolt that does not want to come out!!! 1 hour and a half later
they arrive as they wasted that much time waiting for a towing truck
to come help!!!!

The beauty of Martin Labelle's system is that 7 minutes later a new
schedual was printed out and we were again ready to go, really I
timed it, 7 minutes!!!! Show me another event that could turn things
around that fast, don't think there is, well done Martin.

As expected, Pat was playing very bad (his standards) as he was
hammered plus sick (feverish), Francois I think played better funny
enough, Eric and Gino well them forget about it, I was passing the
Advils around like candy!!!! They both did not even make the A group
directly, they climbed back in after the second round to be in the A
play-offs. I myself was not playing well but playing a more relaxed
style (Had no choice I had no energy!!!!) I managed to do well.

Despit no sleep, sickness and beeing out way to late, we did not
bad at all. All of us had good games, followed by games where we
couldn't even see the puck, no joke!!!! After the 1st 3 games of the
2nd round I had to come back from a 1-3 deficite to tie Alain
Gamache, but then got creamed 8-3 vs Martin and had to pull out a
last second win 8-7 vs Dave!!!! Lets just say I went and wash my face
with cold water after that and many times!!!! Pat had flashes of
geniouse, then fell apart and did that all day. Gino and Eric well,
never mind them, how my brother won his first series vs Dave I still
don't know, when we played in round 2 he was not even the shadow of
himself, no joke!

Only Francois was playing well and after beeing only one win from
his first ever finals, he saw Martin bounce back with 2 wins to rob
him, 2 close games! After Pat and myself both reached the other semis
and played 2 amazing OT games, he fell again asleep in game 3! I mean
he was sweaty (probably all the crap coming out of his body), and
his glasses were slipping out of his face, no joke!!!! First OT took
2 minutes and 31 seconds for me to score and the other was won by him
in under 30sec. Game 3, well lets not even mention the score.

Francois, again got robbed 3rd place by loosing a hearth braker with
2 goals in the last 10 seconds!!!!

The beauty of our systems in the rounds and play-offs and epecially
the best of 3 play-offs is that what we hoped and felt would happen
actually did. Out of a possible 12 different guys who could make the
top 4 in our first 3 events of the season, 9 different guys made it
up there.

Gino, Martin, Eric L, Patrick, Francois, Dave, Greg Peden, Junior
and ofcourse myself.

The finals where between Martin and myself. John filmed it but I
don't think it will be very exciting to see, actually I know it
woun't! I was playing in slow motion and everyone was asking
themselves just what was going on. Well, 1 hour sleep in the last 40
hours was what was going on, luckily I managed to be able to stop the
pucks as my center was missing all the low tips, only my best play
you know!!!!! As for Martin, he is the one who could mention how he
felt about his play, I felt like he dominated me but that's just me.
He tied it up with a goal at I beleive 2 or 3 seconds but the puck
flew out, I never saw the shot come, only saw it smash the back of
the net and fly out, a real unlucky brake for him. I had no in and
outs for or against in all my play-off run and ofcourse one had to
happen at a crucial time, I am still pissed I let that one go in, I
mean, I still have no idea what the heck I did!!!!

Well, lastly I'd like to thank the Gatineau boys for making this
event happen, Eric Desjardins ran a great event, took time to get the
local, great food, medals, the site and all this with the help of
some of the LATHO boys ofcourse (Pascal T, Alain G,), David played as
well and it was great to see him. Stephen Klump came out to help with
the stats as he was behind the computer all day writing in the
scores. Thanks alot. I mean even if Coleco isn't his cup of tea, it
must of been something beeing at an event while everyone is playing
and you are just writing scores. I saw him behind the rods practicing
against Martin and lets just say, the dimension he brought with his
unique style really impressed Martin!

It was great seeing all the boys from Quebec, TO, and the good old
U.S.A so thanks to everyone for coming out and don't forget the
Quebec Open on May 18th.

PS: I finally got to meet Guy Mason. In every post mentioning this
man whether from the Peterbourough crew or from the NYCTHA crew, the
compliments were non stop and for good reasons. This man is calm,
very pollite and really a jem of a person. So have fun next week at
the Toronto Classic, and Mark, sorry you had to miss this week and
have a great tourny next week, looking forward to seeing the results.

That's it, long enough for you! :-)

PPS: Greg or anyone willing to put this post in Heaven, please do to
share with the others as you all know I cannot do it myself.

Ciao