The Game I'll Never Forget (V) - Falling Stars

Well, unfortunately nothing lasts forever and our team started to disband; key members left here and there for whatever reason and our losing streak began once, again. Not only was it because our team had a face lift, but also because we were moved in the difficulty of our division. One would think that after winning the C division, you would advance to the B division, but that's not what happened with us. We had just won the B division, but for some reason the next season we were put in the C division. The odd thing about that is that all the teams were so much better than who we played in the previous 2 seasons. Strange but true.

One game in particular was especially exciting for me, as Q was visiting and doing a rotation at Davis and so he stayed over at my place. We shared my room for a month, just as we did when we were kids although this time it became a bit cramped with all my junk, all his junk, and my tiny little bedroom. Not to mention we were both a lot bigger.

With Q's visit, I invited him to play on our team in Sacramento to sub for some of our players. It was a tremendous opportunity to play with Q, again. It was like reuniting Gretzky and Kurri, or a more modern analogy would be putting Crosby and Malkin together (Q would be Malkin, the sniper. I would be Crosby, dishing out the pass to him). Little did I know at that time, though, was how out of practice and how out of shape Q was, but understandably so. I mean, in med school there ARE more important things (there are?) like studying. Actually, that game that Q played in, I felt more and more like Darth Vader as the game progressed.

"When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master." I remember one particular play where I got the puck and skated end-to-end before deking the goalie out of his jock-strap and passing to Q for a shot at a wide open net...AND HE MISSED! WTF? But that's okay. You play long enough and you're going to miss a few open nets.

At this time I was at the top of my game, no question. The biggest problem or obstacle to overcome at this point was...boredom! How could I possibly get bored? Well, there was a limit to how much I could improve, as I didn't live at the rink like some people; I actually had an outside life. And I have to admit that my kung fu class was actually much more interesting to me, then. I mean, at least Sifu would teach us new things and techniques that we could perfect and work on. With hockey there was no coach, no mentor, no example to follow. And at this point I was stagnant. I wasn't going to do this for a career, I wasn't trying to get noticed by scouts. I had already won 3 championship titles with 3 different teams in 3 different leagues. What else was there to do?

Despite getting bored, though, I did finish out the rest of the next season before heading off to med school, myself.

The Game I'll Never Forget (IV) - Ascension to Zenith

Now I was playing in the big times: I was at a big rink with multiple leagues and players who were skating since they were 3. Yes, the competition would be a lot stiffer. And it showed the first season I was there.

I joined a rag-tag team composed of a group of people with mixed skill levels who didn't know one another. Which was good in one sense but made winning extremely difficult. That first game was especially hard, as I had not been playing for about 2 months or so and was completely out of shape. My timing was also way off. Needless to say I made a very poor impression that first game, and if anything may have reverted back to my former style of playing of float and pass. But that was due to more of a survival instinct than anything else. There was this one teammate who wasn't very good at all who kept calling me off the rink, telling me to come to the bench to substitute out. Which is fine but he was getting so upset about it. But he, himself would stay out for double shifts and he was worse than I was. Maybe not that day as I was just getting back in to it, but I knew I was better than this guy once I got back in to shape. Screw him; thank God he only showed up for a couple of games.

The next game was much different. I was back in form and back to my usual style of play which was now run-and-gun style. Everytime one of my teammates got control of the puck I would burst up the rink as fast as I could and yell "Up-up!". I guess there was such a big difference that one of my other teammates asked if I had been practicing since the last game after I skated around a defenseman and scored up high, top shelf.

"Uh, no. This is what I usually play like." I continued to play like that for the next few games and after a while my other teammates grew to respect me; they would actually pass to me, now that they could see I could put the puck in the net. Despite my individual efforts and the team's growing cohesion, however we continued to lose. Even the addition of Mark, our big center who was a skilled player and the closest thing to a power forward on our team didn't change the team's fortunes that year. We actually ended the year as a mediocre team despite our growing pains.

The next season was better, as our team continued to grow and develop. We had a decent number of attackers that unless the other team had skilled defense on every line, it was difficult to stop us. If I could skate the puck up and get it to Mark, he'd score 9 out of 10 times. If I couldn't get the puck to him, I'd score myself. If both of us were neutralized, Paul would rush the puck from defense. Greg was a pretty good skater who could score, as well, although he really didn't have the best sense. And of course, there was the other Greg who played goalie. There were other players who shifted in and out and would show up every now and then, but the 5 of us composed the core.

The 2nd season we played was a wild one. We finished the season with a fair record and made it to the playoffs. Playoffs weren't bad, as we beat the 3 teams we played. The final game was a close one, one that flip-flopped back and forth in terms of the score and momentum. Towards the end of the 3rd period, we were trailing 2-3. We scored to tie 3-3. A minute later we scored again for a 4-3 lead. Then the other team scored to tie 4-4, and then went ahead to lead 5-4. But we evened it up at 5-5. I believe time ran out in regulation: sudden death OT. While I was in my regular position in the slot screening the goalie, one of the defenseman tried pushing me out of the way and specifically told me,

"We don't play to lose!" Okay, whatever. After a few minutes I skated in to the corner and threw the puck to the slot where Mark was waiting for it, as he had been doing all season, and he put the puck in the net to win 6-5. Looks like they just lost. After that while we were changing in the locker room I said out loud,

"Hey, that was an awesome game. What time do we play next week?"

"That's it!" answered Greg, our team captain.

"What do you mean that's it?" I asked, not understanding what had just transpired in the game we just played.

"That's it. It's over. That was the final game!" answered everyone in the locker room.

"What? Woah, and we won?" The light finally went on.

"Holy......yes, we won!" was the general response. Hey, we won! It wasn't pretty and it was a hard fought win, but we were the champs! And this was the Sacramento league, not a small farm town in the middle of nowhere in California. Our captain took it upon himself to choose the team's trophies, and for some reason ended up choosing a T-shirt instead of an actual trophy. So we all got T-shirts, which I couldn't believe. How or why would anyone choose a T-shirt as a trophy after winning the Sacramento league unless they were poor and couldn't afford much clothing? Well, in any case, here it was:




I guess I should be grateful, but I couldn't help but think in 10 years when I look back at all my accomplishments and trophies, there would be this old ratty moth-eaten T-shirt that would signify one of my greatest sports achievements.