Quick Hits: Live Blog, goaltending, whining, etc.

Just a heads up, one of the sites I write for, Wild Nation, is doing a live blog during the game tonight. Russo says Gaby is waaaay questionable for playing, but we'll be there mocking him one way or the other.

Suck on that, ya glass-groined hack! (Kidding, I really don't have an issue with Gaby, especially since he's been good to my fantasy team thus far.)

------------------------

This got posted on one of the blogs I read today. Sorry for not crediting them but I don't remember and I'm too lazy to go back and look. Anyway, I do so enjoy watching skaters fuck up their attempts to outsmart goalies, so this video of the top 10 worst shootout attempts made me feel warm and evil inside.



----------------------

One of my tasks for the day is to write my PHN article, which I've been putting off hoping that the Aeros would give me a sign as to their personality. And they did, but it's more of a gut feeling I have rather than something I can point to. So, now the strug-gle is to find a way to quantify that feeling objectively. Hmm.

Bottom line is my gut feeling is this team will be okay.

----------------------

Can I take a sec to whine about things that hurt on my body?

• The gnarly bruise on my leg is ... gnarly. Huge and unpretty, but still rad. Just wish that shot hadn't gone in.
• Both knees have been hurting on the outside (like ACL or IT Band) the last two days. Gonna do some stretching and see if that helps.
• I whacked myself in the head getting my leg pads out of the car Sunday and that left a cut on my eyebrow.
• I'm coughing stuff up from that cold and still kinda tired from it.
• My tweaked ankle is still tweaked and makes me nervous shuffling to the left (which I've never been very good at anyway). Murgh.
• My left shoulder has been hurting for 3 weeks now. No clue what I did to it. Definitely some kind of rotator cuff thing.
  

BUT I got invited to play again on Monday at SLICE, so another 3 in 3 for me, baby. LOVE! IT! Though at some point I'm going to have to get another set of underclothes. I have 2 pair of yoga pants. Will just have to put knee pads in the second pair and maybe hit up Target for another long-sleeve wicking top.

For 10 months, I've never worn any shirt but my Portland Marathon finisher's shirt under my goalie gear. It's held up great but it probably does need a friend to take the load off and I'm not as desperate for the "proof that you can do anything you put your mind to" boost it gave me when I first started.

--------------------------

You know what's awesome? I thought we were dangerously low on toilet paper in the house and I was gonna have to make a dreaded Costco run, but I found a stash of 12 rolls in the downstairs bathroom! Woohoo!

Seriously, it's the simple things.

---------------------------

Aeros play tonight in addition to the Wild. This will be 3 games in 4 nights for Dubielewicz. He's not exactly a brick wall on a good day, so perhaps there's a change of scene in goal, either to start or during the game if it gets away from Dubie? We shall see. I'm excited.

Read more...

Robbed and ransacked

I broke down and got an iced mocha this morning. I knew I'd regret it later but it tasted so good, and for about 15 minutes, man, I felt like I could conquer the world if I needed to.

But I already feel like I'm coming out of my skin a little bit. Urgh. So, I'll blog to distract myself, eh?

Played drop-in last night and as great as my legs felt Monday night, boy were they tired last night. Every time I recovered from going down, my legs whispered, "You suck and we hate you" in my ear.

But the organizers were very accommodating and set it up so I had my own net all night, which took away some of the sting of missing the third period and OT and shootout of an incredible Aeros game. Definitely got my sweat on and made a few nice saves. Had lots of trouble with my right pad though. Dammit. And now my left pad is not flipping up occasionally. Wish I had an ounce of athleticism... this shouldn't be so difficult.

One funny thing is that I think the guys I'm playing with are starting to get used to me now. On both Monday and Tuesday I had guys breaking the Avery Rule at the top of my crease. And then on one particularly nice goal against last night, the kid even did the Ovechkin hot stick celebration. :)

I dunno, I guess some goalies would get pissed about that stuff, but for me, it reminds me to just have fun and lighten up, so I don't mind. Though the one guy doing the Avery shit last night did almost get nutted. He persisted a little too long so I started swinging the stick a little bit and reminded him that I know exactly where his nuts are. He got the picture, but he did not get the goal. Ha.

