Headed for Heartbreak

It would be a lie to say that i thought about the game when from the moment I woke up this morning until this very moment. the morning began with some good wife fighting, followed by locking myself out of the house, followed by more wife fighting.

And I know you would love to hear about the wife fighting. It was the same fight, different day. Topics included ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* and *******.

But that play by play is for another day. Don't worry, we have this fight every few months. It will come up again on a day that is not as filled with meaning as this one was.

So I was psyched for the game. All the guys on the team were. First game of the season, first season in the league. One guy told me he woke up nervous, and felt butterflies all day. Our goalie was feeling butterflies near gametime, and I'm sure some other people were who didn't feel like sharing.

Me, I didn't really eat all day. I didn't want it sitting in my system. Because there is only one way to play. That is to leave everything you have out there on that court. And often times, that means throwing up if you have any food inside you.

So I didn't eat much today.

Gametime was at 10:30 PM, and we were playing Winning is Optional, a team that chose that name after going 3-7 last season.

I made a new up-tempo CD, and tried to include inspiring radio calls like Al Michaels "Do You Believe in Miracles" and Jack Buck's "I don't believe what I just saw"

I picked up two of our players at around 9, and we had a good hour to watch other teams play, stretch, and mentally prepare urselves for the task at hand.

We started slowly. It takes time to get used to a new floor, new dimensions, new opponents. Less than one minute into the first period we were trailing 1-0. A few minutes later, and we were down 3-0, and thats the way the first period ended.

We regrouped during the intermission, and came out firing. We scored 6 goals in the second period, only giving up 2, and going into the third period, we led 6-5.

We fought hard in the third period, but we went into an offensive shell. Too much dump and chase, not enough scoring opportunities. They scored a goal to tie it all at 6-6. Then, with two and a half minutes left, they scored again, taking the lead 7-6.

We had a few more chances, but the puck didn't bounce our way, and thats the way it ended.

We learned a lot about our team tonight. Most importantly, we learned how to play in this league. It is exhausting. We need to be in top shape, to give it our all every minute out there. And we will get there. We're just not there yet.

So a heartbreaking loss in a game we should have and probably could have won. But we know for next week. And you know we are going to bring it.