Long, boring, as-if-you-cared post

Daylight Savings Time can kiss my round goalie ass.

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So, what was looking to be a fairly sedate weekend turned super duper busy at 3 p.m. yesterday when I got a frantic email from one of the folks at the Paddy Dillo tournament down at SLICE. One team lost their goalie, who is a doctor specializing in radiation and had to leave for Japan (as good a reason as any to ditch a hockey tournament). So they needed someone to fill in.

Game at 4:30. Yipes! Especially considering I hadn't really eaten much yet.

So I go with really no notion of the level I'm playing or anything. But I figure I'm better than no goalie at all (which has pretty much been my motto since I started playing).

Anyway, the hockey gods shine on me and give me the best puck luck I've ever had. The other team must have hit 10 posts. An inch here or there and I woulda been lit up like a roman candle, but we got the win 3-1.

Knowing that I played okay but mostly survived on luck left me feeling not very satisfied with my game. Not bothered really but not cranking the tunes on the way home either.

So, I guess I passed muster and they asked me back for the 9:15 a.m. Sunday game. They'd lost their first two games so there was no chance of going to the finals. We were basically just acting as spoilers for the rest of the teams. I think they had to beat us by 5 or 6 goals to get into the finals, and they did.

All that puck luck I used on Saturday was long gone for Sunday. I think I got a piece of nearly everything that went in but it would hit my stick and bounce over my head in to the net. Shit like that.

And in these Dillo tourneys, goals by women count as 2 points. It's smart in terms of encouraging passing to the ladies, but shitty for goalies as it can quickly make them look way worse than they were. Fortunately folks don't seem to take things too seriously, which makes it a pretty fun gig for a goalie and makes up for the statistical downer.

Anyway, the second game, in spite of the 7-1 loss, was actually more satisfying to me. Not sure why. I actually didn't feel like I had as bad a game as the score showed. Plus I was done with a rather grinding 18 hours of goaltending responsibilities (3 games, including one for the Willowbrook novice league Saturday night). I think having that off my shoulders was part of the light feeling after that game.

I had fun at novice (and won 3-2) even though I was crazy tired and didn't really want to be there. It was fun to see the guys I was having so much fun playing with the last couple of seasons (in spite of sort of zoning out on the league in general). A couple of them begged me to come back next season but man, I hate playing Saturdays.

And to be honest, it's hard to get up for the practices. It's just skating lightning or some other warm-up thing, and then a million shots that I don't learn much from and just end up with aching knees from all the up and downs. It's great for the skaters but by the end, I was getting more damage than benefit.

But my knee is a lot better lately so we'll see. They're trying to expand to 4 teams, so there is a goalie need for sure and the potential for a ton of ice time. Maybe if I could work into my contract that I don't have to do skating drills. :D

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Anyway, after all that hockey, and then an incredibly-dull-until-the-third-period-6-goal-avalanche Aeros game, I was a zombie tonight. Went to bed at 9:30, watched OTF, fell asleep for 20 minutes and then Mr.C woke me up to show me the Aeros highlights on the news (solid!). And now I'm a zombie but can't sleep.

And the soreness has set in. I've got bruises everywhere. Ankle, shins, the BACK of my right arm, all up and down the inside of my left arm, my hip (from ramming into a stick holder peg on the wall... broke it clean off. Oops. Sorry SLICE.) My groins are sore, my lower abs are sore, my quads are tired, my stick hand is aching.

And I get to go do it again Monday night at drop-in. And then again Wednesday at Harpies (which I signed up for because I'm missing Tuesday's women's league game and wanted to make sure I got enough ice time... uh... yeah, pretty sure I've met the quota).

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Vacation was good. 10th anniversary come and gone at our usual spot in Fredericksburg. Hot tub, running around in the river with the dog, hiking the trails in the woods, disconnecting a bit. It was good. Twitter felt pretty overwhelming when I got on Friday afternoon. :)

My old dawg <3

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Last Dance

I wrote this yesterday but got busy on the post below about applying graphics to my goalie mask, and I failed to publish this one... 

I'm still buzzing today after an awesome game at novice league last night. As I mentioned earlier this week, it was my last game for a while in that league. I've had my ups and downs there, but I'd really grown fond of my team the last couple of seasons and had a moment early in the game were I got a little choked up realizing it was my last time with this particular group.

But I put that aside and turned that sentimentality into hustle and played probably my best game ever. The game ended up 6-2, I think. Not sure on the 6. They failed to put a 2nd period goal on the board (yes, there WAS a goal in the 2nd because I remember audibly cheering for it, which I don't usually do, and then felt a little bad for, but they were up 2-1 at that point and I was feeling a little desperate). And then the rest of the goals came late in the third so I'm not sure how many they ended up getting.

Anyway, the two goals against were screens. First one was my d-man moving right through my field of vision as the puck was shot. It was flying past me before I even knew it was shot.

Second one was about 5 people in my way. I went down to try and stop low shots but it went in over my shoulder (maybe? I dunno. It went in, regardless.)

The red team did a great job putting traffic in front of me and a couple of times going down when I *thought* they were about to shoot paid off with some sneaky pad/toe saves. Phew!

My defense was freaking AWESOME, too, bailing me out a few times when I lost the puck down in front of my pads (this is happening to me too much lately, BTW... I think I have a glove on it, but it's just sitting there. Eep!)

And a couple of my guys are just beasts at blocking passing lanes. Honestly, I love the self-sacrifice of shot blockers, but putting the kibosh on passes in front of my crease is superhero shit in my book. Capes for everybody!

I was worried we weren't going to get the scoring we needed to pull off the win, but they pulled it out at the end and started racking 'em up late in the third. It was awesome to not have to sweat the last few minutes. I was so proud of the boys (and gal!)

That was the hardest I've worked in a long time, too. I really thought I was gonna barf late in the third. This is why I play on an empty stomach! I was busting it and so in the zone and seeing the puck so well that I think if people had started shooting bullets at me, I could have tracked them.

It felt just like that shutout game I had in women's league a while back. Just perfect energy (both mental and physical), perfect focus, great vision (which is saying something for me) and a great team in front of me keeping shots to the outside and breaking up dangerous plays.

The fact that I've had two games like that recently really have me feeling positive about how my game is improving. I know shit games are still gonna come and I have a tremendous amount to work on, but these "knock it outta the park" nights really diminish the influence a bad game has on my confidence.

I'm sure drop-in tonight will put me back in my place, but it's fun to feel like Queen of the Crease for a while.

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Hextall-riffic & Feeling Good

My theory of Limited Luck is holding up. All my teams lost tonight and I played really well (until I didn't -- more on that later).

But at least Brusty kept it interesting, making 40 saves and salvaging an OT point for the painfully inconsistent Baby Sens. Not only did he kick ass in goal, he gave the Wolfpack's Tim Kennedy some serious business for running one of the Sens into the boards behind his net.

