OK, this is why I should not wait two weeks to do the update. If you want to know what is distracting me, see my other blogger site.
So it was senior night and my entire seating group was absent, seriously, people. Those seats made up a good portion of the empty spots that night. The reason why I am most disappointed is because I could have found takers for those seats. Blargus!
Anyway, the game was far more intense than the last one. Part of it was that Northern was no longer tripping all over themselves. I've come tot he conclusion that their main strategy was to knock the puck around and beat their opponents to it. It's not bad if you can trust yourself to get most errant passes and long rebounds. Of course, we had a simple counter to that. We could skate and move with them. I've also decided that I kind of like Michigan's offensive strategy: turn everything into a breakaway. It give a good scoring opportunity, and if it fails it allows for a line change.
Anyway, we went up before Northern tied it at two. Even though there were six minutes left in the game I was pretty sure that we would not see any overtime because of the intensity both teams with which both teams were playing. I was wrong. It took us 80 seconds of overtime for us to win the game.
Ah, what a glorious end to a glorious season. While we still have a couple of playoff games at Yost. It is over. We only graduated four seniors. When Hunkick came up , the students started chanting, "Hobby Baker." I doubt he will get it. Even though, he has been a rock since that fateful night he stepped in against Notre Dame (I was taking my mom to her first Michigan game that night), and he is an all-time program leader they say the award is given to goal scorers. (Well, there was that kick-in against Miami) It's going to be strange to see someone else in goal next year mainly because we never pulled Hunwick in a game that I watched. He played all three periods of ever game. I really appreciate that. A lot of programs would pull their goalies against us, probably because we embarrassed them. We never pulled ours.
Anyway, what have I learned? I don't think I learned triumph through adversity. That is a lesson the Football team has taught me over the past four years. I learned to harness the past and tradition in a sport as well as looking forward to what we are doing. There is something so classic about a hockey game at Yost that you you are motivated as much my tradition as you are about the current season. Other sports, football included, are a bit more of a live in the moment kind of atmosphere (although no one would argue that Michigan does not have a rich football history) Also, I learned to shrug off losses, because I know there will be another fight. Finally, I learned to understand our weaknesses, and I can see how we have improved them over the year. This is important to me, at least, because in other sports people are telling me what we should and should not be doing. In Hockey, I am starting to understand that for myself. It is a simple game, a simple chaotic, physical game, but you need to play it intelligently. I love it.
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