"We are the champions..."
Well my first adult ice hockey league has come to a successful close. We won our championship playoff game on Saturday 2-0 over Team Yellow. It was probably one of the coolest experiences in my life.
All thirteen members of our team showed up - which was the first time that had happened in probably two-and-a-half months. The only downfall for me was I had to cut short my Florida Star Trek 2006 TOC. I finished just three of the scheduled five rounds before having to leave. I left at 3pm. Thank God I did because if I had left any later from from Orlando, I would have been late to Brandon because the traffic on I-4 was pretty bad for the first 25 miles.
For the first time all year the scoreboard operator played the National Anthem before the start of the game. I believe that was the first time I have ever played in a game where the anthem was played. It was unexpected... and yet, pretty damn cool!
I played like crap for the first half of the game. I'm not going to make excuses... but in the future I found the night before a game I shouldn't: rollerblad four miles; stay up to 4am working on a Trek deck; and get only four hours of sleep. That's not even including driving to-and-from Orlando and eating nothing before the game. About midway through the second period I was finally able to find my legs.
My line was on the ice when our first goal scored. My centerman zoomed to the net, shot the puck and one of the defenseman got to the rebound and flipped it in. A great goal! That might have been his first one of the season, too. Then our best player scored the second goal and Larry, our MVP goalie, made a few great saves to preserve the shutout.
After mobbing Larry at the goal, we shook hands with the other team and celebrated at center ice as our picture was taken with the Cup (a trophy cup on a square wooden base attached to a beer keg that has previous winning team's names on name plates attached to it). Let me just say that lifting the Cup over my head wasn't easy - the darn thing is quite heavy. I guess I really should have eaten my Wheaties that morning.
After changing in the locker room we celebrated at the rink's bar getting free beer and wings. Then we talked about moving up to the newly-formed Adult "D" League as an entire team. Five of our players aren't be allowed to play in the beginner's league next season (which starts May 4th) - they're too good. So the choice was to move up as a team or the ones allowed to stay in the beginner's league would form a new Team White to fill the empty slots. We decided to move up (though I think 1-2 players will not join us) because we like playing together. We're also thinking about buying real team jerseys - instead of wearing practice ones with the numbers melted on.
So was it worth the money to join the league? You bet! It was lots of fun. I got some good exercise. I made some new friends. And I won a championship. Very cool!
All thirteen members of our team showed up - which was the first time that had happened in probably two-and-a-half months. The only downfall for me was I had to cut short my Florida Star Trek 2006 TOC. I finished just three of the scheduled five rounds before having to leave. I left at 3pm. Thank God I did because if I had left any later from from Orlando, I would have been late to Brandon because the traffic on I-4 was pretty bad for the first 25 miles.
For the first time all year the scoreboard operator played the National Anthem before the start of the game. I believe that was the first time I have ever played in a game where the anthem was played. It was unexpected... and yet, pretty damn cool!
I played like crap for the first half of the game. I'm not going to make excuses... but in the future I found the night before a game I shouldn't: rollerblad four miles; stay up to 4am working on a Trek deck; and get only four hours of sleep. That's not even including driving to-and-from Orlando and eating nothing before the game. About midway through the second period I was finally able to find my legs.
My line was on the ice when our first goal scored. My centerman zoomed to the net, shot the puck and one of the defenseman got to the rebound and flipped it in. A great goal! That might have been his first one of the season, too. Then our best player scored the second goal and Larry, our MVP goalie, made a few great saves to preserve the shutout.
After mobbing Larry at the goal, we shook hands with the other team and celebrated at center ice as our picture was taken with the Cup (a trophy cup on a square wooden base attached to a beer keg that has previous winning team's names on name plates attached to it). Let me just say that lifting the Cup over my head wasn't easy - the darn thing is quite heavy. I guess I really should have eaten my Wheaties that morning.
After changing in the locker room we celebrated at the rink's bar getting free beer and wings. Then we talked about moving up to the newly-formed Adult "D" League as an entire team. Five of our players aren't be allowed to play in the beginner's league next season (which starts May 4th) - they're too good. So the choice was to move up as a team or the ones allowed to stay in the beginner's league would form a new Team White to fill the empty slots. We decided to move up (though I think 1-2 players will not join us) because we like playing together. We're also thinking about buying real team jerseys - instead of wearing practice ones with the numbers melted on.
So was it worth the money to join the league? You bet! It was lots of fun. I got some good exercise. I made some new friends. And I won a championship. Very cool!
posted by Jono @ 5:48 PM
1 Comments:
At 10:10 PM,
Jono said…
Thanks.
I went 1-2. Lost round 1 by one turn (opponent teched great against me with both Timescape & Skeleton Crew). Then I lost round 2 when I was paired "up" to face Darren Lacoste (a damn fine player). Not bad since I hadn't been able to play in a constructed tourney since early December. At least I had fun... and that's the number one reason anyone should play a game.
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