Check out how delicious this is. When do goalies EVER stick up for teammates like this any more? Luckily only 2 min roughing penalty for it. Guess the refs felt it was a legit response. Good on 'em.



And I'm told the fans chanted his name after. Chanted his freaking name, y'all! FMD, that's awesome, and frankly, as it should be. I may have to shell out my $4 for the archive of this one.

My favorite quote from the night from the coach:

"It's a shame that he had to, that he was the one who had to realize something needed to be done," Kleinendorst said. "But it doesn't surprise me. I think he would have chased the guy down to the far blue line if he had to, but that's a good thing."

First time I watched it, I wondered how long he was going to end up chasing him. Wouldn't you love to be in Kennedy's head when he's spun around and face to face with GIANT ANGRY GOALIE? New breezers, please.

Beauty.

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So, we tied 4-4 tonight and 3 of my 4 goals came in the third period. One of them, I'm okay with. I made the first stop and lost sight of it. Next thing I know, it's in the net. I don't even know what happened but I don't know what I should have done differently. I needed my defense to talk to me there. I thought I had it, for all I knew.

But I had two that went 5-hole on me, which is pretty unusual. But in both cases, they were shooting from 3-4 feet in front of me and I was trying to be patient because they were moving and I didn't want to go down too early and give them deke options (sometimes I forget it's novice league).

So, those were frustratingly soft. I guess I was lifting my stick. I need to put lead weights on my stick so it's too heavy to lift. Ha.

The last one is one I have tended to have problems with lately and I think I've figured it out. When I've got a shooter coming down the ice on my glove side and they carry the puck on their left, I'm not squaring to the puck. I'm drifting to the shooter's body and they're knocking it in just inside the far post every time. Those feel bad because they're easy easy stops if I'm where I should be.

However, I did have some awesome stops and my pads were my best friends tonight.

This doesn't happen to me much but I'm pretty sure the best kind of save is where the shooter is so convinced he scored, he actually starts to skate away. And then turns around and goes "AWW!" when he realizes the puck is still in play.

The coach on the other team (I call him Brent Burns because he looks like him and he makes everything look so easy, being so tall and rangey and handsy) picked up a rebound and thought he had himself an easy tap-in. But I somehow got my leg out in just the nick of time and kicked it out. He's already headed up ice and realizes, "No whistle?" Hahaha.

That was badass. I mean, I know I didn't beat anybody up or need the ref to restrain me (or, um, protect me? Haha... ;) and nobody chanted my name, but I did get some nice kudos from both teams after. Still felt pretty fuckin' good after those lousy outings last week.

Aeros at home tomorrow. Some other joker can stop the pucks for a day. :)

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Weekend Update (like SNL's but not funny)

Oooooweeee, kids, I love me some vicodin! My back hurts like a mother after I play lately. Dunno how I keep doing it but my hips are out of alignment and I need to get back to the handsome chiro asap before I'm officially crippled.

It's been a while since I posted because, really, nothing's been too interesting and I've been too busy to blog about anything boring.

Friday, the Aeros' home pre-season game got axed because the compressor went out at the rink and the ice melted. Oooops. Still, it was fun to see John and Drew and shoot the shit. As if watching hockey wasn't fun enough, I'm lucky enough to do it with those guys, who make me laugh and, more importantly, laugh at my dumb jokes and generally treat me like one of the boys, except with tits. It's perfection.

Saturday, I listened to Brusty's first full (preseason) game with Bingo on the ol' internet radio thingy. Sounded like an okay game but the announcer didn't describe the goals very well, so I dunno. Coach K said he felt the first and third goals (they lost 3-2) weren't his fault and then he says, "He is what he is. He probably feels pretty good about the way he played." Or something like that. That was the gist.

As you can imagine, I officially hate the guy. I sent off the paperwork earlier today. I mean, WTF, Master Motivator? One thing I always appreciated about Kevin Constantine was that he never EVER threw a goalie under the bus. I think having been one himself, he knows it's so easy to make the goalie the goat, so he's sensitive to it, especially with the media. I never heard him say something that would deflate a goalie.

Seems to me, no matter how you feel about your goalie, as a coach, surely you understand that goalies without confidence are completely worthless to you. You gotta keep their tires pump and find other ways to get what you want out of them than "Well, he has a pulse and he gear fits, so yeah, whatever" kinds of comments. 

*ahem* /rant

Saturday night I had practice. Happy to report my favorite d-man is back this season. I <3 him so much. He apologized to me after the scrimmage and yeah, he had a couple of pylon moments but damn if he doesn't block shots and play a smart game. Told him he never needs to apologize to me for anything.

They've also got one of the C goalies coming in to help us goalies. That rattled me a little bit, to be honest, and I felt insecure and desperate all practice long. It's like the voices were back... self-doubt, etc. They were evaluating the skaters, and I guess Jon was evaluating us goalies too a bit. He was really nice, so I don't know why I got all keyed up, but I did.

I'll admit, I've gotten pretty comfortable lately and I know I need someone to push me out of my comfort zone. I won't do it to myself, this I know. Ah, well. We'll see where it goes. Kinda feel like Scott should warn him. :)  I'll miss the next practice because of Aeros opening night, anyway.

I did have one absolutely crazy scrambling play where I was really proud of myself for staying with it. The puck was all over my crease and I was battling to get my glove on it and it went ALMOST completely over the line, but not quite when I swiped it back to myself and held on to it. It maybe had a few millimeters to being a goal. It was CLOSE and Toronto woulda needed a look at it, but it wasn't in, man. No goal.

Sunday, I did nothing but get writing done and say goodbye to the 2010 Toronto Blue Jays. I already miss Lyle Overbay. *sniff* He's just so manly and first basey. I love him more than any baseball person.

And finally, tonight I checked out the Aeros' "Sorry about that canceled pre-season game" Skills Competition. I'm just gonna throw a theory out there: Colton Gillies IS the Energizer bunny, right? The kid is constantly moving, always smiling, just a completely adorable button. But I wonder if a little Ritalin in his water bottle might not be a terrible idea.

He and Brandon Buck were most impressive in the shootout competition. Gillies has poor Hackett figured out blocker side. And Buck has this RIDICULOUS move where he ... well, I'm not even sure what he did, but it involved the puck being in his glove, which he swears is legal but I can't fathom how. Anyway, he did it twice and Hack bit both times.

I had my drop-in after that and it was fun having my friend Christa there finally getting to see what a hack I am in goal. Haha. Actually, it was better than last week because there were so few players and they got tired pretty quickly. Had some nice stops though, including a sweet glove at the end. It was fast and fun and the rink was COLD, so I didn't overheat like I have been the last few weeks there.

