Not work... PLAY!

Man, I had a blast at drop-in tonight. Actually was feeling like shit all afternoon, lungs were wheezy and throat sore, but it's hockey, so you go anyway, right?

I guess feeling crummy kind just got me out of my head and I just played. When I stepped on the ice, my skates felt so good. Do you guys know what I mean by that? Like, I might as well have had on shoes. The ice was really nice. I could shuffle easily, but it wasn't so hard and slippery that I was oversliding. It was like butter out there. Easy and natural and so good. Might as well have been playing on plush carpet in my socks. That's how good it felt.

So, feeling great in my skates and my legs having a ton of energy really gave me a lot of confidence, but I guess I got so enraptured by the lower half that my glove and blocker disappeared on me and it was the second half before I found them again.

I've started really thrusting that glove out there deliberately when I start to challenge a shooter, both to look bigger, but also to remind myself that it's there and maybe I should use it.

We had a new chick playing, who came down from Dallas, and man, she was SO good. Tell me if she isn't my kind of gal: She pulls out this hot pink jersey, says she got it for $5, hates pink but wears it because it pisses the guys off.

And after watching her, I understand why. She was dancing around those guys, carving through them like a Christmas roast. Luckily, she's also a sport and didn't light me up like I know she could have. She put some challenging shots on me but kept them low and gave me a chance. I appreciated that.

But her dark teammates did their best to have their way with me, and I made some sweet saves in the second half. One was quite the circus save. I dropped into the fly, it hit my stick and bounced up, hit me in the head, went over my head and down my back, and I stuck my glove behind me and it went into my glove and down between my pads. Crazy save. I had to take a few seconds to let that one sink in.

It's amazing what adding an extra night or two a week has done for my stamina and energy out there. I could have gone another hour last night and tonight. I feel like I've definitely gotten over some kind of hump in terms of strength and conditioning. Maybe some other humps will be gotten over soon, too. Plenty of humps. My humps, my humps...

What's weird is that I was so relaxed after. I'm NEVER relaxed after I play. I'm a bundle of angst thinking I should have done this or that, or here's this new problem I need to work on, or blah blah blah. Well, you know, because you suffer through it here on the blog with me, eh? :)

Tonight, I left the rink feeling like I'd just gotten really well shagged. I just wanted to roll over and go to sleep. "That was awesome. Night-night."

You feel me, right?

Good.

Anyway, the other goalie was a blast to watch, too. He was wearing an uncrested Bruins sweater and I swear to God, it was like watching Tim Thomas down there. He did a great job and played the way I love to watch goalies play. Just kind of wild abandon. He's a good enough skater to pull it off and through 40 pounds of gear, you could see he's just having a kick ass time.

So watching him really made me realize, that's what it's about. It's just doing your best and having fun. I'm changing The Word on my knob to "PLAY!" tomorrow instead of "WORK!"... because that's what this is.

Should have a couple of dandy bruises to show for this one. Took one off the bicep and another somehow found my inner thigh and STILL went in the net. It was a HARD shot. Already got a bruise and a big lump going there. Pretty.

This song just seems right for my love affair with goaltending, doesn't it? :)