Nothing too crazy last night though. I was tired and worn down from being sick and playing 3 nights in a row, so there was some slowness on my part, but I'm not gonna beat myself up over it. I protected my 5-hole a lot better, made one really nice save with the shaft of my stick, stopped some of the better guys even on some breakaways, etc. so I feel okay about it, all things considered.

I'm gonna have to learn to start catching some of these shots at my chest though. I keep getting crushed in the boobs and that hurts. I need an armored bra. But at least I know I'm square to the puck. :)

The bruise from Monday on my inner thigh is a real sight though. It's gonna be around a while, I can tell. I'm gonna wear skirts as often as possible so I can show it off. It's quite literally in the shape of a moving puck. Just gonna get "Made in Slovakia" tattooed there.

Instead, I offer you a picture of the scene I came home to just after midnight last night. I think my boy had a party on the sofa in my office while I was gone. I thought for a second we'd been robbed and ransacked...

"Why are you laughing?"

Oh, I'm loving this song. Great mellow vibe.

Read more...

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? :)

Read more...

Medicate here with me

I'm kinda frustrated with my game tonight.

A simple list, because I'm grouchy:

• Too much 5-hole. Stick on the motherfucking ice, bitch. It's not rocket surgery. Two goals in this way tonight.
• One goal was a beautiful back door pass where I was focused too hard on the puck carrier and wasn't loaded to slide.
• One goal hit the top of my leg pad and bounced in. Don't really know what to do about those, but I never see it happen to pros, so I know I'm doing something wrong.
  
• The final goal was a tip-in by my defenseman. Kind of a weird one that would have just fluttered to safety, but my D batted it down and into the net. I guess there was probably more I could have done there, but in the mental math of goaltending and calculating threats, my own guy putting it in the net was a lot lower than my concern about covering the bottom of the net. So I was down, and he was up, and goal.
  
• How come MY guy can bat it in with a high stick but if the opponent does, the goal is called off? Huh? HUH? Fuck that rule sideways.
  

I did catch a couple. Man, nothing better than a nice glove save. But I'm still frustrated that I let in those softies. Would have been a tie without those. Jessica played well at the other end. *sigh*

Apart from the glove saves, which were badass, Scotty rifled one at me and if I had implants, would have busted one of them. Ouch. But I stopped him, so there. I made a toe save on Peed that normally would have gotten past me. Also had a nice sliding save to stop a shot on a back door pass. Great positioning there.

Oh, and one other good thing I did. When I was getting lit up in the second period and getting frustrated, I remembered that I was supposed to be HAVING FUN. I rarely remember that when I'm getting beat up, but it helped (so, thank you to my fellow goalie readers who remind me of this occasionally).

Also, these games don't wear me out like they used to, so I stayed on the ice a few more minutes after the game, since they were slow to get the zam going, and worked on my butterfly a bit (including keeping my stick on the ice). I'm not usually an "extra work" kinda gal, but I'm glad I stole a few moments of ice there.

Looking forward to playing SLICE tomorrow.

Haven't eaten for about 12 hours now, but I've got my usual disappointing-game=lack-of-appetite thing going. Not even a little hungry, other than I know I should eat or I'm gonna feel like dookie tomorrow. I think a bowl of cereal just so I'm not chewing on my pillow in the morning is probably a good idea.

Read more...

More Quick Hits: Head pinching, Chris Holt, 5-hole

Wow, what a title!

First, this post by the Hockey Junkies made me laugh. Top Ten Things Injured Players are doing in the Press Box during a Game. I think the least you could do is pinch opponents heads (#1), especially if you don't know my cell number (#10).

Sexting. Hahahaha... yeah.*ahem* Anyway...

-------------------

Speaking of which, my goalie fetish continues to spread like kudzu. The latest on my mind is Chris Holt, for whom I fell during those endless strings of games against Peoria last season.

He never did anything but warm-up behind Manny Legace, but he was energetic, charming, forthright, and engaging with the fans and worried about cutting my toes off with his skates as he paced around during a particularly intense shootout, so I was smitten.

That said, he's with the Senators organization now and he got sent down to the ECHL Elmira Jackals due to overcrowding in the ranks. He finally gets his first start sometime this weekend. I can just picture him bounding around the crease. In warm-ups, he looked spring-loaded, which is pretty unusual for a big guy (6'3" 230).

