SORROW
is not something a winner ever wants to deal with.
DEFEAT
is not something a winner can ever accept.
Losing 3-2 in the 7th game of the WHL Championship game to the Seattle Thunderbirds after coming back from a 3-1 series deficit hurts. It hurts a lot. Especially when you've scored a SHG, unassisted to tie the game at one in the first. Especially when you've tied the game up late in the second with a sick tip in goal. Especially when you notched 25 points in 27 games, building on 67 in the regular season, second most for a D-man.
Especially when your man beats you in front and wrists home the soon-to-be game winner.
The locker room was like a morgue. Coach had poked his head in, tried to choke out a few words, and then left. No one said a word. The players' equipment bags felt like Broadway stars, the way their owner's eyes were fixated on the bags.
Even the media, normally so noisy and not respectful of a team's privacy, wasn't barging in. They would, soon, but right now most of the Lethbridge Hurricanes felt that Josiah Cohen would murder the first reporter to enter—and the team would be right behind them.
Scouts underestimated him—but every Hurricane knew he'd driven them along: the fact that he had been re-promoted to the first line after a season in the Coach's doghouse should have meant a ton to them. He'd led them through the season, fired up the team to steam into second place after a loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers, and saved them in the playoffs. When they were down to Seattle 3-1, he notched four points in that game, and two in the next.
He'd scored two great goals in this game, but one mistake left him feeling the worst.
The team packed their bags like after any other game. And, like any other game, here came the media—this time with a half-dozen or so scouts along with them.
Alex Blomqvist, team leader in scoring and this year's media darling, easily repressed a smile as he took in the fact that every single reporter was surrounding Josiah Cohen. Normally, Alex had most; tonight, all eyes were on the guy that had almost made this locker room the happiest in Seattle.
The first reporter about to ask Cohen a question saw his flashing hazel eyes and hesitated, allowing another reporter to step in.
"Well, tough loss tonight. How do you feel about your draft stock?"
"Are you kidding me?" Cohen asked. "Are you kidding?? We just lost a heartbreaker and you're asking me about my stupid draft stock??"
"Yes, that was the question."
"That's ridiculous. Next question."
The next reporter tried to phrase his question in what he hoped was the right way: "What can you say about your team's, and your, performance tonight?"
Shaking his head, he replied: "This loss hurts more than others. This has been a great team to play with this year and I'll see them in the NHL."
Another reporter said: "Scouts have you pegged as a second-round draft pick. Thoughts?"
Cohen: "I think I'll make an immediate impact, so to go in the second adds yet another chip to my shoulder."
A female reporter managed to squeeze her way to the front, and asked: "Your two goals really helped your team. What went wrong, and how will that affect your draft status?"
Cohen answered, hefting his bag onto his shoulder: "Doesn't matter what round I go in, I'll be fine. But I hope to play with some of my teammates from Lethbridge in the NHL. And another thing," he said, his voice rising, "If I see Luke Lockhart [two goals in game seven]..." He left it at that as he walked out into the Seattle rain.
02-26-2014, 07:39 PM