Loving the new pads more all the time. Still can't stand comfortably in them and I shift from foot to foot all game, which is tiring and probably weird to look at, but they sure are easier on the knees and awfully sturdy. Glad I invested in pro quality. They are beauties!

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I don't have a video this week cuz I'm too tired to care, but I have a site recommendation if you like weird shit that's funny. There's this craft-selling site called Etsy where people make stuff and sell it. Normally it's cute handmade purses, jewelry, or normal things like that, but some of it is seriously weird, fetishy shit. And that's where the site Regretsy comes in. They find and post the crazy shit for all us mean-spirited people to laugh at. It's a wicked good time. Check it out.

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Sievery, Harding, Overbay

Awesome game by my team tonight, but I didn't play so hot. I'm assuming it's uncool to go hug your d-men mid-game, so I didn't do it, but I wanted to. But I saw so few shots, by the time they remembered it's novice league in the third period and let up on the other team, I was already off in la-la land mentally. I KNEW I was unfocused and I was talking to myself, telling myself to get focused, but it didn't work to the tune of 3 goals in the third period.

Yet again my unwillingness to scramble bit me in the ass. Fuck me, that's frustrating. I don't know how to explain it. I WANT to do it, but ... augh! Dammit. I just don't.

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Anyway, interesting changes in the state of Wild and Aeros goaltending this weekend, huh? Harding goes down decisively in the pre-season game last night after a Brad Boyes falls on his butterflied knee.

I saw the injury and called an MCL tear, but wasn't surprised there was more to it with the ACL tear, too.

Here were my reactions in the order I had them. Don't judge me.

• THIS year you do this? Gimping around on that bum hip all last year, keeping Brusty in Florida and making me annoyed, but no, now that he's gone, you go and assplode yourself? Goddamnit. *pounding fists on floor*
• Ouch. Shit. Shit. Poor guy. My measley MCL strain was months of pain. I can't even imagine what tearing two knee ligaments must feel like. Jesus. Plus coming back from months of rehab from his hip surgery. Just sick for the guy. Awful.
• OMG Anton!! Very excited for him to have this opportunity. Maybe that sounds callous, but that's how it happens sometimes. Critical injury and a spot opens up and some really patient kid gets his chance to prove he belongs in the show. Though tonight, Russo is saying the team isn't committing to Anton as the #2. Hmm. Hi, Theodore!
• Crap, now it's just Hackett and Tordjman in Houston. Nothing wrong with either of them, but I'd spent all summer trying to convince myself that Anton's goaltending style was entertaining enough to fill some of the hole in my heart left by Brusty. So much for that. I was mighty impressed by Hackett against the Blues last night though and I think him having a larger role and more starts in Houston will be okay. He's a good goalie. 

Aaaanyway, goalies. You can beat 'em for fun but you can't beat 'em for drama, can you?

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I love Lyle Overbay. Unabashedly. I'm hoping I can get an Overbay shirt on the cheap after the stupid Blue Jays don't re-sign him and put some poo-flinging monkey on first base and break my heart.

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You need coolin', baby, I'm not foolin'

Poor blog. So ignored. Now that I'm not so full of angst after I play, I have so little to say. But I feel like writing tonight, so I'll back the mental dump truck up here.

Got my new pads yesterday. Props for UPS delivering two things to me this week a day early. First my Bingo practice sweater (wearing it Monday night!) and then my pads.

They look great and are well made, but I'm struggling a little with the fit, mainly that my knees still hit the back half of the knee stack. But I asked about this on the goalie board and was told that they'd settle enough after they're broken in and eventually I'll end up square on the knee stack.

That was kind of my feeling, but for nearly $900, um, yeah, I'm just being careful. They are super solid though. Gonna sit on them while I watch football tomorrow and try to soften them up a bit.

They also have a set of inner calf wraps that I'm not sold on. If I take them off, the calf wraps will be just like my current pads and I like that looser feeling, so I'll try to play with them in and see how I like it but those are probably going to go.

The thigh boards are definitely coming off. They are completely incompatible with my pants. Might just see if Simmons will let me swap the thigh wraps for the flat boards. If not, I'll just snag 'em off my current pads.

They sure are pretty though. Goalie Angel White. Can't you hear the heavenly chorus singing with every save?

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Speaking of saves, fun game tonight at novice. I <3 my team so much. Had some nice saves, a couple where I was straight up screened but just kinda knew it was coming and butterflied and boom. There it was. Fun times.

Though I thought it was a practice tonight and it turned out to be a game. Thought that might throw me off, but it didn't. Look who's cool and collected these days! Feels good.

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I miss Brusty.

There. I said it.

He's up there in Ottawa stopping pucks and I don't get to watch.  

Boooo. That sucks.

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Last Monday at drop-in, one of my defensemen scraped my crease for me before the game.

The appropriate reaction here would be: Huh?

I don't ever scrape my crease (I probably should, but I think it's well established that I'm pretty lazy), but I guess he's seen me go careening across my crease in a few early-game butterfly pushes and felt that needed correcting.

I let him do it, but I don't know that it helped much or that I liked it. I'm used to being slippery at first and then progressively slower on the push (that's what she said). Don't mess with my groove, man. Don't people know better than to go in a goalie's crease and start making decisions for them? Weirdddddd....

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Saw pics of Nolan Schaefer's new Providence Bruins mask today. Holy shit. What a beautiful mask. I'm annoyed that pucks are gonna hit it. It needs a force field of its own to protect it.

Lookie.

He's in solid black pads, too. So sick. Easily one of the best looking goalies in terms of gear year after year. Always love to see what he's come up with.

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I'm never quite sure how much I buy into chiropractors, but damn if I wasn't walking like an old lady all week after pulling my back last Friday, but then one back cracking yesterday and I feel like a million bucks today. So, I'm convinced. Scoreboard!

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That's all, I guess. Enjoy your Sunday of football (or Wild training camp scrimmage if you're one of those Minny punks who gets to go to that).

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The talking d-man & how I wrap a goalie stick

Novice had a fun practice last night. For the drills portion, they set the goals up cross ice and played 3 on 3. You never realize how much you rely on your posts being firmly set in the ice until you have to play with them unpegged. And doing 3 on 3 is even worse, since lots of shots are close in at tight angles, so you do lots of post hugging.

Still, it was good, clean fun.

We scrimmaged after and I fell even more in love with my favorite defenseman. There was a bunch of traffic in front of my net and he was on my glove side with more of a clear view.

He recognized that I probably couldn't see very well what the shooter was doing so he said, "SHOT COMING!" when the shooter was winding up. Since I figured I was covered up high with all the bodies, I just butterflied and got my glove and blocker out to try and prevent any corner picking.

I think the puck ended up hitting someone in front of me and my team took it out of the zone, but as they were skating out, I thanked my dman and told him I LOVE when they talk to me.

