Playoffs - Who is it harder on?

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Well it is that time of year again - playoffs. It is one of the most stressful times of the year - for me.

Stress 1 - So many games must be played in a certain amount of time means every night is a hockey night either game or practice. With 2 kids in hockey - one in the OMHA and one in the OWHA scheduling rides becomes the #1 activity to make sure my players get to where they need to go and on time. Hockey becomes one big math problem. Player A has a game at 7pm, so he needs to be there at 6pm and it takes 45 minutes to get to the arena so we need to leave by 5:15pm at the latest. Player B has a game (in the opposite direction) at 8pm, needs to be there by 7pm and arena is 1:15hr away so we need to leave by 5:45pm. I get home at 5pm so I take player A, hubby gets home at 5:30 so he takes player B. Phew it worked out - that time!

Stress 2 - Watching the game helplessly in the stands. Playoff hockey is some of the best hockey out there to watch. I like watching some of the games where I don't know any of the players because the hockey is good and I don't care who wins. The kids all seem to step up their game because they know the stakes. But as a mom, you want your kids to play hard and be rewarded with the win. From the stands you can see where the puck is and if only they could just reach out and grab the puck they could put it in the net but they just missed it and now the other team has it and they are heading down the ice with it, oh no a two on one if only...yes off-side I can breathe now.

My daughter's team has not started their playoffs yet. They finished 2nd in the regular season which is a change for the team. Usually they just make the playoffs. So they have a lot at stake. They are one of the top dogs with the underdog trying to take them down. Their first game is on Tuesday. As well as playing their LLFHL playoffs, they start their OWHA playoffs at the same time. For the most part, the teams they play here they have never played before this season so it is had to gage who is the underdog. You look at the stats, but you don't really know what they are like until you play them. My stress for my daughter's team will probably start Tuesday. My hubby is the coach of her team has been stressed for the past week or so as he has to try schedule the games with the other teams and he has a lot of players who are going to be away at the same time. Unlike boys hockey - you can't call up players during playoffs.

My son's team just finished their preliminary round of their OMHA playoffs. They had to play 2 teams - best of 3 for each of those teams. Going into the playoff round, my son's team was in 9th place after the regular season and had to play the 4th & 5th place teams. My stress started when I found out who we had to play. One of the teams is the DIRTIEST team I have ever seen my son play against and the other team probably top 5 for this season. I know everyone has their own perceptions of other teams, some teams might think our team is dirty who knows. I do know that every team we have played this year has complained about how dirty the first team is. I blame the coach and the parents - it is not just one player it is the whole team - obviously they were taught that behaviour.

Luckily we made it through that series without any major injuries - the other team had a few players tossed out and suspended for dirty hits and took the series 2-1. The other series not so lucky. We had one player who received a concussion and another player break a foot (although this was after the game playing soccer in his basement.). The opposition had a couple of players kicked out and suspended for hits from behind. The series had to go to a tie-breaker game, 2 out of the 4 games went into overtime. Unfortunately, we lost in over-time so the OMHA run is over but now on to Tri-County playoffs.

Stress 3 - Comforting your player after a series loss. Your heart breaks for all the defeated boys who skate with their heads down. The boys all played hard - they were the underdogs and had forced a fourth game that was not easily won. Even when things go our way, I always feel bad for the other team. As hard as a loss is, I think it contributes to the greater good - life lessons.