Season End

Do you know the feeling after the Holidays? You've been preparing the house, the gifts and the food for weeks, and poof, it's over?

What's left is emptiness and a pang of "that was it? It's over?"

That's how I feel today.

It's Monday, March 28, and Saturday night Colin and his teammates played their last championship game. It was a make-up date, as the original game from mid-November had to be cancelled due to technical problems at the rink.

Unfortunately, our team had already given away the chance for the championship title two weeks ago, and now it was a matter of second place.

Accordingly, the stakes were high, and everyone was joyfully nervous.

Happy to go on one last road trip with their friends, and respectful of a strong opponent. Plus we had the disadvantage of the away game, which took place in the southernmost city of the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, 128 miles away.

Meaning the girls and guys were traveling by team vans, meaning parents stayed behind for a day off.

Except the van drivers, two families whose younger sons played in the prior game, one other Hockey Mom, whose sister lives in the next town, plus hubby and I, aka the film crew, so among the spectators there were a dozen of us plus a doggie versus 60 supporters for the opponent. 

It was a super nice spring day, and we stopped at Morcote, a picturesque former fishing village situated on the shore of Lake Lugano. 

Time for some ice cream!

We arrived in time to see the kids do their warm-up in the ice. The excitement is always palpable.

Switzerland wins one point more in every international tournament thanks to better efficiency in penalty shootouts. 15% of Swiss championship games are decided in a shootout. That's why the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation figured you have to get them into the habit while they are young, and a practice penalty shootout will be held before each game.

On Saturday, the shootout that is done in advance, just in case the regular game ends in a tie - ended in a tie, haha.

Meaning, either team had to win during the three periods, or there was going to be another shootout. Or two of them, or as many as it takes.

Sooo... Our team started the match with plenty of possession, they just didn't score - yet. 

Very early in the game, one of our boys was checked hard into the board and had to be escorted off the ice by his teammates. As it turned out later, he suffered a fracture to his femur. This makes me so sad. Yes, the stakes are high, but please keep things fair! The offender didn't even get a penalty for what was either a cross-check and/or boarding and/or a check from behind. 

See for yourself at 2:03 in the video:

Which leads me to the referees.

Fortunately - and unlike in soccer - in ice hockey, players usually respect a ref's decision and life goes on. They know better than to argue with a zebra, as this might entail another penalty for unsportsmanlike behavior. 

The decisions that these particular officials kept making though...

At 3:55 the puck bounced off the goal post but never went over the goal line. The head ref said "good goal" even though the lineswoman told him it was no goal. 

On and on it went. 

Our guys managed to keep cool, while some individuals on the opponent's roster kept committing nasty fouls that were not penalized. 

At least the "goal" that resulted at 6:45 after goalie interference was annulled. Still our goaltender got super mad. He's a short guy and super fearless and committed. You've got to hand it to him though. He was the first one to proceed to the post-game handshake after the game, and his body language expressed genuine recognition of the opponent's win. Respect!

Things got hectic as we were running out of time. I believe the opponent's game winning goal at 7:35 was in fact an own goal from one of our defensemen. I'm pretty sure nobody gave him a hard time about it though. 

Our coach took a time out and pulled the goalie, and I was pretty impressed we didn't get an empty netter. Still we didn't get to tie the game and force a shootout, and that was the end of it.

The kids were bummed. They fought hard and fairly - and lost. They were giving their best, and it  wasn't enough.

Arina, a hockey family's exchange student, she's a 16 year old girl, born in Russia, raised in Egypt who is spending a year in Switzerland, had a speech prepared for the kids, and it made me sniffle. 

She's so young and yet so wise and emphatic. Plus her language skills are fantastic.

She said something like:

When I first arrived in Switzerland in August, my host family dragged me to a game, and first of all, it was freaking cold, and second of all, it was kinda boring. They kept losing the puck and did not seem to play together. The skilled players launched every attack on their own, and the others were left behind. 

But tonight? Look at them now! They are playing well as a team, passing, looking out for each other. Did you see how they rushed to help their teammate who got injured? (Yes, that made me sniffle as well).

And you know what happened between August and now? They trained hard. They came home from school and rushed to practice when they could have kicked back at home. They got up early in the morning to attend tournaments and matches. They raised money for the skateathon. They put in real work, week after week, month after month. They won so many games! Yes, today, they didn't win, but they have nothing to reproach themselves for. They gave it their all, and yes, tonight they're sad, and that's OK. It sucks to lose. But maybe sometime next week they'll realize how far they've come, and they'll be proud. I know I am!

Well said, young lady!

A dear online friend just posted this, and I think it's perfect: