Today was the big day. All season long you play games and hope your team makes the cut for playoffs. Playoffs and tourneys are fun. They are what makes a season worth playing. It's the icing on the cake so to speak. We finished in second place overall, and beat the team yesterday to make the championship game today. I hung my gear outside in the morning to get it completely dry, then packed it up with freshly washed uniforms, then off to the rink I went early with my camera in hand. Chuck and Bink were meeting family again, so they would be missing out on the hockey fun.
I get to the rink and run in to watch one of the games and take photos. I had two game to choose from. The losers that we beat yesterday playing the other team that lost to the Freeze or the championship game from the UWHL Red Division. It was an easy choice. Off to the Red Division game I went. I climbed up to the top of the bleacher, switched to the better long focus lens, and started snapping pics. It was close to the end of the first period when I got there.
I took a couple hundred photos of them and I had a lot of fun doing it. I really wish I knew all the functions of my new Nikon already because some really good shots were a little blurry. If I knew what I was doing, I would have gotten some nice ones. I'm hoping to go to some more games in the summer and next season and take more photos and see what I can do. My sis-in-law and I are supposed to go and take a class together too. That should help a lot. I took photos up until they started handing out the medals and I had to leave to go and get dressed for my game. I really wish I could have gotten them holding the winners trophy. :-P Oh yeah...Lady Senators won the game beating the Black Widows 3-2. It was a close game and fun to watch. Some of those players do NOT belong on a D team, that's for sure. They stuck out like sore thumbs.
So off I go back to my car to get my gear and into the lockerroom I go. I have to say taking the photos of the game before playing in ours relaxed me. I got to think about something constructive and enjoy myself in trying to get some nice photos and not over think the game I was about to play in.
To be honest, I go into every single playoff game thinking our team will win no matter what. My brain just can't focus on the word losing when it comes time for the big games. It doesn't matter if the rest of the league thinks we can't win, it doesn't matter what other players say, I just know I want to win and on certain occasions, you can feel it. That feeling deep inside your gut that no matter how hard the other team tries, you're going to win. I had those feelings before with the Grizzlies and this weekend I was having those same gut feelings again. It was nice to have that back inside of me. Knowing that ALL the players on this team have my back. That if I mess up, one of them will be there to cover my ass. If I do good, I know it gets them jonesed up as well.
This is one of those teams that I'll remember for years to come just because it made me step back in time to the team I hold dear to my heart. I know some people reading this might gag, but the Grizzlies were a special team. We were more than a bunch of women playing a game together, we were family. We had kids grow up, get married, and have kids of their own. We still get together and hang out, even though the team was disbanded over eight years ago. Five old Grizzlies, including myself, play on the current Flames team. We don't say ex-Grizzlies either, because once you were a Grizzlie, you are always a Grizzlie. It's in your blood. It was the team against the world and under the coaching of Mike Bast and Rick Hymer, nothing else could come close to hockey heaven as that team was.
Okay...back to the present because I could ramble on forever about the Grizzlies because that was such a great time in my hockey life. :)
So we start the game and we're all over the Freeze like flies on shit. They had no idea what hit them, we swarmed so fast and hard against them. It wasn't just one player getting up for the game, the entire team was 'assed up' as Mike Bast use to say. From the coaches, to the goalie, every single one of us was tuned and ready to give our all and then some. From the moment that puck dropped, our intensity level never waivered. Before you know it we had a 2-0 lead and that's all it took to win the game. Time and time again our defense and goalie shut them down. Our forwards back-checked their asses off. Our coaches were hepped up and knew just the right things to say and who to direct where. It was one of those perfect games.
Perfect except for at the beginning of the third period one of the refs skates over to our bench and asks our defense coach, Pat, "do you smell gas?" Greeaaaaat. There's some sort of gas leak at the rink. I said tell Dena our goalie to quit farting. :) They open the back doors and the game thankfully goes on and the breather the Freeze got didn't help them. Everyone was determined to not let them back into the game and it showed.
You know that happy feeling you get as you count the seconds off the clock, watching your players rag the puck, and you know you're about to jump on the ice and mob your goalie and teammates? We had it on spades. The buzzer goes off and we all jump on the ice and celebrate like nutjobs. We were the team that supposedly hadn't a chance in hell of winning against this team. No one but us knew we could do it. That made it all the more sweet. Standing in the line, waiting for those medals was oh so nice just because of those things. :)
We were out on the ice for some time before going to the lockerroom to change. You don't want to leave because you know that's it. The season is over and done. Another year gone by. We go to the locker, celebrate a little there, then head on up to the room at the rink where the beer and food is. I swear we were the only team that stayed there for as long as we did. A bunch of us went back on the ice later for some more photos. There were a lot of buzzed players who thank God had the sense to let other people drive them when we headed over to Coco's to celebrate some more. Can you tell we have a team that likes to party? It's fun watching them all being that I'm a non-drinker. I kept my camera clicking all night. I only wish we had a bunch of photos from the game. They had some guy taking pics, but his shots weren't the greatest and he charged way too much for them.
At Coco's they always have drawings for stuff and I won an outdoor tent canopy. Every time I use it this summer, I'll think of the Flamers. :)
So the game was over, the Flames are the Champions of the UWHL Blue Division and now I have the spring league to look forward to. You never know what will happen there as you have B teams playing C teams, etc. I don't really care though. Spring is for fun hockey. And there are always the tourneys to look forward too as well. :)
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