Adios, Marty; Burnout; Camp Brusty Wrap-up

I wish I'd written on this the other night when it happened. I love to write in those giddy moments where everything is great and anything is possible, which is exactly how I felt after learning that Martin Havlat is no longer a Wild.

I was ready to do obscene things to Chuck Fletcher to show my gratitude, not only for unburdening the team of a guy who clearly didn't want to be there, but for unloading Cam Barker just a few days earlier, too.

The two players who took the wind out of my sails as a Wild fan are GONE.

Today, I'm thinking a muffin basket if probably more appropriate. Damn the sensibility that comes with daylight...

So, for the first time in a couple of years, I think of the Wild in a positive light, where, for the last 2 seasons, it's been more of an "ugh" feeling. From Yeo behind the bench, to Aeros babies looking to earn a permanent NHL gig, I'm excited for what's to come.

I'm not, however, expecting great things on the score sheet. But that's okay. What I've been missing is effort and heart and chemistry. I want the team to look like they care as much as I do. That's my bottom line at this point in the "building."

Now, some curmudgeons choose to complain about getting Heatley in return, but I don't care. I've seen a shit ton of hockey and had only two players whose mere presence on the ice grates my nerves: Pouliot and Havlat. So I'm willing to gamble that Heatley will be an upgrade to my viewing enjoyment.

He is considerably less attractive though. Disappointing, but he's slightly better looking than Gaborik, so it's still an overall upgrade since I started watching the Wild.

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In other news, I'm realizing I'm really burned out still. Between extended playoffs and preparing for and executing Camp Brusty, I kinda don't want to do anything but occasionally play hockey. And even that I could do without right now.

I'm just toast. I'm tired of waking up in the middle of the night worried about some hockey thing that I'm actually supposed to be enjoying. We're not even a week out of Camp Brusty 2011 ending and I couldn't fall asleep tonight thinking about issues around next year's camp.

I've never been good at "turning it off" and I'm trying to look at the process as a learning experience. Learning to balance and let go and get perspective, but it's a bit trying at the moment.

Maybe the house buying thing is just the final straw for me this year and next year will be better. Or a shorter playoff run (no thanks... I'll take another go at the cup, please, Mr. Torchetti!) would give me a breather after the season.

I dunno. I still love you, hockey. I think we just need to go on separate vacations this year.

If I'm posting here even less than usual this summer, you know why...

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That said, I haven't wrapped up camp yet, but in short, it was neat. I, naturally, felt awkward and sievy nearly every minute of it as a participant, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it and get a lot out of it. Like, RAVE reviews from our adult goalies, who I hung out with after our last day Thursday.

I think the deal is that I'm too athletically learning disabled to learn goaltending in a group environment. I need more time to repeat drills and ask questions and soak in what I'm supposed to be soaking in. Otherwise, I just get rattled and nothing sinks in and I just try and get it over with so I can go sort myself out by the boards.

On the "Camp Administrator" end, though, it was a good experience and everyone seemed to appreciate the work I did to organize it all, including the parents and students, and of course, the amazing expertise Sean and Barry brought with them.

Wish I could say I did it all because I wanted to help goalies or improve my own game or even make some extra money, but no. It's all about making googly eyes at #33, but you guys already know that. :)

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Serenity now

I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. All the stuff that's been running me ragged and keeping me up at night is starting to settle down or go away and it's all been so worth it.

Camp Brusty has 2 more days left. I've been out on the ice for one of the days (and have the sore glutes to prove it) and plan to be out the final two. First night, I just needed to not have anything else to worry about other than making sure everything was running okay. Last night, I had to pick Mr.C up from the airport and have a heart to heart about whether or not we were going to buy the house we have an option on.

Which is the other thing that's been weighing heavily on me. Really heavily. And it's been taking up a lot of energy and time doing research and due diligence to make sure we're not running into any big surprises.

Aaaaanyway, it's a huge relief to have made that decision and I'm so excited to close on the house make it our own. The room that's supposed to be the formal dining room is going to be my "hockey room." :) Big TV, comfy seats. That'll be my nest for 8 months of the year and I can't wait.

Pretty sure I need an end table made out of old hockey sticks, just to stay on theme, right?

So, that's been pretty agonizing, but I think it's a good move for us.

Back to camp, it's been fun, though I can't imagine how sore and rubber-legged my peers are after 3 days. I'm sorry I missed last night because Brusty was coaching at our end (the beginner-intermediate end) and I really would have like to do the drill he was running, and not even just because of him! No really! It was just a shooting scenario I have trouble with sometimes.

My mission for the upcoming year is to get my skating better. I can t-push to the right, but I can't to the left because, basically, I can't stop to my left. So, I'm gonna have to sort that out because I'm seeing how important t-pushes are for recovery as I'm following rebounds that go into the corners (hopefully). It's the next "step up" for me to improve my game.

Anyway, the students* and parents seem pretty happy with how camp is going and I'm hearing lots of compliments for how knowledgeable our handsome and talented coaches are.

*Except for the one adult student who mouthed at me, "I HATE YOU" through the glass during drills yesterday. Haha!

My favorite, though, is one of the other adults who's had to listen to me swoon leading up to camp. During the first day of camp, he pulls me aside and whispers, "He's much better looking in person!" LOL Then last night, he goes, "I had a 'Brusty Moment'. We were talking and he looked at me and his eyes TWINKLED!"

I'm still laughing about that. Brusty Fever is contagious. There is no known cure cuz nobody wants one.

Ahhh, it's all fun. And it's neat to just see goalies all in one big bunch. Though I do admit to having to leave the room during dryland. Too many wiggly children and it makes me claustrophobic. #lemmeout

Tonight, I need to take pictures for the camp website in the midst of doing the ice time. Not sure how that will work with my chesty on, but I'll find a way. Might just leave it off, do some shots early, and then take it off again at the end and get some shots during drills. And if I screw it up somehow, I'll have Thursday to try again. :)

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Roaches from heaven...

Here's a list of stuff:

• House buying is a real ass pounding. House buying in a flood plain with plans to build an addition is an ass pounding with your head against a wall. Sorry for the disturbing visual but that pretty much explains my last 3 or 4 days. And it's only just begun.
• I suck at goaltending. But I had fun tonight. Made some big stops. Let in some stinkers. I like when the skaters are tired and impatient. I don't like when skaters put pity shots on me because they're so convinced they'll score if they put a real shot on me. Screw you.
• The ice was AWFUL tonight. I pushed over to make a save and ended up halfway to the boards, the ice was so wet 10 minutes into the game. Goal.
• A roach fell on to the ice from the ceiling while we were playing. Can you imagine if that thing fell down and into your gear? Don't imagine it. I just did and it was a nightmarish and embarrassing scene. But that's hockey in Houston, baby! Skating in puddles and big ol' roaches out on the ice with you.
• Camp Brusty starts SUNDAY! I'm very excited. Not only to see Brusty, though I won't lie, that's most of it. But to see the camp come to fruition after months of working toward it. Looking forward to turning it over to Sean and Brusty and enjoying the sight of all those goalies bouncing around the ice. :)
• Camp is pretty much full. We exceeded my expectations for registrations, so I'm pleased about that. But that means I'm probably not going to get on the ice unless the herd thins a bit. I don't want to take away instruction time from paying students. Maybe I'll hop on later in the week.
• But frankly, I'm not in shape for it. I've played about 4x in the last 6 weeks and that's just an hour drop-in. Goaltending and training just haven't been a high priority between playoffs and house hunting and work. And with women's league not starting until July, there hasn't been much opportunity.
• Did I mention Brusty will be in town? :D Yaaaay! I'm fond of him.
• Channeled him a bit tonight. Big Bird came in on a breakaway but he got a little too close, took a little too long, so I jumped out there and jabbed the puck away from him as he was skating across the slot. His teammate gathered it up and I had to dive back and try to get my stick on it. I'm actually not sure if I did or if he hit the crossbar or what. Sounded like my stick but I was in flight and didn't entirely see where the puck went. But it didn't go in the net, so suck on that, boys!
• My elbow really hurts. I hate to get a doctor involved and I keep hoping massage will work it out, but I dunno. My whole forearm is jacked up. Bet I can still pick up a pint of beer though. #playinghurt
• Vicodin. Yay!
• Guy at the rink tonight appeared to be wearing a set of Brusty's old gear. TPS pads, Vaughn blocker and glove. Green, gold and cream from 2008. Rec goalies don't wear TPS pads, so it caught my eye. And then I stared at him a lot. I so associate TPS pads with Brusty that pretty much any goalie in them, I'm salivating. Though this guy actually was pretty good, and really bailed his crappy team out a lot. Good work, Not-Brusty!