He was surprised. He said he thought goalies hated that and were like, "STFU" when the D talked to them.

I explained that yeah, I don't want to hear that I'm playing well or, even worse, goaltending advice, but to give me information to help me do my job in the moment? Fuck yeah. All day long.

Maybe I'm only speaking for myself there, but I can't imagine a goalie NOT wanting their defensemen to be their "eyes" at times. His play and his interaction with me really makes the game exponentially more fun.

And really, just in general, I'm having so much fun playing right now. I'm not playing lights out or anything, but I feel good, I'm not stressed or angsty or beating myself up for this or that. Nor am I thinking I've got anything figured out that I don't. I'm just playing a game and this feels like how I always wanted it to feel. Well, with more goals against than I'd want. :)

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I finally decided to retire my first Khudobin stick after last night. It's still in reasonable shape after playing with it for over a year, but it's time for a fresh one. So I taped up the one I bought at the Aeros gear sale this year and it's so lovely in its clean whiteness.

I noticed that Anton switched from a Sherwood 530 to a 9950 last year. The pattern doesn't seem real different but I do see that the edges of the paddle are thinner than on the 530. Since that's the first place the 530 started falling apart, I'm much more wary of this stick not being as durable.

Though I think my taping style will help, as I think that's what made my old one last for so long. I actually stole it off of Brusty's picture in the Aeros calendar last year as he worked on a truck motor in full gear with his goalie stick. Cuz that's how he rolls. Mr. April is handsome, handy, and educational!

I tape the knob as usual, then I run a strip down both edges of the paddle to protect those edges a bit. On the back edge of the paddle, I run the strip all the way to the toe of the blade to give the heel and bottom of the blade some reinforcement.

Then I wrap a double-thick strip around where I grip the paddle. This helps me hang on to the stick better and secures the ends of the strips running along the edges of the paddle.

And then start the blade wrapping at the bottom of the paddle, do 2 wraps to tack down the paddle edge tape, and then leave a gap at the heel and wrap the blade like normal, including covering the toe and cutting the excess off. Oh, and then Blade Butter where it touches the ice. MUST have Blade Butter.

Like this, but with white tape instead of red. :)

Might seem like a lot of tape and might make the stick too heavy but if my weak little girl arms can manage it, I'm pretty sure anyone can. Well worth it to lengthen the life of your stick. I call it the Viagra taping job. :)

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Okay, enough of that. Time to enjoy some really beautiful weather and absolutely nothing on the agenda today that HAS to be done. Thinking dog park, maybe a snow cone. But tomorrow the work begins. We're having the total interior of the house painted and I have to get all the window coverings and art off the walls and knick-knacks out of the way for them to work.

It's gonna be bitchin' though. Burnt orange on the walls of the man cave, lime green in my office... ahh, color!

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Scrambling Yelps

Woof. Boy did I sieve it up tonight at novice league. Lots and lots of soft goals. On the best days, I find it difficult to get into "intense goalie mode" but it's especially bad on Saturday when I'm all chilled out and weekendy. Ah well. We still won, but certainly not because I did anything useful.

However, maybe my attention to trying to work some desperation saves into my game is helping. There were a couple of instances where I had to scramble down on the ice and I did so with less hesitation than usual, and we were able to keep the puck out. So hopefully that positive outcome will reinforce the behavior.

Anyway, no biggie.

Ordered my new pads today. All white Simmons 995s, which they compare to Revoke Pro pads. Gonna be a few weeks before they come, so I can build up a solid hate for my current pads while I wait. Non-rotating, knee-wrecking sons of bitches. I hope the new ones fit. They take several measurements to tell you which size to get. On stuff like this, I really appreciate the level of customer service Simmons provides.

Wooo! New pads!

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Can you make yourself pregnant with your own sexy glove save?

Weird night in goal for me:

Started the evening having to give myself a pep talk to not look past this game to camp next week; that I need to be in the now for my team. But when I got out on the ice, I felt weird. My skates hurt, my balance felt awful, my hands hurt. I dunno, just felt crummy.

It was probably 8 minutes in before I even saw a shot and the first two were from my defensemen from whom the puck just got away from them a little. Couple of panic saves later and then one fluke goal in my net and I was settled in and feeling fine.

I stopped everything else for the next two periods, plus 5 minutes of the 25-minute third period. The other goalie was a guy who usually skates out but very kindly strapped on the pads so that we'd have two humans in goal. He didn't seem to be relishing the position, but he had some really nice stops once he got a little more comfortable. Also, he's one of the better players on the other team, so it was nice to have him NOT shooting on me. :)

Anyway, he was kinda getting lit up at the top of the third period and the other team isn't as strong as my team, so they had us switch ends. I didn't mind because I was kinda bored in my end and wanted to see how I could do against my team.

Did well against them and the red team really stepped up in front of me and did a good job clearing rebounds. I did let in one that I just didn't react to the puck's movement in my depth and I ended up being too deep for the shot. Nice shot though.

The highlight, without question, was a beautiful glove save that I'll be replaying in my mind for at least 48 hours. It was just one of those brainless, body-takes-over perfect reactions. Shot from the block side circle that I tracked right into my glove. I was bugging my defensemen when we were setting up for the face-off: "How sexy was THAT!?!" Haha. They're new guys so they probably aren't familiar yet with how shitty my glove hand is, but they humored me.

Have to say, I like the new folks at novice a lot. They seem to be learning and having a good time in the spirit of things, so that's nice.

Anyway, that's it. Next time I gear up, I'll be doing 3 hours of drills at camp on Wednesday. But before that? The SHOPPING. Auuuughhhhh. That's gonna rock so hard. I almost feel like I should warn them I'm coming. Just have a salesman ready. I'll be the one with wide eyes who's giggling and clapping a lot. I'm really excited for camp. Nice to go up there with my confidence high.

Of course, I'll be blogging, but I'll also get to meet lots of my Minnesotan Wild fans I've gotten to know via Russo's blog and whatnot, so I'm excited for that, too. Plus, I'm really happy just to be on vacation. And have daily maid service. ;)

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Too cold, too cold

Lots of hockey this weekend and today. Practices at Willowbrook and SLICE Saturday and Sunday and then goalie clinic and drop-in tonight.

Couple of things to talk about:

First is that I've been playing around with my nutrition over the weekend, upping my carbs quite a bit to see if it helps with keep my legs energized, and it really does! Glycogen, bitches!

Not to say that I'm not sore, but my legs could have easily kept going after the hour and a half practice/scrimmage last night. Still felt lots of spring in them. So that makes me feel good about camp coming up next week. I've got a fighting chance at keeping myself fueled and at least surviving the first day. :)

Have I mentioned the first day is 3 hours straight of ice time? Sweet buttery Jesus.

Second is that I really sucked Saturday night. Timing was off, skates felt bad, no kick at all.

