Public skate, Icy revenge, GoaliesGoaliesGoalies

I hate leaving up such a negative post for so long, but nothing has come along to replace it yet. The lack of novice league on Saturdays is cramping my bloggy style, bitches. But I do love the lack of guilt now that I'm not taking up every Saturday with hockey.

I did get a little ice today though, as Coach Stalin had new skates she wanted to test out before her game tonight. So we hit the public skate and reminded ourselves of why we hate public skate. And amazingly, it's even worse than it used to be now that they've got those awful "walker" things for kids (and some adults) to hold themselves up on the ice with.

I get that skating is scary at first. I was sure I was definitely going to die my first time skating, but IN MY DAY we didn't have those walkers and we learned to skate JUST FINE. :)

The problem is, kids who can't actually skate (read: stop) can actually get up a decent head of steam using these things and then it turns into, like, bumper car day at the retirement home. Walkers crashing into walkers. Total gong show.

I preferred the days when the benders would cling meekly to the boards and people who CAN skate would safely do their twirls and laps in the open space. Not that it ever actually happened like that, as it was actually just as dangerous, but without the SCRAAAAAAPE SCRAAAAAPE SCRAAAAPE of those idiot walkers on the ice.

But one is obligated to romanticize the good ol' days before contraptions ruined everybody's fun.

Anyway, back to today's skate. Of course, Chilly was there hitting on everybody. I pretend I hate it, but I like it. I don't get hit on much, so if you can skate and you want to hit on me, go for it, even with your giant smelly dog outfit on.

Yeah, that's how apathetic about my own phobias in the name of a cuddle I am now. Fake advances from a man in a dog suit. *sigh* FML.

Also, I wore my goalie skates (sans pads), and that is as bad or maybe worse than I remember from the last time I did it. For those who've never worn the gear, goalie skates have a low soft/pliable ankle, so they're pretty unstable. Having your pads strapped to them stabilizes them, but without the pads, it's bender city.

I've seen good skaters who can skate around in goalie skates as well as someone in player skates and frankly, my hat's off to them. I can't figure that out. It's like finding a football player who can do the 40 yard dash in clown shoes as well as someone doing it in regular running shoes.

So, 30 minutes of that was more than enough. I will lovingly strap my pads on Monday night and appreciate my gear for all its wonderful interconnected functionality.

Oh! I also bought a SweetStick. Haven't tried it yet as I plan to get sharpened tomorrow night anyway, but I was happy to find them in stock locally. They're a lot more expensive online for some reason, so I'd been putting it off. Hoping it will help me keep more of a freshly sharpened feeling between games.

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Meanwhile, my OCD brain is still torturing me for Tuesday's game. You can tell me to relax, lighten up, don't take it so seriously, whatever, but it doesn't sink in. I still lay in bed at night and replay Captain Meaniepants's "move" that she keeps beating me on.

I feel like a little kid whose been bullied by the same kid over and over. I'm beyond annoyed or embarrassed. I'm angry. Just blood-boiling angry. Like little Ralphie, who finally snaps and beats the everliving snot out of Scut Farkus.

I have a plan of attack for her move. But I have spies reading so I'll say no more. ;) Gonna practice it Monday night. If I don't shock the hell out of those guys, then I'm doing it wrong.

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Post-Weekend Goalie Update:

Brusty is still fucking awesome, natch. 38 saves (WHERETHEHELLISTHEDEFENSE?) and 4 PIM in his win over Manchester. I asked the AHL about goalie PIM because I was sure he must be leading the league but some how Justin Pogge has 50 PIM. Holy balls! Did he KILL someone on the ice?

Brusty is only halfway there, so I think he's gonna have to partake in a bench clearing brawl and probably carve some poor soul up with his stick blade to catch him. I vote for Sheldon Souray as the carvee!

Jaeger had a shutout the other day that ended in a 15-0 score. What the everliving hell? The other team also got beat 18-something a few weeks ago. I'd spend my free time drunk and on suicide watch if I were their goalie.

At some point, wouldn't it just be better to have your goalie do the splits on the goal line and have all 5 of the rest of them crowd the front of the net like a wall to keep pucks out? That's gotta be more effective than whatever they're doing.