Okay, that is all.

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Finding my Zen and tonight's drop-in

Babies, I am crazy Zenned up for game 7. Totally at peace with how it goes either way, since it dawned on me that Brusty's coming to Houston in a month anyway. And I'll see a helluva lot more of him then. It just would be SUPER fun to have Joy and the rest of the Bingo crew I've gotten to know this season down here in our fair city.

Not to make it sound like I don't care if the Aeros get to the cup finals, but The Dream is Bingo v. Houston. It's a personal thing. The Calder Cup is an Aeros fan thing. We all want that, naturally, but it's not personal. Bingo is personal. And I guess maybe that gets more to the point of why I've been a basketcase about this series.

Anyway, tomorrow is just going to be me soaking it all in, since it could be the last home game and I don't want to look up with 1 minute left and have spent the whole game in Totally Insane Mode and not appreciated and reflected on the season at all.

Or the Aeros could just crush Hamilton's skulls early and I could do all that appreciatin' next round. Your choice, boys.

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Played drop-in tonight. I feel like I've regressed a year and a half in that group. Back when I first started, I would suck at the beginning and then as I got more comfortable, I'd start to stop most everything.

Same thing tonight. About 45 minutes in, I finally started stopping the puck reliably. Until then, I think every other shot went in the net.

Never mind that it was a festival of breakaways up until then, too. Not much fun.

I was going to break down and do clinic before, too, since this is my only night on the ice this week. But I got tied up with stuff at home and couldn't get to Sugar Land in time. So as penance for missing clinic, I made myself work on backside pushes when the game was over.

Thanks to Scott, I finally realized that the part I wasn't doing right was having my skate perpendicular to the direction I'm pushing. It's a very unnatural angle for my foot to be in, so I have to think really hard about that push foot when I do it. It's very slow and I don't go very far, but that little tip made all the difference in doing it at all without just spinning in circles.

I also spin less when I push mostly with the toe of my skate blade, but that's another thing I have to be really deliberate about, so it's going to be a long time before that move is game-ready and natural.

Still working on getting up on my dumb leg quickly. Somewhat sharp pain in my knee when I do it but it's getting easier all the time.

Camp Brusty is just about a month away, so I'm getting excited about that. Can't WAIT to get on the ice with my goalie. I'm soooo temperamental (emphasis on the mental) with anybody coaching me.... it will be funny to see if and how quickly I want to tell him to fuck off. It will take a lot, I suspect. You can't stay mad at this face:

Beauty.

Anyway...

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, Camp Brusty. Ha. Awesome.

History will be made Tuesday night, gang. How exciting is that?

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Camp Brusty launch and this week's games

Before I get to my games, I'm excited to finally announce the kick-off of Camp Brusty! I've mentioned it before but I'm doing the local organizing/promotion end of things for THE goalie camp here next summer coached by Sean Murray of Pro Formance Goalie School in Vancouver and Brusty (who also coaches for them in the summer).

Here's the link: PFGS Houston

There aren't many things I'd take on the task of promoting, but there's a genuine need for goalie coaching here in Houston. Lots of goalies, very few people who are both willing, able, and qualified to work with them. I've been incredibly lucky to have Scott as much as I have. I'm not sure how others do it. So this is a great chance for goalies to get an intensive week of high-quality work without having to leave town for it.

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Hockey is done for the week. On to another great "key" -- turkey. :) Got my parents in town and enough food to feed an army. Plus 2 extra dogs, which is making things sort of a circus and why I'm up at 5 a.m. throwing Major out so I don't have to listen to him whine.

Drop-in was so-so on Monday. Waves of good saves, waves of letting everything in. Almost every fast regular was there except Crosby, so I saw a ton of shots. There's this one dude I call Big Bird because he's super tall and has really cute shaggy hair, and I dunno how he's not bored out there. If he's playing at more than 30%, I'd be shocked.

I feel kinda bad because he made me look stupid twice, scoring on breakaways and the third time, he was about to do it again and I was so fed up, I just hooked him by the shins as he glided past me after faking me into going down (EVERY FUCKING TIME... I hate myself for biting on that). He didn't go down and I hope I mostly got shin pad, but I still feel badly for it.

