The beauty of playing rec hockey is that the off seasons are really short. The seasons all run pretty much right after the previous one with short breaks in between. How long your break lasts is pretty much dictated by your performance in the playoffs. Make it to the championship game and you have less down time.
NHL guys? They have to wait months before a new season starts. Oh, their seasons are much longer, you say? Eh, OK… you got me. Well played.
Anyways, a new season is upon us and it begins Sunday.
Shameless plug time — Just below the banner picture is three tabs. The one labeled “Roc Stars” is a link to the results page I’ve been compiling. Everything you ever wanted to know about my team and my own personal scoring record can be found there. Don’t care? Don’t click.
Moving right along.
So you may be asking, how’d we do last season? I’m glad you asked. Let me tell you.
We ended up in third place. It was an up and down year, with both winning and losing streaks. But, we were playing out best at the end of the season, which is what you hope for. We won four of our last five in the regular season. Good momentum going into the playoffs.
We won out first round playoff game. I scored a goal in that game and we advanced to the semifinals. In the semis, we played Crush, which we played pretty even through the regular season. We knew it would be a tough game. After falling behind 3-0, we clawed back to tie it at 3-3 in the third period. We were feeling pretty good and had several chances to take the lead but couldn’t convert. Unfortunately, we had a defensive breakdown with about a minute to go and they scored to take a 4-3 lead. We pulled our goalie and they scored again, and we lost 5-3. Pretty disappointing.
Turns out, Crush won the championship the next weekend. Not sure if that makes it better (i.e., “hey, we lost to the champs”) or worse (“dang, that could have been us winning it”). It was a good year, and proved that you’re that close to being on the winning or losing side. Can’t take a shift off… gotta go hard every time out.
Personally, I had my best season since I started playing. I led the team in scoring and was fourth in the entire league in goals (13) and points (18). I scored four goals in one game and had five points total that night, adding an assist. I scored eight goals in our last three regular season games. Pretty crazy. I feel like I’m improving, too… not just with the scoring, but positionally and in our defensive end, too. I’m getting smarter about the game and I feel like it’s transitioning to the ice.
Anyways, no time to dwell on the past… a new season’s almost here! Let’s play some hockey!
