Wild Goalie Moves & if I'm Khudobin

The problem with Twitter is that all those random thoughts that I used to save up and expound on in the blog just get tossed there and forgotten about (unless I'm really on more than a 280 character rant about something).

So, I'm saving this one specifically for the blog:

I am ruined for other goalies. I am spoiled rotten and all the fresh goalie meat, no matter how cute or charming or German or rosy cheeked the new kid between the pipes is, he may never be good enough.

I'd been thinking that with Brusty elsewhere, I could finally approach the Aeros goaltending with objectivity (relatively), but with the "signing" of En-Er-um, that new German kid who I keep trying to call Enroth or Ersberg, I realize, the problem isn't them. It's me.

What do I do now? Just become some kind of goalie spinster? Or do I like a skater? Eww, nooooo.

Of course, it doesn't matter now as the team has made it clear he won't be coming to Houston. It's Wild or Germany. Which is fine, as it gives them some flexibility to deal Harding or not deal Harding. Unlike with Dubie last season, who signed expecting Harding to get traded and be the back-up in Minnesota, but Harding is apparently one bad Yugioh card and just can't be traded. So Dubie was stuck and we were stuck with Dubie.

Which segues me right into the thought that's making me more twitchy than my apparent inability to love another goalie...

If you're Anton Khudobin, you have to be looking at this situation and simultaneously banging the speed dial for your agent asking him to stir up the European market for interest in your services.

Basically, the Wild have said,

• We've signed this German guy. If Harding gets traded, we'll make the German guy break his German contract and bring him over to back up Backstrom. You, Anton, will babysit Hackett in Houston. 
• IF, however, we don't trade Harding, German guy will bide his time in Germany, and then when Harding leaves as a UFA next summer, German guy will come over and be Backstrom's backup. You, Anton, will continue to babysit Hackett in Houston and maybe even have to compete with Hackett AND Kuemper! Yaaaay! Thanks for being so patient. We love your great attitude and your dimples!

So, either way, the organization has said, "You're. Not. Next." to Anton. And I think Anton was expecting, nay, insisting on, being next. This can't sit well. 

The only reason I could see him staying is because he doesn't want to burn bridges or look petulant or greedy if he decides to pursue a better paying opportunity (MUCH better, rest assured) in Europe.

Or, if he wants to gamble that injuries will sideline Backs or Hards enough to give him significant NHL playing time. That's an expensive gamble.

I don't claim to have any inside knowledge here, but I do have plenty of experience looking down a career path that has all kinds of "we're just not that into you" signs. And that's certainly how I'd interpret this one.

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Quick Hits: Brought to you by Blue Moon and Massive Sleep Deprivation

So the Wild win against Calgary (big), Khudobin extends his NINE game losing streak, and Avery grabs Dallas by the nuts and twists. FUN!

I think we've pretty well established here that my boundaries around appropriate behavior are a bit loose at times. I'll never be a politician's wife. Live and let live, I say.

So, I like Aves. And I've missed his delinquency, even if Marty Turco hasn't. You think goalies throw some ear plugs in when they're playing him? Might not hurt, right? Just to dull the din a bit.

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I'm about to say the oldest thing I've ever said:

The coming weather front is making my knees hurt.

AUGH! I should probably go dig my grave while the permafrost is soft, right?

But they do. They hurt. But they're ALL that hurt, other than about 5 spots on my body where I have bruises. So I'm delighted that for the first time ever after a 3-in-3, I have more bruises than aches.

Normally the groins are a little tender, hamstrings or quads a little tight. Nope. Feeling good. Lots of energy in my legs (apart from those cranky knees).

It's weird because I don't feel stronger or anything. I think part of it is getting more efficient, which is something lazy people like me are really good at.

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Have I mentioned I love washing my gear? And I don't even just mean in the new washer (arriving Tuesday!), but I washed out my glove and blocker tonight as they were both getting slimy inside.

It's so cathartic to crank the hot water up and just rinse all that sweat and funk and ick out. And with white gear, you can actually see it washing away. It's just such a concrete, tangible accomplishment and my glove smelled like absolutely nothing when I was done. Yay!

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The cashier at Wing Stop knew me by name tonight. This may explain why my lateral movement is slow.

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If you haven't checked it out yet, here's a really interesting read from Hutch over at In Goal Mag with some opinions from around the goalie universe as to what the most significant development in goaltending has been in the last decade.