Sunday night, I think I tipped every single warm-up shot into my own net. Everything hit me, and everything went in. It was the very definition of sieve. Luckily things got better once we settled in to the drills. One of the coaches took some shots on me during a no-shooting drill and that helped settle me down.

Then one of the drills was a 2 on 0 drill and I find that that kind of drill in particular gets me in the groove really well. It kicks in all the tough elements of goaltending: reading shooters, lateral movement, patience, timing. I've been doing all of those badly, so it was good to get clicking a little bit. Nice confidence boost.

The only thing I don't like about that drill is that it encourages me to play too deep. Without any defense, I feel so helpless on my back door, so I get deep so that the other skater can't get behind me for an easy shovel-in.

Another drill, one of the better players asks me, "Has anybody scored on you? I haven't gotten anything past you!" They had, of course, but not much and it was nice to at least be giving off the impression that they hadn't at all! :)

Third, is, of course, the injury report. :) Dumb injury of the night was making a save while in my stance, but somehow it fell into my pad and I didn't want it to fall out and get knocked in, so I dropped into the fly.

Well, if you've butterflied ON a puck in your pads, you know the joy of smashing that frozen rubber into your shin. Got me a nice puck-sized bruise started. Even felt it when I slept on my stomach last night.

Hips and quads were a bit sore when I woke up this morning, but nothing I can't stretch out, I think. Knee is a bit swollen, too. Got my brace on to give it some support today.

My skates, OTOH, didn't fare so well. I crushed the edges on one of them badly. It was so bad, I actually got a metal splinter in my finger wiping them down after. They are just wrecked. So I have to find someone who can sharpen them today. Unfortunately, unlike in Minnesota where they have drive-thru sharpening, it's kind of an ordeal to get same-day sharpening here, especially if you only trust a couple of people in town to do it.

But I have to get it done. There's no chance I can skate tonight on what I've got. Memorial City says they can do it. They better not let me down. Apparently they do punching, too, which I need to get done. My original punching to give my forefoot more room has sort of shrunk back to normal and my feet are hurting again. Probably not good when staring down the barrel at super long ice times. Even if they can't do that today, it's good to know I don't have to go way out to Willowbrook to do it.

Anyway, looking forward to clinic and my game tonight. First time I've played a game in like 3 weeks? Hopefully my grasp of timing will stay with me. And hopefully Scott will forgive me if I half-ass it a little more than usual at clinic in order to save some juice for the game.

One thing I can say definitively: The ice is just terrible right now everywhere. Normally SLICE has the best ice in town, but even there, it's lumpy and rough and slow to dry up. It's like skating on gravel. I'm so looking forward to skating at Parade next week! I hear the ice there is great.

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The Wanderer & The Savegasm

In my desperate scramble to keep my ice time up before camp in late July, I grabbed the reigns on a need down at the rink in Sugar Land. They've got 4 novice teams and have been playing with only 2 goalies all season. Since we weren't playing at Willowbrook this week, I figured I'd offer myself up.

I didn't play very well. Definitely was in my head too much, but I had some good saves and it was really interesting to see how different the vibe at their novice league is. Not any better or worse, but very different. Even the play is really different.

At Willowbrook, we have more player-coaches and we have more true newbies, so there's a wide variance in the skill levels. At SLICE, I'd say the play is more D+ across the board. Less wide-ranging than Willowbrook. Positionally, they're pretty good as I had traffic in my way all night, the likes of which I don't even see on Monday nights where it's more of a C level game. I've never had so much trouble maintaining visual attachment with the puck.

So, that will take some adjusting if I play there more. I have agreed to come out for a practice in two weeks, so that will be a 3 in 3, which will be good. I'm not sure what's going to happen in the fall with Willowbrook novice moving to Saturday and conflicting with a good number of Aeros games. Does it makes sense to switch to SLICE in October? It is about 10 minutes less of a drive, too, which is nice. But I'd be losing Scott on practice nights (though I'm getting him weekly at the goalie clinic).

I dunno. Stuff I'm pondering. Meanwhile, I have clinic tomorrow and NOTHING next week. NOTHING. AUGHHH. I'm gonna have to do real workouts? Madre de dios!

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I'm coining a new term y'all are gonna love

SAVEGASM

I'm not sure if a word is allowed to have two quite so similar meanings, but this is my word so I'm saying it does:

1. When a goalie makes such a sexy save, you find yourself a bit, um, flush. The last one that did that to me was, naturally, a glove save Brusty made while he was in Houston last season. Since we didn't have a photog for T3I, I had to do a stick figure of it. I still get a little tingly when I think about it. I'd have to ask Andrew and John but I'm pretty sure I fell out of my chair a little bit. I know there was gasping and dizziness and blushing and gripping the press table.
   
2. When you, as a goalie, make a save that rocks you hard. Goalies know what I mean. Those saves where you just go, "Daaaaaamn, I just did that and that was fucking beautiful." I dunno if those same chemicals are released or what, but there's definitely a similar rush of those "feeling really good" endorphins or something.

So, there you go. Savegasm. Use it and, of course, have 'em as often as possible. :)

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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.

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The Bitch is Back

My back aches, my groin muscles complain with every step, my glutes are sore.

I'M SO HAPPY!!!! :)

My return to the ice after 6 weeks of no hockey was a success. I played well, my team played well, and we stuffed the blue team in regulation 4-2. (We won't talk about that extra 4th period where I was the only goalie and had to play in the enemy net for the final 10 minutes. I understand and didn't mind, but yuck. What a mindfuck.)

I'll just bullet point this sucker:

• Highlight was stoning the best player on the blue team. Maybe he was taking it easy on me by not shooting high, but I stopped him on a big breakaway, and got a toe on several more of his shots. All good ones, but I was motivated. I wanted to shut him down. Beauty. That felt awesome.
• Took me a good 15 minutes to not feel like I was tripping over my feet. I was definitely a little wobbly, like those small muscles that deal with balance were out of practice. 
• I was surprised, however, by how strong my legs still felt. No biggie getting up from the fly, which is how I hurt myself initially. Made some big lateral pushes from the posts for a couple of saves. Real proud of those for reading the pass correctly. 
• I would say my rebound control was lousy but, frankly, it always is, so nothing new there.
• TONS of new people at novice, though some are quite good and probably should be playing C, unless they just like the easy pace of novice. It's great that this group is growing. I like my teammates. They were fantastic last night. And Mitch was there! Everything's better when Mitch is there. I think because he was always so nice to me during some rough early months when I was going to drop-ins and he was the only one I knew and he didn't pretend to not know me, even though I sucked so bad. I'll always love him for that.
• You need that as a new goalie. You need people to say, "Man, that sucked" and you need people to say, "Good save!" even if you only make one save all game. You need SOME air in your tires all the time or else, you have no motivation to keep going. 
• My knee hurt the entire time out there. Controlling that blade dug into the ice is exactly what my knee doesn't like right now. Felt like I was going to take my gear off and it was going to be swollen up like a grapefruit. But it wasn't. And it doesn't feel any worse today than it has the last 6 weeks, so I'm calling it a success. 
• The brace was absolutely no problem didn't even notice it. Don't know if it helped, either, but if I can't feel it, it obviously isn't hurting.

