Milwaukee Community Hockey League

Since Letterman is off the air, we're assuming he can't sue us for this. Introducing, the MCHL's Top Ten! Today's Edition: Top 10 Things You Can Tell the Ref When They Send You to the Penalty Box. (Power Rankings to return next week, for now, just assume your team is number one).

At the Milwaukee Community Hockey League, we take the “Community” part seriously. Many of our players have interesting careers off the ice, so we’re launching a new series highlighting what they do outside the rink. Consider it MCHL Career Day.

First up: Trevor Palm of Elwood’s! With 22 points this season - 10 goals and 12 assists - Trevor has been a major contributor to a feisty Elwood’s squad. Let's find out where he spends his time when he's not on the ice.

Q: So Trevor, what do you do for a living?
A: I am a physical therapist at Aurora Sinai downtown. I've been working in this inpatient or hospital setting for about four years now.

Q: That’s fascinating, so what’s harder, scoring a point in almost all of Elwood’s games this season, or helping a patient rehab?
A: The latter is more mentally draining for sure. Oftentimes I wheel in the tv cart to patient rooms and play the movie Miracle. You wouldn't believe how many patients exhibit a resurgence in mobility after watching. Had a new above knee amputee hopping down the hallway yelling "AGAIN!" as he went, he didn't even put a second gown on his back to cover up. I think a whole rehab program should be made around viewing the movie but that's a whole different discussion.. anyway, the former is a labor of love, Jamey. Trying to get #77 to light the lamp on a one-timer is still in the making dangit!
*Editor’s note: as of this posting, #77 on Elwood’s, Jamey Schilling, still has yet to score a goal off of the many good passes he’s received from Trevor*

Q: You’re on a hockey team with your brother, Cody Palm, who works as a consultant at a big four consulting firm. The people want to know, which Palm brother has the harder job?
A: Oh, no doubt I do. I have to get dressed and leave the house! You're not asking my brother this question are you?
*2nd editor’s note: if this gets enough likes, we’ll ask Cody too

Q: What’s the biggest career advice you have for aspiring physical therapists?
A: Step back and think about how you're helping people be better and do better. The system as a whole can be demoralizing and make us lose that focus.

Q: What question do you want me to ask, but I haven’t yet?
A: You haven't asked if I'd like a Teddy Brewski [beer], and I would certainly oblige without question. I think there is plenty of time to remedy this yet. On that note, you also haven't asked if I think that we have enough ice cold Dr. Peppers after our games. To that I would say no, we have some work to do in that department.

Thank you to Trevor for his time and effort on this. Know someone in the league who has an interesting job? Let us know, message us and we’ll get them in the next edition

Photo dump
Last night, The Torros vs The Bolts

With gas prices soaring and international tensions at an all time high, we as a nation are divided. However, we’ve found one thing that both the left and the right can agree upon: Water Street Brewery deserves to keep their top spot in this week’s Power Rankings. Let’s get into it:

#1 Water Street Brewery (6-1-2): The good times keep rolling for Water Street Brewery. They kept their unbeaten streak alive at six games, knocking off Elwood’s 3-1. Thomas Matzen, Kagan Hoerle and Andrew Collins were the goal scorers in this one. Jason Ruenger’s stick continues to have an actual gravitational pull to the puck when he brings it up the ice. They play number three Puddler’s next week in a can’t miss game.

#2 Loomis Road Dental Extractors (5-4): The Extractors win a barn burner, 6-5 in overtime against a tough Puddler’s team. It was the Nick Vandermissen show once again as he scored the opening goal and the curtain dropping goal in overtime on the way to a hat trick. Tyler Schultz chipped in two as well, as the Extractors got back to their winning ways.

#3 Puddler’s (5-3-1): Neil Wren and Justin Watzka kept Puddler’s in it the entire night, as both had two-goal nights, Puddler’s continues a frustrating trend of following up their big wins with a loss, having now alternated wins and losses for the past four weeks. Good news for them though, that means they’re due for a win next week against Water Street.

#4 BelAir (4-5): BelAir scored twelve times in their win over Keystone this past week. Our social media guy can’t even count that high. So if any math is off in this section, blame BelAir’s video-game-like scoring output for messing with his head. Of course the headlines will belong to Sam Frontier who scored a comical six goals, but lost in the mix is the fact that Christopher Christen and Michael Budd each had hat tricks in the game as well.

#5 Elwood’s (4-4-1): All good things must come to an end, as Elwood’s win streak ends at two games. They lost a close one to Water Street, 3-1. It was, as always, one of the Palm brothers who scored for them, with Trevor Palm potting the team’s lone goal of the night. Up next week: Elwood’s has a date with a BelAir team that scored a dozen goals in their most recent game.

#6 Amorphic (4-4-1): What can you even say when you have sixty shots and only one goal? Well, according to Amorphic Captain, Kane Benjamin, “we’re starting to question the power of the beet. But we remain faithful. We’re thinking perhaps beets are the source of the millions of shots, and we need another substance to actually score goals.” The silver lining: goalie Max Trevison's new pads reportedly still look great.

#7 Corazon (3-6): Corazon picked up a big win over Amorphic this past week, winning 3-1. Do-It-All Davis Allsop scored twice, and the Energizer Bunny, Dan Asmuth scored the other goal. An odd stat for you, while Corazon only has three wins, two of those are against teams ranked top three in the current standings. Go figure.

