Boys are gross

As is my custom, after open hockey today I found an empty locker room and locked myself inside so I could clean the streaks of salt off my body. The rink felt warmer than usual today. That, and playing the full session with no breaks left my gear drenched and my glasses fogged. (Can I blame my poor play on my foggy lenses?) I was anticipating the sense of relief one gets by a nice shower after a hard workout, but that was marred when as soon as I soaped myself up I noticed a very suspicious brown glob smeared on the shower wall at eye level.

I stopped at the desk on the way out and mentioned my discovery to the two female and one male standing around looking bored. They all looked thoroughly disgusted when I left the desk, as well they should. I can't even fathom, nor do I really want to, why something like that would be in a spot like that. It wasn't on the floor. It wasn't even at ass-level. Someone had to have had it on their hand in order for it to be where it was. *shudder*

Needless to say, I took another shower when I got home. It's hard to feel clean when you're showering with a shitstain.

I'm not the only one

Apparently, it's not just me who thinks the Vaughn 7500 / 7400's are Awesome Pads. Goalie Husband and I went to our local hockey shop recently to take a look at what they had in stock. Specifically, I was interested in seeing a pair of Bauer Supremes. Unfortunately they didn't have much in stock, and nothing in my size. Everything they had was pretty much kid size, and mostly Itech and RBK. When I first went to ice, I bought my mask and my pads at this store, so the woman there knows me. We chatted a bit about what I was looking for, and she saw me eyeballing a set of Vaughns (some other model, not the 7400s) and said "I think I know what you're looking for", and set down a book in front of me, opened to the page with the Awesome Pads. I laughed and told her those were actually the ones I'd had my eye on for a while, but there was no way I could afford them. She said the super expensive ones are the 7500s, the pro stock. But the 7400s are a step down from those and in the affordable range (affordable in terms of goalie pads anyway). We talked a bit more, and she looked to see if her rep had my size in stock (he does, just not the color I want- I'm not picky as long as the background is white. These had black backgrounds).

What I found really interesting was that she said she had a bunch of high school kids coming in and asking about them, as well as guys in rec leagues. So she'd been considering ordering a bunch from the rep, because she can get a decent discount with a certain amount of order. I told her I'd definitely be interested but didn't want to flat out say yes without trying them on, which she totally understood. She said that wouldn't be a problem at all because in my size, and the color I want (basically neutral), even if I didn't buy them she'd be able to move them.

Another thing I found interesting was having my suspicions/opinions about the quality of different brands confirmed. The very low-end Itechs I have now have been great for what I bought them for; something cheap to get me on the ice. I've beat the hell out of them, playing 3 times a week for a year and a half in them, and it's really starting to show. Certain parts of the padding are starting to break down, and some of the stitching is coming out. They're just not a very good quality pad at all. Of course, you get what you pay for. These were $300 and I've more than gotten my money's worth out of them. I told her that's what I was using and she showed me the next few models up from that but said she wouldn't even waste her money on them; and flipped them over and showed me why. Certain parts of the straps just won't last, especially as much as I play. Itech is a leader in masks. In pads... they have long way to go. I'd kind of figured that out on my own. I also figured Vaughn was a real quality brand, just from eyeballing other goalie's pads, and reading stuff online. She confirmed that as well, without me asking.

So, it looks like there might be a set of Awesome Pads in my future!!! They're pricey. But they will absolutely last me the rest of my hockey playing days, no question about it. I hope they fit, and I hope they turn out to be what I really am looking for, because starting all over again from the drawing board doesn't sound like fun. This is the last piece of the puzzle in terms of my gear. Everything else I have is very good quality stuff that will last me forever. I lucked out on my glove and blocker and got pro stock on insanely good sale. No need to replace them any time in the near or distant future. So this should hold me for a good long time.

Yay gear. :)

Oh, goalie...

