Musings at Altitude

Today is a day of mourning…deep, emotional mourning…that gut wrenching, mood swinging mourning that can only come when your favorite sports team loses in the playoffs…not a game, but a series, ending the year and starting that exhaustingly long break between last game of one season and first game of the next season.

My 13 year old was at the game last night, hoping beyond all hope that her team could dig out of the huge hole they dug into by losing the first 3 games of this playoff round.  Games 1 and 2 were semi-blowouts.  Game 3 was very competitive, but her team eventually lost.  And she entered game 4 with the type of high expectations that only the most loyal of fans can have – honestly believing that her team had a chance to win 4 in a row and move on to the next round.  My daughter didn’t care that her team was playing the highest point standing team in the league, with the most wins in the league, with  arguably the best well rounded team in the league.  None of that mattered.  What mattered was that her team (in her eyes) was capable of kicking the living daylights out of that other team and sending them off to the season ending hell of a break that she fully believed they desevered.

When the game started, I waited for that first text, hoping right along with her that a miracle would occur and her team would finally show up and play.  The first one came – “1-0 them”, and a sinking feeling hit my gut.  The second one came just a few minutes later – “1-1 Arnason scored”.  My heart leaped, and I sent her a text back “Sweet!”.  She responded, “Ya we rock”.  The euphoria of thinking they may have a chance was short lived though, when the following string of text messages were exchanged starting just 20 minutes later:

Her: “Two to one them”

Me: “Darn it”

Her: “3 to one”

Me: “Double darn it”

Her: “Budaj is in goal now” [Editor’s note – for the 3rd time in 4 games they pulled their starting goalie]

Me: “Still 3-1?”

Her: “Ya start of 2nd”

Me: “Go Budaj” [Editor’s note – he really was our last hope]

Her: “Ya he rocks”

Her: “4 to one”

Me: “Good grief”

Her: “I know”

Her: “5 to one”

Me: “Did they quit?”

Her: “Idk we arent doing good right now”

Her: “6 to one”

Me: “It’s over!”

Her: “Ya”

Her: “This is just sad”  [Editor’s Note – it’s hard to watch a young fan sink lower, and lower, and lower as the team she’s fanatically supported all year gets destroyed.]

Me: “Yeah – y’all should go home early” [Editor’s Note – it was closing in on 10 pm where she was, she had school the next morning, they had an hour drive to get home, and there was still another full period of hockey to go!]

Her: “NO!!!  A true fan never leaves early”

Her: “7 to one” [Editor’s Note – by this time I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry for my 13 year old.]

Me: “Oh good grief”

Him [my son]: “She won’t let us leave early” [Editor’s Note – my son hates going to the games anyway and really surprised me by wanting to take her.  I was stunned he lasted this long before suggesting they go home early!]

Me: “I think this one you should go home on -school tomorrow”

Her: “No!!!!!!”

Me: “Call me” [Editor’s Note – I don’t know how else to talk to her when she screams at me in a text message!]

She called; we talked; she walked me through her reasoning that a true fan doesn’t leave early and that she wanted to see them all shake hands at the end of the game since that was the end of the series.  I must admit, for such a brutal sport, hockey is very civil when the playoff series actually ends and both teams line up and skate by each other shaking hands.  I’m sure the winning team only says “good game” to the losers and the losers only say “good luck” to the winners, but there truly is something special about two teams who have battered each other so brutally then shaking hands once a victor has been determined.

The scored ended 8-2, and my 13 year old did stay all the way till all the hands were shaked.  I have to admire her for her commitment to follow it through all the way to that bitter end.  She’ll mourn today…that’s for sure…but by tomorrow she’ll be talking about how good they’ll be next year and she’ll be off to plan her next championship run with this team!