Keumper is the best goalie in the history of the CHL. Okay, maybe not, but he's just having the sickest season  ever. He should change his first name to Can'tsolve because that's what's before his last name in every article I read. "Warriors can't solve Kuemper" etc. Kid is so money. I hope all this success isn't fucking him up.

Hackett's growing on me. Little by little. Anton is doing whatever the opposite of that is. Sorry kid. Time for the ol' change of scenery, I think.

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Saturday Skate!

Haven't had one of those in a while. But I took my skates in for sharpening during the week and had to pick them up, so why not get a skate in while I'm at it, right?

Didn't do anything novel. Just did the usual swizzle stuff, crossovers in both directions, and then a good bit of backwards. Apparently my hips are retarded because I can do a backwards c-cut with my right leg but just totally grind through it with my left.

Poor Coach Stalin just watched and watched to try and figure out what I'm doing wrong, and she kept telling me to relax my legs and hips, just go with the flow. Well, apparently you have to HAVE flow to be able to go with it.

At this point, I'm actually considering get a lesson with Coach Stalin's coach, who she calls "Kid Teacher" because he's a high school kid who learned under Andrea and then got qualified to give lessons himself. It might help to have someone who's taught a number of people and maybe has some troubleshooting experience here. I dunno. Just something I'm pondering, because backwards skating is one of the larger hurdles to becoming a goalie, and today we spent some time fooling around in the crease. Man, I'm telling you, I feel so happy in that spot. Pad me up and shoot pucks at me! Please! (But, dear green team, don't expect me to stop much.)

Anyway. Long game tomorrow night and then that's the last of the long sessions (secretly very happy about this). Feeling very neutral about it. Not excited, not dreading. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from my last game and could really use a good experience tomorrow.

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Inline Skates

a.k.a. HOW THE F**K DO YOU STOP IN THESE THINGS???

It's official. I thought goalie skates were the ultimate reminder of how easy it is to skate in regular hockey skates, but I was wrong. Inline skates are.

The feel of them is actually really similar to goalie skates in that they're VERY heavy and don't have any rocker to them to make you more mobile. The difference is that in goalie skates, if you're out of control, you just glide into the boards and stop yourself. And your worst obstacle is another person or the nets. In inlines, any stopping must come from yourself because there are no boards and your worst obstacle is 2000 lbs. of moving steel that can crush you like a bug.

I just did a .75 mile loop of the streets around my house and since it's Sunday morning, I think I saw one car (nowhere near me) the whole time. There were more people out walking than driving, so that was a relief. I wore my bike helmet but no other protective gear. That won't happen again. I almost bit it several times and I need to learn to stop, which is invariably going to require some risk-taking and falling.

Anyway, it was scary but could be a lot of fun once I build up some skill and confidence. But I sure do miss the reliable flatness and coolness of the ice. :)

My team is playing hockey tonight but it's not a league game that I've already paid for (gotta pay extra), and my wrists are starting to feel better, so I don't want to bang them up again. Just enjoying a relaxing weekend without stressing myself out about hockey.

BTW, if you didn't see this week's Ace of Cakes where the Stanley Cup visits the bakery and they make a huge Stanley Cup cake, it's worth hunting down on the Food Network. I was kinda choking back tears when they presented the cake. It was pretty amazing.

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Post Game - 8/25

Well, as awesome as last week's game was, this week wasn't so great. I've had worse but it was enough that I'm having trouble getting to sleep because my brain keeps chewing on it.

I actually didn't play that bad, other than one really bad shift where I fell twice (both times on my injured wrists... grr!, once caused by my center and his stick that apparently was glued to the ice... grrr again!) and one defensive gaffe when I was supposed to be covering the point and I just wasn't where I needed to be and they ended up getting a goal. Now, I know there was lots of other stuff happening to make that goal happen, but that one didn't sit well with me.

The main problem was that I was on a line with two VERY good players, who both should probably be in B-league. So by the time I've decided we're definitely on the attack and I need to get down there and set up camp in front of the goalie, they've already made one attack on the goalie and either scored or are fighting for the puck in the corners or whatever. So I hardly got the puck at all and when I did have a chance at it, I fucking whiffed on the damn thing. AUGH. I can't even tell you how frustrating that is. It's right there, it's all mine, and somehow my stick just doesn't connect. Just makes you want to fall through the ice.

