Let's get this rolling with 3 TPE from the PBE:   PBE PT +3 TPE

#10  New Doritos Flavor  2 TPE

A new flavor of Doritos for the Halifax Raiders? Welcome to the newest sensation on the convenience store shelves – Doritos Grit. “Doritos Grit – not for the faint of heart.” Yes, ladies and gentlemen, finally a chip that lives the ethos of the Halifax Raiders; hard work and determination. And what embodies hard work and determination better than good old-fashioned sweat. Yes, that’s right folks, these chips have the salty, acrid taste of that elixir of long workouts on the ice in heavy pads, perspiration, but perspiration is for baseball players. Baseball players perspire. Hockey players sweat.

Buy Doritos Grit today and enjoy the bitter taste of success!

#4  New Role on the Team  3 TPE

It’s a shame Halifax was hit with the injury bug, but it happens to every SMJHL team sooner or later and every player knows the mantra, “next man up” so when the coaches came to Abel Skinner and said, “Son, we need you to leave the blue line and play some right wing today” Abel didn’t bat an eye.

In reality, Skinner earns his living as a defenseman, but he goes to bed at night dreaming of scoring goals and especially Cup Game 7 winning goals just as much as any forward in the league. That drive and urge to score is one of the reasons he’ll have no trouble stepping into the role.

That and his already high scoring ability (80) will serve him well. He can shoot, but he can also dip and dink with the puck with puck handling at 79. And his skating’s not bad either – no slow footed D-goon is Abel with his 70 speed.

#5  The Offseason  3 TPE

Abel Skinner, like all Halifax Raiders, leaves it all out on the ice. There is no holding back. Not for one minute of their shift, not for one game in the entire season. And during the season, he’s intensely focused. He doesn’t go out with the guys as much as others – he tends to spend the night in his room reading and thinking about the next game.

So, when the offseason comes, Abel is ready to relax. He’s ready to return home to his native Wales and just hang out with family and friends he has known all his life. Some of them got interested in hockey when Abel’s career started to bloom, but most don’t and that’s exactly what he needs after a long, intense season – people to hang with who don’t know the first thing about hockey and only want to talk about the Welsh national rugby team, darts, and which pub serves the best pint.

#8  A Sonnet  4 TPE

Apologies to the Bard for lifting from his opening sonnet to Romeo and Juliet (but it was fun and I maintained the original iambic pentameter)

Two juniors teams, both alike in valor,
In fair Halifax, where we lay our scene,
From old grudge break to rage’s red color,
Where blind loyalty makes fans’ hands unclean.

From forth the sharp skates of this pair of foes
A pair of net minders pour out their life;
Whose oft-sung impassioned saves overthrows
Do with their play bury their fans’ strife.

The fearful passage of their headfirst dive,
And the continuance of crazed fans’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, nought could survive,
Is now the one hours’ traffic of our stage;

The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

#9  A Haiku   1 TPE

O Silent Skinner
Defender of line so blue
How noble your task