Warning: ice hockey is bad for your sanity

It’s a funny old game, ice hockey. Sometimes funny as in humourous, sometimes funny as in strange, sometimes both at the same time. And tonight it feels like a bit of both.

I’m writing this blog entry an hour after Lightning lost on penalties to Slough Jets – our bogey team for this season. It’s almost like they’ve decided we got Blaz from them so we were having nothing else. We’ve come so close the last twice we’ve played them, but no cigar – and tonight the guys got closer than they have all season.

And tonight – for me anyway – it feels like we just lost the cup final. Which is stupid I know because on the face of it, this was a ‘nothing’ game. Last league game of the season, neither team would change league position regardless of the result. It was pretty much just a game to be got through. Yeah of course if we could beat Sluff in the process that’d be nice, but for me the main objective was not to pick up any injuries or needless suspensions.

The previous night at Basingstoke the guys had put in a much better performance than last week, when the manner of the defeat didn’t do much for anyone’s hopes of seeing the team play in Coventry. We’d gone ahead by two goals but the Bison clawed it back thanks largely to a Kubenko hat-trick – two of which came within 40 seconds – and we lost 4-3. Disappointing but at least our performance had improved. Why can’t we get a lead and keep it?

So off we went to the Thunderdome. It’s strange going to hockey games while it’s still light outside – in this case not just light but bright sunlight! Bought my copy of the fanzine as usual on the way in, with a very clever cover (lets just say I’ve never seen Nick looking like that before), chatted to Golly and Bubbs, all very stress free and ‘lets just get tonight over with so we can deal with the playoffs’.

There was a strange moment just after the first face off when I made eye contact with Grant McPherson as he strolled past with a coffee,..... then it struck me: why wasn’t he dressed and leaning over the edge of the bench waiting to get on the ice?! He got thrown out of last night’s game in Basingstoke...this wasn’t making sense. Spoke to Fiona in the first period break and she thought he might’ve crossed a penalty point ban threshold but neither of us were sure (as it turns out, she’s right).

At the end of the first period Lightning were 1-0 up and within only five minutes of the second period, we were 3-0 up. This was going so well, could we make it last? 40 minutes to go would be a long time in football – in ice hockey it’s a lifetime. I know this from painful experience when we were 3-1 up at an away game in October, and I said something about us taking the two points.....cue conceding two goals in 15 seconds, then losing in overtime.

An honourable mention at this point for “the young ‘uns” – Jacob Heron, Jamie Line and Ross Green, who were all having a fantastic game, getting lots of ice time and using it to prove their worth. Jamie in particular was playing like he was about to get drafted to the NHL, getting stuck in at every turn, body checking the opposition and not giving a damn if they were a couple of feet taller than him. Very funny moment in the second period when he skated down the wing alongside a MUCH taller Jets player, who playfully patted him on the head....and Jamie responded by jabbing him with his stick.

To cut a long and painful story short, we let a three goal lead slip and ended regulation time with three each. Overtime didn’t change anything and it went to penalties. Blaz missed......Monir missed.....they scored.....and Smults missed. Bugger.

And all through this, me and probably a fair few other MKL supporters had been checking the scores for Manchester v Swindon, and Telford v Guildford. The EPL title race had gone down to the wire: if Manchester won, they were champions regardless of what Guildford did. But if Manchester lost and Guildford won, the title went to Surrey. Not any old title.....OUR title. Regardless of what anyone thinks of Tony Hand he’s been key to Manchester’s fortunes this season and he was chucked out of the game very early on, giving Swindon hope of a fightback. Sadly it wasn’t to happen: Guildford stuffed Telford but Manchester kept a grip on their lead and our title finally headed north.

So, strangely, today’s game went from being a ‘nothing’ game to feeling like we’d lost the cup final at the death. I went through a few minutes afterwards when I didn’t even feel like speaking to anyone, I just felt choked, gutted, totally empty.

Of course it hurts when one of my 'other' teams lose: I was gutted that Williams did so badly in the Aussie GP this morning, and not particularly happy when Sunderland lost to Liverpool last week. But through geographical and financial issues, I don’t go to every F1 race (I wish!!) or Sunderland game. You just don’t get that ‘closeness’ with Premiership football teams and F1 teams. And even if you did, the players exist in such a rarified, protected world that the supporters don’t get anywhere even remotely close to them – heaven forbid they should actually have to meet supporters.

We can all identify with the MKL players. You can see they’re on cloud nine when they’ve won - or see their disappointment when a goal’s conceded. You can see how disappointed they are when they’ve lost a game and have to smile for photo’s afterwards. If they’ve won they’ll be happy in the bar afterwards and they won’t panic and look for a security guard if you go and talk to them. If they’ve lost, you can tell that they’re at least as down as you are about it, if not more. (Again it’s probably the mum in me that makes me want to give them a clip round the ear if they’ve played really badly, or give them a hug if I genuinely do feel sorry for them). They don’t go and jump in their Ferrari, zoom off to a swish apartment then lick their wounds about it until the next game; like most of us, these guys have jobs to go to. Infact Muzzy and Grant can empathise with supporters even more since last Wednesday’s away game at Sheffield – they couldn’t get an early finish from work and had to hot-foot it up the M1 as soon as they finished for the day, and arrived at Sheffield literally just before face-off.

So there y’go, I think I’ve got that off my chest now. Tomorrow I have to steel myself to ask Vito and Nick for their quotes for next week’s press releases, put this weekend behind us and hope for the best in next weekend’s play off quarter finals. What else can you do BUT get behind them?

I genuinely think the guys CAN get to Coventry. It’s going to be bloody hard work but I’m sure they’ll give it 100 per cent. This isn’t the time to start blaming individuals or saying so-and-so had a quiet game, or ‘x’ should be rested. It’s time to say “In Nick We Trust” (again) and get behind the team next weekend. Let’s go Lightning!!