March 28th…..the day the vampires came

today breakfast was at 745am…….well I didn’t wake up for that LOL.  Slept thru it and had some breakfast bars when I got up to meet the team downstairs at 830am for practice.  Practice was good but I definitely felt like I was hit by a Korean BULLET train last night. I skated through it though, probably not as fast as I could LOL but it was a recovery skate.
After practice, which ended at 1030am followed by our customary ice bath, we went to lunch at about 1130am and then back to the hotel.  We were then free until the bus left at 3pm for the game at 4:30pm.  I came upstairs and went to sleep, after a short stint online uploading last nights blog and checking facebook, email etc quickly.  I was pretty much out COLD until I was (rudely haha) awake at 235pm to get up and get ready!!  I’ve now realized that I am not only NOT a morning person I am NOT a wake up person PERIOD!!!!!!!!  I LIKE sleeping LOL.

Then we were off to the rink, wearing TRACK SUITS!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it???  Soooooooo many years of fighting the ‘regime’ on wearing formals to games and it felt WONDERFUL!!!!!!!  So easy to get ready and get out there for warm ups……..ahhhhhhhhh! LOL LOL!!  🙂

Warm ups were good, bit of same old same old.  Not really  much one can document on warms up.  Then we were back in the locker room, trying to distill words of wisdom and encouragement.  We knew it was a big game, we knew what we had to do.  However after the first period things hadn’t exactly gone our way and we were down 2-0.   Into the locker room we go…….coach talks……….tries to pick us up, tries to get us going and keep us motivated.  We still know what we have to do to get this job done.
2^nd period is up………we go out, Romania gets a lot of penalties, a lot of which were for taking me down…….why do they pick on me? Haha……my knee is hurting after the fall I had in the first period, it still hurts, but I play through it, I’ve worked for the better part of the last year for this, I’ll play through anything.  Unfortunately, yet again………Romania capitalized on our down falls with been too aggressive/not playing our system/whatever and by the end of the 2^nd period two of their goals are short-handed goals.  You can’t win a hockey game this way.  Into the locker room again we go……….
The third period we held them, they didn’t score.  However, we only scored once – which is not enough to win the game.  For the first time in three match ups that I’ve played Romania their anthem is played, they’re joyous and celebratory (naturally).  This was the hardest anthem to hear been played after our game……..I wanted this so bad I could taste it.  But it’s not how the cookie crumbled………….

So from this we can either a) hang our heads down low OR b) dust ourselves off, pick ourselves up and skate on to the next game with our heads held high and be READY and rearing to go from the minute the puck drops and CONSISTENTLY for the next 60 minutes (stop time)!!!!  I myself, and I believe the entire team is going with option B……….
Will we medal in this tourney??? We all hope to……..but this is not a possibility without keeping our heads high and realizing we DESERVE to be here!!!!!!  We ARE good enough to be here!!!!!!!
After the game Kieran gave his speech, some of us were crying, some of us hanging our heads down…….no one was smiling!!
Then I stood up and I said to a group of 17 women, 9 of whom I know from years past and many of whom I literally grew up with on the ice, off the ice and in the locker rooms…………I too was crying, my heart was broken, I gave my all and I left every ounce of my energy out on the ice and for tonight, for NOW it wasn’t enough……..I DON’T for one minute think the loss came from a lack of caring, a lack of trying or a lack of heart so I said to the girls (through my tears) that I am heart-broken, I am devastated and I am mortified to have heart their anthem BUT I will NOT allow that to pull me down!!  I made the announcement that this was my last tournament, that I have given this game my ALL for the past 14 years and now is the time, now I see the talent these girls have and there are plenty of up and coming players……….(I’m an old model LOL!) and I came into this tournament in as best condition as I was physically able of being and I dreamt of a medal, I could ‘feel’ it hanging around my neck, however, medal or no medal I plan on leaving this tournament knowing I did all I COULD DO!!!!!!!!  And I needed each and every girl on this team to do that with me because then I truly feel that we have come out on top, we have done the best we honestly could and we can leave this tournament and this country with our heads held high.
I love this game, I love my country and I love these girls, they are like family to me!!!

After this was all said and done we again had our ice baths and showers and got ready and headed out to dinner which was fried chicken (thank goodness for no games tomorrow with a sportswomen meal like that LOL!)  it was good, not one meal have I not liked here and if you know me well you know that’s saying a LOT because I’m a picky eater!!
Then back to the hotel, back to the doctor and then a fun conversation with my Jeanna Marie and now wrapping up this blog and hitting the sack!!!!!!! No meeting until 10am tomorrow so I’m SLEEPING IN!!!!!!!!  And heaven help the person who might wake me before a) my alarm goes off at 945am or b) I wake up on my own before then!!

So for now I say good night/good afternoon…….dependent on which country you are in and thanks for reading!!

This is Debbie Mc Loughlin……signing OFF!!!

Couple pictures below: