Dear Binghamton Senators, Welcome to Brustytown

It's been unofficial for a week now, but today your Binghamton Senators announced they've agreed to a 1 year AHL deal with Barry Brust.

If you haven't been keeping up with your stash of goalies this summer, you have Mike Brodeur (no relation) as the likely starter, and Swedish prospect Robin Lehner, who put up respectable numbers in the OHL last season, slated to turn pro. So Brusty is, for now, probably #5 in the minds of the muckity mucks in the Sens organization, and unless Lehner really effs it up, he'll probably start in the ECHL with the Elmira Jackals.

Though depending on the organization's devotion to Lehner and whether he struggles some in the transition to the pros, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Brusty come up and Lehner spend some time in Elmira much the way CHRIS HOLT! moved up and down last season.
I thought I'd provide a little scouting report on Brusty for B-Sens and Elmira fans out there wondering who this big goalie is and what his game is like if you don't remember him from his time in Manchester and Reading. But I won't even pretend to be objective; I gave up on that ages ago. Take it for the fangirl fawning that it is.

Brusty is my all time favorite goalie ever. And I really love goalies. So to be at the top of that heap is pretty special. But here's why I love the guy and why you will, too:

1. He's got brass ones. He plays a very aggressive game, with lots of big poke checks, playing the puck, and defending his crease. I've seen him play through all manner of injuries, including a giant skate slice that required something like 30 stitches during intermission, and then came back out to finish the final 2 periods of the game. Hard core, bitches.
2. He's big and athletic. His strengths lie in his size, his strong ability to read plays (hockey sense, yo), his quick reflexes, and his innate athleticism. I watch him play and sometimes think, "Um, hey, Brusty. Puck. Puck. Right there. Look alive." and then BOOM, he's on it. Which is to say, he's got a very calm demeanor, doesn't have any excessive movement in his game (other than the pad tapping), but when it's go-time, he gets the job done. So, even if his relaxed style bothers you at first, you'll come to trust it, I promise.
3. He's entertaining, both on and off the ice. His game is keep-a-defibrillator-handy exciting, but he's also pretty funny off the ice. Plenty of good war stories and a great sense of humor. Reporters love him for providing good, sincere, non-cliched quotes. Fans love him for just being a swell, easy going guy. My favorite Aeros game broadcasts were back in the day when Brusty was out with some injury for a while and he'd provide color during the games. Check out the videos to the right for more funny Brusty goodness. 
4. He makes teams better. I guess I've established that he's a good goalie already, but if you've never had a goalie who was a strong puck mover and could nail stretch passes to your defense or even forwards to help the breakout, you're not going to believe how useful and rare that skill is. He not only shuts things down defensively, but helps the offensive side of your team's game as well. 

5. 

   We must increase our Brust
   Photo by Chris Jerina

   He's clutch. Brusty has another level to his game when his back is against the wall. Playoffs, close games, shootouts, I have so often seen him step up and be just incredibly clutch under pressure. And the more teams try to get under his skin, the better and meaner he plays.
6. He's foxy. He is. It matters! Foxy goalies are way funner than non-foxy goalies. Look at him! Gah. *big sigh*
7. His glove. Brusty's glove hand is quick and nasty. Many times, I haven't even seen the shot go off before it's in his glove. I dunno what it is, but damn, a good, split second flash of the leather sends me into orbit. Wear your seatbelts.
8. His PIM. He doesn't put up with any crap in his crease. He'll give a jab or a whack or whatever he needs to do to keep the pesky kids off his lawn. Sometimes this annoys players. :) And where most goalies will skate off by themselves when things get heated around the net, Brusty skates into the scrum and tries to help his teammates. He hasn't gotten into a fight as pro though, and if it happens up there, I'm gonna say right here and now that I hate you all.

Most of all, he's just a good guy who will do a good job for your team. I've talked him up a lot, but he's, of course, not perfect. Who is? Goaltenders will always have their good nights and bad nights, but in general, fortunate is the team that has Barry Brust between the pipes. Enjoy him while you've got him.

