Playoffs!

There was a time my team was cursed. We went five seasons in a row without winning a playoff game. In four of those five years we finished towards the middle of the pack, so played another middle of the pack team. The fifth year we sucked, so losing to a much higher seed was no surprise.

Was our mentality wrong? Our defense too soft? Who knows. I remember one of those years we thoroughly outplayed our opponent. On the way to the parking lot after the game one of their guys says to me, "we were just waiting for the shoe to drop, but it never did." No kidding.


Whatever the problem, last year we finally won a playoff game. It wasn't the panacea -- we lost our second game to "the ringer" -- but maybe it was a breakthrough. We won our summer league, winning a 1-goal game, then a shootout in the semi-final (a game we never led, if I remember correctly), a shootout in the first game of the finals (13-shots per side in the shootout; another game we never led), and a 1-goal game to finish it (our league plays a 3-game finals).

Well, it's time for the playoffs again. We finished middle of the pack again, so face another team we're right in the middle with. We were 2-0-1 against them (2-1-1 if you count the "preseason") during the season, but they scare me. They can score in bunches whereas our team has a nasty habit of going through long scoring droughts.

On top of that, we'll have everyone there, which almost never happens. So we have to run through an almost overfull bench (14 skaters: 5 D and 3 forward lines). This has only happened once all season, and we lost that game. To an inferior team.

So we're mostly in our 30s and 40s, but we're getting all psyched up for a rec-hockey playoff game. Good times.