Why am I writing about this here? Well, he's not back in the AHL yet, so no excuse to write about him for InGoalMag. If I didn't have a real job or if I didn't cover the Aeros, I'd totally cover the Coast and the CHL for InGoal. Which reminds me, I owe a daily report over there.

If there are any Jackals fans reading, let me know how he looks, will ya?

----------------

Illegal Curve wants an update on my five-hole. I think, like most hockey fans, they want to hear that it's nice and tight, and I'm happy to report that it is. No problems there lately. It's the other holes that are getting the action.

Thank God I've never told my mom about this blog.

Read more...

Easy come, easy go

Like any other gear-intensive activity, goaltending does lend itself to giving you GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). Fortunately, I'm pretty happy with most of my stuff. While I'd love a more protective chest protector, I like my light little Brian's protector.

But I realized lately, I had to make a change in neck protection. I've grown to hate my dangler. It rattles, it interferes with my view, when a puck hits it, it dings the paint on my mask chin, it comes untied (came untied twice last time I played SLICE). I just hate it.

So, I've been sold on the Maltese neck/clavicle combo to replace it. And I've read a lot of people who say to just cut off the crappy little neck "guard" that sticks up on the chest protector, which I may do. It interferes with the chin of my mask when I look down and that's kind of a problem.

Of course, the more I read about the great Maltese gel products, the more I want to just replace all the padding in my mask with gel. Supposed to put your face closer to the cage for better visibility. But it's just not in the budget right now.

The combo isn't cheap but it's hand-made and I know I can rely on the quality because their customer service is supposed to be out of this world. But I am selling my inline skates on Craigs List to make up for it. Easy come, hopefully easy go. I'd love to get those skates sold. I just couldn't get used to skating in them and they're nearly $200 dust collectors at the moment.

Anyway, I'm really excited to get the Maltese after all the great things I've heard about it. I think that's going to work a lot better for me.

And with that, that's probably the last new gear I'm getting for a long time. I've got my knee pads working for me, though I keep having to re-sew them into the pants I wear... yeah, the sweaty yoga pants... because they get a little banged up and washed a ton and whatnot. Everything else fits nicely. The only thing left that I want is one of the black practice jerseys I saw the Aeros goalies wearing... will have to see if I can secure one of those when the season ends. :)

Read more...

So, Cal...

Amazing to think this time last season, Clutter was just revealing himself (not in a streaker way, but in a hockey way) to the Minnesotans. I was holding my breath wondering both how his game would translate up there and how the sometimes-stuffy (oh, just accept it, you are!) Minnesota hockey fans would accept his edgy style of play.

Well, it didn't take long to breathe regular again because he couldn't have approached his entry into the NHL with any more poise and intelligence.

Anyway, he seems to continue to constantly raise the expectation level and make bigger, better paid, more lauded NHLers look like candyasses. This time he's doing it with the dreaded high ankle sprain, which lays most guys out for weeks on end, and even then, they take a long time to get back to where they were before the injury.

I actually wasn't quite sure what a high ankle sprain was exactly. I mean, the ankle isn't that big, but apparently there's enough of it to have a high and a low. Here's some info on it. Note that even for a "stable" sprain, it's 3-6 weeks in a cast.

But of course, Cal is back on the ice already, trying to get back in game shape and shake off the tentativeness that comes with recovering from an injury.

Of course, whenever you have something injured, you compensate with other parts of your body, which can throw your whole body out of whack. Hopefully they're guarding against that, or at least treating with that phenomenon in mind. Otherwise, you end up straining the opposing muscles, jacking up your back, etc. Got the t-shirt on that one.

Anyway, I think it's interesting that they're letting him go full bore already. Given my experience with soft tissue injuries, it does make some sense. It will be interesting to see if the approach works to get him going sooner with this particular injury though. I've never seen anyone not just wait it out, though I know a few guys have in playoff situations.

I'm not typically one for medical stuff, but sports medicine is pretty interesting to me, mainly because I've spent a stupid amount of time and money being hurt, misdiagnosed, mistreated, etc. so I've had to do a lot of research on my own to get the right treatment.

Luckily I haven't hurt anything yet playing hockey that hasn't mostly gotten better on its own or with a visit to the chiro or massage therapist. Knock on wood. Though I am getting a lot of pucks to the head lately. I'm hoping it makes me smarter.

Read more...