Have you hugged your stay-at-home D-man lately?

So, I KNEW a plate full of garlic parmesan wings wasn't good game day food, but I did it anyway, and paid the price with a lethargic game tonight. And I had no excuse. The rest of the skaters, including the other goalie, did a power skating class before our scrimmage, and while it didn't look real vigorous, I know how deceptively hard those power skating classes are.

I'm pretty sure our team lost but it was a scrimmage and there were some iffy goals and the score board wasn't very studiously attended to, so I'm not exactly sure what the final damage was, but I wasn't pleased with my play. First goal was super soft 5-hole. Another got me 5-hole while I was moving.

Actually, really only a couple of goals I don't feel bad about. One was a really nice breakaway and a great shot. The other I was screened badly and never saw the shot go off. I could tell by what I *could* see of the skater that he was about to shoot, so I dropped and it was a hard glove side shot that hit the bottom of my glove and went on in. I just wasn't ready for where it came, but I felt like I did all I could.

I mentioned we have all these new people at novice, which is awesome, and one of my new defensemen, I'm just in love with. He's a stay at home guy, and he's competent and has some hockey sense and can skate pretty well, but isn't so dominant that he has to let up, so his play is very predictable. He tells me when I have the puck on a save when I'm not sure I have it. OMG, I love that in a d-man so much. I need to ask him what his name is next week. I can't just keep calling him "Inside Out Jersey Guy"... but regardless, I love you, IOJG! He would get happy cats and lens flares if he were a Jays player.

It wasn't all sucky for me though. I had some good stops but damn, I think I froze the puck maybe twice? It was Rebound City around my net, but my team did a great job clearing. Did a lot of work on my knees though, like a pin ball machine, kicking second, third, and fourth chances out. Been doing more of that since I came back and I'm not sure why.

Anyway, I was way more tired than usual. Not sure if it's just that I've had a draining weekend or really about how few carbs I ate today. Friday night was the Iron Maiden concert where we stood and dripped sweat for 2 hours. Yuck. Then I spent all day Saturday at the beach. Well, on the porch of a beach house. Where I thought I was okay without sunscreen because I was in the shade. WRONGO! My face is red red red. I even have a knee brace sunburn. So that was kinda draining, too. I dunno. Just not my night.

Tomorrow night at SLICE may be a little rough. I'm not up to that speed yet, but my skating felt totally back to normal tonight, so that is great, and the knee definitely hurt less. Dinged the fuck out of my blades tonight though. Need to go early so I can take the stone to them. Yeesh.

Have my first Physical Therapy appt tomorrow morning, too. No clue what to expect from that. Don't really know whether to focus on the knee problem in particular or just show them what I do as a goalie, how I hurt it, and how I work the right muscles to avoid that. I guess that's why they're the pros.

Anyway, as a closing thought, there I was, 2nd period, kinda realizing I wasn't playing so great, but still having a helluva time and I just thought, "My god, hockey is the greatest game on earth. I'm so lucky to be doing this." Hockey is transcendent. It's magic. The joy of playing hockey... just playing... is amazing. I wish two things:

• That everyone who WANTS to play finds a way to do it. I know it's expensive and inconvenient, but man, there's nothing else like it. 
• That everyone who takes it too seriously lightens up and has a laugh and forgets the scoreboard and just PLAYS occasionally. It's so wonderful for adults to "play" at something, and yeah, sometimes you have to grind it out, but sometimes it feels great to just play, like a little kid. Kinda in one ear and out the other. 

Much love to the people who contributed to my interest in playing and who continue to support me through the ups and downs, especially the goalie fraternity. I'm so blessed.