Champions

My hockey team, Back2Black, played in game 3 of the league championship last night.  It was the final game of a best of three series.  After a 4-2 win in game 1 and a 5-1 loss in game 2, we were determined to win. 

The game started off slow and we found ourselves down 1-0 about half way through the first.  But we battered down the hatches and scored five unanswered goals.  Things were looking up.

Then at 1:15 of the first period, things came crashing down.  One of my teammates, Dave, was skating in the neutral zone and hit a rut in the ice.  He immediately went down and was writhing in agony.  Somebody skated over and said "He broke his leg".  EMS were called.  Dave said he could feel the bones tapping against his shin pads.  We did our best to keep him comfortable and distracted until EMS arrived.  All in all it took about 30 minutes to get him off the ice. 

We had been very fortunate to not have any major injuries on the ice all season.  This was the first time I'd seen a teammate carted off.  It was a surreal experience.  As much fun as we have playing hockey, in the back of your mind there's always a thought that somebody could get hurt.  You dismiss it as best you can.  You don't want to see any player get hurt.  We're all out there to have fun and enjoy a game we all love.  To watch anybody get hurt sucks.

But there was still 13:45 on the clock, so we had to finish the game.  After Dave was taken away, we had to put him in the back of our minds and carry on.  We surrendered a goal before getting one more to ice the win.  Final score , 6-2.  Skating around with the "beer league cup" was something special.

 
I made sure I got my picture with the "Cup":

We celebrated until we were basically asked to leave the arena so the staff could go home.  This was the team's first championship!  We didn't want to stop but we all had places to go and things to do!

We had a great season, a great time, and I look forward to another season in the summer.  I had a lot of fun and learned a lot.  Great job and GO BLACK!!

Weekend of hockey

This weekend I went with my hockey team to Atlantic City to play in a Can-Am tournament.  We were really excited about going to play and were looking forward to getting some hockey and some bonding time in.   It was to be a 3 game round-robin style Friday and Saturday with a championship and consolation game on Sunday.  There were four teams in our division, so we were guaranteed to play four games.

We got to the arena Friday afternoon to start the weekend.  We played a team from Pennsylvania.  From the start we realized we were in for a long game.  They got two quick goals and just seemed to be wiping the ice with us.  The game ended in a 6-1 loss. 

After a few hours of dinner and drinks, we had a 2nd game Friday night.  This time we played a team from New Jersey.  They were clearly better and beat us 7-0.  We were starting to think that we were over our heads.

We didn't play again until Saturday afternoon.  We played a team from Delaware.  Again, we were clearly outplayed.  Goal after goal after goal against.  The final was 10-0.  Our goaltender took a shot to the collarbone where she had no padding and was in pain.  One of our defensemen injured his back.  Another player twisted his knee.  We were banged up, tired, disappointed, and spent. 

After three games, we were 0-3 and had been outscored 23-1.  It was turning into a disaster.  What kept us going was hanging out together on the casino floor and at restaurants.

Our final game was Sunday at 7:30 AM.  Nothing like playing a game of hockey early in the morning!  We were playing the team from Pennsylvania in the 3rd/4th place game.  The game started and we came out of the gate much better than previous games.  We got a quick goal in the 1st period and added another before the end of the period.  We made it to the 3rd period when they tied the score at 2-2.  Then with 43 seconds remaining, one of our guys put a wicked wrist shot over the goalie's shoulder and put us ahead!  We scrambled for the next 43 seconds, and with a last second save, we won the game 3-2 and won 3rd place!   It was surreal.

We were clearly not the best team in the division, and we were outscored 25-4 during the weekend.  Yet we didn't give up.  We played hard in the final game and found a way to win.  It was a test of endurance and skill.  Each and every one of us were exhausted by the end of the tournament, but we had a great time.  I enjoyed spending time with my teammates.  It was a great experience.

One more win...

My rec league hockey team made the finals for the first time since the team was formed.  We played in the first game of the finals last night and won, 4-2.  We're now one game away from the championship for this season. 

It's been a long and fun time.  I can definitely tell my game has improved over the last few months.  I've got a LONG way to go, but I've had a lot of fun and enjoyed every second.  Well, ok, not every single second, but it's been a great experience.

We are headed to Atlantic City this weekend for a tournament, then continue our playoffs next week.  I can't wait!

Empty seats at Bristol?!

While watching the Sprint Cup race at Bristol today, I couldn't help but notice how many empty seats there were.  That was really surprising.

Normally the March/April race doesn't sell as well as the August night race, mostly due to being during the day, weather, and currently the economy.  But there were visibly at least 40,000+ seats empty today.  That is really alarming.  Bristol used to sell out both races every year without too much issue. 

Looking at Bristol's website, there are plenty of tickets available for the night race in August as well.  Is this a sign of the times - that what was NASCAR's most popular track now can't sell out?

Penske to Ford = end of Dodge in NASCAR?

With the announcement of Penske Racing switching to Ford for the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, as of today Dodge has no major teams in their line up for the 2013 Sprint Cup season.

Looking at the Nationwide team chart on Jayski, Penske and MacDonald Motorsports are the only teams running Dodges in 2012.  The truck series has a few more teams besides Penske, but not many.

My guess is you will see an announcement in the coming months that Dodge has either thrown $$$ at a team to switch, or they will be leaving NASCAR.  With new car designs coming in 2013, one has to ask what the future holds.  Will Dodge be around in 2013?  Or will they cut their losses and move on?  

Daytona 500

Finally home and have a few to recap on the Daytona 500.

The race was postponed due to rain on Sunday.  It was decided Monday morning to run the race at 7 PM EST.  My guess was FOX wanted it in prime time.  I was looking at the radar and thought NASCAR could've had a window to get a lot of it in in the afternoon.  As it was the sun was out from 2-3:30 or so, then a short rain shower around 4.  After that we were home free.

The race was kinda slow at times.  It was obvious that the high line couldn't do anything all night.  A lot of cars tried to pass but couldn't.  Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, and Greg Biffle had the best cars all night.  They definitely were strong. 

The incident involving Juan Pablo Montoya and the jet dryer was definitely one of the most bizzare incidents I have seen at a NASCAR race.  Kudos to NASCAR and their safety personnel to one get the driver of the jet dryer out of there quickly, but also to get the fire put out, the track cleaned up, etc.  It took a while, but they did a great job.  Brad Keselowski did a great job keeping the fans entertained with his twitter updates. 

The last 40 laps were somewhat uneventful.  I was kinda disappointed in the finish, but was glad that we got to see all 500 miles. 

Congrats to Matt Kenseth.  He earned his win both on the track and in the pits.