My holiday weekend started off with a round of open hockey today. I saw a former team-mate there who I haven't seen in a while, so that was pretty cool. What wasn't cool was that he said the reason he could come to this time slot was that he'd been laid off. And what was also not cool was that it was one of my poorer showings of late, at least one particular shift was.

Ok. Here's a secret. I have never mentioned this to anyone because it's embarassing and makes me look really stupid. I hate switching sides in open hockey, because I always have trouble remembering who's on my side. There. Pretty dumb, right? The guys coming at you with the puck aren't on your side, dumbass. But I think what happens is, whoever I play for first gets imprinted on my brain as "my team" and it's hard to make the jump to the other side without literally reminding myself every minute or so when I first switch that those are the "bad guys" now. Usually it doesn't affect my play because my brain manages to catch up just in time. And this lag usually lasts only for the first few minutes. Not today. I started out on the dark team. Everything went pretty well, even though that end of the ice was a total shooting gallery. Then I switched sides for my next 15 minute shift (3 other goalies today, so shorter shifts). When I got into the net I told myself "Ok. The dark guys are your enemy". Unfortunately about halfway through my shift, with play in the other end, the puck ended up coming down into my zone. I saw a guy flying down to get it but knew I could get there first. So I skated about halfway to the blue line, stopped it, and passed it to him. As his dark burgundy jersey passed me I thought to myself "well jeez if you were just going to go take it behind the net I wouldn't have come out to.... oh."

I skated back to the crease in time to retrieve the puck from the net on its way back out from the force of the guy's shot. A (light-jerseyed) teammate met me there and looked at me and said "it's ok if you turn it over, just get back and play some fucking goal". Ouch. I managed to say "I got confused...." but stopped, figuring it was better if he thought I just turned it over, than if he knew that for some reason I'd forgotten that dark wasn't my team. I heard other guys on the ice saying "what the hell was that all about?". Ooops.

Fortunately I managed to make some really good saves on my next shift... back on the dark side again. And the light guys had the majority of the speedy awesome stickhandlers, so I felt pretty good about that. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I shut them out. But I felt more comfortable and made better decisions over there. Like not handing the puck to the opposition on a silver platter.

The college guys are back

A few days ago I went out for open hockey, making sure to get there nice and early because I had a feeling it would be a popular time. There was one other goalie signed in when I got there, so I signed my name and went off to watch the kids playing before I changed. It was a short session, only an hour and 20 minutes, so I was a little disappointed to find three other goalies waiting to get on the ice when the time finally came. One however said he was going to leave halfway through, so that helped a little bit.

Imagine my surprise when warming up, I noticed a fifth goalie standing around on the boards waiting for his turn. Now, every place I’ve ever been for open hockey limits the number of goalies to four. With four goalies you can take shifts and still get some decent playing time but anything more than that is just flat out ridiculous. Please note that I have only been playing ice hockey for a year, and I am aware of this practice. Enter Kid With Awesome Pads (more on those later). With the planning-to-leave-early goalie already on the bench, the rest of us conferred as to what to do. All of us but Kid pointed out that we had signed in- Kid played dumb and pretended he didn’t know you were supposed to do that. He was probably college age. And judging by his play, he’s no stranger to rinks, and certainly knows open hockey is limited to 4 goalies. I’m sure he just looked at the list, saw 4 names and decided to head to the locker rooms anyway. Fortunately, he offered to stay on the bench until the other guy left, and then he’d jump into the rotation. Fair enough. And he was good enough to actually do that, too.

What cracked me up was about 10 minutes before the other guy left, the gal from the front desk came into the rink, opened one of the doors and yelled “GOALIES!!!” The game came to a screeching halt, and 20+ skaters crowded around her at the door, us goalies lumbering over behind them. She read off the four names on the list, we raised our hands when called, and she fixed Kid with a stony look and told him he had to leave. He explained how we’d resolved the issue and she let him stay. I got a huge kick out of all the skaters crowded around to see who was going to “get in trouble”.

