Second game of the preseason the whole Sharks team felt good, I was still a nervous wreck, but everyone else seemed relax. And rightfully so, last game we mud stomped the Killer Ice Bunnies 7-1. With talks of moving up a tier, the mood in the locker room was one of confidence.
- Enter Banzai Bullets -
When I saw them on the ice, I knew that this wasn't another team that we would run over. The players were all bigger then me, obviously faster, and they were all wearing the same team uniforms.
Sitting on the bench with my old Canucks jersey with a taped on '94' on my back, I waited for the zamboni to get off the ice before going out for some warm-up. I was playing defense again, what used to be a natural position for me in street hockey, I now had guys blowing by me like I was a pylon.
The game started off pretty competitive, with both teams showing off their firepower the score jumped to 2-2 early in the first. Then the Banzai Bullets kicked it to another gear, tallying a few unanswered goals causing us to call a time out. Team Captain Eric made it abundantly clear that we were worthless. "We need to skate harder, and grow a pair of eyes" (he put it a little nicer, but this was the gist of it).
During the second period, it was Superstar Chen time. Mid way through the second, off the draw, I wristed the puck from just after the centre ice line (perfectly avoiding the icing call) down towards the boards, in an arc that made rainbows jealous. The sound in which the puck rebounded off the boards was nothing short of audio euphoria. Mesmorized by such an unorthadox move, the entire Banzai Bullets team looked in awe as #11 from the Sharks grabbed the puck as it came off the boards and tucked it in the net. "That dump in / pass showed shades of Gretzky and Orr in its elegance." quoted one passerby. An unbelievably clutch play by Steven C (C for clutch), bringing the Sharks back to contention by making the score 6-3.
The Banzai Bullets went on to win 8-3.
The Sharks were done pretty much in the second: bad line changes, off sides, useless defensemen like #94. What a drastic change of mood compared to Saturday's huge win. Hopefully our next game we play the Killer Ice Bunnies again, or maybe a bag of pucks.
As feeble as I make the Killer Ice Bunnies look, I do have to give them credit: where they laughed while expecting to lose, (cue cheesy one liner) we lost expecting to laugh. I just ruined this whole post with that last line, go back and read about that precision pass I made.
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