the setting sun

Tuesday marked our first game since the Canadian Championships. It was different. Quieter. There wasn't the player introductions, the national anthem, Don Cherry, or the thousands of people on the surrounding hill there to support us. With no disrespect to our opponents intended, it was hard to get up for this game for players and coaches alike. It came. It went. We won.

If anything, this game marked the beginning of the end. Imagine you are at your cottage, sitting on the dock on the last day of summer vacation. Tired, you sit there and stare out over a relatively calm lake but for the water that gently breaks against the dock beside you. You reminisce. The light on your summer is slowly fading with the setting sun as it dips below the horizon. That's what Tuesday night was like.

We have but a handful of games left in what has been a truly memorable season and in a weeks time it will all be over. We will all go our separate ways for the coming winter months. But regardless of where life takes us parents, coaches, and players alike will all be bonded by the memories of the summer of 2010.

record to date: 32W, 7L, 1T