Complaisant: Seamus Bends Toward the Breaking Point

“Why are you so complaisant, Seamus?” his sponsor asked, a hint of irritation in his husky voice. “You keep bending to everyone else’s wishes. Why?”

Conducting a Sockdolager: The End of the Line

Upon learning about Seamus’s fondness for trains and the Beaverbrook’s desire to see the “the End of the Line” in Elmira, A. J. MacDonald’s father delivered a sockdolager: "Seamus, I’ll drive you there, son. It’s only handy from where I spent my first fifty years. Let's go before the roads get slippy, eh?"

Pecuniary, Purpose and Prayer

"Your potential pecuniary success, the big bucks you may earn playing in the NHL, matter not one iota to me," Father O'brien once told Seamus. "You will excel at hockey here at St. Kevin, of that I've got little doubt, son. But what will your true purpose be? Who among us knows the answer until we've been tested. I will pray for your soul, Seamus, not your earning power."

St. Kevin Parochial School Hockey: Fundamentals, not Foofaraw

Seamus J. O'Sheehan's hockey coach at St. Kevin Parochial School despised behind–the–back and between–the–legs passes—too much foofaraw for youngsters. What they needed to survive in hockey and in whatever vocation they chose to pursue after hockey was dedication to mastering the fundamentals.

St. John Journal Entry: The Hapless Hockey Confederates

Written by the Mickey Dupere, the fictitious St. John Journal' hockey scribe:

Losers of their last six contests, the hapless Charlottetown Confederates look for better luck (three post-ringers in the third period last night against the Bridgeport Barnums) when they play the St. Andrews Beaverbrooks this weekend. The Feds will need to shore up their team defense; it's like one PEI Islander commented to this reporter: "They're running around like a fart in a mitten."

Etiolated: Weak Imported Play and Vegetables

The Beaverbrooks, 0-5 losers to the Atlantic Puffins, left St. John's with a favorable impression of the local hockey team, as well as the music and pub scene, but the team was less impressed with its weak performance and the days-old etiolated imported vegetables. (Newfoundland can grow stout hockey players, but the province's acidic and stony soil aren't conducive to cultivating first-rate greens.)

Brown Study: Insight into Despair

During his spiritual and emotional demise, Seamus fell into a brown study, a self-absorbed funk that isolated him from his family, the fourth estate and his teammates.

King of the Caterwaul: Alpie Pommeraie

Andrew de La Pommeraie, the short Providence Sterlings forward with the league's longest last name, eluded many a defender. Quick as a caffeinated cat, for sure. But in the rare instance an opponent mashed him against the boards or knocked him to the ice, "Alpie" (as his teammates called him), would caterwaul to the officials.

Riposte: Verbal Fencing in the Locker Room

The banter in the Beaverbrooks locker room, highlighted by Benoit's good-natured attack on Ambrose Bishop's lack of foot speed and the subsequent riposte—Bishop changing the subject— made Seamus J. O'Sheehan forget his scoring slump.

 

Thimblerig: Sleight of St. John's

Seamus J. O'Sheehan and the Lady Beaverbrooks strolled along George Street, where live music streamed from the nearly two dozen pubs. While his younger teammates scanned the St. John's Christmastime festival for pretty maidens, Seamus found himself drawn to the sleight-of-hand artists, for the thimbleriggers seemed like the carnival equivalent of hockey players who juked and jived past would-be defenders.

Nobby: Kieran's Attire in Chic Montreal

Kieran was no snob, yet he enjoyed wearing a nobby hat and tie when visiting Quebec, on business, and to attend a Canadiens game at Le Forum de Montréal.

 

Froufrou: Nathalie's Frilly Fashion

Nathalie, as much as she was a put-on-no-airs lass, also enjoyed dressing in high heels, a floral-pattern dress, white blouse and a sequined bolero jacket. This ocassional froufrou suited her well, at least in Seamus's eyes.

Redolent: Ready for Lunch in Charlottetown

The blue open-shelled mussels, redolent of paprika, ginger and onion, steamed as the Beaverbrooks anticipated lunch with their PEI host family.

Preening: Not Just for the Birds

Seamus J. O'Sheehan accepted the M.V.P. award and struggled with the dueling demons of selfish preening and false modesty.

Remuneration: Often Misspelled

Players sometimes groused about the remuneration, or lack thereof, the Lady Beaverbrooks provided; even the best players worked second jobs.

Donnybrook: Can-Am History and a "Free-for-Brawl"

"...The donnybrook at the Halifax Mont-Blancs–Boston Imos game belied the Can–Am Hockey League's new (and supposedly improved) spirit of international cooperation..." –Mick Dupere, scribe for the St. John Gazette

Kieran: The Lord of Misrule

Every Gaudete Sunday, for as long as Seamus J. O"Sheehan could remember, his father would revive, on humble scale, a controversial Christmas tradition: The selection of the lord of misrule. Rather than being appointed by lot to reside over yuletide shenanigans that mocked the Church's hierarchy, however, Kieran would anoint himself to this household position as a means to coordinate ( albeit with a modicum of levity) a peaceful rejoicing in the season.
 

"Je suis le Prince de Sots," he would say and then light a rose-colored candle to signal his month-long reign over Christmastime protocol. Everything from the tree selection to the songs performed during the O'Sheehan St. Stephen's Day Procession to taking down the holly on Twelfth Night, this was Kieran's domain. Everything, that is, except what transpired in the O'Sheehan kitchen, for Gráinne was the queen of mince pies and soda bread.

Hockey Meets Hypermnesia

Nathalie could remember every detail of her first date with Seamus J. O'Sheehan, who knew what the word hypermnesia meant but had never met anyone who could recall with such clarity an event from five years ago.

Cloche: Covering Grianne's Baked Goods

Gráinne's Irish soda bread, baked on Saturday mornings and then covered by a fine crystal cloche that Kieran had purchased at a garage sale, would tempt Seamus J. O'Sheehan to break away from whatever book he was reading and reward himself with a late-night snack.

Ambrose Bishop: The Towering Tartar

Opponents who dared to drop the gloves with Ambrose Bishop, the towering Beaverbrooks tartar, often regretted their decisions.