Of course, I understand the guys on my line wanting to get down there and play to the top of their ability but it sure doesn't make it much fun for the true novice-leaguer on the line, I can tell you that much. But I'm not making excuses. This is really just a call to action for me to get faster so I can keep up with the play now that I've got a semi-idea of where I need to be. But it really did make the game less fun. I get where my frustrated teammate was coming from a couple of weeks ago. I should tell her next time I see her that I "get it" now...

Oh well. This seems to be how it goes. One week is fabulous. Next week is sucky. No game next week so we'll see if I get sucky twice in a row or if fabulous will hold out for a week.

It was also kinda tough being the softie for goalies that I am... the final score was 14-1 (my team won). *cringe* The other team's goalie just had a really tough night and his D wasn't helping him at all. I just felt bad for him.

Oh, and get this! I got a penalty!! It was totally justified, though as I recall, I was going for the puck when I tripped the guy, but maybe I'm imagining that and really just lost control of my stick (more likely). I felt bad about the trip and should have apologized but got so thrown off that I got a penalty, I failed to do so. I absolutely didn't mean to but his skates intersected with my stick and I just was powerless to stop the chain of events unfolding in front of me. Though Coach Stalin (who, I should add, has never gotten a penalty and called me "Goon" the rest of the night LOL) said he checked her right after that, so he deserved it.

I was yelling at the ref and pointing at my chest going, "Girls don't get penalties!!!" So he tells me, "In novice league: Everyone gets a goal. Everyone gets a penalty." Though I don't know any of the other girls who've gotten penalties, so that's bullshit. But I deserved it. I tripped the shit out of the guy. It's very lonely in the box, BTW...

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Weekend Update

In the excitement of Prospect Watch 2008, I failed to post any of my training this week, which consisted entirely of making sure the couch didn't float away and nursing a banged up wrist (from what, I couldn't say... an accumulation of abuse, I guess).

That is until Friday when Coach Stalin and I busted out the outdoor puck and wooden sticks and went to the open air basketball court for a little passing practice. It was pretty fun but did my wrist no favors.

Yesterday, Coach and Mr. Stalin came over to Wii for a few hours. We wore ourselves out! The boxing is an especially good workout. My shoulders and upper back are definitely feeling it today. Even my hip is sore, which I can't figure out.

Anyway, the exciting thing is that I got a little chunk of Mr. Conduct's bonus and decided to buy myself some inline skates (RBK 5k Forsaken)! It's one of those things I've wanted for a while but couldn't justify buying unless I ended up with some mad money. The nice thing is I can use my bike helmet rather than having to buy another hockey helmet without a cage. Plus bike helmets are a lot cooler and have a ponytail hole.

There's a flat 1 mile loop that's closed to cars near my house that cyclists and rollerbladers can ride on safely, so that will be good for training. Should spare me some trips out to the suburbs to skate and some ice fees.

Game tonight, and it's the last one for two weeks since Labor Day is next weekend. Several members of the team are going to a novice league tournament in College Station over the weekend. At some point, I'll be up for something like that but not yet. I'm sure they'll have a great time though. Not really nervous about tonight, thankfully. But I do need a nap... :)

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Well, shit, that was fun

So, the skating clinic actually went really well. Helps a lot to not have "first time" nerves like I did last time. Plus, even Coach Stalin agreed that she dialed down the "drill instructor" tone quite a bit. I enjoyed it much more.

The game was a blast and I had this beautiful pass to the slot but my center just couldn't get it in the net. Both goalies were playing really well. Scott, the opposing goalie, gave me a shove in the back for the first time ever, and that just thrilled me because it told me I was all up in his kitchen and bugging him. Heh. If I can't be a goalie, I'm gonna be irritating to the goalie!

Anyway, our team played pretty well and it was all happiness and smiles after. All the angst of last week was gone gone gone.

I've had my Whataburger now and I'm letting the Advil kick in. I feel my eyelids getting heavy though, so hopefully the Advil will kick in quickly so I can get some sleep.

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Weekly Nerve Report

So, in good news, I found my beloved bottle of Xanax that I thought was lost forever. The good/bad news is that my hockey nerves didn't kick in until about 4 today and we hit the ice at 7:15. So, I'm just gonna have to find my own zen.

