So I’m watching the Devils/Flyers game tonight, and during one of the intermissions they start talking about the rest of the Devils’ schedule (a word that I just had to retype three times). As they’re going through the dates it hit me – aside from being immunodepressed (a word I typed only once) and reeling from the heavy, big-time chemo, I’m going to miss a lot of the playoffs. Most of the initial rounds aren’t going to be on the regular stations and I’m going to be locked away in a hospital or hotel room for most, if not all, of the run to the Stanley Cup. This blows.

Great quote from between periods. Matt is interviewing Peter Forsberg and asked him that since he’s such a highly skilled and awesome player, what skill does he have that no one ever points out. Forsberg just grins at him and says “I think I’m pretty overrated, to be honest with you.” Why’d he have to become a Flyer?

On the cancer front, today was an extraordinarily crappy day. I slept pretty much right up until 7:00 tonight, with brief moments of lucidity and getting up to go to the bathroom. Luckily I did wake up at 7, ’cause that gave me 30 minutes to make it from the second floor to the third to watch the Devils.

I made it with two minutes to spare.

So here’s the weird thing about having no hair. You think your head’s going to be all cold and you’re going to lose all of this body heat and such, but really, it’s all just weird patches of cold. For instance, put your hands behind your head. You know, like you’re going to kick back in your chair and put your feet on your desk, satisfied in a job well done. Watch out for the pencil holder. Feel where your hands are right now? That’s where my head is cold. Right about where my skull curves under in the back. Just above the collar, just below a hat. Son of a… So instead, I sat at my computer today wearing my stocking cap and feeling Canadian.

Speaking of Canadian, how about the big Olympic flop for North America? The one good thing about it is that now the Devils only have one player left in the tournament – Viktor Kozlov. All of the rest get to rest and relax until the NHL starts back up again. I’m cheering for the Swedes now. Here’s hoping Peter Forsberg plays a LOT in the next few days.

One thing I liked about watching Olympic hockey? No TV timeouts. Just a whole uninterrupted period of hockey. Nice. Plus, I didn’t have to worry that I’d have a lame announcer, since Doc Emerick would be doing all of the US games. It is astounding all of the bizarre and random hockey facts that man has in his head. One of the many reasons he’s the best.

Well, we lost another one, but this time we got to play to the end. The final score was 9-7. We got the first goal (my linemate) and at one point later in the game we had pulled within one goal, but they just kept getting that extra goal. I got a little more rough and tumble than I have been, a little closer to how I used to play, but still no penalties. My trainer had me do a boxing workout on Monday and I told him it would be his fault if I got a fighting major.

Looking back I see I didn’t post anything about the last game the week before last – another mercy rule game, this time 12-2 and I was a -4 I think. Tonight I was a -3, but only because I was out there for two of our goals.

At one point in the game tonight I went into the boards with a guy, pushing and shoving for the puck and we both went down. When I got up, the whole rink just kept doing slow 360s around me. I wound up winning my faceoff anyway and played out the rest of my shift. I just had to keep my eye on one person and focus. I wound up short shifting after that.
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Talk about adding insult to disease. First I find out the cancer’s still going, then I go to play hockey and get cheered up and we get beat 10-0. Ouch. And that’s only because the league has a mercy rule – the game was called with almost 6 minutes remaining. OUCH.

I don’t know how it is that I wind up on hockey teams that don’t understand positional hockey. Our opponents sure seem to. My current team’s defense is also having trouble moving people out from in front of the net. Basically, they just stand beside the person and watch the play. I’m thinking I might have to switch to defense, not for my lack of offensive ability, but for my team’s lack of defense. Even though I was ostensibly a forward last night, I was clearing people from the front of the net on our penalty kills and I made one skate save and one head save in the game. I skated my ass off and felt like I was the only one who did, especially today since I can barely walk from the muscle soreness. I might not be a great player right now, but at least I was trying.

On the plus side (so to speak), I was a -3 for the night. Bad numbers, but good in the context of the game. I gotta switch to D.

I told everyone in the locker room about my diagnosis after the game, so hopefully in the next game it might occur to them that if a cancer patient is out there skating his ass off, maybe they should be too.

Not that I’m bitter or anything. That’s probably just my thighs talking.

So we had our first game of the season last night, against the same team we played first last season. I don’t recall how we played against them last time as I was having troubles of my own, but this time we definitely played better. We won 6-3 and I was +2 for the night (3 goals for, one against).

I think I played my best game ever – even counting when I was deep into it and in shape in San Francisco. I was not only thinking and skating hard, I was actually setting up plays.
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