Deserving

And so the season rolls on. What began as a positive outlook for the team, quickly took a turn for the worst and crumbled in front of our eyes. We hosted the last years’ champions and where we were able to match them for two periods, we let it slide in the end and paid a heavy price for it.

Losing 4-11 pretty much tells you the story of the game, at least if we were to go by the third period. For the first two we were two goals behind, which wasn’t a big hole to be in and something that we were confident we would climb out of. But then the third period came round and it was all lost.

I’m not going to start separating the different factors that lead to the loss, but all I will say is that our defensive zone coverage needs to be better and we all need to bring our A game if we want to be playing in Swindon in August. The team is definitely capable of doing it, but it is just that every guy in the team needs to realise how good we really are and sort out a few priorities.

In essence we deserved to lose the game. I could argue that the score line might’ve not been what it was in the end, should we have played better, but it is all in the past. We need to learn from this as a team and move forwards.

Deserving is something that I’ve come to appreciate during my time in the rec circles and even in the higher leagues I’ve played in. We turn up and train and we deserve to play. We use a points system to track who has been in trainings, though there is a loop hole that some are exploiting. Deserving to play doesn’t mean that you turn up once in three weeks, play a game and get a few extra points to over take guys in the rankings. Deserving means that you don’t go out the night before a game and get totally wasted. There are other guys on the team waiting to play and lets face it. A hung-over player is something that doesn’t help the team at all.

Deserving to win, means that you play your heart out every shift you are on the ice. Where I personally went wrong in the last game was that, well to put it frankly, I played like a fucking queen. If it was an individual sport, I would’ve deserved to lose because of my lack of legs and speed I discussed in the last game. I didn’t get in the right frame of mind, though spending three hours with your bank manager discussing your finances prior to a game is not the best way to prepare.

What else went wrong on a personal level then? I felt uncomfortable out there. I didn’t find the balance between comfort and discomfort where I would’ve been fully alert and aware of my surroundings, but instead I was not engaging and initiating the plays at the level that I know I can play. I think the last shift of the game showed what I was capable of, a hard offence, a shot and a hard back check and then clear the zone and off. Though where I did find some solace was that I was finding my team mates on the ice. I came away with two assists from the game, so I definitely have something to be happy about. Otherwise, the team deserved to lose and me personally I deserved this self exploration of what went wrong. I know that by doing this we and me as an individual, will be better.