Tonight May Be The Last!

Skating tonight, Wed. Feb 11, 2026, at 7 pm.

Fallback is tomorrow night, same time.

This may be our last skate as the weather through next Wednesday looks too warm. Pray for cold weather!!

The hope is to host a tournament on Saturday, February 28th at 10 am.

Stay connected for up-to-date news and schedules.

Get on the Doan's list if not already.

Got Salve?

I’m grateful to be able to play this great sport of ice hockey, however poorly. My love of Cannabis helps fuel this journey and the CBD salve I rub on my back, knees and ankles help a ton. Let me know if you want to give it a try. I generally have a few samples in my coat pocket. It doesn’t take much as I tend to make it strong.

Speaking of strong. I promise to never give you a strong Chocolate Peanutbutter Ball without warning. Those treats for after the game and mostly CBD with a touch of THC. They help relieve some inflamation and relax you. Find it all on iHempHarvest.com

Peace & Love

Dave

Visit iHemp Harvest for CBD Products

Doan’s Winter Classic

Tournament Date Set - Feb 28th

ODR GAMES

This season had a slower start, but we are on for Wednesday and Friday nights, about 7 p,m and Saturday mornings, around 10 am. (Exception is no games Fri 20th or Sat 21st.)

Register to secure a spot during our tournament on Saturday, February 28th. We gather by 10 am and create four teams from the assembled players. We are calling for a majority of 50+ players, but exceptions are the rule, especially if the young exceptions take on a majority of the rink maintenance. Jim’s son, Ben, and Steve Ragge’s son, Maxton, have both been instrumental in pulling this rink together.

The goal is to have 24 skaters and 4 goalies for our four-team round-robin tournament. Players are organized by skill level, and teams are chosen randomly from each skill group.

There isn’t room in the barn for extra people. Only skaters and goalies in the barn, please. We wear full gear, but stocking caps instead of helmets for many.

Bring your own drinks and a dish to pass if possible. We make it a party and wrap things up mid-afternoon. Generally, a game breaks out after the tournament is run from any left standing.

February Hockey Update

League Updates

I skated with the Budtenders against the Gooners Dogs in January. That was big fun. I’m out of the habit of getting up and going early on a Sunday morning, but the party in Skaters Bar was worth the effort. We were kicked out of the bar at 4 pm as the rink was closing due to the snow – weird.

As expected, the play is a bit faster than the 50+ and 60+, but I was able to contribute a little. I even got an atta boy for a clapper, which we can’t do in the old man leagues:)

There is a little grumbling about parity in the Sunday EHL league, as expected. There is always grumbling when things get competitive. Some of the players in the league can control a game and score seemingly at will. That is why I made a few efforts to switch to a draft league but found little support. I was tempted to take that Sunday am time and just restart with a 50+ draft, but so many of the guys who have stuck with me for the ten-year run are still kids! (under 50)

Oh, and I was told by Arnie (scorekeeper) that I was an illegal player! My own team didn’t put me on the roster. No respect! 🙂

50+ Oldtimers Hockey Club

Monday nights lead into Tuesday. Good thing I set my own schedule and don’t clock in for my work! We have had some late games, and the bar closes just a few hours after we are done!

The ten team leauge is not being dominated by Gears Beer Hockey this season. Speaking of the Championship team. I ran into JP Dumolin the other night and learned the Denise is getting a new hip. There are not any old hockey players, just rebuilt and refurbished!

This season we have a talented team for Gears.beer but have struggled to put a string of wins together. Phantom and Flint Oldtimers are the clear top of the season so far.

Tonight is the last game before playoffs begin!

Playoff Format

2/9 teams 7,8,9,10 play a 1 game play-in to the top 8 positions.

Winners become seats 7 an 8

2/16 Two-game total goal 1st round

1 vs 8 2 vs 7 3 vs 6 4 vs 5

losers of play-in play against each other

2/23 Second game of the two game 1st round

3/2 Second round with 4 winners playing best 2 of 3

3/23 Third round with the remaining 2 teams playing for the championship in a best 2 of 3, round 3, Final

The following are the tie-breaker rules to determine final team standings:

1. Most wins

2. Best record- head to head

3. Goal differential

4. Most goals for

5. Least goals against

6. Coin flip

60+ Wednesday Hockey

Wednesday are great because you can hang out in Skaters Bar for a few hours and still get home by a reasonable time! See a theme here for the beer leaguge?

Four teams on Wednesday with some great competition and lots of laughs. The standings are tight and I expect the Flint Oldtimers team I run to be the top of the league soon. Saber has us by a point right now.

Doan's Winter Classic

For over ten years I’ve been helping Jim Doan put up a killer rink in his back yard. Boards, netting, led lights with a heated barn. Last season was our best with ten games outside. We take every advantage to put a quick game together weekday evenings and Saturday mornings as the weather permits.

