As promised, here is part two of this season’s 210 Awards…
The “Shameless Plug Award”: You can find the first half of the 210 Awards post right here.
The “Premature Celebration Award”: Keith Nichols, for throwing his hat on the ice thinking Zach White had scored an empty net goal to give him a hat trick. This leads us to…
The “Really, Bro? Award”: Blade Jenkins, who was the actual goal scorer and returned Keith’s hat by flipping it back over the glass with his stick, much to the amusement of the linesman when Jenkins told him what happened.
The “It’s Too Hard Award”: Newfoundland head coach Matt Cooke, who complained to the Railers staff the ice was too hard, meaning it was too cold. It wasn’t, it was 18 degrees, the minimum it should be. He also noticeably didn’t complain when his team won.
The “Hats Award”: Connor Haynes, for getting this writer a couple of the group sales hats that a friend’s kids missed when they attended with a group earlier in the year.
The “Patience Award”: Trish Hunt, who usually takes a number of games off during the year but decided instead to go to a lot more so she could help with the Jamboree fundraising.
The “Grant Goodeve Award”: Railers DJ Ryan McConville, for playing the “Eight is Enough” theme before the doors opened after I made the pun in a blog post the previous day.
The “Jägermeister Award”: Ticket Account Executive Sean Hofferty, and I’m not sure why he gets this because I was asked to include it in the post. If it’s something positive, I’m happy to do it, and congratulations. If it’s an inside joke and something negative, I’m even more happy to do it.
The “Can I have Your Wife’s Autograph Award”: Zsombor Garat, whose wife Fanni Garát-Gasparics plays forward for PWHA Ottawa. Fanni’s Wikipedia page has a lot more information on it than Zsombor’s, so obviously she’s much more important.
The “Steve Kando Award”: To Railers Ticket Account Executive Dan Guertin for all his hard work this season. For the second year in a row, Steve does not win the award named for him.
The “David Gwozdz Award”: To Dave Gwozdz, once again a winner for a decent mix of new merchandise this season to go along with some old favorites. (See how easy it is to win an award named for you Steve? And Dave has done it twice now.)
The “Martin Brodeur Award”: To New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello, who has never won a thing in pro hockey without Brodeur as his goaltender, and we’ll keep giving him this award until he’s no longer even tangentially involved with the Railers.
The “Rule #1 Award”: James Stark, who had never heard of this particular rule before our trip to Florida, but embraced it while we were there, and is now an ardent follower of it. Don’t know what “Rule #1” is? Get a little older and you’ll figure it out.
The “Thank You Home Fans Award”: To the fine folks in Adirondack and Orlando who (mostly) greeted us visiting Railers fans with open arms and great conversations. Yes, there are bozos in every crowd, but in the trips I made away from the DCU Center last season to watch the Railers I ran into scores of great people, and I (and others) thank them for their hospitality.
The “Old Guy Award”: Originally it was going to John Muse, but we had to quickly scribble out his name and instead make it out for Joe Spagnoli, who became the oldest goaltender to ever play a game for a Worcester pro team. He’s the second oldest ever, behind just Claude Lemieux.
The “Lightning McQueen Award”: Tina Stark, and to celebrate this highly inspirational award everyone should say “Ka-chow!” to Tina every time they see her this summer.
The “Mr. .500 Award”: Railers head coach Jordan Smotherman, who threw away a 16-2-1 start last season to end up at .500 for the season. This season Smotherman removed our secondary affiliation, signed better players who were allegedly more physical, and improved the defense only to once again finish at the same exact .500 mark and miss the playoffs by the same exact two points.
The “Pourmen Award”: John Curtin and his bandmates entertained Railers fans twice this season, once at a fundraiser and the second at a post St Patrick’s Day parade bash at the Vernon Hill Post. Check out their Facebook page for future local dates.
The “Sunshine and Rainbows Award”: To everyone this season and last that gave this writer crap for “being negative”. Well, here’s one thing you can be positive about…I was right again.
The “David Haas Award”: The award that goes to the player with the most talent that uses the least of it, and after a brief meeting of the committee it was determined that we’ll be putting this back on the shelf again this season.
The “Shoutout Award”: To all the Booster Club volunteers who took part in helping to support the team and the club’s charity efforts this season. From the 50/50 volunteers to those that do door handouts to the many that helped with player housing, and everything else in between, the club couldn’t do what it does without you. Thank you.
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