A free article by Mike O’Neill
Sunday’s game between the Bears and Lions looked like a mismatch, especially on paper. Many spectators and followers of the league (groupies?) noted that the Bears looked awesome, almost as good as the 2005-2006 Sharks. Greg Walsh easily is being considered for GM of the year with his astute drafting and early on-ice direction (Although this game saw him go down like a wet a bag of cement with a separated shoulder). Like c’mon, they got, Duncan Cameron, Mike Thorbum, Justin Menzies, Mike Milone, Dave Hann, and Jason Roy. This is the team to beat! And this is what people said after two periods of play, “this looks like the team to beat.” But nobody told Mal (Lee Marvin) Turner. I can’t help but think of the Lee Marvin characters in The Dirty Dozen, The Big Red One, The Delta Force (with Chuck Norris), The Professionals and Paint Your Wagon Red(the one where he sings ), when I see Mal strategizing with his teammates, charging up his teammates or demanding the puck back after a 12-year-old fetched it from the corner of the stands. He can also do it on the ice, and take a stick or two in the face. This guy is all heart, and with gifted hands.
After the Bears dominated for two periods on goals from Jason Roy and John Watson (both assisted by Dave “watch me play” Campbell), they came out flying in the third and seemed to put the icing on the cake when Dave Campbell broke in alone and made no mistake putting it top shelf on the Raptors goalie Jeff “I thought you were shit” Cuvilier.
However, it seems that icing was as thin as that crappy Whip Cream icing they put on cakes here in Taiwan. Late in the game Paul Bray scored a nice one unassisted but it wasn’t late in the game at all but instead it was a reply to Campbell’s goal four minutes later. It seemed late in the game because the clock moves by international rules yet most players are North American, so why are we using the clock that way? Then Clark took an unusual interference penalty that almost looked retaliatory based only on the look in his eyes. The Bears killed it off only to see Clark come out of the box like a bat-out-of-hell, tenaciously fore-checking like there were scouts in the crowd or something. Mental note: don’t make Clark angry. Finally, with no support from his teammates, all this hard work was for naught. The Raptors came back on a goal from Lee Marvin himself, unassisted. Then he set up the tying goal which actually made the crowd cheer like the game meant something.
Then the shoot out was awful (sorry goalies). Mal Turner nearly lost all his fans after he went in trying to fake one way and go the other but the puck just flipped in the air and dribbled in front of the goalie. Many people were still expecting a spectacular move as he feebly swiped at it like John Long defending himself in a bar Rexdale. Most fans had their mouths open as Turner had to skate past the opposing team’s bench with a large grin that was covering up his embarrassment. He then made it worse by insisting that all Raptors shooters must shoot and not deke. But one player would not listen, probably because he figured he would never shoot in “one of these things.” And he was right but he scored anyway, and I have no idea who that hero is. Maybe it is for the best not to really know our heroes.
