Peaks and valleys

So, I wasn't even supposed to play Sunday. I was done, right? Done until Wednesday. So I celebrated with a couple of Cokes last night. That's what a wild and crazy gal I am. 4 days off from hockey and I'm hitting the caffeinated sodas, baby. Don't try this shit at home. You can't handle it.

And then, I'm jonesing for a little Shipley's. Just a little donut and a kolache. So that's breakfast. Then around noon I see an email:  Can you play one game of novice at SLICE tonight?

Welllll, what the hell. Might as well. I like the folks there and don't mind helping out in a pinch. And it's their playoffs so it would suck to not have a goalie at one end.

It's an early game and I get nervous about eating too close to game time, so I think, Okay, I'll have a granola bar a little before game time and that will tide me over. I'll pick up dinner after.

So I go, I play, I kick ASS. Total carryover from Saturday night where I was seeing the puck well and my team was playing great in front of me clearing rebounds and making me look like a stud.  During the game, they say, "Hey, the other goalie can't make the second game either. Can you stay?" Oof. Hadn't planned on it, but I've got Gu in my bag so maybe that will tide me over.

We win 6-2 and life is SO good for about 15 minutes while the Zamboni runs. Half the team comes up and says stuff like, "Who ARE you? You were terrific!" They didn't believe me when I tried to tell them I play A league. LOL Okay, what gave it away? The pucks bouncing out of my glove? The awkward pad rotation on the butterfly? Whatever the case, it was love all around.

So, I drink water, cool down a little, jam the Gu down my gullet just to try and get some electrolytes and carbs in me. Tastes worse than I remember. Time for game 2. I start in the same net I started in last game cuz that worked pretty well right?

And for the first period and a half, things were groovy. The game was close and I'd let a couple in but nothing awful.

But then there was a scramble in front of my net and I let in a third. And in the exertion of the scramble, my heart starts racing. It does this sometimes when I play after having caffeine in my system, especially when I'm tired. So, if you remember back to the start of my last post about "Hey, I'm full of caffeine and I'm staying up way late. Fuck yeah! Vacation rules!"... well, here I am halfway thru the second period and I'm regretting everything I've done in the last 24 hours because not one bit of it was conducive to playing hockey.

So, with this racing heart comes sheer exhaustion. My legs feel tired, my breath is short and my whole body just feels like a wet noodle and my brainz have The Dumb in the worst way. I officially feel absolutely awful.

And by the time I get back to my home net for the third period, we are down 7-4 and I'm just feeling worse and worse with every minute. A sensible person would say, "Hey go sit down. The other team can shoot at a cone or something." But that's not how it works. This is hockey and if you're not in need of a stretcher, you stay out there and play.

Turns out I should have gone with the stretcher option because I proceeded to let the score run up to 13-8 by the end. I think every shot in third period went in. It was a nightmare. If I wasn't playing too deep, I was off my angle. Every shot was right on the net or bounced in. Like everything was going their way and absolutely nothing was going mine. It was mortifying.

And did I mention this was the playoffs? Yeah.



So, I feel really badly for my team, but I'm really not beating myself up over it, apart from the unavoidable trauma of such a horrific game. I wasn't even expecting to play, and certainly not for so long. I just wasn't prepared and couldn't do anything about it apart from not play, which ... well... that didn't seem like an option.

But it took until nearly 2 a.m for my heart to finally settle down. Fucking caffeine sensitivity (and before you say go see a doc, I have discussed with my doc and it's no cause for alarm. Just avoid caffeine.) And the physically awful feeling (versus the mental awful feeling of being a complete sieve) bothered me a lot more. I KNOW I can stop pucks because I played so well in the first game. And really, the shots weren't much  different between the two teams.

Anyway, what a mess. I tried going to sleep but the heart was going and when I closed my eyes, all I saw was pucks flying at me. Fortunately in my minds eye, I was stopping them, but still. There was no way I was sleeping.

But I tweeted, I played Bejeweled Blitz on FB, I had a beer, I have now blogged. Hopefully this means I can sleep now. Really busy day tomorrow getting ready to go.