KARMA, MY ASS!!!

Well,.... If I did this recap right after the game it would have been so profanity laced that it would have made a gutter mouthed truck driver from New Jersey cringed, so, ......I didn't. What I heard as I was leaving the locker room last night was some drivel about our team Karma being out of whack and my thought on that theory is that it is a bunch Dogma Crap!!! We played a 2-12 team and eked out a 4-3 win by the narrowest of margins and it was all because we lack team discipline and did not hustle. Now, the following critique will not get personal, but if the foo shits, wear it!!!!

Can somebody explain the following without resorting to Buddhism? What about the word "defense" is so damn confusing? What good does cherry picking do when we are on the penalty kill? Speaking of penalty killing, what is so confusing about forming a box? Why do our left and right wings constantly play the same position as well as our centers and wings? Why do we watch people, who have just beat us, skate all the way to our goal instead of bustin' ass down the ice to possibly back check or clear a rebound? Why do we blindly throw the puck up the ice when there is nobody on us instead of looking to pass? Why do some of our defenseman invent another forward position and play it? Why challenge somebody at the red line if you don't have the speed to make up for your flat footed swing and miss? Why constantly do these things if you know it is not the way to play hockey? We are supposed to be getting better not worse as the season progresses.

I am fully aware of the fact that we are not a professional hockey team and this is supposed to be for recreational purposes. I get all that, but there is something else to consider, and if this is out of line then I will stand corrected and won't say another discouraging word for the rest of the season and our eventual premature exit from the playoffs (which is what we will do if we play like we have been lately). The other thing to consider is that we are a team and on our team there should be a sense of the "team concept". People have positions on this team and roles on this team. If you don't like your position then have it changed before a game and don't take it upon yourself to change it during the game. If you don't like your role on the team then do something to increase your versatility. Winning is the reward for good team play and I like winning. Sorry about that, I admit it, there it is out!! I know how absurd that may sound to some people but it is like,.... better than losing, man, BUT......what I really like is playing a good game and having the chips land as they may. That is why I get pissed when we win despite playing like absolute shit and don't get upset when we play a good game and lose to a team that played a better game. Sure, I am disappointed when we lose lose, but not pissed off, and there is a difference. When we play an out of position, greedy, cherry pickin', undisciplined and lazy brand of hockey it kills me and the people who do those things are flat out letting the TEAM down. This, mind you is taking into account that we don't all have the same skills out on the ice. I realize that and that doesn't bother me at all. I know what league we are in and at what level we are at. But one gots to know his limitations and account for them in your play. As a team, we can work with limitations and still be successful.

Getting beat happens, missing a pass happens, whiffing on a shot happens, goals getting scored against us is inevitable, BUT... if goals are getting scored because you were out of position because you shot the slot and set up camp and stayed or because you got beat and didn't hustle back to backcheck or you weren't even in the defensive zone because you were cherry picking then that mentality is the selfish minded bullshit that will end up costing our TEAM and chance at a championship!!!

Sorry for the diatribe instead of an amusing summary and I apologize for losing my cool periodically during the game, but if you are reading this and thinking that I am the only one who notices this shit then you are wrong, I just have enough asshole in me to be the one to say it. So if you hate me for that, fine, I can live with that and if we play better because we are more aware of the consequences of our actions on the ice because of what I wrote and you still hate me, then that's even better. Let's just try reassert ourselves and do the best job we can individually and play as a TEAM to the best of our capabilities and see where that takes us. That's All Folks!!

For the record, it is more a Gestaltian thing than a karma thing.