Firing Blanks

How can one turn a team around? How can a single person affect 35 guys? More importantly, how do you make 35 guys care. This weekend must've been the lowest point in a few years that I've played. With the playoffs looming, I would've imagined that players would've come out fighting for a win. How wrong was I? It should've been evident when I walked through the door of the dressing room and faced a team that was lethargic and just about ready to give up.

Our coach did a great job coaching the team, spoke all the right words between periods, but the team simply does not respond. What is more dissapointing is that guys can sit in the changing room and smile and laugh after being thorouglhy beaten. No one said anything. Maybe I should've, but I was seething with anger, to the point that I am put off hockey, for the first time in many years. Where I have sacrificed time and effort off the ice and sacrifice every waking moment thinking about the game, I feel that I am short changed by the rest of the guys. Well not all of them, but by a majority of them.

What was most comforting after the game was when I talked to my dad. As ever I let him get an earful (poor guy) of the woeful performances of the team and he said: "You have to understand that Hockey is not as big of a thing to most guys as it is to you." Another one offering some insight and concelation was my wife. She told me that I show dedication and the commitment is commendable and how it is not instilled in most kids, which reflects to some of the guys on the team.

I have been on a losing end before but it is not fun. I want to win games and help the team in doing so, but right now I am not too sure whether it is worth my time.