Read more...

Minnesota Day 5

I was pretty happy to see the last day at my doorstep yesterday. I was tired and banged up pretty good. My knee now has this loud/hard popping when I unbend it from a sharp bend. Kinda worried I'm not going to graduate from PT now, but the original pain I went in for didn't bother me one bit, so I guess that's something.

The practice schedule was pretty light. Only 2 hours and the first hour, we hardly saw any shots. But my calves were burning so badly, I was happy to just have a long warm-up. The final practice was the red team and LOTS of shots.

I feel kinda stupid saying this, seeing as I've been playing for a year and a half, but I realized during the red practice, that the stance I've been playing in is too high. I started getting really low in my stance and stopped almost everything. I think there's a strength factor there because being low AND mobile is the trick and that takes strength. I was pretty pleased I was able to do it, being so tired.

A friend I used to play with in Texas before she came up to MN for her internship came by and we had lunch after that. Sat outside and just enjoyed some really beautiful weather and tasty food at Coopers by my hotel. Then we headed back for my final hour of ice, the red group's scrimmage.

Chris "HOSS" Jerina and his lovely gal, Michelle, also came down for the scrimmage, so it was pretty cool to have the market on fans in the stands between the three of them. Unfortunately, I didn't play so well in the first half and let in 4 goals to 1 at the other end. But then we switched ends and things got a little better. I let a couple in, as did the other goalie, and the head coach (who reminded me in demeanor of Jacques Lemaire and didn't know my name, so he called me "Houston") says over the loud speaker, "Goalies? Jax, Houston, don't go down unless you have to. Get square and you'll stop most everything."

So, you know me, I'm thinking, "Don't coach me in the middle of a game, dude. And also, thanks for letting the teams know to shoot low."

Next shot on me? I stayed up. Caught it in the crook of my elbow as they tried to pick the corner. Ha! So I thanked him for the coaching tip, which definitely helped me seal it up the rest of the game. I guess maybe I looked kinda biased for the white team since I let a bunch in at their end and then played well in goal for them. Haha. Oh well.

The highlight of my game was a diving poke check like none I've ever even attempted. It was full on Brustyfied, knocking players over like bowling pins.  I think I pretty much just startled them all so much and sent at least 2 people flying and got myself all tangled up that the chaos gave my team time to pick up the puck and get out of the zone.

It was cool, too, because I didn't think about it. And those are the kinds of goalie moves you just can't think about. You just have to feel them in the moment and go. My 1-second thought process was, "I've let a few in here and I'm not feeling real confident. I don't want this person shooting on me, so I'm gonna do what I have to do to prevent it." Apparently Chris got pics of this, so I'm hoping they turn out. I'll post the good ones here when he gets them together.

I have to admit, I was fighting back tears a little at the end. It was a really great experience and I love playing so much, even though it hurts and I'm exhausted, goaltending is really an bottomless pit of learning and growing and improving, so what a treat to get to do SO MUCH of it in such a short time. I feel like I got a lot out of the camp, even though I failed to really focus on anything specific to work on like I'd planned. It kinda turned into more of a survival thing.

But just in the course of seeing that much rubber, you HAVE to learn something.


Anyway, after all that, Chris and Michelle and I headed over to Cossetta's across from the Xcel Center where the Wild play. I guess a few of the players snag their pre-game meals there, which I understand. It's pretty darn good stuff. And then we walked a block up to Tom Reid's where we proceeded to throw a few back and laugh at the parade of douchebaggery that was coming in and out the door. At least the douchebags of the world seem to have figured out that Ed Hardy and Affliction t-shirts are over. Props for that, I guess. The king of the douchebags needs to send the memo about popped collars and ridiculous hats though.

But it was super fun hanging with those two, who are living Bad Idea Bears. "Drunk texing? YAAAAAAAAYYYY! Do itttt!" :) I didn't, BTW, in spite of a very tempting premise, other than to tell Bourney about Michelle questioning whether the Islanders were still a team. Hahaha... ouch.