At least the puck didn't go in that time. Doesn't exactly deincentivize my bad behavior. :\

Then women's league last night was ... OK. My parents were here watching me play for the first time (they'd been to a practice last year, but I was still REALLY raw then), and that was actually okay. Not the distraction I was worried it would be.

I allowed two goals but didn't see many shots and went long stretches without seeing any and then would get a flurry. First one was through a screen and deflected, but I got a solid piece of it. Somehow that makes it so much more annoying to me that it went in.

Second was an odd man rush I played about 2 feet too deep and beat me glove side (naturally). They've got this Canadian gal and she's really good. Accurate shot, if not crazy fast. It was a tricky one because of the 2 on 1 but she beat me clean and if I had any kind of glove, I would have gotten it. If I'd  been out of the blue paint, I wouldn't have needed the glove at all.

I'm just bummed because I really like that team and wanted to see them advance. But then, I like both teams, so I guess it doesn't matter. The championship next week should be interesting. Not sure who I'll play for but it should be spirited.

All that said, I did have some stops I'm pretty proud of. Hard to focus on those sometimes in a loss, but I'm okay with the way I played. I just hate losing.

Only two ice times next week. Monday and Tuesday, since novice is off for Thanksgiving. Happy for the break. Should be pretty hungry for the ice by Monday.

Happy (American) Thanksgiving, everybody! Enjoy your turkey and pecan pie coma... I know I will. :)

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Quick Hits: Camp Brusty, Gear Update

Oof, the blog looks so lonely without a post in so long. I'd apologize for the lack of updates but that seems pretentious. And also, I'm not that sorry, because I've been working on something pretty cool.

I'm partnering with Vancouver-based goalie coach Sean Murray and our very own Brusty to host a goalie camp here in Houston next summer, so I've been busy building a web site for it. Don't worry... only Sean and Brusty will be coaching, and I'm doing most everything else around organizing it.

Though I may be a student, which already has a fire lit under me. I'd been playing about 6 months when I went to watch this camp last summer and I remember thinking how I would have been the most hopeless person on the ice, including the littlest kid. Hopefully it wouldn't be that bad now, and particularly 10 months from now. I recall even the warm-ups looking exhausting. Haha. I'm screwed.

Anyway, I think it's going to be fun working with those guys, but also great for local goalies to either supplement the help we get from local coaches like Scott or, possibly for some goalies, it's all they get all year. Houston isn't exactly littered with people who understand goal well enough to coach it, so it's a fabulous opportunity to learn from guys who make their living with goaltending.

Plus they're both super foxy. So that's practically like a discount for the ladies.

I'll be pimping the web site and the camp for the next 10 months, so be ready to get sick of hearing about that.

Anyway...

Gear Update!

My chest protector finally got some work Saturday night at novice practice. Took a couple of good shots right in the boobs and felt nothing but a thump. Beauty! But my mask chin is still battling with the neck guard on the chesty. I'd cut it off of my old one, but it was old so I didn't really care. Now I'm not so sure. I have my Maltese, so it's not the craziest idea ever.

My skates, OTOH, get better and better and better all the time. I feel like my skating is more confident now, and I don't dread skating anymore. I even did some of the skating drills at practice Saturday night, which I used to do pretty much anything to avoid. Maybe I can finally start to play the puck with some confidence? That would be exceptional.

Plus, I don't have to go to the bench and take "foot breaks" during warm ups while my feet acclimate to the pain. And I don't have to hop from foot to foot while play is at the other end to try and alleviate the pain. How the fuck did I go so long in those skates?? If I hadn't sold them in Minnesota, I'd take 'em out back and burn 'em.

I'm hoping my new pads are a similar revelation. They can't get here soon enough. But it's only been a week since I ordered them, so it's at least another 2 before I get them, possibly 3 or 4 weeks depending on shipping. Hurry, Don Simmons!

Back at SLICE for drop-in for the first time in a month tonight. I've been playing pretty slow players in that time, so I'm going to have to rev up. Hopefully my team will give me a good warm up so I'm not quite so cold to the speed.

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Crash Kings are audible Stetson. I can't explain it. I just know I can't get enough of them lately.

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