From Worst to Cerebral First

It was a bittersweet evening yesterday.  The Leafs game 7 loss to the Bruins left a sour taste in my mouth for sure.  I didn't even watch most of the 3rd period.  The brutal turnovers by the Leafs D in 1st period, sealed their fate.  This is playoffs hockey.  It isn't regular season.   Plus with Tampa Bay out, the door was open for any team to win it all.  But you gotta want it and more importantly you gotta work hard and protect the puck.

I do believe the Leafs wanted it.  But they didn't do the other 2 things until it was too little too late.  Too bad, they were both fun to watch this year and annoying.  Hopefully changes will make the D better for next season.  They are still a young team.

The Raptors however, wanted it, worked hard and protected the ROCK!  Except for the 1st game, the next 4 were shutdown basketball.  They played like the 2nd best team in the league.  Glad they woke up!

And I can say that my Tuesday night hockey team the Cerebral Czars wanted it!  We were playing in the championship game of our True North Hockey Winter League.  I think if the Leafs had won, i wouldn't have cared if we won or lost.  But since they lost, I was a bit more determined to bring respect back to my hockey world!  IMHO, I think I would have played the same regardless, but I was cheesed off.  Glad Kieran was napping when i was watching, cuz my foul language filter kinda shuts off with watching the Leafs play.
I tried not to think too much about this game.  It is just a game after all.  But winning is so much better than losing.  We were the worst team in our div last year.  This year we finished first.  My play had improved a lot over last season.   Plus we got 2 players that made us just that much better than last season.  And our goalie got AMAZINGLY better.

This year I played a specific role, I got better at it, and it helped me to know where to be.  I made adjustments throughout the season and steadily got better.  When you know your teammates habits and what they will do, it makes your play seem better.


I'm happy we won in my 2nd year playing with the Czars.  As we get older winning gets harder to achieve. My neighbour Freddie, who got me on the team, scored the eventual winning goal.  A beautiful shot top shelf glove side.  I saw the net bulge and and put us up 4-2 in the middle of the 3rd period.  The goal gave us a bit more jump and deflated the other team, and caused them to press a bit more.  We knew they'd pull their goalie later, and they did, and they scored to make it 4-3, but that was as close as they got as we hustled to every puck and chew up time.

The XXX-Stars beat us 2-3 in our last game 2 weeks ago.  We knew we'd be playing them in the finals.  And we were short our 2nd best player, out with concussion symptoms (from the game against THEM!).  I wasn't sure we'd win, since they are a really good team with some really skilled players.  But we just seemed to have a bit more jump than they did.  We back checked really well.  That was the difference.  As a team, our Fwds played better D than theirs.  And that led to turnovers that we capitalized on.

Justin calls me the ginder of our line.  I forecheck hard, battle for the puck, get it to our guys and head to the net. I am always happy when I find a way to contribute with an assist or goal.  Scoring a goal with something on the line just means infinitely more than in pickup.  It's nice to see your name on the score sheet.   You can't beat the feeling of winning as a team.  Even last year when we were losing all the time.  I learned to enjoy playing the game as part of a team and not focus on the score. It's made it more enjoyable.


The last time i was on a team that won a championship was an Ultimate Frisbee team almost 20 years ago.  I didn't even get a jersey or anything from that.  I think there was a hoodie, but i never got it. Got nada! In this I got a cool shirt that says League Champs!  And we got to drink some $13 champagne that Tommy got out the cup.  It was the best!

That cup is metal too.  I thought it was plastic.