Here's the thing: I started playing goal because I had to. Like, if I hadn't tried to play, I would have looked back on my life when I'm 90 and thought, "Dammit. Why didn't I do that?" And really, when you feel that way about something, you KNOW you have to do it. You have no choice. You have to honor that instinct.

So to not play for 6 weeks, which I realize is not THAT long if you think about how long some guys go without playing, even as pros (*hugs Brusty*), was like a part of me was missing. Sure, I missed it less as time went on, but then as soon as work stress started to lift, there it came back again. I had to have it.

I've been avoiding this comparison because I didn't want to seem like I'm just trying to be shocking (which I'm not inherently averse to, but I'm quite serious about this), but I want to play goal like I want a good lay. You know the feeling I mean? Like you just need to get fucked until you're limp. That's exactly the inner tension I feel when I can't play for a long time. It's nasty. It's fabulous. And nothing else can scratch that itch. I had this one toe save, literally off the plastic cowling over the toe of my skate, that was worthy of a cigarette after. Heh. Yeah. Hockey is amazing.

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#birthdayFAIL

So, let's just say I've had better birthdays. In fact, most regular days are better than today was.

Feels kinda like when your team is crap on the power play, and you kinda start groaning when they get the man "advantage." Like, next time, don't do me any favors.

Oh well.

Had a good game tonight. Won 5-3 or something. The other goalie is a genuine Canadian and he plays C and probably higher. But that's novice for you. It will take even good goalies and just turn you upside and down and steal your change.

But I didn't see many shots, so it was mainly my team that rocked it. Particularly the defense, who kept chances low and relatively non-threatening. Had some good saves though, particularly a righteous toe save on a breakaway attempt. And when I say "toe," I literally mean it hit the plastic cowling on the toe of my skate. Wouldn't be surprised if it hit the tip of my skate blade, too.

Had some lucky bounces. One rebound off my right pad right onto the stick of the blue team's coach. He fires high. Crossbar. Phew! Thank you, pipes! And a glove save, too, though I dropped it right after the whistle. If someone had just batted my glove with their stick upon making the save, it would have been a goal. I would have deserved it, too.

I got to the rink early and bounced a tennis ball around some. I think that helped with my glove a bit tonight. Snagged a bunch of them in warm-ups and I don't think I got beat glove side at all tonight.

Anyway, back at it in Sugar Land tomorrow. Looking forward to that and really want to play well. Challenge challenge challenge!



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Meanwhile, le boohoo for the Kings getting ousted tonight. They were a joy to cheer for though, and I cannot wait to see what they can do with a Quick/Bernier tandem next year (allegedly). Should result in more rest for the starting tender and have him fresher for the playoffs. And then it's just a matter of that team doing what that team can do. I don't even know who the hotties are on the team and I still love them, so you gotta figure it's gen-you-wine sports love, baby.

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Two two two games in one!

Boy was that a frustrating game tonight. I mean, not Dan Boyle frustrating, but still frustrating.

Game was 3-1 into the third period. It's all love and pad taps and "Woo goalie!" from my team. I'm in the zone and getting great defense from my team.

Then they get 2 quick ones on me midway thru the third and the floodgates opened. We ended up losing 4-5. Then played an extra (refless) period and I lost that, too.

Most of the late goals came on odd man rushes, so I have to keep that in mind while I beat myself up.

I'm trying to just be happy about the 50 mins or so I played well, but you goalies know how it is. It SUCKS to bomb out at the end of a good game, but I needed more help than I was getting at the end. More importantly, I should have recognized the situation and talked myself up for it and gotten refocused for the different type of game I was seeing in my zone.

I'm sure I was playing too deep by the end, as I usually do when I'm feeling frustrated.

Ahhhhh wellllll. It is what it is. Gotta shake it off and be ready for tomorrow night.

Here's one thing I know: My next vehicle will have 4 wheel drive. Rained hard all the way to the rink and back. White-knuckle!

Another thing I know: Cookies will not give me the end of that game back. So, I'm not making any. #fatgirlaffirmations

I'm in a Hip mood.

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Long-winded goaltending brain dump

So, I was 2 or 3 minutes away from a shutout in 40 minutes of scrimmage (so, not a REAL shut out, but still, would have been nice) and Joe is cherry picking at my blue line. Outlet pass, my team is still deep in the blue team's zone and tired, Joe comes in on me and roofs it backhand. It was such a blur, I had to ask Scott TFCG how he scored on me.

I nearly cried. I was so excited to be so close and boom. One stupid breakaway. Oh well. Disappointment is motivation, right? And I only allowed 1 goal. And it was still a fun practice. Had a little time to just goof around and worked on butterfly slides and puzzled over the hybrid post position and how to 1) find and 2) seal the holes around my feet in that position. Grr. I hate that position, even though I know how useful it would be if I could get a grip on it.

Went out on the 5/8ths sharpening for the first time. Definitely easier than the initial sharpening and I don't see any problem getting to 1/2 by early July and being comfortable on that for camp. It's amazing to me what a difference it makes in all areas of my game.

• Quick (a relative term for me) recovery to my feet is massively easier. I feel like I can just pop up when they're sharp. Even if my balance isn't 100%, I've got so much bite, it's easy to adjust.
• I feel so agile. Like my movements are more crisp and more "sure."
• I have less pain. My knee finally feels fine post-game for the first time in months and I think part of it is reducing strain from my muscles having to accommodate for work my skates should have been doing for me. 
• I worked on butterfly slides while the skaters did some drills, which is one of those things that real goalies make look easy and natural when it totally isn't. It's very tiring on your legs and very hard to get your balance and momentum such that you actually move side to side and don't just spin in a circle. Still can't do it much at all but the sharper my skates, the closer I can get. It's more a strength issue now.
• Shuffling still sucks, especially to my weak side, but as before, everything else is so infinitely better, I don't care. 

Lowell Devils goalie Mike McKenna and I had a brief twitter exchange about sharpening a while back and he equated even 3/4 as being like skating on banana peels for him. I totally get that now. I could tell my skates were getting dull because I was starting to feel uncoordinated and "slippery" again like before the sharpening. I vow to keep the sharpenings up before that happens this time.

