Ahhh, goaltending is fun again

Much to my relief, I am not the worst goalie to ever don the pads, in spite of my showing on Friday. Not to say that I don't still suck to a rather large degree, but right now sucking is less distressing to me than whether I'm actually having fun and learning. Sucking is inevitable, but as long as it's fun (at least on some level), the impetus to keep working at it and get better will always be there.

Anyway, it was the first night of a new season and I'm happy to report there were lots of new faces! There's a new girl with a wicked shot. I think she beat me twice in practice but it felt great to finally stop her. She's never played with a team before, but she's got wheels and a sniper's touch. I like that. A great challenge. Though that didn't stop me from asking Dan to put her on my team. Heh.

The other goalie who showed up has only been playing for a couple of months (and apparently he was sick tonight, so props to him for hanging in there and taking lots of shots). I guess they told him the goalie slots were full (that's what she said) but since Scott TCG wasn't there, he stuck around. I don't really know what's going on there ultimately.

None of the green team ringers were there tonight, so the scene in front of me was very novice league during the scrimmage, which was fine. It was good practice because most of the red team's best players WERE there.

I also finally took a few shots off Müller. One red team person hit me in the mask twice during warm-ups, so he got a little gesturing (though secretly, I didn't mind... just don't want to set a precedent that it's okay). They weren't super hard shots, so they didn't hurt, but that dangler gets rattling and stuff and it's a little jarring. Now I know why that goalie jumped in the Aeros game the other night. Took the puck in his chest rather than his dome. Some day I'll be that smart. :)

Anyway, it was awesome and my confidence and enthusiasm are back with a vengeance. I need to get out to a skate sometime this week and work on some things, though I really hate wearing goalie skates without my gear on. One of the things I didn't expect but was delighted to discover is that the leg pads stabilize the skates, so without the pads on, I feel very wobbly in them.

Also, I'm gonna go ahead and wish for more padding in the ass of my pants. I busted my butt again and darn if that doesn't hurt. And my pads keep getting twisted up when I get up from that. Oh well. Got it sorted out and it was fine. There must be some trick to pressing the pads together as I'm rolling over.

One funny thing was the discussion I had after the game (as I absolutely INHALED a hard lemonade... nom!) with Coaches Dan and Joe about the goalie skate blade. They're under the impression that it's easier to shuffle in them because the blade is wider. I was trying to explain that because there's twice as much blade touching the ice front to back, it's actually harder to do pretty much every thing in them.

I think unless you've skated in goalie skates, it's hard to understand how different they are from player skates. It really is like going from running shoes to clown shoes. Never mind that they weigh twice as much as player skates. At least, mine do. But that's not a knock on them at all. They are being patient and helpful and creating a space for me to learn and make mistakes and I couldn't ask for more. I just thought it was funny.

I'll write all night if I don't just shut up now. Plus I'm watching the Wild take a bite out of Colorado's ass from earlier this evening. Awesome game for all my guys who are up from Houston. Oh, I'm hungry all of a sudden, too.