While sipping a last one…

Hi everyone !

I don't know if it's because of the "beating" we took this week but it seems like I have a hard time getting into «my writing mode» this week ... I should change the title to ; " While chugging a fast one, then another , still another and why not another»... Hopefully forgetting the collective breakdown which ended 8-4 for the Czeckers vs. the Express ... But fortunately for my health, I have never been physically able to ingest enough alcohol to erase my memory, although it fails me regularly while sober...go figure...In my case, only another game can erase or at least reduce the «shitty» feeling caused by such a lousy performance ...

Once again, we led 3-0 then let it slide,  the «Grays» catching up,  then we had a brief glimpse of hope with another goal,  to finally live a total nightmare by being "peppered" until the end like a bunch of "losers"...(I guess it's literal in this case to say the least !!!)

But we were not alone with reasons to mope this week, the Tomahawks having even more incentive to forget their game...It seems that their GPS is no longer able to put them back on the road to victory : «...Sorry, re-Calculating...»

But as the «league commissioner» put it: the heads of the LFA will meet and decide on a couple of changes so that no one drowns in shame and/or desperation by the end of the season...The addition of one player per team to complete the rosters also adds hope that this will create the necessary equilibrium and team spirit so guys leave all the rest behind and come down to play on Saturdays , regardless of "external influences"...The poor «Toms» broke a record with five subs this week... I want to believe this is a coincidence but it's a bit «fucked up» in my book ...

Which brings me to what I was really wanting to talk about this week: the influx of new members, some of which aspire to join us as regulars . If «the league commissioner» has it his way, the LFA is but the embryo of what it is to become, the first year being one of «gestation» the formation of a mere "fetus" that will really only see the light of day when the cup is raised for the first time in April . Who will do the delivery ?!!? ...Now I get it !:  that's why guys smoke cigars in the dressing room after they win a championship...) or at least that's what they did in «the good old days»...

Seriously, we have seen many "newbies" this week, even if we are approaching mid-season, not one week goes by without at least one or two guys subscribing to this ever «snowballing» league , which attracts attention as far away as New Brunswick apparently ... (it's a bit far to come to a game , but there are some very determined guys out there !)... (The guy was probably away on a job or visiting familly I guess ... ) 

And then there are also those who take their hockey equipment «out of the moth balls» (as we say in French), attracted by the distant memory of the incomparable feeling of being part of a team or the adrenaline rush that takes you over after putting one in the net . For me (and many of you ) these are two of the main reasons that make me lace up my skates three times a week even if my banged-up carcass would make «my doctors» tell me to "slack off" for a while to recover , but strangely enough, when the puck is dropped there are no more sores that keep me (consciously) from giving my 110% (even though I'm at 75 %!) That's the power of «mind over matter» I guess ! Or just plain madness....A bit of both probably !!!...

All this to say that the interest is there, and whether it's by "word of mouth" or because we have the "slickest" website in amateur hockey, (which continually improves, a true work in progress) the LFA "buzz" continues growing and echoing far and wide ...

Someone pointed out to me that the atmosphere on the ice is even better than it was at the beginning of the season, guys apparently finding the balance between competitive play and «camaraderie», as wished by the league's management, the Founding Members and in the " Spirit of the Hockey Brotherhood " ... This curiously sounds like a prayer ... We all know that in this country hockey is like a religion ! So here's a suggestion : replace the crucifix in the National Assembly by the Montreal Canadian's "crest"!!

Have a good week !

LARRY