Tonight we have Andrea doing another power skating class, and really, that's what I'm most anxious about. I don't want to badmouth her because she really does know her stuff, but she's a hardass and I just don't really dig hardasses. I think every person has a different way in which they are optimally "reached" and her way (straightforward, humorless) just sets me on edge and makes me nervous and intimidated.

I've been trying to coach myself through it a bit by telling myself that I'm just there to learn. If I already knew how to do this stuff, then I wouldn't need the class. Also, I'm telling myself that I don't have to impress her (Lisa Simpson Syndrome). I just have to focus on ME and do my best.

It doesn't help that I didn't hit the ice at all this week.

*deep breath*

I wonder at what point I'll just look forward to playing rather than looking forward to being done playing for the week. Probably when I have a lot more confidence in my skating skills. Hey, good thing there's a skating skills class tonight! (See there?)

Okay, time to get ready. Damn. I just remembered I meant to go buy a bigger water bottle this week with a straw on it. Oh well. Next week.

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Lunch Skate

Skipped lunch today (man, my tummy is rumbling, too) and skated instead. I'd intended to just refresh my stopping a bit and then work on backwards, but my dumb-leg stopping needed more refreshing than I expected, so I worked on that the whole time, along with some just straight up laps around the rink to work on my stride and crossovers.

There was a guy (teenaged) getting a lesson from one of Andrea's students. It was fun to watch because they were working edges and doing some crazy, swervy stuff that I don't trust my edges nearly enough to do yet. It was just nice to see some really well-executed, hockey-style skating. Not that my novice league doesn't have some nice skaters, I'm just usually too wrapped up in my own stuff to care during a game.

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Three cheers for Dumb Leg!

So, if you read my blog, you know a couple of things:

1. I haven't had a real "victory" on the ice in a while. You know... a good skate where I left the rink doing a happy dance. It's all been sort of nervous survival for the last month or more.
   
2. I've had a bitch of a time learning to stop.
   

Well, today the hockey gods rewarded me with:

1. A randomly scheduled early evening public skate session at Willowbrook. They almost never have a mid-week public skate other than at lunchtime, so this was a rare occurrence.
   
2. Nearly empty ice. Maybe 15-20 people in the whole rink.
3. The rink attendant who looks like Brandon Rogers. (Hey, I skate better with eye candy.)
4. DUMB LEG FINALLY LEARNED TO STOP!!!
5. Victory... happy dance... texting Coach Stalin... woohoos from Coach Stalin... good mood for at least a few days!

I went to this skate with the intention of learning to stop on my dumb (left) leg if it took me the whole two hours to do it. Until today, I couldn't even put my left skate down to try and stop without the whole thing going haywire.

But today, I stayed patient, gave myself all the time I needed to work up to it, and little by little, I was able to shave the ice up with my left blade. The trick was be in a fairly deep knee bend. More than I have to do when I stop on my smart leg. I still have trouble making full blade contact with the ice because my leg doesn't want to turn that far inward. But if I focus on making contact with the heel of my blade first, it works out about right.

I need to spend some time standing around working on the leg rotation like I did a while back with my smart leg.

Anyway, enough of the mechanics of it, but it suffices to say that I am SO relieved. I really thought I was retarded and would never learn to stop. Of course, this isn't a full on hockey stop, but it's the beginning of it. And being able to stop properly provides me with some much needed agility, both in terms of skating out, but also looking ahead to playing goal. It's a BIG DEAL and I'm so excited. And I'm excited to be genuinely excited about hockey for the first time in a long while. Mostly it's been drudgery or Red Level Panic in the recent weeks.

So, it's good. I'm still not real confident stopping when I'm going fast and I have to concentrate really hard when I do it, but that will come. Doing lightning would still be a pretty clumsy affair but, again, it will come. It's good. :)

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The Insomnia that Never Sleeps!

Honestly, I just lay awake in bed with every single worry about the game on Sunday swirling in my head. I have to be deliriously sleepy to fall asleep. Of course, this makes me incredibly tired during the day and as soon as I'm done with work, I pass out on the couch and then wake up for dinner. And here I am at 2:46 a.m. Fudge.

But at least I've gotten all my shows watched. Priorities, you know.

