Final Thoughts

So, I'm sitting here in the hotel on the morning of our biggest game of the year. Of course, I've referred to each game of this year's playoffs as our biggest game of the year, because each one is bigger than the one before it. As you can see from the photo to the right, we have one more goal to accomplish...one more piece to the puzzle. Each of those pucks represents a playoff win. The empty circle represents the one more puck that we need to get.

I've never been here before. In my entire 17-year career, I had only been to the Finals once before. We lost that series 4 games to 1 in a best-of-seven series. We lost the deciding game at home and had to watch the other team parade the cup around on our home ice. I never want to feel that again. This is the first time I've gone into a game knowing that when it's all over we might be champions. I like this feeling. Part of me doesn't want it to end. I've really enjoyed this run we've been on. Ending the regular season on a hot streak and then carrying that into the playoffs...let's just say we're feeling pretty good about ourselves right now. The hotel we're staying in is a definite step up from where we usually stay on the road. We're feeling kinda big time right now. I'm just trying to soak it all in and savor it while I can.

I'm up at 6am writing this blog because I can barely sleep. I'm like a kid on Christmas morning. I'm full of nervous energy and I don't know what to do with it. I can't wait to get down to the rink and get started setting up for the morning skate. I can't wait for Game Time. It seems so far away I don't know how I'll ever make it to 7:05pm. That's over 12 hours from now! I just want to get the game started. Can we just wake everybody up and play the game this morning? I guess not. We wouldn't want to start without our fans, and I know a bunch of them are heading down today for the game. So, come on down to the Pensacola Civic Center tonight and watch the Cottonmouths' biggest game of the year. This one should be an epic battle. I can't wait!