Sticks and Bodies

Hockey was fun last night. But man, I'm so tired. We had 2.5 hours of ice time, played 6 periods, and only had two offensive lines because a few people didn't show up. I was dragging ass by the end but it was by far the most relaxed and fun game I've played.

I felt like my positioning was good most of the time and my hustle was pretty good except when I was super tired and had been on the ice too long. I got a few shots on goal and would have had an assist if the ref hadn't blown the whistle early. He actually thought I had a goal, but my center shoved the rebound in just as the whistle blew. Boy was I mad about that.

The best part of the game was that I was really in the fray a lot around the net, which is fun. As the subject implies, it's just bodies and sticks battling it out for control. I never really understood when players say that some contact gets them into the game (of course, they mean checking and stuff that we can't do in rec leagues), but a few of these big boys shoving me around and vice versa fires my ass up big time. Bring it, bitches!

Of course, I play it off as newbie incompetence a lot of the time, but really, I could move out of their way and I choose not to. They always have this look like, "WTF do you think you're doing, girl?" Um, I'm pissing you off and messing up your play, suckah! Heh.

No penalties or falls last night. Though the female D on the other team and I got into a battle for the puck in the corner (which I won, TYVM) but the poor ref was caught up in it and thanked us after the game for the "sandwich" action. Hah! At least we smell better than the boys.

I think the two weeks off from hockey and skating were good. Gave me a chance to unwind a bit and get some perspective. I think skating on Saturday helped, too. Since I started playing, I've definitely slacked on my mid-week skate and that's done me no favors. I really should try to get over to Willowbrook on Friday lunches for a good hard skate each week. The rink is virtually empty at that time and Saturdays are sometimes difficult and always crowded.

Anyway, good stuff. Back to reality now. Booooo!