Adam and Karen Meldrom get in the spirit.	Top and mid management all in one place.
Jersey hasn't felt such a movement in the force since the last episode of the Sopranos.	Josh didn't get the memo - or else he got a special excuse to be out of uniform while in uniform.
Sara and Ed Beach dress for the occasion. Bet they match costumes for Halloween too.	Alex Dunbar and Ashley May, videographers covering the convention, are given the Travelling Hanson Brothers Trophy.

The 2010 tournament started off with the usual boisterous crowd, bolstered this year by a documentary crew who came to record the festivities after seeing the YouTube video of the "Reading of the Rules" from last year. It takes a special constitution to want to record our event, especially knowing beforehand what you're getting into, so we rewarded the documentarians with the coveted Travelling Hanson Brothers Trophy for 2010.

At the GM's table, the annual grudge match between Lisa Gutermuth and Don Greenwood had to be postponed for a year, since Lisa left early to attend a wedding. Be sure to tell her about all the awesome things she missed the next time you see her. But the show must go on, and so we pressed a "replacement Lisa" into service, and chose Nicole Reiff, fresh off her win in Battle Cry that afternoon, and looking for blood. Or so we were hoping. Alas, the whole table had to stand by and watch the Unstoppable Greenwood Juggernaut cruise through to the Final. In the end, the only person who could stop Don was Don himself, as for a second year in a row, he whomped Ken in the table Final and chose sleep over advancement, and for a second year in a row, Ken Gutermuth went in his stead to uphold the table's honor.

In other first round action, we saw what may be our first recorded double-female penalty as Virginia Melton and Laurie Wojtaszcyk were both caught whining, and paid the price. The score sheets also recorded lots of whining about bad hands, written once it was too late to be penalized for it. Jonathan Barnes lost his Superstar on the first trade of the game without getting a chance to use him. Ken Lee bragged about his powerhouse hand of 1,1,1,1,2,2, but was topped by Tim Packwood's 1,1,1,1 and Tiny Tim. Naturally, neither player won their game, but they've stockpiled better luck for future events ... or so I keep telling myself.

Also, in a self-described "touching and emotional story that will one day be shown on ESPN 8, the Ocho" Alex Maly took over for his dad Andrew in the playoffs and ended up sweeping the table Final. We're not sure what happened to Andrew, but we'll assume that whatever kept him from his team was a legitimate and honorable excuse worthy of retelling around future Slapshot tables.

As usual, the annual "Massively Unfair semi-final Round" got most of the winners quickly off to bed, leaving us with six finalists, each bringing their own playing piece with deep sentimental meaning:

Ken "Thank You Don Greenwood" Gutermuth, playing the paper clip

Hans Christian "I'll beat all of you ugly Americans" Kirketerp, playing the plastic tank

Charles "I aspire to become relevant" Squibb, playing the 5 cent Euro piece

Josh "I'm the real hockey fan" Githens, playing an actual hockey figurine (!)

Ben "No, really, I found this piece on the floor" Collinson, playing the beer cap

Jessica "Tiny Jess" Foster, playing the lipstick

It's always interesting to see the styles of the finalists come out in their actions. Jessica started out by drafting five times, to the collected boos of the other players. Her response was "It's part of the game! Jeez!". Charles also drafted early, which was a dead giveaway and the first couple of games confirmed that he was drafting out of necessity, as he quickly became the table patsy.

Meanwhile, Ken won a few quick games and had four wins before anyone had their second. He then tried to form a coalition of himself, Josh, Ben, and Jess to all play each other and try to make sure only they advanced to the playoffs. Charles and Hans Christian responded by forming their own coalition to only play each other, but that dissolved once it was discovered that Charles had two bruisers. After that, visiting teams shied away.

As the game progressed both coalitions splintered, and Josh and Ken both found themselves in the lead, and on the verge of starting the playoffs. They tried several times to advance one of them, but a run of several tied games meant prolonged the game, giving the others time to improve their position.

Meanwhile, Jesssica's constant drafting finally stuck gold, as she revealed that the Superstar was buried deep in the Forward deck. Upon seeing that, both Ken and Josh stopped playing each other, and made some drafts of their own to prepare for the playoffs. Josh declared "I did some scouting in Winnepeg", but he may want to fire that scout, as he ended up with the lowly Le Goon.

Eventually, Ken and Josh played a game that didn't end in a tie, and triggered the playoffs. The first bracket had Ken playing Hans Christian and his bruiser. Two of the games in this series went into overtime, giving Ken's team extra chances to get battered. His team staggered away with a 5-game phyrric series win, but managed to pick up a replacement bruiser of his own for the next round. In the other bracket, Le Goon did his job early, taking out Jessica's superstar, and leaving her team without much hope. Josh and his goon advanced to the Final to play Ken who was looking to become the second two-time Slapshot champ, armed with his new bruiser.

Before the Final could begin the third-place series was played, and Jessica beat Hans Christian 2-0. Jessica got the third place plaque, but Hans Christan got the grey plaque that he said was the cooler color, so everyone went away happy. But there could only be one happy contestant at the end of the Final, and it was a mighty struggle, destined to go the full seven games.

In game 1, Le Goon bruised Ken's 6 player, but Ken won the game.

In game 2, Le Goon bruised Ken's 5 player, and Josh won the game in overtime

In game 3, Ken got his revenge, bruising Josh's 7 while losing a 3. Ken won in overtime.

In game 4, Josh lost a 5, and Ken a 4. Ken won, taking a 3-1 lead

In game 5, Josh bruised Ken's 4, and won in overtime to remain alive.

There was actually a lot of strategy in these overtime games, as Josh had the best player remaining (a 7), but Ken had a level 10 goalie. So deciding who to risk, and when to play which card had a huge impact in these overtime games. This was especially true in game 6, when Ken bruised Josh's 6, and then decided to bring out the bruiser in overtime, conceding the game, but bruising Josh's 7. Ken went into the deciding Game 7 with what appeared to be the dominant team.

Then, as the puck dropped in the seventh and final game, we saw the replacements that Josh gained to replaced his bruised stars - another 6 and another 7! With these great new cards, Josh won the game and the championship. Ken was seen shaking his head for days afterward, muttering to himself "I can't believe he pulled a 6 and a 7 for the last game..."

Andy Lewis and his infamous open-hand table.	Ken gets his annual bye to the semis while I trundle off to bed.
The lucky icons that brought our finalists to the play-offs.	Sean's tough job - staying awake for the finalists to finish.

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 Slapshot Junior

Mark Yoshikawa dropped the puck for 16 little hockey players this year. Giovanni Petruzelli proved to be the toughest little bruiser in the rink. He was followed by Zack Denysenko, Max DuBoff, Nick Metzger, Sara Harthan and Dacey Collinson.

GM Mark Yoshikawa drops the puck and runs for cover.	This crew appears to be Mark's size. A couple of years will fix that.