2023 Doan’s Winter Classic

Outdoor Ice

Doan’s Winter Classic Tournament

8th Annual

The Journey

Big thanks to Jim Doan and his family for hosting our fifth tournament at his home rink.

It takes a crew of about eight guys for at least three or four sessions to put up and take down the rink. All that work is worth it for the magic of a few skates.

We got busy on December 14th to roll out the new tarp and put up most of the boards. Getting that monster rolled out and flat is a project. More work to put up kicker boards, lights, and nets and we are ready.

The ice was finally ready Tuesday, Jan. 31st for a nighttime skate. Charles Partridge and Lars Patterson played goal while Jim Doan, Cooper Partridge, and I skated around with some back-and-forth offense/defense until Steve Ragge showed up and we played two-on-two until we couldn’t.

A serious cold snap hit the northeast for a couple of days leading up to Saturday, February 4th making the ice hard, ready for some ice hockey.

Eighteen skaters and three goalies showed up early Saturday morning for ice hockey.

Each year we attempt to rank skaters and perform a blind shuffle to make even teams. It never works.

I asked for help and got none, so the blame is on me for the draft. I thought that this was as equal as I could make it. So, I miss calculated a litter perhaps as my team went undefeated. To be fair, Larry O is over 59 and I’m over 60 – not like I was a decision-maker! But if we score teams based on age we would certainly top the scale.

Look at the team pics and rosters below and let me know how you would stack it up different. You might get a job next tournament:)

Stout Bros (1) played Team Porter (4) the first game. Porter won.

Doan’s High Life (2) played Lagermen (3) and Lagermen squeaked out a win.

Lagermen then beat Stout Bros.

Team Porter then beat Doan’s High Life.

By now the legs are warmed up but the food and beer are looking good.

Lagermen vs Porter for the championship.

Lagermen wins the 2023 Doan’s Winter Classic Championship.

So, volunteers are needed to help draft teams next year:)

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Meet The Teams

Stout Bros

Doug Druin
Jeff Rouse
Billy Campbell
Steve Ragge

Doans High Life

Jim Doan
Cooper Partridge
Tom Hall
Tom Murray

Team Porter

Mike “Eddie” Edwards
Tim Bartlett
Scott Polisky
Sean Fountain

Lagermen

Larry O of All Black Hockey Sticks
Rob Bartlett
Sean Robinson
Steve Topoliski
Dave Crabill

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What makes it special?

You connect with your youth when you step on that hard ice with the chill of the air. The sound and the sight are all different. Nighttime is a blast under the LED lights with the stars shining down on a crisp clear night.

Christmas Break Coming Fast

Thanks to BC & Nutrien joining the league, we have six teams this season. Ideally, we would have eight teams. Help get the word out for next season.

A big thanks to the team managers. It takes time, patience, and money to run a hockey team. Ty Burt, Chris Green, Eric Schauwecker, Jeff Rouse, Tim Jankowski.

Next week is the final week to get the annual fees paid to avoid penalties. Big thanks to Ty of Frozen Wings for paying the fee off at the start of the season. Gooners Dogs is fully paid and the other teams are very close to fully paid.

The regular season ends on February 19th and we will be skating at Dort Event Center on that day starting at 1 pm for the first game. Big thanks to Jeremy Torrey for opening up the facility for us to host our games. Now we will be able to get the season completed in March. Our last game of this season is March 26th. The playoffs will be a round-robin.

I realize that there isn’t parity in the league this year. BC ran up the score on Marauders last Sunday and I’m hearing grumbling. We will adjust the schedules as possible to make the balance of the year as fun as possible, but we need to tough out this season and come up with a plan for next season. I appreciate everyone’s patience as we work through the challenges. I’d prefer to move the age back up myself, or even make it a higher age:)

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have suggestions or comments. Thanks for playing!

Stanly Keg Champion 2022 60+B

Senior Class 60 B Team

The call came late in the evening less than two weeks out from the tournament. “Rob Bartlett refered me to you. I’m looking for some old guys that love hockey to play in a tournament,” said Stu.

I’m in. First time in a long time that I’ve been invited to a tournament.

We came together from all around southeastern Michigan and played hard and won the 60+ B!

Friday night was the first time we had met. Stu had an idea of how would play where. He stratigized and told us not to worry about this first game, it would be tough. This is likely the team to beat in the finals. Let’s work on figuring out the chemistry and plan to win on Saturday.

We organized lines and rotated Stu through as an extra winger and beat Super Pac 9-0! I even got a couple!

Saturday morning we changed our strategy and rotated wingers off the bench and got behind early. We tied it up at the very end and won in OT. Whew!

The Flint Old Timers were up Saturday afternoon and I was worried. I knew the team and knew they wouldn’t take it easy. We changed strategies again and went with two centers and three sets of wings and it went a lot smoother. Despite a few mistakes on my part that felt like I was helping them, we won the game.

Super Pac managed to make it to the finals and they had a different goalie. Their Super Man goalie was legitimately hurt, bum ankle. They got two in our net, but we scored six times to earn a place on the Stanley Keg!

What a fun weekend of hockey. Can’t wait to get the Senior Class back together. We have our eyes on the Flint Oldtimers Tournament in April.

