Refuse to Lose

We need to look no further back in history than Tuesday, January 10, 2012 when history was made precisely because of the Refuse to Lose attitude of current and past members of the Chaos (and possibly future members two of whom just need to sign up, the other one needs only to properly adjust his attitude on the ice).   This is the date when the Screaming Beaver hockey team led by Chaos blood won a game with only 5 skaters and a top notch goalie. 

Captain Chaos Steve Benninger, Korporal Brian Kappler, Tyler VanHeukelom,  James Cox (being related to Pete is by far his greatest asset), Chris The Maniac Kurmaniak, and Kaz the goalie pulled off what some thought was a totally improbable 4-1 victory.

How does this happen.   Easy.  It happens when a team is determined and has a refuse to lose attitude.

Not an attitude like former Chaos player Winchester who fortunately has moved to sunny California.   When learning that only 5 players would play he wrote: "Are you kidding me?  Sorry Brian....Not sure what I can do.  I think we should consider folding if this is going to continue" - and -  "Guys - This is ridiculous....DO we want to fold the team????".   What kind of a horsebleep attitude is that especially by someone who is not even going to play?  Of course we are not folding.  We can win with 5.   Bye Bye Winchester. (We probably could have won with 4).

After learning from Kappler that we won, the weasel glommed on and wrote "And you even scored?????  Come on....now I know you are lying.  Nice job!".   Of course Kappler scored.  He showed up and had the Refuse to Lose attitude.

How does this happen?  Here is the report from our leader Captain Chaos:

- Kaz in the locker room before the game to Brian, "Brian, get dressed." Brian - "No, I'm not getting dressed until at least one more guy walks in the door." 5 minutes later, no one else is coming and Kaz tells raises his voice (for the first time ever in our presence) and tells Brian again, "Get dressed!" Kappler says nothing but obeys. Well, he may have said something.

- On the ice, Cox takes a penalty with another guy for slashing each other. The Ref is waiting to drop the puck and I'm holding him up. I look at him and I say, "They need to get a guy off the ice, they should only have 4 guys, like us."  The ref grins and kindly instructs me that the penalties are off-setting, both teams are 5 aside." Captain Chaos, "oh, that sucks, we don't have another guy."

Cox and Tyler both proceed to take 2 penalties each in the 2nd period, allowing the other team to be on the power play the entire second period. However, this just caused the resolve of the 4 remaining Beavers to "dam up" the middle of the ice even more and refuse to lose.

- A first for Captain Chaos happened late in the 1st period where I drew two penalties on one play, one at each end of the ice. Their defenseman tee'd one up and I went out and blocked the shot and it ricocheted up the ice. As I went by him, he tripped me down to avoid the breakaway. I popped up immediately and kept skating (delayed penalty call). As I was about to let the shot go, the other defenseman had time to catch me (not sure how) and he throw the cross-check on me. They both went to the box giving us a much needed reprieve, and a 4-3 advantage (yes, Cox was in the box again).

Here are some good ones from Corporal Kappler:

- I remember playing D in front of Kaz.  He kept yelling 'too far back' because I would back up towards the net too far I guess.  Finally he just skates out in front of me to challenge the forward on the other team.  I got the hint after that.

- There were 8 or 10 icings in row early in the 3rd period by the Beavers.  The other team was getting pissed.  It was a good short rest.   Benninger iced a couple right off the face-off.   Only Tyler and James alternated rest stops in the box. 

Read some of the e-mails below.  This is guts, this is courage, this is insanity ....  Refuse to Lose.