Before I get into last night’s hockey I need to give condolences to the family of Brendan Burke. I wrote about Burke at Thanksgiving last year. He’d just come out publicly and was doing interviews with his father, the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was an impressive and inspiring coming out story.
Burke died Friday afternoon in a weather-related car accident in Indiana (see the story on Towleroad). To call it sad is an understatement. This 21-year-old had his whole life ahead of him and I suspect he would’ve continued to be a pioneer in eliminating homophobia in sports. I hope his legacy will inspire kids playing sports for years to come, showing that you can be gay and participate in the sport that you love.
Meanwhile, in last night’s Wizards game against the Sled Dogs we lost in overtime 5-4. As you can tell by the score it was an evenly matched game, but the ending was just sucky. I’d had a really good game right up until the end when I failed to step up against the Sled Dogs shooter correctly and let him get by to take a shot on net that went in to end the game. Before that I had successful blocks, poke checks, clearing passes and so on. Yes, there were a few glitches here and there, but no goals against while I was on the ice. Sadly it was when it counted the most that I managed to make a wrong choice, letting the guy get by.
I hurt my shoulder last night too. While I was defending the net, I got knocked down and fell in a way that I landed with most of my weight on my already damaged shoulder. I’ve been debating going back to the doctor because it hasn’t healed as hoped for during January, but after last night I think I have too becuase it’s been somewhere between a low, annoying pain and a screaming pain since it happened.
Next week there are no league games due to the President’s Day holiday, so the sole hockey will be Ronnie’s Ice Saturday morning. In two weeks the Tigers and Wizards are both on the ice.