I tried really hard to muster an answer but I'm too new to the game. Hit me up in 10 more years and I'll blow your mind. Lowell Devil's hottie goalie Mike McKenna's answer resonated with me the most, but I can't tell if it's because he's so good looking or because it actually really resonated with me. I'm not kidding. Really can't tell. It's actually a little frustrating.

Seriously though, the stuff about the high level of training, and yet the conformity of training, is what stuck with me. I don't hesitate to lament a good but dull goalie. I hope goalie coaches out there will embrace a player's uniqueness as they develop their style. Leave boring goaltending to the Finns.

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Speaking of hot boys, Stoner's hurt again. Groiner. My god, why didn't it occur to me to be an athletic trainer when I grew up? I mean, really.

Alright fine, I'll stop being a dirty cougar and send you to this article about Stoner's situation in Minnesota, but keep going to the end where there's a really touching little bit from his parents. And how lovely is it that his dad got to be there for the Father/Son trip? Very.

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Texas in the National Championship tomorrow night. We're having some folks over to watch. Can any game ever be as good as the last time we won this, though? I'm not all that excited. I think I'll entertain myself by using as many hockey terms as possible just to annoy Mr.C.

"Boy, that was a nice goal by McCoy."
"Alabama's having trouble getting out of the neutral zone."
"Oh a penalty? Yeah! Texas on the power play!"
"That Bama guy totally just crosschecked Shipley!"

This is old but it makes me laugh. I fucking hate Brent Musburger.

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Goodnight.

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Old School MFing Football

Now THAT'S what a football game should be like, apart from my team losing.

1. If you are an old school football fan and you haven't been to a Chiefs game, especially against a rival, you just haven't lived.
   
2. These people are actually there to watch football. And they watch football. Unlike Texans games where the only time the crowd has any life is when the cheerleaders are doing their 2 minute warning dance. Otherwise, they're busy buying beer, getting up to pee, dicking around with their cell phones, etc etc. I saw two people pulling out their cell phones today and I was married to one of them.
   
3. When the Chiefs do something bad, Chiefs fans get MAD. They boo and grouse and holler at the dunderhead who screwed up. They still care. Texans fans, for the most part, quit caring a couple of seasons ago and as yet, the team has given them no reason to begin caring again.
4. Even the halftime show honoring the 50th anniversary of the start of the team was old school. They were just one marching band and twirler shy of a total reversion to 1967.
   
5. Loud? Yeah. Bitches know how to bring the noise, literally. Banging on the seats (which are hollow, so thunderous when everybody gets to banging on them), clapping, yelling, you name it. Beautiful. And it's not piped in like at the Texans.
   
6. Stadium? Outdoors. Every damn bit of it. And yeah, we got sunburned and it was hot (and will be cold in a few weeks), but it felt authentic. Not the sterile Reliant box.
   

Anyway, you get my point. Do yourself a favor and get up to KC for a game. I remember now why I ever loved football. This is what it's all about.

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Quick Hits

I've always wanted to write a novel but just never had the spark of an idea I needed to set me on my way. I may or may not have felt that spark as I was lying in bed tonight trying to fall asleep. Not a euphemism...

So, here I am, 3 pages into my novel, no clue what the plot is going to be, but will be forging ahead anyway in fits and starts with time I don't have for it.

Anyway, as I was doing some research, I ran across this article from a 1962 issue of Sports Illustrated and thought it was quite amusing. Not only for the content but the writing is just so charming. Good on SI for dragging some old classics into a modern medium.

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It's been a quiet weekend and I'm finally hunkering down and getting my pre-season look at the Aeros written for PHN and Wild Nation, though I think I'll try to let this first week of Wild training camp get done before I finalize them, just to see if that answers some questions I have. And then we should get an Aeros training camp list quickly thereafter.

Then, two weeks from now, we'll have seen our first pre-season game. Which means absolutely nothing, but at least it will be live, in-person pro hockey. I don't really care who plays or what the game looks like. I just want the fix. Then I'll worry about what and whom I'm looking at.

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Finished watching the entire two seasons of Sports Night over the last couple of weeks. Fantastic show. I don't think I could have appreciated it before as much as I do now. Granted, the show isn't about sports, but a lot of the obsession with the job that drives some of the characters IS related to a love of sports that I think you have to share to appreciate why it lights their fire like it does.