Back to Texas today though. Gonna grab some breakfast and then lay my gear out in the sun to try and get it a little bit drier before I pack it all up. Another long slog through the airport today. Hopefully I can find a cart and an elevator this time to make it not so clumsy and painful. Or a strapping man. But I'm thinking a cart is more likely.

Read more...

Minnesota Day 4

AKA the day I wasn't sure I'd survive with the ability to walk. But I did.

I played 2.5 hours of practice mid-day, 2 hours of practice in the evening, and then 30 minutes of the coaches game at night.

The practices weren't anything out of the ordinary. Just a lot of them. The highlight of the day was my friend Bryan, whom I've known for a few years now but never met, coming to visit. And his wife and daughters joined him, so it was awesome meeting the whole family and just chilling during my lunch break. Also, always funny to watch little kids get freaked out by us goalies. I get it. I would have been scared of goalies, too, as little kid. Wish more skaters were. :)

Always nice doing something like this to have some friendly faces who know more about you than you're from Houston and you're a goalie. In fact, he knows me so well, he brought me a huge bag of Funyuns and a chocolate milk! How clutch is that? VERY! Love a man who pays attention!

That night, I played the first 30 minute game against the coaches. The camper team was the blue (most novice) team plus one red group player (I'd say easily the best player in camp) to give us some hope vs. the 5 camp coaches.

I've mentioned how good these guys are.... someone compared it to the Harlem Globetrotters. They just toyed with us. It was a show. And it was an impressive show. Lightning fast EVERYTHING from these guys. But my team did a great job getting sticks in the way and minimizing direct shots as best they could. But they still put 8 past me in 15 minutes.

I had some good stops but they all have such quick releases and are such good skaters that it feels like no matter what you do, they can find a way to beat you. Having defensemen taking away some of their options helps but those guys can put the puck anywhere they want. As a goalie, it's awesome to have guys who can do that, especially when you're warming up. Nice to get some right on the blocker, right in the glove, etc.

You kinda see how a guy like Max Noreau gets it done. You get a ripping shot like that and you really can't see it. You just have to hope to be in the way, but these guys can pick the corner from center ice, so how can you be completely in the way? Unreal.

Anyway, after all that, I headed up to the Blue Fox and had an absolute blast with my Russoville friends. One of them is in the band that was playing (shout out to 100 Watt Jones!) and hooked us up with t-shirts and played the cowbell (okay, and saxophone.... and tambourine) like a beast. It was big fun watching the white folks dance like white folks. I was up laaaate and the beer glasses are really really big there. Saturday morning hit like a load of bricks.

Read more...

Minnesota Day 3

This is the day that was awesome, and then it sucked, and then it got awesome again. So much better than the reverse, isn't it?

Started my day by sleeping until 10. Booyah. That was nice. Yay for black out drapes at hotels. But then I had to hustle because I had to return the chest protector to Hockey Giant and buy some skates, or at least try to.

So I go to Panera for brekky. A cinnamon roll AND a power breakfast sandwich because you can eat like that when you play hockey all day.

Then I jetted down to Bloomington to return the c/a. No problem. Looked at their goalie skate selection, nobody offered to help me, so I said, "Fuck it." and headed to Blaine back to Hockey Central where the guy'd been so helpful before.

The guy being Jason. At Hockey Central. Love that guy. I felt bad because he was SO helpful the other day but I just wasn't seeing anything that was just right. But I knew exactly what I needed for skates: Under $300, widest skate you got.

He measured me and determined I needed a 6.5. WHAT? I'm currently in an 8 and I wear a 10 or 9.5 in street shoes. So I thought, NO WAY are these gonna fit. He brings out some RBK something or others. Bottom of the line, basically, but whatever. I'm no diva.

Well, they fit perfectly. He said one of the reasons my skates were killing me is because of the size difference. Everything was hitting my feet in the wrong places.

The wide 6.5s were still a little crunchy across the forefoot so he stretched them and that was better. And then we heat molded them and that was even better.

