Hockey Party!

If you're wondering about the delay between this and the last post, for once I have a good excuse. Believe it or not, this is post #999 on this blog. I still haven't figured out what I want to do for the 1,000th post so I've been putting off this one since it just brings me one post closer to the inevitable. However, Lucas's hockey team had their end of the year party today, and I wanted to make sure I got his coach's speech about him uploaded in a timely manner. Here it is...

I knew he did a great job on defense this year, but it was nice to hear the coach give him one of the top 2 defensemen awards.

So for post #1000, I'm leaning towards filling it with my favorite pictures from over the years. It might take some time to root through them all, but if so, I should have it up by next weekend. Any other ideas?

Finals Result

If you haven't heard yet, the Emojis lost in the finals, 2-1. It was probably their closest game of the playoffs, but once again, their inability to score in the postseason sunk them (5 goals in 5 games). Lucas had a great game on defense so that's all we could ask for.

The team has an end-of-the-year party in a couple of weeks, but the hockey itself is over until next fall. That same weekend will be the sortouts for baseball (which starts up in May) as well as his first session of flag football. Nothing next weekend for Easter so we plan to RELAX!

Semifinals Result

I'm pretty sure 99% of the people who read this blog have already heard the results of this morning's semifinals game via Facebook, text, or phone, but for anyone who hasn't...

THEY WON!

In a surreal repeat of last year's semifinal (see here to jog your memory), the game ended in a 0-0 tie. As a result, they had a 3 minute 4-on-4 overtime. No one scored. So then they had a 3 minute 3-on-3 overtime. Once again, no one scored. So just like last year, it went to a shootout. Luckily, this year it didn't go through the entire roster once and then into a second round of shootout. This time, one of our best scorers, Cole, scored on the first shot, and then none of the other players scored so we finished with a 1-0 OT victory. It wasn't quite as heart-pounding as last year--since we'd already been through it once, plus Cole's initial goal took some pressure off--but it was still wild.

It didn't hurt that our goalie Shaan had one of his best games of the year--if not THE best--since our team didn't play quite as well as they did in the round robin games. Whatever the case, they won so it's on to the finals, which will be played at noon tomorrow. Their opponent will be the team that beat them 2-0 in the round robin so it'll be a chance for revenge.

I didn't bring the Nikon since I wanted to concentrate on the game, but I did get a couple of before and after pictures with my cell phone. First, here's the Emojis as they are about to get on the ice. I'm not sure what Lucas (#9) was doing on the left side there. I know one of his friends came to watch so maybe he was saying something to him.

And here's immediately after Shaan stopped the last shootout goal and the kids came out to celebrate. I apologize for the crappy image, but like I said earlier, I didn't want to have to worry about photos so I left the good camera at home. If you look closely, you might be able to make out a couple of kids not in uniform in the celebration. They're also seen sitting on the left side in the previous photo. They are out-of-action Emojis that came out to support the team and stood on the bench with the coaches during the game. What a great group of kids.

Keep your fingers crossed for them tomorrow and check in since I should be posting an update during the early afternoon.

Semifinals update

As I predicted, Lucas will be going up against Zach's team, the Bombers, in the semifinals. The game will be this Saturday morning at 8:30 so expect an update by mid-morning.

The teams played 3 times this season. In their first meeting, the Bombers won 4-3, but the Emojis handily took the next 2 games, winning by scores of 6-1 and 7-3. However, given the way this postseason has gone, I wouldn't read anything into the regular season stats.

Hockey Playoff Game #3

Lucas's hockey team had their last of the round robin games this morning, and there was good news and bad news. First, the bad: they lost 2-0. However, due to their previous games, they ended up in 2nd place in their division so they will be going up against the #1 team in the other division, which might be his best friend Zach's team. I'll update on that when I know more.

Regarding the hockey, allow me a moment to put on my tin foil hat. Lucas's division for the round robin hosted the #1, 3, 5, and 7 teams (out of 7). The last place team lost almost every game this season, winning maybe 2. However, against the 1, 3, and 5 teams in the playoffs (all of which swept #7 in the regular season), their record was 5-1, 9-1, and 2-0, respectively.

Don't get me wrong, I understand hot streaks. Heck, Lucas's team got swept by 1 and 3 in the regular season but then went on to tie the top team 1-1 and beat the other team 2-1. But that's a reasonable upgrade since they were just able to get past them. Contrast that with a team that couldn't find its ass from its elbow in the regular season and then managed to outscore the other teams 16-2 in the playoffs. Something's VERY suspicious about that.

Anyway, the semifinals are next Saturday morning and should they make the finals, the Emojis would play on Sunday. So no matter what happens, it all wraps up next week, and then we'll move on to flag football and baseball. As I said above, I'll update once I know the specifics so keep an eye out.