Overtime Losses

I decided to take a break from writing about the rules to address a more current issue. That is the misery of overtime losses. While some have suggested they would rather have a 5 minute period over sudden death/victory. I would disagree. I like the intensity of 1 goal deciding it all. That being said, nothing is more instantly depressing and painful as being scored on in OT.

This past Saturday concluded in our second overtime loss of the season. On January 31st 6’ 6” Peter Morgan snuck through our defense and caught a feed on top of Cosmo to end our night 1:13 into OT. On Saturday Matt Lyons ripped a shot off of the side of Bob Watson’s leg pad that caromed off the post to Toronto’s Scott Campbell who went end to end and fired a shot just under the cross bar to spoil our comeback.

It’s Tuesday now and the pain is starting to dissipate. I am not a person to sit and agonize “what if I did this or that.” I believe in devoting my week to preparation. When the game comes giving everything you can to help your team win. The rest is out of your control and if you gave it all and still lost you can more easily accept that. At least as a player I found that to be true. As a coach it is hard to feel like you did everything you could to affect the game. I can’t go out there and dive for a loose ball or sprint back on defense. And in a game of inches it is much easier to second guess.

Both Toronto and Portland played very good games against us and one could argue they deserved to win. I think you have to take a loss and say what can I do better next time? What can I learn from this? We are a good team, but we are not a team that can show up and expect to win without the proper preparation and effort. Records don’t mean a thing. If anything our records set us up for taking the Rock lightly. Toronto wanted it more than we did on Saturday. If there is one thing that I have learned over my years in this league, it’s that the team who is willing to put forth the effort and pay the price will walk away the winner 90% of the time regardless of record. Looking forward to our next game on the road against a very hot Rochester we have our work cut out for us. At least we have the pain of a close loss to reevaluate our effort and to motivate ourselves in the week and a half to come.