I was nervous about jumping them into such intensive action, but it turned out absolutely great. They're very comfortable. Only a bit of lace bite on one foot, but I think I can fix that with a different lacing technique. Nothing to worry about and LOADS better than my old ones. I can't even tell you. There was a bit of adjustment to the shorter blade in terms of my balance but half an hour in, I was fine. They also seem to weigh about half as much, which was kinda weird, too, but I certainly don't mind.

So anyway, I got all that done and hauled back to Parade for my ice times, which were a 75 minute and 60 minute session back to back. I thought that was going to be it for the day, but the goalie wrangler asked me to come back for the open ice at 8 because the campers wanted to scrimmage.

Well, I sucked pretty bad in both my sessions. My net was filled with pucks on the drills they were doing. I was being kind of hard on myself about that and feeling a little low and just wanted to come home and lick my wounds.

But the hockey gods smiled on me in return for coming back and putting on a wet sports bra (worst piece of wet gear ever) and blessed me with a really good game that lifted my mood again.

So much so that I'm completely exhausted physically but still buzzing. It'll wear off soon enough, but it definitely gives me the mental energy to face tomorrow and not be worried about everyone thinking I'm a huge sieve all the time. Just most of the time. :) Gimme some defense and real game action and mayyyybe I can turn it on a little bit. I did tonight anyway.

Tomorrow is another very busy day from top to bottom. Have to be on the ice at 11:45 but I also need to find a Play it Again and sell my old skates. Figure they'll go for a bit more up here than in Texas. I think I'll just eat lunch at the rink and stay there until my later session, unless I'm feeling energetic, in which case, I'll drag my soggy ass to the Hockey Lodge at the X and get a new Wild t-shirt to replace my stupid Gaborik one. Pfft.

Then tomorrow night, after the coach's scrimmage, which is supposed to be a lot of fun, I'm heading out to the Blue Fox in Arden Hills (wherever that is) to see the Russoville house band and hang with the Russovillians. That is my reward for surviving the day on the ice. :)

And somewhere in all that, I need to find a damn drugstore to get some bandaids. I ripped a big hole in my finger from lacing up my new skates so many times today. There's something about the slimy interior of a goalie glove that makes you not want to expose your open skin wound to it, you know?

Okay, nearly midnight. Time to give the old bones some rest. Thanks for reading. I know it's all been rather self-indulgent lately, but it's summer and I'm incredibly self-absorbed and that's how it goes. I still want to do posts on the Wild goalies and on Brusty signing with Binghamton. I think Baby Sens and Jackals fans should know how lucky they are and I'm pretty sure I'm equipped to tell them. :)

Read more...

Minnesota Day 2

I headed to the rink first thing to check in and drop my gear off. Met everyone and just sat in the rink and taped my stick and took it all in. As a Wild fan, I've been hearing about Parade for a while, so it was cool to finally get to see it, even though they only practice there occasionally.

It's kinda weird to go to a rink and not see loads of little girls and their little rolling figure skater bags. And in spite of it being fairly warm out, the ice at Parade is probably the nicest I've ever skated on. Smooth and clean. Not too hard, not too soft. Just perfect.

Then I went to Al's Breakfast over in Dinkytown (UM campus is in that area). Al's was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and looked like a swell place to carb up for the day. It is even tinier than I expected, but the pancakes and hash browns were fantastic. Well worth the long wait and risk of getting a parking ticket (only had 28 minutes worth of quarters for the meter).

Then it was off to Hockey Giant again, which I wrote about in my last post. I'd gone back intending to get some different thigh protectors, but the ones I wanted don't work with my pads. And then I got to looking at the chest protectors again. $220 later...

Then it was off to the rink again. I'd planned to go to the Twins game, but was told that due to street closures for a parade, I needed to be there by 3. Turned out that didn't really seem to be the case as there was a back way into the parking lot (which is how I got out last night), but not knowing my way around, who knows if I would have figured that out.

Probably better to rest up a bit instead. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Anyway, back at the rink, I watched the campers do their power skating sessions and figured out that the Red group is the top (would call them C/C+ in Houston), Green is the middle group (D+/C), and Blue is the true novice folks.

