Page 13 - April 2017

draft. This can be fun and definitely
gets heated at times! After the teams
are selected and Trooper Joe Gray
gets to make any changes that he
wants, a few minor adjustments
are made to level the playing field.
In 2017, a large number of people
who had never played organized
hockey participated, and they had
just as much fun as the guys who
had played professional hockey
(the photos in this article were
taken at this year’s Tournament). .

Every team is guaranteed
two games and after that the
Paul Barry. Those losses made 2005 and 2006 standings are compiled. The first
difficult years for the MSP, and the Committee determination is made by your record over the two
wanted to honor these troopers in a special way. games. The first tie breaker is goal differential, then
penalty minutes. After the top four teams are seeded,
After the 2014 hiatus, the Tournament came back the playoffs begin. Teams that make it to the finals will
strong in March of 2015 and has grown even more within have played four games in six hours. Once the winner is
the past two years. Over the years, committee members crowned at the end of the championship game the team
changed, and in 2013 Troopers Michael Close and Sean captain is awarded the trophy. Many winners of the cup
Newman took over the majority of Tournament planning have paraded it around the ice as if it was Lord Stanley’s
and brought some new ideas. In 2015 they moved the itself and also treated it the same at the reception after!
Tournament to March and incorporated a raffle for
Boston Bruins luxury box seats. During the last two years, This Tournament is also different from other
the Tournament has awarded a total of 25 scholarships, State Police charity events due to the fact that a trooper
due in part to moving the event to the Foxborough out of the last class may be sitting beside a Lt. Colonel in
Sports Center where ice rental is less expensive, the locker room and playing on the same team. If a Lt.
generous donations from SPAM, and additional raffles. Colonel walked into a barracks and sat down beside a
new trooper, the trooper would find any excuse to leave
A hockey tournament is different from the as soon as possible. But once players enter the locker
charity golf tournaments in which many MSP members room and greet their teammates, the atmosphere changes
have played in over the years. Participants include and troopers of all ranks get to know each other. Each
players who have just come out of NHL team’s farm player puts their skates one at a time, like everyone else!
systems, recently graduated collegiate players, high
school “heroes” and ankle-benders. With that comes a
lot of logistics to make the teams even and to ensure
that everyone has fun and, most importantly, is safe. The
games consist of two halves comprised of of 1:30 shifts of
“buzzer hockey.” The first line consists of A and B ranked
players and the second line consists of C and D players.

During registration players are allowed to
pick their level, and after a few adjustments for the
“sandbaggers” all of the players are ranked. To pick the
teams a group of 10-12 players meet up and conduct a

F r en c h·a n d·E le c t r ic·B l ue·A p r i l·2017·p a g e·13