Back in the saddle...errrr... net?

Ok, new year, new resolve to actually start writing this thing again. I found that I kind of missed it. Last night when I came home from my game and was telling GoalieHusband all about it, I even told him what I was going to blog about. So I guess my muse has returned.

Unfortunately, the hockey gods weren't as kind. Last night was our first game in our new season, our second season in "lower D", and we played a team that we've beaten before. We went up 2-0 in the first period actually, but they ended up tying it on two quick goals and from there it kind of unravelled. By the beginning of the 3rd period we were behind 5-3 and despite the score I just KNEW we could come back, given our history and tenacity. And I said so at the bench before the period started. We battled back and managed to tie it 5-5 with about 3 minutes left in the game, and managed to attack their end and sustain their attack on ours - until 12 seconds left when they scored. Damn, that hurt. I felt responsible, because it was a clean shot from the wing and had I had a better angle on it, I'd have made that save with ease. So, not the best start to the season on my part, though I did make some pretty good saves to keep us in it a few times. Still.... with 12 seconds left that's a huge downer.

But I didn't come here to beat myself up. Two things happened in the game that I found rather amusing and I figured I'd share. Firstly; my butt-save. Mid-way through the first period I still hadn't faced any shots, when a guy came down the right wing pretty much all alone and walked in for the shot. I stood my ground and waited until he was pretty close to block it, and unfortunately although I got it with my stick, the puck rode up my paddle and I felt it bounce off my back. I immediately went down and put my glove behind me, hoping to stop the puck from slithering over the line. The whistle blew, and I heard people saying "is it in?" "where is it?". The ref came over and told me to stay still, then turn around. I did, slowly, expecting to see the puck sitting right on the goal line, but it was nowhere to be seen. "Its in your pants," he said, and plucked it out of a sort of pocket my jersey had made in the top of my pants, which had stuck out. He laughed and shook his head "That's the first time I've ever seen that," he said as he went to set up for the faceoff. Silly ref. Haven't you ever seen a former bellydancer make a butt-save before?

Secondly... it's getting a little crowded in my head. I've told you about the song that runs through my head, keeping ThinkingBrain occupied during games. And I've told you about GoalieBrain, who shows up now and then and barks commands at me that I didn't realize I knew. Well now I have another companion. This one's a little less imaginary than the others, considering its a voice I know well. Let me backtrack. Back in our roller hockey days, we had one guy from behind the former Iron Curtain who used to yell "HELP YOU! HELP YOU!" to let teammates know he was open behind them, or coming for support. Combine that with the fact that recently I've been changing my thinking when seeing an oncoming shooter (especially on a breakaway) from the negative "you are NOT going to score this goal" to the more positive "I'm going to STUFF you"... and you get what happened last night. In comes a guy on a semi-breakaway. I hear Steve shouting "STUFF YOU! STUFF YOU!" in my head. This happened more than once.

Happily, I can report that I made the save each time I had Steve yelling in my head. I'm not sure what will happen when he gets in a fight with Andrei, who's singing along the entire time in Russian. Probably GoalieBrain will tell them both to shut the f*ck up and whack them with her stick.