Long rambling on the state of my goaltending

I had this at the bottom, but am moving to the top in hopes of getting answers:


It looks like I'll be playing 3 in 3s for a while, and then I have my camp in late July which will be 4 days of pretty intensive ice time.


I'm finding that by day 3, my legs are so tired. My mind is tired, too, but I'm hoping having a little less tired legs will help me mentally, too.


So, I'm looking for suggestions to replenish the energy in my legs with consecutive days of playing. I'm not sore at all, just tired. No jump. I try to get enough rest, even if it comes in nap form, since I have trouble sleeping more than about 5-6 hours a night (I really need 7-8 to feel great), but maybe more carbs are in order? Advice is most welcome.

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Well, my team did manage to beat Scotty's team last night 9-7 in 2 straight hours of play, but certainly not because I helped. I let in some real stinkers, but had a few saves I'm proud of. Kind of a typical night for me, unfortunately.

The worst one... an own goal that I deflected 5-hole on myself (god that hurts to admit)... came because I was focused on what my legs/feet were doing (fixing a problem that caused a goal earlier) and not paying attention to my stick. And if the player had PASSED to the guy on my backdoor like I was loaded up to push to, I would have made that save. :) Ah well. Live and learn.


A couple of good things though:

I really do think I got a lot out of my green ice game a couple of weeks ago where I had no crease. I'm suddenly getting a lot more comfortable challenging breakaways. I'm trusting my instincts and my reasonably good "net sense" to keep my bearings.

I still don't go crazy far out, like to the hash marks like some goalies, but I don't see a ton of value in that. I know some would argue with me on that. Be my guest. But I come out about half way between the top of the crease and the hash marks and I think that's plenty. I figure that's about the point a shooter is having to start to commit to a decision and a direction. Any further out, and they can just dick around with their approach speed and throw you off that way.

Now if I could just translate that to when I'm playing higher level, faster skaters, as I'm still doing a bit of shrinking violet routine with those guys, like my Tuesday drop-in. That's something I want to work on this week at that game.

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Someone suggested to me a long time ago to yell out when I've got an odd man rush. It really does seem to help. It's almost like skaters don't realize what's going on and that wakes 'em up. It also makes me feel a bit better. I don't know why, but I usually play the rush successfully when I do that. It grounds the situation somehow? I don't really know what's going on there.

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Another thing I did better last night, but that I can't seem to "fix" for good, was my 5-hole. I'm telling you, I shoulda gotten VD last Tuesday for how often I got hammered 5-hole. Stuff was going through me before I even realized the shot was off. Horrible.

But last night, while the competition isn't anything like what I face on Tuesdays, I had some big 5-hole stops and the only one I let in was that fucker I put in on myself. Though one of those got through to bare leg (thanks for nothing, thigh boards) and I have a nice lump above my knee. No bruise but it's probably coming. At least it better for how much it hurts.

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So, I have one night off this week, Thursday night, with no hockey to play and no Aeros games to cover. Naturally, the Wild don't play that night. And I don't see a single game I particularly care about on the NHL schedule. FML! ;) (Totally kidding. Best week evar!)