Ain't no thang

Won 3-2 tonight in women's league and played well, as did my team. One goal was a complete piece of shit goal off a face off that I played like I was swatting flies. The other was a really nice shot just over my pad on a breakaway.

My team played like champs in front of me, which always makes my job easier and gives me a mental/confidence boost.

I felt a lot better tonight though. Felt strong and steady. I had a chip on my shoulder after all those bad goals last week and really wanted to battle hard to keep that puck out. Fortunately, unlike last week, it didn't feel like overkill to hustle in my crease because the game moved a bit faster and the shots were more "true" if that makes sense. Plus, this team I was playing for was a little bit stacked on defense. Always nice.

A couple of things I did seemed to help:

First was overreacting to the puck. And this is something that I think will help me in general, because I tend to underreact. If that puck is coming anywhere near me, I'm relentlessly square and putting everything I've got in front of it.

Second was something I read about called a $2000 Save. Where, as I said above, you get every piece of equipment you have in front of that thing. Because these shots knuckle and bounce and do all kinds of weird shit, you have to be there with every piece of equipment and ready for unpredictability.

So in general, I feel a lot better about the value of this league to my development. Of course, every time I think I've got something figured out, the whole thing changes the next week and I realize I don't. :) But these aren't bad tactics to adopt regardless of whether they foolproof me for this league.

Knee didn't bother me much and I'm icing it now. I don't play again until Saturday night and then not again until Tuesday, so that's a nice light schedule.

Looking forward to a few days of relaxing, watching my Jays, and feeling good about goal again.