February 9, 2019: Back to Earth

Well, after a great opening game and a fun first practice, it was only right.  The Golden Knights came back to earth in a hurry in week 2 with a 4-1 loss.

We only had the minimum this week, 6 kids.  Although these 6 are probably our best 6, I feel like the lack of rest caught up to us a bit.  I tried something new this week.  I played my son at goalie in the 1st period.  Although he only gave up 1 goal, I felt like we missed an early opportunity to score some more goals.  We did punch in 1 goal in the first, which lead to a tie game heading into the 2nd.  Our 1 goal of the day was the first goal scored; after tying the game before the end of the 1st, the 2 goals they scored in the 2nd period put us in a hole that we couldn’t recover from.

It wasn’t for lack of chances.  I’m not sure if their goalie(s) were good or just lucky, but there were a couple nice saves where we got robbed.  Meanwhile, one of their goals should have never happened.  We had 2 kids standing next to each other about to clear the puck.  They both whiffed.  They swooped in and shot it right past our goalie.  The 3rd period was more of the same; another great save by their goalie, and actually a very nice goal for their kid which gave them the 3 goal lead, which ended up being the final.

My son was frustrated.  He was mad because he gave up a goal when he was goalie.  He was upset he couldn’t score a goal in the 2nd period.  He was done when he was on defense for the last goal.  He melted down.  I think, is this my fault he’s so competitive?  It’s not a bad thing to care about doing well; it’s not a bad thing to be upset after a loss.  He really takes things to heart.  Again, I don’t want to discourage that, but at the same time, I don’t like when he gets to that point of being so upset.  Although I’ve been there…

Not sure if I ever told this story over the years, but back in my baseball days, I cried after losing; heck, I cried many times when I couldn’t do something.  I would get so mad, and when I would get mad, I would cry; some things don’t change.  But there was one specific instance of a baseball playoff game where I was the starting pitcher.  I had a great first half of the game, pitching and hitting; then the game got called to be continued the next day.  I came back out, and got rocked; we lost.  I spent a good amount of time crying in my parents’ basement, with my dad trying to calm me down.  I eventually did; my son eventually did too.  It’s almost like the gift and the curse.  Love the passion; he’ll learn… I have to remind myself that he’s still only 6 years old.  Until then, we practice… both hockey and channeling those emotions.  We’ll be back.