Speaking of the skaters... A large portion of them had helmets and/or practice jerseys from a college team. And man, was it fast. It was absolutely exhilarating, to be perfectly frank. I loved it, after I got over my initial nervousness. Fortunately, I was on the end of the ice with a lot less shots. Even so, I did really well against them. On my first shift I didn’t allow any goals at all, and on the second shift, I allowed 2 that I probably should have had, but I got back into the swing of things. Stopping one particular player on a breakaway was gratifying, because he is one of the four ringers on a team in our instructional league. Funny how he was keeping up just fine with the college guys, if he’s in the instructional league…

And here’s the part where I totally geek out, so feel free to skip this part if you’re not a goalie. Ok, Kid With Awesome Pads. They’re only Awesome Pads because they’re the ones I’d buy if I had $1500 lying around. And they’re only the ones I’d buy because I’m a marketing whore and some of my favorite goalies wear them. Ok, that’s not entirely true. Lundqvist is my favorite of any of them and there’s no way I’d want the pads he wears. So I’m not a complete marketing whore. I do know what I want in a pad, and flat straight boards aren’t it. Someday I’ll try one on just to see if it really is what I want, or if I’m responding to what I see people I admire wearing. But beyond that, Kid had my attention for his style of play. He was a completely pure 100% butterfly ‘tender. I swear he could have been trained by Francois Allaire himself. His style was textbook-perfect and it was really cool to watch. It also made me realize how few goalies are pure butterfly goalies- and probably with good reason. Personally I think a hybrid style gives you more options and more success but that was just damn cool to watch, seeing him execute moves I’ve read about perfectly.

There may be a chance for me to get Awesome Pads though. On June 11th, a committee is meeting to discuss further trimming of goalie equipment. If these pads end up not conforming to the new standards (mostly having to do with thigh rises and knee blocks, in terms of pads anyway), they’ll have to find a way to get rid of all the ones that are already made, won’t they. And that means prices will drop… a lot. I’m not kidding myself, I know they won’t make me play better. But mine are starting to get beat up so it’s not out of the question that I might need new ones by next year or so. Cross your fingers for new standards, folks. Hey, even as a goalie myself I think the thigh rises right now are pretty ridiculous. See: Henrik Lundqvist.

Raqs Hockey

The ancient and beautiful art of bellydance is known in Ararbic as "raqs sharqi" (or "raqs baladi"... or lots of other combinations depending on the style). How do I know this? Because I used to bellydance. In my past life, before goaltending, I was a fervent devotee of the art, though my passion for goaltending far eclipses my former passion for dance, which I didn't think was possible. I still keep in touch with a few of the women who were in my dance troupe, and I still have the desert rhythms in my blood. I will never lose that- it was the music that drew me to it in the first place. A quick scan of my iPod will reveal a lot of electronica, industrial, rock... and Arabic pop and classical music.

Understandably, a lot of my friends, both in the dance community and otherwise, were completely perplexed when I quit dance and then several months later started playing hockey. It's not a common or natural progression. At least... not at first glance. But I've discovered a key similarity between that jewel of the Nile and stopping pucks. Isolation. It hit me a while ago, when working with my coach on the problem that's been dogging me for about a month. In his search to find a new way to explain what I should do, he told me to think of the top half and bottom half of my body as two entirely separate parts; my hips and legs have to move one way and my shoulders and arms have to move in another, opposite, direction. When he said that I almost blurted out "It's just like bellydancing!", but wisely decided not to open that can of worms. (Though lets be real. He's a goalie coach. He's probably used to hearing weird things come out of his students' mouths.) But the fact remains, it is just like bellydancing. When you're shimmying your hips faster than a washing machine agitator while simultaneously moving your arms and hands in the graceful arcs known as "snake-arms", isolation is the key.

Perhaps that is what I need to keep in mind to work through this strange mental block I have on this one technique. I need to remember "it's just like bellydancing". That might result in some rather odd saves though.... I can just see it now. "Figure-eight-hip-save and a beaut!"