A sad loss

I once heard Jerry Seinfield talk about winning the silver medal and what a drag it is because you lose the game. Well, Canada finished second here in Davos Switzerland, in a game we should have won because we did outplay our opponent. But you know, the luck didn't go our way in the last half of the game. Just to recap--we played Russia and lost that game 5-0 but that was okay because we knew we had one more game in the round robin and if we won that then we would be in the final gold medal game. That game was last night against Berlin and Canada played awesome. So...today was the big game. And we were against Davos the home team. The arena was packed and the Davos fans were wild. Man, can they yell and sing and whistle. Canada scored the first two goals, and I honestly thought we were going to win. Then Davos scored. The score stayed 2-1 for the longest time then Davos scored again to tie the game. Okay, so now I'm on the edge of my seat because we have lost our two goal lead. When they scored their third goal, we were crushed because Canada had been outplaying them but couldn't get the bounce. The puck would hit the post, crossbar or the Davos goalie would make some stupendous save. The breaks weren't going our way. The fans yelled for the entire last two minutes of the game, and I mean yelled. I have to say, it was such exciting hockey. Two of our players collided and both ended up in the hospital, which seemed to make our team lose a bit of momentum. Anyway, we lost 3-2.
Now, to discuss winning and losing. I've been there for both. In Salt Lake City 2002 we won both the mens and womens hockey and it was fabulous, so exciting, adrenalin flying. But then when you lose, the adrenalin rush is turned into something that I almost can't describe. Your stomache aches and you can't help but say, "I can't believe we lost." The thing is you learn as much from losing as you do from winning and you have to keep saying that to yourself, but at the moment that's tough to take. I'm a competetive person and I like to win so losing is hard--and I'm not even one of the players. We Canadians love our hockey and we like to win. Our son was stick-boy for this team and he had to listen to the dressing room talk after the game. Of course it would have been way more fun if they had of won but they didn't so maybe he learned something. Anyway, to me Jerry Seinfield is right--the silver medal is a tough one to take.
I hope you have enjoyed my recapping of this tournament. DAvos is a beautiful little town, the ski hills are fabulous and the weather has been amazing. So all in all, my trip has been great, despite the loss.
And it's New Year's Eve so have a good one!