It's interesting to see how the coaches change the drills up to teach the same stuff but in a manageable way for the level of students, both in the power skating and in the individual skills sessions I tended. And that was all I did yesterday: 3 back to back to back individual skills sessions at an hour each.

Nothing too strenuous though. Because of the level of shooters, 75% of shots were stoppable standing up, either with a stick or skate or leg pad or whatever.

The best part was taking shots from the coaches, all of whom are Canadian. Honestly, if I tended in a pro game, you'd see football scores on the board. These guys just rip 'em. Not even heavy shots really, but just fast and precise and instant release. Lasers. I have even more respect for what pro goalies can do now than ever before.

The coaches beat me pretty much every time except for once. It was a 3 on 0 drill and they came up the ice after all the campers. That's without question the most talent and skill I've ever faced en masse. I stopped the first shot, stopped a rebound shot, and then the final attempt hit the cross bar. No goal, bitches!

One of the coaches reminds me a ton of Kevin Constantine, just looks-wise. He's a lot sillier though. I like him a lot. Seems like a guy you'd wanna party with.

Anyway, so far, so good. I'm having fun and feeling pretty good. Somehow I hurt my glove side pinky finger. The whole middle section of the finger is purple and swollen. Took another hard shot off the bottom of my elbow. Just a weird spot from a weird angle. No bruise yet but it hurts.

Easy day today, tending a 75 minute team skills session and a 60 minute individual skills session. Friday is when all hell breaks loose and I'm playing 5+ hours. Not in a row, thankfully.

Meanwhile, time to see about getting a little more sleep. I'm not a very good hotel sleeper. Too many strange noises. And an ant in my bed just now. That's nice.

Read more...

Minnesota Day 1

Okay, I know I said my next post would be on the Wild's baby goalies, but I'll get to it. For now, I figure I should write a bit about my little visit here to Minnesota.

Yesterday, I got into town and discovered that the 25 cents for the sissy luggage cart is money well spent when you're carrying 50 lbs of goalie gear, a rolly bag, and a computer bag from the gate to the car rental place here in MSP.

There was a train, 3 escalators, and a LONG walk to get there. I actually lost my rolly bag and laptop at the top of one of the escalators, but some guy was nice and carried it down for me. Thank you, guy.

Then I went shopping for goalie gear. Amazing to get to touch things in person, but shopping for pads is just as mysterious in person as online. And honestly, the more I play and think about what I really need, pads are dropping down the list. I think mine have finally started to shrink down to the right size and I'm actually landing on the knee stack more than I'm not. They're still not perfect but they get the job done.

I actually ended up buying a c/a, which is one of those things you just have to try on. And I tried on a BUNCH and most of them, I wanted to rip off and set on fire, they were so uncomfortable. I found that I REALLY liked the Vaughn Epic 8800, but it's over $400 and that's just not happening. So if I could find a 8600, I'd jump on it, but most places are out of them.

So, I settled on a Bauer Performance, but overpaid for it at Hockey Giant. It kinda pisses me off that they don't honor their online prices at the store. I mean, I didn't ask them to, but those should sync up, right? Annoying. But that's getting returned today.

And instead, I'm on the hunt for skates. I don't know what it is but lately my skates are absolutely killing me within 15 minutes of putting them on. Just crushing my forefoot. From what I'm reading, Nike Bauers are the most narrow, even in wide widths, so I'm hoping between changing brands and getting a pair that's heat moldable, I can find some that will get me a couple of hours of comfortable skating.

Annnnyway, enough about that stuff.

My first day in Minnesota ended with me locking my rental car keys in the trunk and having to call my insurance's roadside assistance to help me. Better yet was that I locked them in the trunk while I was getting ready to go pick up my dinner I'd ordered. So I had to call them and say, "Um, I'll be there in, like, an hour and half." Ugh. But big props to Olive Garden, they remade my pasta for me when I got there so I had fresh noodles to eat.

That was a long day, but things started looking up on Day 2.

Read more...

