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May. 25th, 2008 07:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nofavesI was happy yesterday. The possibilities, the potential, the matchups, and all the pre-series hype was distilling. Excitement was in the air.
It's today now. And it's time for my boys to Go To Work.
I'm not down today, really I'm not. I wasn't one of those bandwagoners who had the Penguins sweeping the Final. In fact, I wouldn't (and still won't) predict an outcome. That road has always led to disappointment for me.
But I was right there with the "Pens in 6 or 7" crowd. Most of those in that boat realize that that particular outcome requires the boys to lose. MORE THAN ONCE. Still, I'm sure that the "6 or 7" crowd foresaw those potential losses as being more like Game 2 against the Rangers, where the winning team gets a fortunate bounce leading to a goal and the losers run up against a hot goalie.
But this game was not like that. I don't know whether it was nerves, fear, travel fatigue, loss of focus -- or any combination of that list -- but the boys didn't look sharp. They had a Bad Game.
There are a LOT of April and May fans who haven't seen this team have a Bad Game, but for we diehards who have been following them since last fall, we've seen this fish before.
Bad Games will happen. They happen to EVERY team. And it's nonsense to preach that Good Teams find a way to win Bad Games. They don't.
Good teams SURVIVE Bad Games. They learn from the results of their actions and they play better next time. They believe in themselves and each other. They pull closer together.
And their true fans don't give up on them. They take the losses with grace. They realize that the wins will be so much sweeter in contrast.
In short, they BELIEVE.
It's today now. And it's time for my boys to Go To Work.
I'm not down today, really I'm not. I wasn't one of those bandwagoners who had the Penguins sweeping the Final. In fact, I wouldn't (and still won't) predict an outcome. That road has always led to disappointment for me.
But I was right there with the "Pens in 6 or 7" crowd. Most of those in that boat realize that that particular outcome requires the boys to lose. MORE THAN ONCE. Still, I'm sure that the "6 or 7" crowd foresaw those potential losses as being more like Game 2 against the Rangers, where the winning team gets a fortunate bounce leading to a goal and the losers run up against a hot goalie.
But this game was not like that. I don't know whether it was nerves, fear, travel fatigue, loss of focus -- or any combination of that list -- but the boys didn't look sharp. They had a Bad Game.
There are a LOT of April and May fans who haven't seen this team have a Bad Game, but for we diehards who have been following them since last fall, we've seen this fish before.
Bad Games will happen. They happen to EVERY team. And it's nonsense to preach that Good Teams find a way to win Bad Games. They don't.
Good teams SURVIVE Bad Games. They learn from the results of their actions and they play better next time. They believe in themselves and each other. They pull closer together.
And their true fans don't give up on them. They take the losses with grace. They realize that the wins will be so much sweeter in contrast.
In short, they BELIEVE.