Dave

Hey, us old guys need some CBD Salve to help those sore joints and muscles. We offer a few choices of remedies.

EHL Season Start

Managers Meeting

The board directors for the Eclectic Hockey League met in Skaters Bar on Sunday, Sept. 18th. We voted to stay with the six teams as they have strong rosters and adding the seventh would require cutting the number of games to get the season completed before the Alumni Tournament. As it is, we are scheduled through April 2nd, which could cause an issue with Old Timers Tournament.

In an effort to get to six teams we lowered the age to 35. Only a few teams have skaters under 40. We decided that a player must be 35 by November 15th to qualify and a roster can not contain more than 5 players under 40.

Further player restrictions include prohibiting any player who has skated in 18A in the last year from joining our league.

We will have a competitive season. Please remember that this is a recreational league. Try to keep the ego’s in check and have fun:)

Regarding registration. We have collected most teams’ rosters and USA hockey numbers. I’m emailing managers with rosters as we have currently. Be sure to check in at the registration table on the way in.

This season is starting without one of the easiest-going guys and great skaters in the league. We will open each game this week with a moment of silence to remember Chris “Swell” Wellman who lost his battle with Cancer.

See you at the rink!

Dave

Larry is bringing his trailer up and will be on-site selling sticks this Sunday. As always, just $89 for a great stick! Check out his new offerings of a custom logo bags, hockey gloves, and more on www.AllBlackHockeySticks.com

Big thanks to our sponsors. Friends who have stepped up to help support the program. This last year has been challenging and it is my friends, including the hockey community who has helped me keep my head up.

Breaking News!

Fellow hockey enthusiasts

We are just over two weeks away from the start of the 2022 season.

This week has brought some surprises and caused some sleepless nights making tough decisions.

Our struggle began when Hurley backed out to skate Wednesday nights. Lockhart then decided to back out because they didn’t want to skate against Frozen Wings.

Work began to recruit teams into the league or form a new team from free agents.

The challenge with the free agent team is the talent pool to create a competitive team. As I’ve learned in running the weekly skates the weakest skaters have as much effect on the teams’ competitiveness as the best skaters. The free agent team was going to struggle to win a game.

Michelle from the rink was wanting one of my sheets back and the pressure was on. Would we have four or five teams?

Also, the 40 A league was at five teams and she suggested that we might bring a team from there to our league to balance things out. I didn’t see that as a good plan.

Just this week Tim Jankowski approached me to bring much of the Old Fokkers team back into the league. Their roster is strong and should compete well with the rest of the teams.

That changed things. All of the teams’ rosters looked competitive. Even the Marauder’s lineup looked good and they had great confidence in their goalie.

As most of you know, Jeff Rouse has helped over the years with my weekly skate. He approached me to come back into the league with a revised roster to better suit the 40 B league. He has a few skaters who have been off the ice for over a decade. They still have a strong lineup and we now have six teams ready to compete in the fall.

The challenge is that we have about eight players left out in the wind and team rosters are full to over full.

Should a seventh team appear we could build the eight, but I’d have a tough time finding the ice time as the rink is quite busy.

I apologize to the free agents for not finding a place for them. Big thanks to Rich Jolly and Michael Williams for offering to run the new team. Unfortunately, we don’t have a spot now.

That is the update.

The team managers’ meeting will be at 3 pm on Sunday 18^th in Skaters Bar. We will review rosters and discuss options.

One option would be to go to seven teams which creates a bye-week and extends the season duration to get the 25 games in.

Let me know what you think. This is going to be some competitive hockey this season.

Keep your head up and stick on the ice.

2022-23 EHL Season Registration

Fellow hockey enthusiast

It is my pleasure to introduce the 2022 through 2023 Eclectic Hockey League Season.

Our first games will be held on September 25^th. We have game times of 10 am, 11:15, and 12:30 pm.

Teams committed are Budtenders, Gooners Dogs, Marauders, and Frozen Wings. A fifth team is being built and we are considering dropping the age to 35 to bring in the sixth team.

Frozen Wings won’t be as dominant as the last few years due to changes in their roster to adapt to our league.

Should we not get to six teams we will drop a sheet and have a by-week with five teams on the schedule.

Jeff Dennings is back at the registration table. We are sourcing some performance-enhancing products at the table – nothing too scary like Russian gas? Some electrolyte hydration and topical pain relief.

Since the start of the EHL in 2015, the costs have gone up over 20%. The team fee this season is $5,350 with a $100 back if paid before the mid-December deadline.

We will be registered through USA Hockey this season. You will need to get your USA Hockey number for the fall season. You can register now.

Please visit Gears dot Beer forward slash EHL to make a payment and to get any updates.

I’ve rented the ice from 1 to 2 pm on Sunday the 18^th with a meeting and networking afterward. Come join the fun. Those who make an initial ice time payment will skate free.

A big thanks to Cooper Goalie – Charles Partridge for printing some cool EHL decals for our cars. They will be available on the 25^th.

Last item. I’m ordering a few jerseys and socks from Just Hockey Jerseys. If you want some cool hemp socks or a jersey, order on Gears.beer.

Looking forward to seeing you on the ice!

Keep your head up!

EHL

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