And I'm trying to read this book called "The Hammer" about Dave Schultz, but it's all about how he regrets being an enforcer in the NHL. Come on, Dave! It's not as badly written as I expected it to be, but the content is a bit disappointing. I mean, I know enforcers have the shittiest job on the ice, but this is kinda like how that Roe vs. Wade lady is now saying she things abortion should be illegal. Come on! You're ruining it for the rest of us, eh? So I get irritated with it before I get sleepy enough to fall asleep.

Went to the Galleria to skate tonight. It was good mentally but I'm not going back there until school is back in session. It was literally just overrun with kids. And I really wanted to work on stopping, but doing that on a sheet that's jam packed with rental-skaters is just asking for trouble and frustration. So I only skated for 30 minutes and then just bailed. It just wasn't worth the hassle.

Gonna do yoga tomorrow come hell or high water. My knees were hurting a bit on the ice and I clearly have some stuff that needs stretching out.

You ever feel like you really just need to get sloppy drunk? That's how I'm feeling this week. Like a bender is imminent. But other than some beer after the game Sunday, I'm not sure when I'm gonna pull that off. Oh! I have kaluha! A kaluha and cream (okay, 1% milk) will put me to sleep, right? If not, it will at least be delicious. Good night!

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Sore in strange places

I feel like the weekend, from Friday on, was a frenzy of activity, mostly related to being on the ice... and not just being on the ice, but challenging myself on the ice. I can't say I look back on it with total fondness, to be quite honest. I know it will get better, but I had a hard time falling asleep last night with the weekend running through my head. Mostly the stuff I did that I'm not exactly cheering about. Which is a lot of it. I'm way too hard on myself, but I've always kinda been the sort that, if I can't get up to speed pretty quickly and do something fairly well, then it's not worth the bother. I'm going against a lot of my personal grain in this endeavor (and even moreso with skating out).

Anyway, I obviously didn't have all my kvetching out of my system. Forgive me. I overprocess when my confidence is low. The blog takes the brunt of it (though Mr. Conduct would argue that point).

But to the subject at hand, I woke up with plenty of soreness in strange places today. I fell twice yesterday, but with all my gear on, so I shouldn't be hurting from that. Yet I really don't feel like I did anything that should have made me so sore. Maybe I underestimated what I did yesterday. Or maybe I underestimated the falls. Usually my pride is so wounded, the actual pain of the fall doesn't come to me until much later.

Seriously, if there was a way to just keep one beer in my system all the time or maybe a dash of Xanax on board, I'd let all this angst go and just be the happiest person. Alas, responsible adulthood requires sobriety most of the time. Damn.

Oh, but speaking of beer, this being beer league hockey, there is much beer and bawdy discussion in the parking lot after the game. I didn't have any because I was tired and hungry and still had to drive 25 miles home at 11:30 p.m. but I did try a sip of Amanda The Goalie's Carlsberg Pilsner (meh... too beery for my taste, but pretty easy to drink) and Scott The Canadian Goalie's Dos Equis (with lime, terrific! Where's this shit been all my life? You could almost taste the chips and queso. That's definitely my new mexican food staple. Thanks, eh!)

I suppose if the weekend results in nothing more than sore muscles and a new beer to love, I really don't have much to complain about. :)

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Doing better; ESPYS

Okay, so I still sucked at the skating clinic, though it was all revolving around the fact that I suck at stopping on my right leg and can't stop at all on my left. Ugh. Other than that, it was fine. Didn't feel like I got a ton out of it, other than just kinda having to get over myself a little bit, but that's probably worth it.

Or maybe I'm just too tired to care right now.

After I got home and scrubbed the accumulated stink off my person, I tuned into the ESPYS. I have to say, Justin Timberlake and Will Ferrell & Co. made it pretty entertaining, but as a hockey fan, it made me want to shoot the TV. Come on, how do you NOT give Rick Nash the best play? Or Red Wings the best team? They dominated all season!

And I'll give you one guesses as to who from this list won best NHL player (at least they had a category):

Best NHL Player
Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames
Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins
Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings
--->Sidney "The only name I recognize, so he must be good" Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins<---

One guesses!

Ugh. ESPN sucks. Hosers.

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Meltdown at the Icecapades

Okay, I saved the meltdown until I got to the privacy of my home (and my bewildered husband), and there were no icecapades unless you count the balletic flip I did when some kid blind-sided me.

