Easy come, easy go

Like any other gear-intensive activity, goaltending does lend itself to giving you GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). Fortunately, I'm pretty happy with most of my stuff. While I'd love a more protective chest protector, I like my light little Brian's protector.

But I realized lately, I had to make a change in neck protection. I've grown to hate my dangler. It rattles, it interferes with my view, when a puck hits it, it dings the paint on my mask chin, it comes untied (came untied twice last time I played SLICE). I just hate it.

So, I've been sold on the Maltese neck/clavicle combo to replace it. And I've read a lot of people who say to just cut off the crappy little neck "guard" that sticks up on the chest protector, which I may do. It interferes with the chin of my mask when I look down and that's kind of a problem.

Of course, the more I read about the great Maltese gel products, the more I want to just replace all the padding in my mask with gel. Supposed to put your face closer to the cage for better visibility. But it's just not in the budget right now.

The combo isn't cheap but it's hand-made and I know I can rely on the quality because their customer service is supposed to be out of this world. But I am selling my inline skates on Craigs List to make up for it. Easy come, hopefully easy go. I'd love to get those skates sold. I just couldn't get used to skating in them and they're nearly $200 dust collectors at the moment.

Anyway, I'm really excited to get the Maltese after all the great things I've heard about it. I think that's going to work a lot better for me.

And with that, that's probably the last new gear I'm getting for a long time. I've got my knee pads working for me, though I keep having to re-sew them into the pants I wear... yeah, the sweaty yoga pants... because they get a little banged up and washed a ton and whatnot. Everything else fits nicely. The only thing left that I want is one of the black practice jerseys I saw the Aeros goalies wearing... will have to see if I can secure one of those when the season ends. :)