"You're Talkin' Bout Playoffs?"

It’s Ash Wednesday; which has nothing to do with hockey...or smoking…

Unless you’re going to give up smokes and hockey for Lent.

Anyway, I decided to give up googling myself. It’ll be tough, but I think my ego will let me. Besides, last time I did it, I thought I was a Rugby player.



I don’t play rugby, but I am a hockey player, and yesterday I vowed to give up losing for Lent, which was sparked by my winning Roll Up the Rim experience – something that had evaded me for 22 cups. Thankfully, Lent didn’t start last night.

My hockey team, The Ice Dogs played the 2^nd game of our first round in the playoffs. On Sunday night, we fell 6-3 to the Shockers (yes, that’s what their logo looks like). In a Best of 3 series, last night was do or die.


Our logo looks like an angry Santa’s Little helper

We had a full bench -  our only missing player was our regular goalie, who clearly was basking in the glory of his shut-out on Fan Appreciation Night – and we were all there to win. No one wanted this to be our last game.

The Shockers are a team that we’ve played well against, but somehow always managed to let the games slip away…and slip hard. Last night was easily the closest game we’d ever had against them, keeping it tied or within one nearly the whole game. In fact, our fate came down to the final seconds.

It was 5-4 for the Shockers; we pulled our goalie – who played a fantastic game for us – and had an extra skater for the final minute. Our most solid scoring opportunity came in the final 30 seconds as the goalie fumbled the puck and we all watched as it slowly (so very, very slowly) trickled along their goal line. It was so close a couple of our guys threw their arms in the air. The ref had waived it off. The Shockers managed to clear it and secured the win with an empty net.

6-4. We were crushed. It was so close.

After the game, we had our standard chat and drink session before wrapping it up for the year and handing in our jerseys.


First line, Left Wing

We said our good-byes and such; complimenting each other on a great game. Despite the loss, it was a good game; It felt like playoff hockey. I can’t wait for next season.

It’s been a pleasure, boys!


-Crash-