So this is how Dimaggio felt on game 57 eh? Or how Gretz felt after game 52. Or Ripken after game 2,131. Or perhaps the closest parallel in modern sport is how the Flyers felt on game 36 in 1979.
Ok, you’ve probably read it elsewhere by now since this is the age of instant information and since “#Blue Team Season Opening Winning Streak” has been trending ever higher on twitter for weeks (dare I say months?), I know what I’m writing here isn’t news.
Yes, the Blue team lost it’s first game of the season tonight. It was a good hockey game. An excellent game in fact. Down 3-1 late against a solid red team who had us off balance and were clearly the better team (well, some of the time anyway) we did rally late to tie it at 3 and give ourselves hope that the magic would continue and we might become hockey’s equivalent of the 72 Dolphins. Alas, it wasn’t in the cards and Scottie Richardson’s rocket from the top of the circle along the ice was a worthy shot to lose by late in the game.
Moose was huge in the cage to hold us in when we were back on our heels and this one loss in no way damaged his march towards a league MVP award at Christmas and all the endorsements, women and celebrity that such an honour in the W brings with it.
It was fun while it lasted. The puck just kept going in. Game after game, team after team. The few times we were behind actually felt weird. And yet, these last couple of weeks saw us in the closest games of the season so we knew it probably wouldn’t last much longer. And tonight, the jig was up. The weird thing was that the game felt so bloody normal. Sometimes the bounces went our way, sometimes they didn’t. Up until this point in the season, it seemed like the bounces always, always went our way.
For two perfect months, September and October, the hockey gods gaveth to the Blue team. And tonight, they taketh away. Bob Harrison claims it may have been too much Halloween Candy. Seems plausible. Rich Rank traded his zebra stripes for a blue jersey on this night so perhaps it was all just biased refereeing in our favour in the preceding two months? Perhaps it was Mike Paola’s absence (whom Rich was subbing for)? Perhaps the Red team just got to hate us so bad they handed it to us?
Oh well, this is a beer league and it’s not about winning. But starting a season 41 win, no losses and 1 tie was pretty epic. It might be awhile before it happens again in any league.
Rink Tales 