This year, the rink is moved 100′ back behind the barn in a 4′ deep hole. The dirt from the hole forms a sun and wind screen. Our hope is to extend the season but the start has been a bit slow. We plan to skate Wednesday and Friday night this week and run a 50 and older tournament on Saturday. The tournaments are limited to 24 skaters and four goalies. Contact me if interested in the tournament. Just show up on Wed or Friday. We get out on the ice 7 ish. Full gear, but some don’t wear a bucket.

For past photos and more, visit the link.

More about Doans Winter Classic

Senior Olympics

I was fortunate to get the invite to the Senior Olympics with the Flint Oldtimers Hockey Club Team a couple of years ago. Mike Petty assembled an all star team last year and we just couldn’t score enough to take the tournament. We did compete, but no medal.

Mike and Art have built a 70+ team and gave me the task of organizing a 60+ team. With the work on the Soo team I was a little behind on getting the roster for the Senior Olympics going and in the pursuing scramble I built a huge roster and left some off that should have been invited. I apologize to those who did not get a roster spot, it wasn’t intentional. There are some good skaters who recently turned 60 who are on our roster and I brought in Jim Doan to reward him for his work on the outdoor rink. I was shocked when he said yes! I have high hopes for this team. Go ahead, make your joke:)

The Senior Olympics are March 4-6 at Buffalo Wild Wings Arena in Troy, MI. Stay tuned!

P.S. Reach out if I missed you and you wish to play as you never know what might happen between now and then. Just might have a spot open.

The Pros

Did you see the latest goalie fight:) Swayman and Vasoleski looked like sumaria warriors in their scrum. I can understand Swayman getting pissed about the stick in the cup. Sucks that Tampa came back to beat the Bruins. We have a tight race for the Atlantic Division and the Wings look great for the playoffs. Hoping they don’t get embarassed by the Avs tonight.

Speaking of Olympics…

U.S.A. Women play Czechia 10:40 am Feb 5th on USA Network.

U.S.A. Men play Latvia (Russians I suspect) on Feb 12th 3 pm ET on USA Network.

Got Salve?

Peace & Love

Dave

Visit iHemp Harvest for CBD Products

Kewadin SOO Champs – Gears.Beer Hockey

The Kewadin Casino Tournament in Sault Saint Marie, Michigan, is always a greatly anticipated event. The stories get better every year, and thankfully, no lasting injuries or jail time have been involved. For the juicy details of this year and past tournaments, you must ask late into the night in Skaters Bar. There won’t be any doxing here.

Flint was well represented in the Soo again this tournament with at least six teams from our barn. Lansing came in second with about four teams. Toledo and, of course, Ontario were represented in the sixteen-team tournament. I’m not certain of the hierarchy of the divisions, except to say that we were in the lowest division for Gears Beer Hockey, with all of our players over 50 and most over 60, except for Edwin in goal, who is 42.

Black Jack

In the Black Jack Division, Scooters brought a strong team up that would dominate any of the Flint teams, but they couldn’t score enough on the Lansing teams in their division. They had five goals with eight against. Dalton was in net. Our favorite ref, Darryl, was on D and scored a couple. Budtenders TK was buzzing around. They had one win against the Rebels whose only win was against the Champs – Cavemen. Tight division.

STUDS

Six teams in the Stud Division, with three in each sub-division of Aces and Diamonds. Kewadin Wings won in OT for the Championship of the STUDS.

ROULETTE

The young guys from Flint filled up the Roulette Division – mostly. Some played on two teams! Talk about tired puppies!

Marc Morrison had a bunch of players drop just days away from the tournament for legit reasons, just bad luck. So he filled his team, Great Lakes, with some young bucks who helped them make it to the championship game on Sunday. They lost to Okwaho 3-2 in the championship game. I watched Okwaho play on Saturday and Jake Aarond was buzzing around out there. The team was 30ish. Mike Davis’s team, Antcliff won the most fun in the bar! Their lineup was all 50+ players. Age does matter.

ROYAL FLUSH

The Gears.Beer Hockey team swept the Royal Flush Division. They squeaked out a win against the Flint Oldtimers led by Mike Petty. They had Dicosola’s kid and Dousette’s kid playing to give them more speed and firepower. Edwin played great in net, and we won in a shootout Saturday morning. With a win under our belt Friday night and a win Saturday morning, lunch was relaxed. Saturday afternoon, we played the Lucky Puckers, who had not won ye,t and Edwin shut them out for a 5-0 victory. Flint Oldtimers played Purple Cobras Saturday afternoon to determine who we played on Sunday. I was torn on who to root for. We felt more confident against Purple Cobra, which was an 18+ C Flint team, but it would be fun to play against Oldtimers. Unfortunately, the Oldtimers played to a tie late in the game and then lost 1-2 to Purple Cobra. At 9 am Sunday, we beat Purple Cobra 5-1. Edwin had a total of three goals against for the tournament! Great job Edwin!