Not sure what that means for how long I can go between sharpenings though. Last time it was about 7 weeks, so I'm thinking 4 weeks would be more ideal. If I play all 3 ice times in a week, that's about 4 hours on the ice. 2.5-3 if I only do Sun/Mon or Sun/Tues. So that's 10-16 hours of ice time in a month, probably averaging 13 hours. Sounds about right. Though with softer summer ice coming... I dunno. Urgh.

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I've had trouble with my skates loosening up on me while I play, so that precipitated the switch to waxed laces last night. It seemed to help, but sweet honey mustard, those bitches are hard on the fingers. Gonna have some nice callouses from dealing with those.

And I had to do them both twice tonight. On the right side because they were just too loose. And on the left side because once I got them on, I could tell this (quarter-sized) blister on my heel (from walking the dog in sneakers without socks) was going to be extremely painful. Luckily Michelle had some moleskin, so that skate had to come off and back on. The moleskin helped a ton through the practice portion, but once the scrimmage started, I felt that fucking blister with every single move of my left foot. Every little shift of my heel. Ouch, the burning!

It was a long limp back to the dressing room when we were done. Was never so happy to get my skates off and flip-flops on!

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Anyway, back to SLICE tonight for my beloved Monday drop-in. I'm trying to mentally gear up for the faster shots and faster play tonight. I played well at novice but often that means a bad SLICE game because I get comfortable with Novice speed and this bunch is a couple notches faster. It's the quicker releases that burn me when I'm still on "novice timing." It just requires more focus and patience to beat these fast releases. It's a great challenge though, so I'm stoked.

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Wondering when the Aeros equipment sale is going to be.

Priority #1 is to pick up a stick or two. I like Khudobin's that I'm using now, but he's switched to an RBK stick from Sherwood, so I'll be interested to see how that compares. It's funny how many people I see using Brusty's sticks from last year, though they're easy to notice since you don't get that coloring any other way. But I suspect his stick would overwhelm me. *ahem* You know, because he's tall. And it's probably bigger than... wait, what?

I suppose Dubie's sticks would be in the right size range for me, too. I'll have to compare his and Anton's and see which is best. I wear out the heel of my stick faster, which I read means it might be too tall for me. If Dubie's is a hair shorter, I might go that route. We'll see what's available.

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GOALIES:

I'm making another batch of sweat bands. This time I'm using real ShamWOW material because I couldn't find the cheap knock-off kind. So, any goalies out there wanting to try one, shoot me an email and I'll make sure you get one. I think I got enough velcro to make 12 and only 4-5 are spoken for, so don't be shy.

I've been using mine for a while and the only thing I don't like about them is that they do take a couple of days to get dry to the bone either after washing or playing in it. And you can't put them in the dryer (though you can machine wash them). I find machine drying them makes them somewhat less effective.

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Talked tonight about possibly playing goal for one of the two Willowbrook Houston Hockey Series teams next season. Or it was more like Dan asked me if I wanted to and I said, "You'd want me?" and he said, "Well, we need a goalie." Hahaha... Not "yes" exactly. Ahhh, some day I'll be wanted rather than merely "available." I laughed though because I understand. Those guys have lived through my growing pains, which have been pretty awful at times, and probably appear even more awful to them not having been in the clown skates themselves.

But part of me says it would be good for me to have to play games that really matter. I'm not very good under pressure and it would give me at least 12 games of practice at getting better at that and just trusting myself and not getting all tight and scatterbrained. I've avoided tournaments for that reason... I'd hate for people to spend a bunch of money and me just blow up in goal and ruin it for them, so I get a little tweaked about it. Perhaps knowing I have multiple chances, I'll be more calm.

Haven't decided though. Seems like to drop $500+ bucks on something, I should be excited to do it and I'm pretty ambivalent. Might rather spend that money on better fitting gear, to be honest.

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I heard this on the way home last night. Windows down, crank it up, bitches. I know I've posted it before, but I love this song.

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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!)

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Great weekend and pracky

Phew. It's been a long, fun weekend. I need Monday off to just get the down time I'm accustomed to! But I wouldn't give any of it back.

Mr. Goalie Porn, Chris Jerina, was here for the Milwaukee games, so it was fun hanging out with him. Awesome guy and I'm not saying that just because he gifted me with a Brusty bobblehead. There aren't many 20-somethings I hang around with who I don't ever find myself saying, "Well, when you get in your 30's, you'll ~insert aged wisdom~" but he's certainly one of them.

Also fun hanging out with Mister Fred Saturday night. Haven't seen him since the summer and we sure do miss him at Aeros games and in general.

More Aeros today. Another loss, but I have finally come to enjoy Dubie. I mean, really, with Brusty not an option and the Aeros having zero chance at the playoffs, I can just enjoy his quirks and pray for good defense. Much like Vesa, he gives me hope for my game. A lot of the stuff he does that drives me bonkers is exactly how I play, unfortunately. But still, he stops pucks. Maybe there's hope for me yet. :)

After the game was practice, which I dragged poor Chris to, so he could be bored in a meat locker rather than bored and comfortable at his hotel. I'm QUITE the hostess.

Scott and Joe were our coaches tonight, so we did lots of new drills that were all great, both for the skaters and the goalies. Lots of real game situation stuff that I enjoy. At the end, we did a fun one that's too complicated to explain but I was so tired by the end, I was just making saves on my knees.

Joe rifled one past my glove at one point and for once (!) I had a chance to ask for a do-over. So he put 5 more at my glove and I snagged 'em all. He even changed the location, high, low, whatever. One was high and I still snagged it and one of the skaters said it was a "sexy save" or something along those lines. Heh. That felt nice. :)

Anyway, my upper back is aching tonight. Hoping the Advil will keep it from getting too bad. Knee isn't too happy either, but knee can suck it.

No invite to play on Monday yet so it looks like my next game will be Wednesday. Can already taste the post-game pizzaaaaa...

I finally found the song I had in my head that had me play such a good game last week! Had the words wrong AND slightly wrong melody going. Dork.

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Suck it, slump!

Nothing fills me with a sense of well-being and contentedness like a good game in goal. You know that feeling when you're a little buzzed but not quite drunk where you want to tell everyone you love them and all is right with the world? That's pretty much what I'm feeling right now.

