Joe's Journey

During the Royal Bank Cup it was The Pipeline Show's pleasure to have Joe Colborne give us an insiders look at what playing for a National Championship was like. We would like to thank Joe for his great daily updates, and wish him the best in the future, especially this June when he is expected to be selected fairly high at the NHL draft. Here is Joe's final entry. In our opinion it speaks to his character, that even after a tough loss, he is willing to share his thoughts with hockey fans. Enjoy it...as we certainly did during the entire Royal Bank Cup...thanks again Joe, for giving us an inside look at your Journey:


People have told me that there are some moments that will last with you forever, and the last few seconds of the National Champoionship will certainly be engraved in my memory. Not for the reasons I was hoping for, but they will be remembered for a long time. It was the ideal situation, the one that you picture in your head when you are practicing shooting at home, or on the ice- the National Championship Game, final seconds, the puck is on your stick, and you pick the top corner. The only problem was that it seemed the goalie had seen the play before as well, and he stoned me.

But, now that more than 24 hours has passed and I have had a chance to calm down, it is hard not to look back upon the year and be proud. It is just the nature of a single game playoff, and on any night any team can win. The support that we had from the fans who made the trip from Camrose was unbelievable, and I would like to thank all of them for helping us out.

So while the celebration for a national championship had to be postponed for another year, we still had a lot to be proud of. After the game, it took a while for us to get out of the room, as some speeches were made by the coaches and some time was spent reflecting. I gained a huge amount of respect for the players you see on TV after a tough loss in professional sports, as I realized just how tough it is to give an interview and answer questions right after the game. But, once we finally moved out of the room, we headed back to the hotel, then walked over to the restaurant "Shoeless Joe's" again, where our fans, parents and billets joined us for a few great hours.

Today, we woke up after a great sleep-in and packed up. At 12:30, we left the hotel and bussed to Ottawa, where we had a quick tour of the Parliament Buildings and sights around the city. Once at the airport, we had about three and a half hours to kill, so most of us just sat in the only restaurant in the airport and laughed about some memories from the year.

It is amazing how many things I'll remember from this team, and this year. The plane ride was long, but Andre Herman, Nic Chartier and I were sitting together on the plane, so we had some fun. Nic and I spent most of the time watching the Detroit and Dallas game, or laughing at Andre (who kept switching between American Gladiators, WWE or some Discovery Kids show). All in all, it was a very long travel day, and the bus ride from Edmonton to Camrose couldn't have ended soon enough. [Tuesday night] the City of Camrose is putting on a barbeque and ceremony for us, which should be a lot of fun, but for now, all I am looking forward to is another great sleep.

In closing, I would just like to thank everyone for reading this, and thanks to Dean Millard for asking me to do it. It has been a lot of fun, and it will be fun to look back on this in the future (Except for those few seconds).