Come a little closer

Really fun drop-in at SLICE last night. Probably my best game there, and without question my most consistent. I had lots of good saves, my energy was good the whole time, it felt great.

Helped to have my skates feeling better than Sunday night and also it was about -22 in the rink, so the ice was nice, but getting dressed and undressed was a freezing heap of not-much-fun especially with my gear all wet from Sunday. And I got there way early, so it was wet and frigid by the time I got dressed.

One of the few times I haven't thought, "My god, I can't wait to get out of this gear" at some point in the game. My toes were still red from cold when I got home.

Normally this drop-in, it takes me a few shots to adjust to the speed after having played novice the night before. I think that's part of why I like it so much... the contrast with novice, and the game moving at speeds you can anticipate a little better. Passes hit the tape most of the time, most everyone can put some umph behind their shots, and it actually requires a lot less patience. And tonight I was in the flow much faster than usual.

I did get a little annoyed with one guy who was putting mercy shots on me because he got a couple past me early. Y'all know how that bugs me. And he kept getting getting breakaways, so he didn't want to light me up, I guess. Pfft.

He's normally one of those guys who stays a bit higher and has a strong, accurate shot, so he can beat me up high or if he gets it off fast enough, down low (he's the one who nailed me in the forehead a while back). So a couple of times, he tried his hand at coming in close, but I stopped him.

I let in some stinkers, particularly a couple of breakaways where I was too deep when I went down to make the stop and it just scooted right past me. Damn. Shoulda poked, but my defense was so absent at times, there was nobody to clean the poke up even if I got it (which is often why I'm not comfortable with it... that whole, "then what?" feeling).

But I'm feeling really good about my ability to stay with shooters in close. Used to be, you could get in close to me and I just couldn't move fast enough, but I'm finding more and more that I can stay square and stay with them until the bitter end.

Man, it's just so much fun playing goal. I just can't believe it sometimes. And I wish I could be the regular for Mondays. Seems like the regulars never want to play. Oh well. Maybe some day.

Couple of things stand out from the night. One really miraculous toe save. I could hear it clink the metal screws on my toe bridge... it was THAT close to sliding right past me and in. But I kicked it to the corner. Phew!

And the other was this one guy who, I noticed when he was on my team in the first half, was really taking pretty egregious advantage of having no referee. Tripping, holding sticks, etc. Y'all know me... I kinda enjoyed that but knew when we switched ends, it was gonna annoy me.

Never really did but at one point he did park his caboose RIGHT in my face, so I gave him a shove in the ass with my blocker.

Honest to god..... I think think he liked it! He turns around, big grin, and was like, "Wow, I guess my ass was right in your face, huh?"I think he was shocked I did anything about it though. Welcome to Ms.Conduct's Crease, buddy. They don't call it nice hockey....