It's a calm, tempered pleasure though, because I certainly did make mistakes tonight. Four of them to be exact, but apparently 4 is exactly the number of goals against I can remember, so I can actually talk through them now:

1.  Didn't come until about 5 mins into the 2nd period and NOT, for a change, because I wasn't seeing shots in the first. I saw a ton of shots. Probably the most I've ever seen in novice. And it came from the son of one of the regular novice guys who plays junior A in Canada. He basically deked my entire team out of their jocks and came in 1-on-0 at me. I should have gone for the poke check but instead just tried to stay with him and he poked it right around my toe as I was down and sliding. Wish I had video of that one so I could have another look at it and replay it in my head.
2. Second was a chumpy goal that I absolutely should have had. I didn't battle enough to get over on the correct angle and Joe put it in short side on me. Dumb, lazy goal. *shame*
3. Third one came in the 3rd period and was a really nice pass in tight and I JUST missed getting a toe on it sliding over. I didn't read the play fast enough to get over in time. Don't feel terrible about that one. Great play.
4. Junior A boy again, broke away and, god bless her, my defenseman was BUSTING her ass to catch him and did manage to hassle him some, but he was still able to just rip one at me. To be honest, I should have had it, but I was dazzled by my defenseman's effort and wasn't ready for the shot. Got caught watching. A real pisser, too, because we were just a couple of minutes from a win. That goal tied it up and we ended 4-4. He's good, but I was on angle and it was just a mental lapse.

Now for the good stuff:
Hot shot broke away again after that goal and ripped another one at me. BLOCKER SAVE bitches. :) Ohhh, it felt good to get him, but he had no one to pass to, so I knew he had no choice but to shoot, so I just got set on the right angle (one that I often have trouble with) and nailed it. Definitely the save of the game for me, but was the only one with any particular drama. Most of them were low and right into me. A few cool saves around the posts, though.

Also, my defense was fantastic. I left some really juicy rebounds out there but they let me see everything and were ready to pounce on any loose pucks. They were amazing and gave me a ton of confidence. I was definitely 100% <3 <3 <3 for them all game. And one had never even played D before but she was a natural! Great vision.

Feel good about my mental game and employed a little trick another goalie suggested that I feel helped me tonight. What he does is get some riff of a song in his head and uses that as sort of a noise-canceling device. What he said to me was basically, "You can't stop the noise in you head, but you can choose the noise in your head."

I actually hadn't planned to employ that tonight but I ended up having a riff of a song stuck in my head and thought, "Okay, let's give that trick a try!" Also started the game with the mantra, "I can stop this." Positive thinking + one puck at a time. That lost out to the song riff though, which stuck all game. Any time I started thinking thoughts other than positive, constructive thoughts, I went to my song, sung quietly to myself, just let it fill my head and push the other stuff out.

I'd love to tell you what the song was, but I have no idea. Just something I heard either in the car or in the rink before we started. I tried searching but couldn't find it, so I'm thinking I have the lyrics wrong in my head. Haha! Oh well. Doesn't matter. It did the job.

Warm-ups were awful, which is interesting. I was letting everything in. But sometimes that means I'll end up having a really good game because it puts the fear in me a little. Also, before the game, while I sat in the car and listened to the Aeros lose in the shootout (again), I did one of my eye exercises to get them teaming and focused AND I tossed a tennis ball around for a little bit while I got dressed. Just little things that are easy to add in and I think make a difference.

Stupid move of the night was that I left my jock hanging on the wall in the garage. Luckily, I didn't have to stop any slappers with my pelvis. Not usually a big worry in novice league, but still, I definitely thought about it a few times during the game.

Anyway, fun stuff. Got me a ripping headache now, though. Stupid daylight savings time always makes me feel crummy for like a week. Gonna hit the hay and try to get some good sleep. Maybe get that hour back those bastards took from me!

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It's Shake and Bake, and I helped

What a weekend! Some truly awful hockey. Some truly amazing hockey.

Aeros: Effing awful weekend redeemed by stellar play from--who else?--Brusty (and an Aeros team that finally managed to provide some goal support) in Sunday's game. Everybody finally got it together under the same roof at the same time Sunday, which hadn't otherwise happened all weekend. They were a hot mess Friday and Saturday.

USA USA USA: Okay, call me a traitor but I didn't really care who won that game yesterday. I adore Canada. I know the words to O Canada by heart. I love that sieve Brodeur. Canada gave me hockey, so Canada is tops in my book and always will be. But I admit, I was pretty jacked for the Americans to end up winning it. By the end, I wanted them to win. Mainly because Ryan Getzlaf is a shit. But then Patty Kane is a megadouche, so whatever. It's all a wash.

Ryan Miller was both amazing and lucky. Brodeur was neither. But I still love him. Buck up, Fatso. You're still the cat's pajamas.

Finland: You think they're regretting promising the starter spot to Kipper? Backstrom is better. And any guy who isn't willing to EARN his starting job doesn't belong on an Olympic team, IMO. When you're putting together the Finnish All-Star Game, then sure, make him the starter. But you play your best guy at the Olympics and I think that guy is Nik Backstrom.

Brahmas: They finally ended their win streak with a 1-0 loss in Wichita yesterday. Palmer was in goal though (stopped 39 of 40... Jesus!) so Jaeger's streak could still continue. Yeah yeah, first star again.

Novice: We had a practice last night and Scotty came out to work with Jess and me. Poor Scotty. All proud Canadian surrounded by a bunch of loud-mouthed, hockey-lovin' Americans. He was bitter but didn't take it out on us, apart from requiring push-ups for any goals we let in during one of his drills. Bahhh...

It was good though, as it always is when Scotty comes out. I'm 95% comfortable on my new sharpening (3/4) on my strong side, but I still can hardly shuffle on the right. I wasn't great at it before but now I can only go a few inches. It will come. The thing is, EVERYTHING else apart from shuffling is easier and crisper now. One of the best decisions I've ever made as a goalie was to get that deeper hollow. There. I said it. Of course, keep in mind, I don't make a ton of great decisions as a goalie so the bar was low. :)

Anyway, we did a few drills. One horseshoe drill that probably didn't feel like much to the skaters, but was a lot of work for the goalies. Endless stream of breakaways. I finally just had to leave my net and go get my Gatorade off the other net. I was feeling ookie.

Then we scrimmaged for 40 minutes. I think we must have been on the ice for a good 1:40 or so. Phew. I got a little foggy headed and didn't play the scrimmage very well, but I did have one huge flurry of stops just before the final buzzer. Coach Dan was in the box (because Scott was "officiating" and wanted to call a penalty--ha!) so we were short handed.

Anyway, it was one of those little top of the crease scrambles where you just get low and be big and pray. Probably made 3 pad saves before I finally got a glove on it. OMG my hips were hating me from all that pinball flapping I was doing. It was the highlight of my night though, so it was nice to end on a good note. Got me a nice forearm bruise, too, from one of Scotty's drill shots. Sweeet. :)

Even better is that I'm playing SLICE tonight, so I'm happy about that. But not too happy. I figured out that I'd been trying to hang on to that amped up feeling I get when I'm really excited to play, because I kinda thought that was how I was supposed to feel. But apparently that's just not a productive state of mind for me. So yesterday, when I got that feeling during the day, I just talked myself back down and stayed even keeled about it.

It think that helps a lot. But we'll see tonight, because I am pretty excited to play tonight, but I have to just let that go and get my Zen on. So far so good.

One of my all time favorite songs:

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