Day Before the Game
Boarding finally begins at 4:30pm, walking on board my first little plane to Chicago then eventually to Minnesota for our season opener. Of course right when I walk on I see my old faithful 2 seats on one side and one seat on the other plane. I need to basically duck walk down the isle to my seat. As nice as it is to be tall in most parts of my life, its times like these where I know Shayne Jackson would be laughing his @$$ off.
I land at O’Hare in Chicago, which has to be the largest airport in the galaxy. I land at the North Pole and have to walk to the South Pole to get to my connecting gate. The flight from Chicago is under an hour and the plane is a little more spacious. The closer I get to my second home the better things are.
Before I took off from Chicago I saw on Twitter the unbelievable welcome young Miles Thompson received when he landed in Minnesota. This was a very special and amazing welcome for him and I am very happy our fans made him feel at home right away.
Of course weather is always an Issue during the winter in Minnesota, and ¾ of the teams flights were delayed. We all finally got to the hotel just before midnight and right to our Friday night team meeting.
Game day Shoot around starts at 9am and much like every team, this is where we go over game plans and get in some last minute fine tuning before the game. Usually this early in the morning we are all slugs, but this morning all boys are full of life and super excited. We get in a good sweat and are ready for the opener tonight.
When at home in Minny, we always eat lunch on game days as a team. We’ve been going to the same restaurant for the last 3-4 years, and after a long off season we are all looking forward to our first meal at the closest thing to home cooking as it gets.
My game day routine is usually the same once we get back to the hotel. I lie in bed and put a movie on for a few hours and have a little power nap. So once I walked into my room, I climbed into bed and was pleasantly surprised to find don’t mess with the Zohan on.
Pre Game
We get to the arena roughly 2 hours before the game. It gives a chance for the guys to go through whatever their routine is before we have our actual warm up’s.
My routine is to have a coffee and get some work done by the teams training staff (Massage therapist and Chiro). Our equipment manager puts out a great spread of snacks before the game as well, so of course I spoiled myself with some granola bar’s and peanut butter.
The Game
We came out excited and firing early. Our goaltending, Defense and transition were playing at a really high level right out of the gates. Being an Offensive player and seeing our backend playing like that really allows us to play with confidence and we did just that in the first half. We had some beauty goals by Miles and Shayne in the first half and we were able to end the half up by 1.
In the second half we traded streaks with Colorado and still maintained a lead going into the 4th quarter. Our power play was struggling all night and their short man was giving them an edge in special teams. This ended up being the deciding factor in the 4th quarter and they were able to pull away.
The loss was not the outcome we wanted, or even the outcome based on the effort we put out. We played 45 minutes of a 60 minute game. Unfortunately not playing 60 minutes of good lacrosse wont give you a win in this league, but there is a ton of positives to take away from that game.
We know what needs to be fixed so we can finish the job and we will make some tweaks and be ready for Edmonton next weekend.
There is still a great atmosphere in our locker room and amongst the whole organization. Everyone believes in the team we have and good things are going to come.
The Next Morning
Flying to and from Ottawa is never the easiest flight playing for Minnesota. With a new baby at home, I need to get back as soon as possible. That means a 335am shuttle to the airport and a 6am flight through Toronto. With this weekend bringing a big snowfall and a ton of freezing rain, my connecting from to Ottawa was delayed by 2 hours.
Eventually I got home by 1pm. On very little sleep and a tired body from the game it was great to finally walk through the door and see the family. Even with the crazy travel schedule, I wouldn’t trade it for any other team. I believe in Minnesota and know we are headed in the right direction.