Stick and puck #2 this morning was not quite the joyous, sweaty fun of stick and puck #1. What I'm learning is that "stick and puck" is universal code for "drop-in hockey" so if you're really there to just work on drills and you're the ONLY one there working on drills, then you feel like a newbie schmuck for causing 20 people to play half ice hockey while you literally just move back and forth and back and forth learning to control the puck.

If one of the hockey coaches hadn't been there to make them do half ice, I really would have been screwed and angry. As it was, I did actually get some good practice moving the puck (which is a lot harder to do correctly than it looks), but it's tearfully boring work and pretty lonely. But Coach said she had to do the same thing herself a few times and also felt like a schmuck, so I guess this is just a rite of passage of learning to play hockey as an adult.

We have the power skating clinic this evening and apparently we're wearing full gear, which I think is stupid, but I guess it's not up to me. Just seems like learning techniques for the first time would be easier if you're not loaded down, at least with the upper body gear. But whatever. I'm trying to work up a happy face but am not quite feeling it. These are growing pains, my friends... necessary but painful.

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First Stick and Puck

i. am. exhausted.

Honestly, I haven't been this tired since I walked 26.2 miles in 7.5 hours last October. And let me tell you, this was a helluva a lot more fun. And no blisters!

I was so nervous all morning. Just beside myself with nerves. I couldn't tell you why, other than just fear of the unknown. But I cranked up my hockey tunes on the drive out to the rink and was feeling far less nerve-wracked by the time I got there.

We were the only women, so we had our own locker room, which was nice. And I was there early enough to put my gear on wrong (twice) and not have to rush to fix it. :)

Anyway, we hit the ice and the guys took up about 2/3 of the rink with a pick-up game and we hung to the other end and worked on puck handling (which I suck desperately at at the moment) and passing (which I was decent enough at that I actually really surprised Coach Stalin).

She was also very complimentary of my stronger, more confident skating in my gear. But seriously, if this $400 exoskeleton doesn't make me confident, nothing ever will. I honestly feel like I could play goal in this stuff. It's fucking HOT, but it's protective!

Anyway, I had to take two rest breaks in the hour-long stick and puck session. I was absolutely dripping with sweat (literally within 5 minutes, I had sweat dripping out of my helmet off my face). I wrung a stream of sweat out of my ponytail when we finished. Woof. Next time I'll take a much larger bottle of water with a bit of Gatorade powder mixed in.

As fun as it was, I can't even tell you how happy I was to see the Zamboni door open. :)

Then we took a nice long break. Coach got back in her normal clothes and I stripped the upper body pads and helmet, which was a massive relief. Food didn't sound good (typical for me after I've been exerting myself), so I just sucked down a bottle of Gatorade while Coach ate a little lunch. Then we got back on the ice for the last 45 minutes or so of the public skate so I could work just on skating in my gear. It actually wasn't too bad, even with my huge pants and shin guards. Though we worked on crossovers a bit and I was very nearly in tears, I was so frustrated. But it got better by the end.

And then, mercifully, they kicked us off the ice again and I was able to get back into flip flops and comfy pants. Yay!

So, that's how the day went. What was really interesting to me is how the skating aspect of things just vanished when I was having to concentrate on moving the puck around. There were moments where I forgot I was on skates, which was kind of surreal, but really pretty pleasant. I've spent so much time focusing on the skating, it was really nice to let that go and focus on something else entirely.

Looks like we're going to hit another stick and puck on Sunday morning, and then the skating clinic is before the game Sunday night. Which is a little awkward because I just don't see how I can possibly do all three things when today's activities so thoroughly exhausted me, but I think they're going to be at least in partial gear (bottoms) for the clinic.

Kinda embarrassing to admit that I just don't have the stamina to actually play the game, but I just don't see how I can do it and have any brain left for the game. I'd rather play my first game a little fresher in the head and body.

Oh well, it will get sorted out. Meanwhile, the damn laundry needs to finish because I'm desperate to go to bed!!!

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Saturday Skate & New Stick!

Had my first skate with Coach Stalin since I decided to skate out. We did our usual stuff, added on some hard core crossover work, including finally turning left! Also worked on lightning and she gave me tips on cheating because I'm not nearly fast enough and I can't stop on my left side.

