It was a disappointing end to the season, wasn’t it? This was my favorite season with the team. I genuinely liked all the guys on the team and was very comfortable with myself. The 2008-09 season was a lot of fun. Admirals head coach Lane Lambert made a great comment on 1250 WSSP during the “Center Ice” show. He said the series with Houston wasn’t lost in game seven; it was lost in either game three or four. It’s a great point. The Admirals outshot the Aeros by a 2-1 margin in both the games but didn’t win either as goalie Anton Khudobin made save-after-save.

After game 7, I went into the locker room to thank the players for being very helpful to me. They were, to a man, very accommodating in giving interviews. It was a very somber room. Nobody thought it was going to be over that night. As I made my way around the room, forward Ryan Jones asked if I would keep my end of a bargain he and I made at the start of the postseason. There is a backstory:

I was out with a few players after a busy stretch of games earlier this season. While there, I was persuaded to do “the worm”…the breakdancing move. The boys really got a kick out of seeing it. Well, at the beginning of the playoffs, Ryan told me he wanted to see it, in the locker room, in front of the whole team, for every series the team won. The Admirals made quick work of Rockford and then we worked on selling the next series, so I never made it over to hold up my side of the deal.

As I walked around the room that last game, Jones asked me to do it. I agreed and everybody came running. Guys came out of the showers to witness my potential heart attack. I gave it my best and, I admit, it was awesome. The boys enjoyed it and then we moved on to the goodbyes.

The last game of the year ALWAYS SUCKS. That is a strong word, but it really fits the mood…especially for this season’s team. Lambert told me that when he was on two championship teams there were a couple of common denominators: one was the players didn’t want to stop playing and the other was the players all liked one another.

There were SO many great moments on the ice this year, but I’ll remember the 2008-09 season as the year we all got along.

Until next time…Go Admirals!!!