But now I'm back to working my way through the Trailer Park Boys and can I just say, there is nothing better to watch after playing hockey. I don't know what it is, other than it's just so raw and funny and ridiculous, but also warm in its own warped way, it's great filler for any rough edges I'm feeling after a game. So, ya know, there's a pro tip from me to you other goalies out there.

Speaking of pro tips, I was quizzing a goalie (who's definitely been there) about how to survive this 3 in 3 I've got coming up and he suggested Endurox as a recovery drink, which I remember a fellow marathon friend being a fan, too. I always went for PowerBar recovery shakes, which I can't seem to find any more.

So $33 later, I'm the proud owner of a meathead-sized tub of Endurox powder. And it's orange flavor. I hate fake orange flavor, but I went to 3 stores and only REI had any at all and only had that flavor so... orange it is.

Wondering if the benefits of the drink would be negated too terribly by the addition of vodka.

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Hey, raise your hand if you were out drinking with Clutter Wednesday night! Yeah... Twitter is awesome. Hope everyone enjoyed their last gasp of summer vacay because it's on now, boys. Go get 'em.

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I blessedly got out of having to go to the Texans/Jets game tomorrow, though I was kinda looking forward to annoying Bourne, a Jets fan, with my tweeting about it. Alas, I will just be shuttling Mr.C and his friend, also a Jets fan, to and from the game. And in between, I can get some work done while watching the Texans lose from the comfort of my sofa.

J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!

This post needs pictures. Here's a song I like for reasons I can't figure out, but it seems appropriate for a 3:30 a.m. blog post:

Owl City - Fireflies
Uploaded by UniversalMusicGroup. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

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FMD: The Texans Are Awful

You know what gives you the worst Fuck Me Dead feeling ever? When the peak of your energy and joie de vivre for the day hits you at about 10:30 at night.

I guess if you're one of those kids who's cooler than me and doesn't START going out until 11, then it's just right, but somehow I completely missed that period of my life. I was busy being poor and responsible and square. Fuck. I need some youngsters to party with, eh?

Anyway, I'm saying Fuck a lot because I had to go to the Texans game tonight, which is like the second worst Fuck Me Dead feeling ever. Pre-season. Against the Saints. *sigh* They should have named that building Dementor Stadium because that team just rips the will to live right out of my soul.

I mean, on the very worst night of Jacques Lemaire's "The Trap Hockey That Ate Minnesota," it's like a freaking carnival of delight compared to this football game tonight.

And I was excited to go! I'm trying to put a good foot forward about football this season. I'm trying to muster the love I used to have for it before Warren "Crazy Eyes" Sapp went to the Raiders and John "Every Day and Twice on Sunday" Lynch went to Denver. Yeah, I was a Bucs fan for a few really fun years. Gruden was evil and hilarious. Mr. Derek Brooks really WAS my favorite player. Right behind Martin Gramatica. (I'm not kidding. I actually have a Gramatica jersey. Please love me anyway.)

Then they won the Super Bowl, which most people thought was boring but I was still reeling from the fact that they FINALLY beat the Eagles at home in cold weather to get there. The fact that they actually crushed the Raiders was just cream gravy on a really fun season.

But now I have Texans season tickets. I enjoyed games the first couple of seasons, what with hating the shit out of David Carr, but when Sage Rosenfels helicoptered last season, it was over. Like that moment when you know... you just can't do this anymore. Take your ring back, give me your set of keys, you can pick up your shit later. Don't call me ever again. I'm rarely so decisive about things. But it was O.V.E.R. and it still is.


I don't feel so hostile toward them any more but they still are just awful and inept and boring. Reliant Stadium is where football joy goes to die. But now I just kind of feel sorry for it. And bored. So BORED. If they ran two consecutive plays without a challenge, a penalty, or a timeout, I missed it. They need to speed this shit up.

Anyway, long day tomorrow of packing the Mister up and sending him on his way to Kansas City (where we now have a partial Chief's season ticket package... here's hoping for happier feelings about that team). And then a long hockey game tomorrow night, which I'm really looking forward to after laying around being sick all week.

I love you, hockey... more today than yesterday, but not as much as after sitting through Texans football.

(P.S. This needs music...)

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