Also worked on doing turns with a small radius (to help with not being able to stop on my left). It was a bit of a clusterfuck on my part but I don't feel too discouraged. Everybunny starts somewhere, eh?

Finally, we skated through some game-time positioning, which was pretty fun. My inability to think under pressure is going to be my Achilles heel.

And before we left, we spent a good bit of time in the pro shop picking out a stick for me. Ended up selecting a Nike/Bauer Vapor XII with the Lindros blade. It's got burnt orange and it's fairly pretty, though it also felt good, so I'm happy.

Say Hi to Eric:

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Sunday Skate

Yep! Amazingly, my back was pretty darn fine today. Kinda being careful with it still, but I definitely felt fine to skate today. I only got an hour in but it was darn near empty so I got to work on everything in relative peace, which was heavenly.

It was my first skate since deciding to skate out, so I had to totally reframe the game in my head. I'm forever stopping in the crease and looking out at the ice, imagining plays developing in front of me and people shooting at me. That's where I've been playing the game in my head for six months!

Today, I stood at center ice and the blue line and looked at the goal and tried to imagine shooting at the net. Hell, I'm just trying to figure out how to skate AND move the stick/puck with my hands. Needless to say, I've got DH's old ball hockey stick and a racquet ball that I'm shoving around the hardwoods. I'm pretty sure I'm better cut out to be a defenseman as I've always had more of a defensive mentality in sports, but seeing as how I can't skate backwards worth a damn...

Anyway, there was a very sweet family of Minnesotans at the rink. Dad had on these seriously old school hockey skates. Like, I swear to god, these were skates that Rocket Richard would have worn. But I had on my Wild Gaborik t-shirt (you know, because I like to invite comparisons between my skating and Gabby's because I'm a glutton for punishment) so they asked if I was from Minnesota. I told them that, no I'm just a huge Wild fan, but I have learned a lot from the Minnesotans I've met, including how to make hotdish. He asked if I was going to make lutefisk next and I said, no, I have boundaries and that's on the other side.

It was kinda funny. This was the blondest, most wholesome, sweetest family I think I've ever seen. Is that what it's like in Minnesota? I guess I'll see when we go up for some games this winter (which Mr. Conduct is on board with and we're going to start planning when the schedule comes out next week). I can't wait to go up there!

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Skating THURSDAY!

Yep. Took the day off from work and thought maybe I'd get lucky and the rink would be empty. WRONG. I pull up and there are TWO school buses out front. Sweet Jeezus.

I couldn't do a whole lot. It was pure obstacle course out there. So I worked on crossovers quite a bit, the usual swizzle nonsense, a smidge of stopping at the end after they cut the ice and all the kids hadn't returned. No backwards, which is what I really need to be working on. Hopefully I can hit that hard on Sunday.

Never the less, it actually was a good strong skate. It was a bit more of a workout due to the literal non-stop dodging of children. My upper back is talking to me and man, my legs are SORE between spinning last night (and not stretching properly) and then skating today. Legs are feeling strong though. Feels great.

Sun and fun and beer tomorrow. Yay America!

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Saturday Skate

So I did end up doing abs and weights (chest and arms) on Friday night. Good little workout but man, I'm still sore. I have got to get more diligent about that.

Coach Stalin worked me pretty hard yesterday. We're always having to tighten up my fundamentals when we go a spell without a lesson, but it wasn't as bad as usual. I got my swizzles under control. Tweaked my stopping a bit. No crossovers. Just worked on going backwards quite a bit and *I'm* not getting it and I don't think she understands why in order to help me fix it. I don't either. It's really just the c-cuts I do as a goalie, but backwards. I can do c-cuts forward quite easily but I feel like I'm skating in gravel when I go backwards. Just can't seem to get the thrust I need to get going. I dunno. It's frustrating, and I'm feeling a bit retarded about the whole thing.

But it was still a good skate and I did my shuffles like a good girl. :)

We're planning to hit the driving range this morning. Maybe that will work out some of this soreness in my chest and back.

