For about five years (that’d be seven minus the two I lived in Finland) I’ve played rinkbandy with a bunch of guys north of Stockholm. It’s a nice recreational league of something I consider to be a recreational sport; something that’s a pleasure to play, but not enough to try to make a career in.

Our team has usually ranked in the middle to lower tier of the middle to lower divisions — until this season. We went the first five games undefeated, and have six wins in seven games.

But, like I said, winning really isn’t everything in that league. Having fun is. But, since winning is a lot of fun, this season has been a blast.

Now, for me, getting pissed off at myself, and swearing is actually a part of the fun. I don’t mean anything with it, except that I cannot just put on a helmet, and a pair of skates and not care about how my team plays. In the end, I don’t care if we win or lose, in that moment, during the game, I just don’t want to lose.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a game at ten at night, in the outside rink we always play in. Only, this time, it was +12 and the ice was flooded. Not the good Zamboni way, but the other way. There was about a two inch layer of water on the ice. Let me tell you, shooting, or passing the ball is not easy when the ball’s practically floating.

In the second period, our goalie threw a long pass towards the red line. It bounced off a puddle to the other end of the rink. Their defenseman took the ball, and started to skate towards our end, but when one of our players skated at him to forecheck, he changed his mind and decided to pass the ball to the goalie.

Only, when the goalie rushed out to get the pass, the ball stopped in the water, and our player shot the ball in an empty net.

Two things happened.
1) I raised my arms, and smiled. I thought it was funny.
2) The guy who scored the goal turned around from the blueline, skated back to the goalie and apologized for scoring.

I thought it was cute. But if he felt sorry for the goalie, why did he score?

That was the game we lost, and nobody from the other team apologized for that.