Peaks and valleys

So, I wasn't even supposed to play Sunday. I was done, right? Done until Wednesday. So I celebrated with a couple of Cokes last night. That's what a wild and crazy gal I am. 4 days off from hockey and I'm hitting the caffeinated sodas, baby. Don't try this shit at home. You can't handle it.

And then, I'm jonesing for a little Shipley's. Just a little donut and a kolache. So that's breakfast. Then around noon I see an email:  Can you play one game of novice at SLICE tonight?

Welllll, what the hell. Might as well. I like the folks there and don't mind helping out in a pinch. And it's their playoffs so it would suck to not have a goalie at one end.

It's an early game and I get nervous about eating too close to game time, so I think, Okay, I'll have a granola bar a little before game time and that will tide me over. I'll pick up dinner after.

So I go, I play, I kick ASS. Total carryover from Saturday night where I was seeing the puck well and my team was playing great in front of me clearing rebounds and making me look like a stud.  During the game, they say, "Hey, the other goalie can't make the second game either. Can you stay?" Oof. Hadn't planned on it, but I've got Gu in my bag so maybe that will tide me over.

We win 6-2 and life is SO good for about 15 minutes while the Zamboni runs. Half the team comes up and says stuff like, "Who ARE you? You were terrific!" They didn't believe me when I tried to tell them I play A league. LOL Okay, what gave it away? The pucks bouncing out of my glove? The awkward pad rotation on the butterfly? Whatever the case, it was love all around.

So, I drink water, cool down a little, jam the Gu down my gullet just to try and get some electrolytes and carbs in me. Tastes worse than I remember. Time for game 2. I start in the same net I started in last game cuz that worked pretty well right?

And for the first period and a half, things were groovy. The game was close and I'd let a couple in but nothing awful.

But then there was a scramble in front of my net and I let in a third. And in the exertion of the scramble, my heart starts racing. It does this sometimes when I play after having caffeine in my system, especially when I'm tired. So, if you remember back to the start of my last post about "Hey, I'm full of caffeine and I'm staying up way late. Fuck yeah! Vacation rules!"... well, here I am halfway thru the second period and I'm regretting everything I've done in the last 24 hours because not one bit of it was conducive to playing hockey.

So, with this racing heart comes sheer exhaustion. My legs feel tired, my breath is short and my whole body just feels like a wet noodle and my brainz have The Dumb in the worst way. I officially feel absolutely awful.

And by the time I get back to my home net for the third period, we are down 7-4 and I'm just feeling worse and worse with every minute. A sensible person would say, "Hey go sit down. The other team can shoot at a cone or something." But that's not how it works. This is hockey and if you're not in need of a stretcher, you stay out there and play.

Turns out I should have gone with the stretcher option because I proceeded to let the score run up to 13-8 by the end. I think every shot in third period went in. It was a nightmare. If I wasn't playing too deep, I was off my angle. Every shot was right on the net or bounced in. Like everything was going their way and absolutely nothing was going mine. It was mortifying.

And did I mention this was the playoffs? Yeah.



So, I feel really badly for my team, but I'm really not beating myself up over it, apart from the unavoidable trauma of such a horrific game. I wasn't even expecting to play, and certainly not for so long. I just wasn't prepared and couldn't do anything about it apart from not play, which ... well... that didn't seem like an option.

But it took until nearly 2 a.m for my heart to finally settle down. Fucking caffeine sensitivity (and before you say go see a doc, I have discussed with my doc and it's no cause for alarm. Just avoid caffeine.) And the physically awful feeling (versus the mental awful feeling of being a complete sieve) bothered me a lot more. I KNOW I can stop pucks because I played so well in the first game. And really, the shots weren't much  different between the two teams.

Anyway, what a mess. I tried going to sleep but the heart was going and when I closed my eyes, all I saw was pucks flying at me. Fortunately in my minds eye, I was stopping them, but still. There was no way I was sleeping.

But I tweeted, I played Bejeweled Blitz on FB, I had a beer, I have now blogged. Hopefully this means I can sleep now. Really busy day tomorrow getting ready to go.

Read more...