Today is what I consider to be perhaps the most important hockey game of my entire career, or close to it. Today is the first game of a 3 game series for the championship. This series is important because it comes on the heels of a fantastic season where we ended up in 1st place. It seems like when I am on a 1st place team it the regular season, the playoffs are usually a bust, or the times in the past when my teams have won the championship, we were not first place during the regular season. This happens a lot even at the NHL level.

After last season, we lost several key players, who formed another team in a higher league, and so it was hard, partly because they became friends, and partly because we had to take on a batch of new players. Anyway, so we have worked really hard to get to where we are, and now we just need the hardware to prove it. Last season, we ended up in 2nd place, and although getting a 2nd place trophy was nice, it sits on the TV and taunts me daily.

So how do I deal with the pressure of a huge game? Simple. I don't. I treat this day like any other day, and I treat this game like any other game. Our consistency is the key to our success this season, and because of it, we have enjoyed an 17-2-1 record, that's 85% wins. Our goal, is to win the best 2 out of 3 series in 2 games. I am confident that this will happen for us this season.

Go Scarecrows!