#9 (2-6-1) Keystone Click: You might notice that Keystone Click is ranked ninth when there are only eight teams in this league. That’s because a very honest member of Keystone Click told us that they should be ranked ninth in the next Power Rankings. We’re all about making dreams come true at the MCHL, so ninth it is. It was a highly forgettable game for the Clickers as they lost 12-5 to BelAir, and have now lost four in a row.

Some shots from the Water Street v. Elwood’s matchup last night, credit to Andrew Highby for capturing these

Photo dump, second game last night

Its called beer league for a reason, first two teams brought about 90 cans...
Lets see if the second two teams can match that

Team Names. Sure the sponsor is listed, but that unofficial/official team name? Suggestions?
>Amorphic The ASTRONAUTS is great. When Ron brews a throwback Stroh's beer clone, the 3rd jersey can be The Ah-Strohs
>Loomis is The EXTRACTORS, it's tough its gritty, done.
But what about the others?
>Puddlers Hall has to be THE PUDDLERS (iron worker who works with molten steel "puddling" it) classic old school name
>Keystone The CLICKERS? The MARKETEERS? The BUILDERS? The GREENS? (jersey color)
>Bel Air The CANTINAS has a cool ring to it.
>Water Street/The Brewery The GREYS (jersey color) The BREWERS? The ENTERTAINERS? (entertainment district)
>Elwoods The DIVERS? (dive bar, but sounds wrong) THE BAGGERS? (bags the game as well as type of motorcycle)
>Corazon THE HEARTS? seems correct logo and definition of word.
Give us some suggestions and will try to start getting them into the colloquial vernacular and maybe we will use some other big words too.

A LOT of shuffling in the standings this week! Well over half way through the season, buckle up, things are starting to get interesting. Here are your week eight MCHL Power Rankings:

#1 Puddler’s (5-2-1): The guys with the Edmonton Oiler adjacent jerseys played some of their best hockey of the season last night in a 6-1 win over Keystone Click. It’s good when you win by five goals. It’s better when you do so despite missing one of your best players, Mike Pankowski. It’s downright fantastic when seven of ten players on your team record a point, including 70 year old self described "rink rat", Tim Todd.

#2 Water Street (5-1-2): Some will argue that Water Street deserves to be in the top spot, noting that they have fewer losses than Puddler’s. They also have more ties, which I think makes them lose credibility. Still, you can’t deny they’re having a great season. They haven’t lost a game in over a month, and had a gritty 5-3 win over a tough Loomis team this past week. The Ruenger Brothers combined for three goals in the contest, then Kegan Hoerle and Jon Thorsen also got in the mix with a goal each.

#3 Loomis Road Dental Extractors (4-4): Loomis had a hard fought loss to Water Street Brewery this past week, and while there are no moral victories in beer league, I will point out that they were without Nick Vandermissen and playing with a short bench. Mackane “Birdman” Vogel, Tyler “Charles” Schultz and Andrew “ with friends like this, who needs anemones” McMenomy all scored in this one for Loomis.

#4 Elwood’s (4-3-1): Winners of two in a row, including an 8-0 wallop of Amorphic last week, Emma’s bunch had a come from behind 4-2 victory over Corazon last night. The Palm Brothers continue to dazzle, Jim Misiti has been turning it on as of late, and Jack Semanski has scored three goals in the past two games using his signature candy cane twig. If Elwood’s keeps grinding out wins like this, they could be a force to reckon with in the playoffs.

#5 Amorphic (4-3-1): I’m not going to lie to you, dear reader, it feels dirty having Amorphic this low. After a loss last week, Amorphic recovered with a 6-5 win over BelAir. Joe Gargulak, Bryan Dee and Andrew Castle had their first goals of the season last night. LaRon Hankerschultz had a goal. Their goalie, Max Trevison’s new pads not only look good, but they’re also super functional. And a source close to Amorphic has also revealed that their season slogan is , and that they’re close to mastering a delectable Borscht recipe just in time for summer.

#6 BelAir (3-5): Death. Taxes. BelAir barely losing to Amorphic. For the second time this season, the BelAirians suffered a close loss to the Astronauts, falling this time 6-5. Sam Frontier continues to be exceptional, as he recorded a hat trick in the matchup, and Egor Shalamov and Ivan Eisenberg each found the back of the net as well. The struggles continue as they can’t seem to get over the hump, having now lost four of the last five games.

#7 (2-5-1) Keystone Click: This one was practically over before it started for Keystone. Going down 5-0 before scoring their first goal, they eventually lost to Puddler’s 6-1. Scott Roscoe had their only goal of the night. The biggest item of note? The stat sheet lists a comical 24 minutes worth of penalties for Kyle Kuyper, who was not having a fun time out there.

#8 Corazon (2-6): After a massive win against Puddler’s last week, Corazon let a close one slip through their fingers, losing to Elwood’s 4-2. Tyler Schultz had a beautiful goal, and then… *confused look at stat sheet* Kyle Beutin, Corazon’s goalie also scored a goal? F*** it, sure why not, if the stat sheet says it’s true it must be true.

A lot of our posts are about goals, points and assists, but you might be wondering who's leading the league in the stats that actually matter. Wonder no more. Asked about leading the league in penalty minutes, Kyle Kuyper had just two words for us: “Bad calls.”

At 30 minutes through 8 games, Kuyper has almost twice as many as second place (Neil Wren, 16 PIMs). Despite all that time in the sin bin, he's still averaging 1.71 points per game