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Offseason

Gotta say, the offseason sucks. Someone on the Wild board suggested that the trick is to wait until July 7 to panic, so I'm going that route, but I still can't help but feel like we're in "rebuilding" mode due to a rather weak free agency class this year and a GM who hates to over pay. While I actually appreciate that philosophy from a long term perspective, it makes the short term seem pretty depressing. Not to mention Russo projecting that my favorite Wild player, Todd Fedoruk, will not be re-signed. There WILL be tears. I love that guy.

Anyway, I went skating by myself last night. I swear, the Galleria rink has the most incompetent management. Last night, they cut the ice and then let the rink rats skate on their own for a couple of minutes immediately after cutting the ice. Of course, obnoxious skaters on wet, soft ice means big gouges in the ice. I finally got fed up and bailed after about 45 minutes. But I still got a good skate in and did some nice crossover work. My two-leg swizzles have gone to shit though. Coach Stalin is going to pull some very stern faces at me for that.

Spinning tonight. Which reminds me, I need to start guzzling water now.

ETA: Spinning was good. A Mikko clone was in the class. That didn't hurt my feelings at all.

Then he started to hit on the instructor after class in a rather meat-headed way. I wanted to tell him he's better looking with his mouth shut.

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Catching up

You know how your mama told you if you don't have something nice to say, keep your yap shut? Well, that's been me the last few days... that and being a bit busy with this and that.

I believe I last reported a not so great skate on Thursday. Since then, we had the draft on Friday, a dinner party on Saturday, skating on Sunday, and yoga today.

Hip is still nasty looking and the hamstring still hurts a bit. I really aggravated it when I washed the dog on Saturday (so as to not offend our guests with his filth) and it's nagging me still, but not as badly.

Skating on Sunday was 25% great and 75% suck. As is usual when my hips are out of alignment, it takes me a good 30 minutes of skating to feel steady on my feet and comfortable in my boots. It amazes me how much that little adjustment makes a huge difference in my stability and strength. So I did a lot of rather weak swizzles of all varieties. I worked on skating backwards quite a bit. As usual, tiny improvements in confidence and skill there, though I still can't go one length of the ice without psyching myself out. But I went 3/4 of the ice several times just to try and push through the fear factor that's holding me back.

Also worked on crossovers once I got my ice legs going nicely and felt pretty good about it, but I'm sure Coach Stalin will shred me for my technique next time we work on it. And speaking of which, man am I desperate for a session with her that's not at the horrible Galleria rink. You just can't get anything done there, it's so full of newbies and rink rats and it's such a small sheet. Ugh. It's pretty much only good for keeping those skating muscles working between real skating sessions on the weekends. And for that, it's nearly essential. If I miss a mid-week skate, I suck badly on the weekend.

Anyway, I worked on stopping a bit and other little things but didn't do my shuffles and really only ended up skating for an hour, which is a very short session for weekend ice. But with my leg hurting a bit, something just told me to go home when they kicked everyone off to cut the ice. So I went home.

The yoga felt really good today and I felt particularly inspired by this note from Nolan Schaefer to Aeros fans that the team published today. He's talking about his summer goings-on and his conditioning program for the summer. He does Bikram yoga, which is done in a heated room. I see the appeal because yoga is so cleansing, and then to get a really ridiculous sweat out of the deal would just enhance that. Never mind the mental focus it must take to just perform the positions correctly, breathe correctly, etc. when you're doing this in a puddle of sweat.

Nice to hear that he does all the crazy stuff I've been told to do, like juggling, as part of his workouts. And boxing? Maybe that's where that fight came from at the beginning of last season? :)

Anyway, it sounds like we might try to skate tomorrow night if Coach gets off work in time. Our usual Thursday skate date is being overrun with apparently 400 skaters. I almost want to go to the Galleria Thursday night to see what 400 people skating on that tiny ice looks like. Must look like the I-45 at rush hour...

Other than that, I've been working on butterfly stretches a bit. Hurts the shit out of my hips. I have a feeling my b-fly is gonna be pretty narrow, but at this point, I'll be happy if I can just get up and down and not be immobilized in that awkward position while I get scored on. I can already tell I'm going to be grateful that there's only one puck on the ice at one time. Once it's in, it's in. Regroup and get 'em next time. (See, this is me working on my mental game...)

And BTW, Leininkugel's Summer Shandy is my new best friend. Try some. Just don't buy it at my Kroger here in River Oaks... that shit's mine.

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