Here is our roster. I pulled two new players in who helped make the difference: Scott Clementz and Collin Lilly. They made a line with Larry Ollearos of All Black Hockey Sticks for the first two games, but with Joe Garcia under the weather for the last two games, we spread them out in the lineup, and it made us even stronger every shift on the ice. Big thanks to all who joined the fun in the Soo!

Roster:
Edwin Dean – Goalie

Collin Lilly (former Budtender)
Scott Clementz
Larry Ollearis (All Black Hockey Sticks)
Gerald Edwards (Budtender mngr)
Tom Murray
Dave Crabill (Budtender)
Joe Garcia
Sean Fountain
Vincent Molosky
Scott Polisky
Michael Benoit
JB Butterfield
Chris Burkland

Of Course There is a T-Shirt!

Christmas Update & Call To action

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy holiday season. From Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah to whatever reason you find to enjoy this time of year, I wish you one and all a great break from the routine as we slowly gain a bit more sunlight in the days ahead. Our diverse hockey community comes together with a common passion for the sport of ice hockey. Blades of steel, carbon fiber sticks (even Chris Allard has one now from ABHS), vulcanized rubber, and a slick ice surface make this a game like no other. While we are not as fast as the elite players, we get our heart rate going, work out some stres,s and share laughs as if it is the Stanley Cup every night.

Speaking of the heart rate, according to our resident octogenarian, John Bishop, we reduce our rate of dementia by 50% with our intermittent exercise! Good news! Probably fewer 12 oz curls in Skaters Bar would help too, but who is counting:)

There are a couple of special announcements to make. One requires some action on your part.

All around good guy and medical miracle, Devin Schroeder, of Goyette Mechanical, printed up a bunch of hockey pucks. I worked with Devin to create an Oldtimers Hockey Club logo that would be cleaner to see on the puck for this batch. He had a batch of pucks last year. So if you would like some pucks, contact Devin. He is happy to share.

Wheels for Mila

Marc Morrison found a vehicle for Mila. She passed her exam and earned her driver’s license. Good job, Mila!
Both Marc and Mike Rutherford had been looking for a cheap, reliable vehicle for her so she doesn’t have to rely on Your Ride. I think their motivation is more bar time, but all good:)

Rut suggests that if we all pitch in $10, we will cover the car, plates, and title, with some of the money going towards insurance. The vehicle is only $1,300, but with MI SOS and insurance, that will nearly double.

Venmo: @MJRutherford

You can get in touch with him, or if you buy the shirt below, I’ll donate the profits to the cause, which should be about a $10 profit.

Oldtimers Hockey Update

Both Mondays and Wednesdays are great fun. You can find the standings and stats on OldtimersHockeyClub.com.
Team Gears Beer had a special game on Monday, Dec. 22nd, with Santa in the net. Charles (Cooper Goalie) Partridge had a Santa kit on, and we won over Fastinal with 1.8 seconds left! Whew! The reigning Champs are on the rise again after a slow start! I will be obnoxious in my bragging, but understand that it is all in jest. Please don’t take me too seriously, and I welcome any and all feedback:)

We are off next Monday and missing two Wednesdays. Don’t get too fat and slow – like me! See you on the ice soon.
Dave

Outdoor Rink Setup & Update

Doan’s Winter Classic

Looking for help on Saturday, December 13th starting around 9 am to put the rink up at Doan’s.

Big changes in store this season as we have the rink behind the barn. Parking will be where the rink normaly is.
Jim is creating steps down to the rink level, which is set about four feet down. There is a large berm to the sun side with 16′ poles holding up a shade screen, so the sun will be less of a factor for the ice!

This could be the best season yet for outdoor ice. Last season we hosted ten games, which was a record. With a start before New Years we could have a new record season!

Get on the Doan’s list to receive the text invites – here.

Oldtimers Hockey

Ten games into the 50+ Monday night and our Gears Beer team is just getting going, far down in standings for now. Phatom, Fastenal and Flint Oldtimers all have sixteen points to lead the league.

Eight games into 60+ Wednesday and the play is pretty even. I think all the teams will make playoffs:)

EHL

Gooners won a game and played to a 0-1 loss to Solid Ground… Now that is news!

I can’t find the full stats for EHL, maybe there aren’t any. Solid has not lost a game – not news. Frozen has only lost two games and Marauders has a 500 record with some roster changes.

Soo Tournament

We have six teams from Crystal going to the Soo to party, er, I mean play hockey.

If I told you that your on my team and you have not heard from me, hit me up. Finalizing things and will be sending out texts tomorrow – Friday, Dec 5th.

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