Coming in Second (Tournament Blog Part V)

Seeing as I have another tournament starting in a few days, I think I better wrap this one up. I wish I had a witty and spellbinding account of our last game, but I don't. We ended up playing the only team that had beaten us, and we lost to them again. The score was 4-1, and I was pretty disappointed. I really thought we could do it, I thought we could win the "hole" thing. But when the final buzzer sounded, we were the recipients of the silver trophy, not the gold one. It's so strange, how in hockey you never "win" the silver. You get it by losing. So although I guess coming in 2nd is pretty good, my competitive spirit balks at being one back from first.

USA Hockey did a great job with presenting the awards after the game. Both teams lined up on the blue lines, and they introduced each player from each team. Everyone got an individual gift, in addition to the team trophy. (Ours were camel-back backpacks, and I'm not sure what the winning team received. There was a rumor it was watches. But I' not positive). There was lots of sportsmanship, as each player who was introduced and picked up her gift went down the line of the opposing team for another round of high-fives and "good game"s.

When we got back to the locker room there was a bucket of ice with two bottles of champagne waiting for us. I'm not sure if the rink left them there or if one of the coaches did, but we wasted no time in popping those corks and having ourselves a little party:

Mmmmm cheap champagne never tasted so good. :P

I have to say, even though I was disappointed at not coming in 1st, this was probably the best vacation I've had since my honeymoon. Vacation/relaxing/swimming during the day... and hockey at night? What more could you ask for? And I learned a few things as well. #1 being: KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT and don't talk to the other team. Good lord. What a dumbass. But I also learned that flying isn't really all that bad, and maybe just maybe I can do it again. There's talk of a tournament in Iceland. At least now I know it's not COMPLETELY out of the realm of possibility. And now all those trips we have yet to make to those western NHL rinks aren't as daunting either.

And in a day and a half, I'm on the road again for the next tournament. The OysterGlove is patiently waiting. I promise this time I'll be better about writing about the games closer to when they happen. I tend to forget stuff... hey come on I have goldfish-brain, remember?

Wait, what? There's NHL hockey going on? (Or, Part I of the Tournament Blog)

Call me Alice. I feel like I fell down the rabbit hole. It's only Friday, right? Somehow it feels like I missed a week. Time seems to have sped up since Wednesday when I overcame my fear and set foot on an AIRPLANE and flew to Tampa. And I survived! I only experienced two real moments of anxiety. The first was before I even caught sight of the plane. For some reason I fixated on the oversize luggage cart; this thing was piled so high with our bags, I was convinced it was never even going to make it to the right plane. I even stood there and in my fretting, announced that "if this stuff makes it to where we're going, I will buy everyone a bikini". PS, it got there just fine, so I guess I have to go shopping... But come on. Tell me this would inspire a lot of confidence? I seriously thought at least one bag was going to fall off and end up in Moscow or something.



But, the porter and one other baggage handler brought the cart into an elevator and off we went. To the bar! We found one literally right next to our gate. Happy hockey players! I was fine until we got onto the plane. We were standing in the aisle waiting to get to our seats, and I just stopped and said "oh my God". The teammate in front of me and the teammate behind me handled it well though and the moment passed. And when we got to our seats and I discovered that with Direct TV, I could watch the Bruins' Game 7? I figured I was absolutely set. What better way to distract myself during a flight than watching Game 7 hockey? Except that the tv worked fine until takeoff.... at which point it completely died. Arrrghh! They did manage to get it working again, but not until midway through the 3rd period. Oh, glorious NHL game 7 overtime. We had already started our descent when OT started. It was quiet. And then Horton scored and GoalieHusband and I let out a whooping holler, which my teammate up at the bulkhead later said even she heard (we were one row away from the exit row). Woopsie. Hehehe.

Unfortunately we landed and didn't get to see any of the Lightning game. Waiting at the carousel was interesting. Because of Flipper's Super Awesome Traveler Status, all our stuff was tagged with neon orange priority tags, and came onto the belt relatively quickly. It might just be that the baggage handlers wanted to get that stinky shit out of their presence as quickly as possible though... Just wait til they catch whiff of it on the way home.