Not the best showing

Another season is underway, and our first outing ended in a very disappointing tie. As seems to be usual for our first games, it was a little off. For the most part we have the same group returning, but we have a few new people (two of whom were there), and a few other regulars who were out. Of the two new guys, one distinguished himself right away as the Opinionated Loudmouth. I’m sure it’s got to be a little awkward coming into a locker room full of people who all know each other and have played together for a while, but as one of my team-mates later described him, he was like a bull in a china shop. Fortunately I didn’t have to deal all that much with him, since he’s a forward.

But what I did have to deal with was the other team. Our rivals for a few seasons running now. This is the team with a significant amount of females on it, who play chippy and dirty and for the most part get away with it. Fortunately last night the refs were actually calling their infractions. Still, there were several elbows and hooks and checks that I saw go unnoticed by the zebras. At least they weren’t running me.

I’m not satisfied with my game, because the second goal, though it was a tough one, I feel I should have had. Actually, it shouldn’t have happened in the first place- a rebound went right off my pad to the waiting stick of a wide open player on the other side of the crease. Yes, the player was open and shouldn’t have been. But I managed to come across and stop a college guy on a similar play (it was a pass, not a rebound, but same result) the other night, so I certainly should have had enough time to get in front of that one. I felt like I just stood there and watched it go past me. Bad goalie.

So all in all, it wasn’t the greatest first game experience. It could have been worse- we could have lost. They could have run me. They could have really poured on the dramatics to try to draw penalties. We could have ended up with ugly jerseys. I begged the front desk chick to give us some decent jerseys this season and she did, hallelujah.

Here’s to next week when hopefully some of the rust will be off our game.