St. Louis Blues
The Team Imperium arrived on Friday in Belleville, IL like a storm, and left two days later with an insatiated appetite for a goal — and a bad hangover. I expected the weekend to be a learning experience for me, but not for the whole team! Some of these guys are the best I’ve played with, and no doubt this was a humbling weekend for them.
In summary:
The good: The weather was not stinkingly hot, and people generally had a good time without breaking any bones (well, except for Mike’s nose). We didn’t lose the competitive spirit until about 10 minutes were left to go in the last game, when we were down 0-4. We all believed we could hang in there — which we did very well for the first half in all three games.
The bad: We were held scoreless for the entire tournament. Our defense (where I played) allowed 9 goals in three games. Which is worse? Hard to say. But it’s easy for the offense to get frustrated when the defense keeps allowing goals, and it’s not exactly easy to run at 120% to defend your goal when on the other end we’re hardly attacking the opponent’s.
The bottom line: I’m grateful that someone asked me to participate, and I’m glad that I said yes. Exposing myself to higher caliber of players made my weaknesses crystal clear, which gave me new motivations to improve and well-defined goals to shoot for.
