Quick Hits: Emo Shutout Recovery, Shift-Shift-Shift, Hockey Wife

Feeling better after Tuesday's Emo Shutout Night. As Jarick posted in my comments, it's like a player getting his first goal in a losing effort for the team. Nobody cares except him. But the next goal could be a beauteous game winner. My time will come. I will get a shutout AND the W. Won't be long either. I'm highly motivated.

I'm percolating on an epic post about how hockey is my religion (and probably is for others, too). But my thoughts were reaffirmed last night when I literally thought, "Well, the hockey gods knew I wasn't ready for a REAL shutout. They're keeping me humble while building my confidence and teaching me to win."

If that ain't religious thinking, I dunno what is. Hopefully I'll sort that post out in my head sometime soon. I think it will be entertaining (and informative!)

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Another thing from Tuesday night: I realized that while I'm waiting for the puck to drop on a faceoff (that's not in my end), I shift from foot to foot over and over and over until the puck drops. It's like a cat kneading someone with its paws. It relaxes me, but keeps me moving so I don't get cold or unfocused while waiting around.

Wasn't a conscious decision to do that and I really hadn't noticed before (except when my old skates would hurt my feet), and I think it's from a combination of my skates being uncomfortable for so long until I got these new ones, and now my new pads being a little awkward to stand in. So instead of tap-tap-tap, it's shift-shift-shift.

I'm sure it looks pretty damn stupid but whatever. I'm the goalie.

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I mentioned this on Twitter, but wanted to expand on it here. I've been reading Brent Sopel's wife's blog lately and it's got more tooth than you'd expect. She really doesn't seem to hold much back. She drops f-bombs, openly complains about both the little annoyances (like Sopes calling her every 30 minutes... boy can I relate to that) to big problems, like one of her daughters being bullied at school. (She's adorable, too. I can't believe a kid like that is getting bullied. There's no hope for the ugly ducklings if that's the case.)

But she also seems like a sweet person and they have a nice relationship. You want to believe it's real, KWIM? Like, if they end up divorced one of these days, it'll be like, "Damn. Fooled me." And it's not all mommy stuff. She does focus on the marriage/hockey part of her life as much as the mommy part, and boy do I hate mommy blogs, so obviously there's enough good stuff there to get past that.

This is the first time they're living apart, so it's interesting to read about the challenges. Having been there and done that myself, I can relate to a lot of it. Not with a hockey player, but with Mr.C, who has been put through the travel/live apart ringer by his company.

One thing I realize reading her blog is that I'd be a terrible hockey wife. I'm high maintenance as a rec league goalie so I can only imagine how high maintenance a pro player is (especially a goalie... Tim Thomas's wife needs a blog). I hate to cook. I don't "dote" on my husband, at least not with any consistency. I'm too busy spinning my own plates. You know where the microwave is. Heat up your own Stouffer's lasagna, man.

I would say that, unless you're just into money, the ideal hockey player relations are sort of a reverse of the old "why by the cow when you can get the milk for free" adage. Why put up with high maintenance lifestyle of a hockey wife when you could just ... well...