The Renegades ended up wrapping up the summer hockey season in fourth place... out of ten teams. A pretty respectable finish and we went on a bit of a winning streak to close out the season. Unfortunately we got the worst possible matchup going into the playoffs. We ended up paired with a team called the Squid Squad for the first best-of-three playoff round. These guys play at a level considerably above the level of all the other teams in our division. They coast and play easy as much as they can, and then turn it up at will. They somehow managed to finish in the middle of the pack, with the same win-loss record as us, but just behind us in the standings... Not sure the reason... alphabetical, or goal differential or some other inconsequential method. Regardless we would have finished four and five... or five and four.
We started off the playoff season spending a week trying to renegotiate a rescheduling of the first playoff game so that the Squids wouldn't miss any of their night shift work as corrections officers. We refused to accept any of the proposed alternative ice times as it would have put us at a disadvantage with fewer players available. This set the tone for a really hostile playoff matchup....
We played these guys twice during the regular season... the first time, in early June, they coasted to an easy 10-5 victory, in the game in which I suffered a broken toe. Late in the season we played them again, and managed a hard fought 3-2 victory, but not without losing our best player for six weeks with a badly sprained ankle.
The playoffs were a gong show. We lost in two games straight by scores of 10-1 and 6-0 and racked up 67 penalty minutes, to the Squids 45. The games were filled with scrums, fights, brawls, suspensions and poor officiating. This all left a really bad taste in our mouths, after a pretty successful regular season. I can't help but think that any other matchup in the first round would have allowed us to move on to the semi-finals, and probably the finals. I lay this on the shoulders of the league management, who didn't live up to their commitment to attend games, see the level of competition first hand, and consider divisional alignments realistically. As a result I am now lobbying the league to follow through on their pledge so that we don't fall victim to this same thing again in the upcoming winter season. For now we get a four week break from hockey before we return to the rink to start the winter season. I'm closely watching the remaining playoff games and predict that the Squids will eventually advance to the final, and probably win it all....
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