I attempted to imitate your Otto's Life series of articles in this here piece, on (what else?) The NHL Breakout Tournament. Read it, and tell me what you think. ======= The NHL Breakout Tournament Final: Sam's finest hour... well, it should have been anyway The RP gang had been dominating various extreme sports for a while, even bringing home the gold (in more ways than one) from New Zealand. Another challenge lay ahead of them: the finals of The NHL Breakout Tournament, the winner of whom would get to play Luc Robataille, Jeremy Broderick, and Martin Brodeur in an exhibition game.

Problem was, their opponents, Ocean Bluffs, were not only a good team ("Really, really good" -- Otto), they were also much bigger. The team came up with the supposedly brilliant idea of putting the big and aggressive Lars on the team as their goalie as, like Brodeur had said in an earlier meeting with them, "they can't win if they can't score". Sam was fine with the idea, even if it meant giving up his regular goalkeeping position.

On the day of the final, Sam was at an unusual position: sitting on the bench, playing with his laptop. Meanwhile, Ocean Bluffs was getting Lars lit up in goal, and Ocean Shores soon found themselves with a 4 goal deficit with just under 13 minutes to play. So much for their brilliant idea.

"Are you nuts?! You're going to put Squid in the net? You must be joking!" -- Lars, as Sam was being reinstated in goal. But that was what got them into the final, and they weren't about to go down without a fight. A myriad of blocks from Sam, two goals from Reggie and one goal from Twister later, they had cut down the deficit to just one with only 12 seconds to go. They were smelling overtime. "I know what overtime is, bruddah" -- Tito, as the deficit was reduced to one.

The final seconds ticked by with lots of incident. Sam blocking a shot, Twister putting in a long distance score, and the final horn sounding. Unfortunately, not in that exact order. The home crowd was devastated as Ocean Bluffs hung on for the tournament win, spoiling Sam's finest hour, and the gang's hopes of playing the pros. The day after. Their neighborhood.

Much to the gang's surprise, Robataille, Broderick, and Brodeur met the Rocket gang and wanted to play with them. "Most of all, I wanted a chance to play against the one and only Sam 'Stonewall' Dullard" -- Brodeur, on why they stopped by. And that's what they did.

By: Varakorn Ungvichian