14 skaters on the squad. Scheduling isn't hard, we play once a week, the same night every week. So how do you end up short?
Two guys have been a little flaky the last two years. Still, that leaves 12 reliable skaters. At 3pm one of the flakes is coming; the other is down with a knee. 13. Another guy has a season ending injury (thankfully, not on the ice). 12. It's February in California, so one guy is skiing in Tahoe. 11. One guy's wife just had a baby. He comes to the game, but his head's not in it and he forgets his gear at home. 10. One more guy is out on a business trip. 9. And the kicker? It's flu season, and it's wracked the keeper something fierce. No goalie. So we call-up our standby sub and his team's already got a game that night. Still no goalie. Which means our 8th skater is now our goaltender. 8. With our 3rd string goalie (who would've been the starter 10 years ago, but now plays about twice a year, normally in this situation). A few minutes before gametime, flaky-guy #1, who was coming as late as this afternoon? Nowhere to be seen. 7.
What do you do? Well, one thing you do is lose. Even when the other team is missing their best couple of guys. Which is frustrating becuase it was a great opportunity to pick up two points. It never ceases to amaze how the numbers can change minutes before the game. Here, we had a solid 10, but with the flu and the lack of our normal sub-goalie into account, the flake, and hormonal pregnancy guy we stand little chance.
More importantly, who's got the beer?
Lucky for me, I was the guy on the business trip, but seriously, I sincerely hope someone brought beer.
