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The Comeback Trail,
Part 2: Montreal
In the ancient world, and for
many centuries, it was truly said that all roads led to Rome.
In the table hockey world, at least for several decades, many
roads have led to Montreal. So I drove up to my hometown on
October 6, full of hope and trepidation alike, about to immerse
myself in the strongest field of Coleco players ever gathered
at one tournament. The event was organized by Carlo Bossio,
and drew top players from leagues in Montreal, Quebec City,
Sherbrooke, Gatineau, Toronto and New York. In all, 9 of Canada’s
top 10 Coleco players participated, and 47 players altogether
showed up to vie for the Montreal title.
Top Coleco Players
Trickled in from all Directions
In the first round-robin, I found myself in a division with
Carlo Bossio, Burt Brassard, and Alain Gamache, among other
tough players. Only the top three would advance. In my first
game, against Richard St. Laurent, I jumped off to a 4-0 lead,
but couldn’t hold it. He fought back to tie me at 4-4.
I then lost my second game to Burt Brassard, in a 5-3 shootout.
So I had a little talk with myself: 0-1-1 was not a good start,
and I would have to play a lot better to have a chance of
qualifying. Fortunately, I was able to lift my game, and won
six of the remaining seven contests, including a 2-0 victory
over Carlo Bossio. Burt won the division with a 9-0-1 record,
followed by Alain at 7-1-2. Carlo and I were tied for third,
at 7-2-1. However, Carlo advanced on the tiebreaks: He had
more goals for than me, and fewer goals against. My big lesson
from that round: had I not blown my four-goal lead against
Richard, I would have finished 8-1-1 and taken second place.
All other things being equal, Carlo would have been relegated
to division B instead of me.
So I now found myself in a
second-round division B dogfight among 11 hungry players,
the top 5 of whom would move up to division A, into the round
of 16. I won my first game, but lost the next two, allowing
far too many goals against in the process. So I had another
little talk with myself: 1-2-0 was not going to cut it. The
only way I could be assured of advancing was to win all my
remaining games. Somehow I managed to do this, winning seven
straight and finishing 8-2-0, which was good enough for first
place in the division. Dave Kraehling, ranked #5 in Canada
and fighting to recover from relegation himself, handed me
one of my two losses but finished second at 6-0-4. So I got
into the round of 16, in 12th place overall.
My opponent in the best-of-five was Burt Brassard, who had
finished 5th in the A-division round robin. Burt had already
beaten me 5-3 in the first round, but I had beaten him 6-5
in a first-round match in Quebec City in 2002 ( a tournament
he went on to win). So we were 1-1 lifetime, and both games
had been competitive. Everyone observed that Burt was having
a great day in Montreal – and he was – so I felt
concerned but not intimidated.
I won the first game 3-2. In
the second game, I jumped out to a 3-0 lead but (shades of
my first-round game against Richard) could neither pad the
lead nor keep Burt off the scoreboard. He chipped away, came
back and eventually prevailed 4-3. Game three was perhaps
the tightest contest that either of us played that day. We
finished in a scoreless tie, and I managed to score after
a couple of minutes of overtime: a tough 1-0 victory. Burt
looked quite worried at this point, maybe with good reason.
Game four was close for a long while. Tied 1-1 with about
a minute to play, Burt’s explosive offense came alive,
and he broke the game open with three quick goals, winning
4-1 and forcing game five. In the deciding game, Burt picked
up where he had left off, scoring several quick goals and
keeping me totally off-balance. He waltzed to a 7-1 win, and
a 3-2 series victory. But I gave him a match. My big lesson
from that series: Had I not blown my 3-goal lead in game two,
I might have eliminated Burt in straight games.
My day was done, but Burt went
on to beat #3 ranked Martin Labelle in a five-game quarter-final
series. Then, like many a tennis player who has played too
many five-set matches, Burt finally ran out of gas in the
semi-final, losing to #2 ranked Angelo Follano. Carlo Bossio
had meanwhile resumed his winning ways, and he prevailed over
Angelo 4 games to 1 in their best-of-seven final series. My
congratulations to Carlo on his outstanding performance, and
to his league-mates Angelo Follano and Patrick Coté
for their second and third place finishes on this day. Carlo's
Montreal league is surely dominant at home.
Patrick Coté,
Carlo Bossio, Angelo Follano
After all was said and done,
after all the trophies and medals had been handed out, and
after all the speeches had been made, a few of us “die-hard”
players still lingered over the boards. Carlo came over and
challenged me and Kenny Dubois to another game apiece. Great
champions are averse to having losing records, and Carlo had
officially gone 0-1 against Kenny as well as me that day.
He had won the title, but his appetite for victory and love
of play were not yet sated. Imagine Roger Federer winning
a grand slam ATP event, hositing the trophy, then heading
back into the locker room to challenge two guys who had taken
sets from him in earlier rounds! That is the relentless spirit
of Carlo Bossio.
My post-tournament game against
Carlo was tied 5-5 in the last minute, and then he managed
to score two late goals to defeat me 7-5, thus evening our
record at 1-1. He also beat Kenny, scoring a pile of goals
from every angle. Kenny and I have done this to many others
too, in runaway games when everything seems to go in, but
rarely has Kenny been on the receiving end of a lopsided score.
Carlo is a great player. He demonstrates intensity and tenacity,
as well as a sense of playfulness and humor. I look forward
to playing him again.
Bossio vs. Dubois:
the Rematch
Ref: Lou Marinoff. Videocam: Greg Scoma
My experience in Montreal taught
me several valuable lessons, and also reinforced my main conclusion
from the first article in this series. To reiterate that conclusion:
The top table hockey players of today are substantially stronger,
and also more numerous, than they were in my heyday. Today’s
top ten Coleco players are a deeply talented group, who have
more power, precision, defense and variety in their game than
we had back then. This is as it should be: It shows that the
game has grown and evolved. The growth and evolution are not
confined to the board. There is also a proliferation of leagues
and tournaments, and tremendous cooperation between and among
the Canadian organizers. They all deserve commendation for
that. One of the fruits of their cooperation and coordination
is a sophisticated national ranking scheme for the top 175
players, which 25 years ago would not have been achievable.
On a personal note: I did better
in Montreal than some people expected, and at the same time
worse than I would have liked. Finishing 12th overall in this
strong field was no disgrace, and I was only one win away
from the top 8. I also managed a win against the number one
player. These are encouraging signs. But
my biggest lesson is that my defense needs a lot of work.
I allowed too many goals against too many players, and blew
two key leads (4-0 in the first round and 3-0 in the playoffs)
that sealed my fate on that day, and prevented me from advancing
further. As part of the “American contingent”
in a game still dominated by Canadians, Kenny Dubois and I
gave a decent accounting of ourselves. He finished 9th overall
on the day -- he is a great talent -- and like me hopes to
improve his Coleco performance. We have cracked the Canadian
rankings now, based on this initial appearance: Kenny is 26th,
and I am 31st. I will play in Martin Labelle’s Sherbrooke
tournament next month, to see if I can tighten my defense,
climb in the rankings, and make a few more top ten players
sweat. Stay tuned for the next episode on my comeback trail.
Canadian
Coleco Rankings
Montreal
Classic 2006 Tournament Website
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