Season is Almost Here

Waking up this morning around 7:30am, I could feel the chill in the room for the first time this fall. Walking outside I was smacked in the face with cold rain drops, it was the type of morning that makes everyone want to stay in bed forever. The first time that cold, damp air hits you; you realize that the nice sunny days of the hot summer are behind us and the hockey season is here. Waking up in Boston, the titletown of America, sports fans expect teams to win. The Red Sox aren't in the World Series, the Patriots are struggling without Tom Brady and I'm not much of an NBA follower so I don't really care that the Celtics won it all last year. So the attention for me has turned to the Bruins, they're full of young talent and should go deep into the playoffs. They lost the last two nights in a row in shootouts against the Penguins and the Sabres. I could have gone to their home opener against Pittsburgh two nights ago but the tickets were offered too late. Nothing is better than going into Boston for a Bruins or Sox game, both teams play right in the city and the crowd around the arena and ballpark on game nights is electric.

In other news, the U-18 midget team is finally back on the right track. We won the both games we played this past weekend against two very solid teams. Saturday night we beat the District 10 Bulldogs, who won our league and went to nationals last season, 6-3. On Sunday we defeated the Cape Cod Whalers 3-1, the Whale won our league and went to nationals two seasons ago. Hopefully things will continue on the up and up this weekend and we should crawl back up the national rankings this week.

All things considered everything is going pretty good. I'm still searching for a new car, but have some leads. With Battle Creek starting up in about 2 weeks the excitement is building. It's fun to get back into the swing of things, I can't believe I'm being looked at as a "veteran" now. Seems like just the other day I went to my first pro camp as the wide eyed rookie who didn't know what to expect. I went to camp thinking I had it all under control, but it took a couple of years to learn what pro hockey was all about. There's a mental preparation that comes with the game that you have to see to understand. Being able to bring it everyday at a high level is tough, but something you learn from the vets, it's just nice to think I'm finally one of the vets now.