GoalieBrain Dump

Ahh the holidays. Busy busy, but not much ice time. Booo! That doesn't stop the GoalieBrain though. There are some thoughts rattling around up there so I figured I'd get them out on "paper"... er.... "screen"? *scratches head* Anyway:

It hit me during my last game, and I just never got around to writing about it, how cool it is to be able to identify team-mates solely by their stride. Ok, I guess their size is a visual cue as well. But I might not be able to see someone's jersey, but I can tell just by how they're skating, who they are. That's pretty awesome. I've had that ability with the Hawks for some time, but I only just recently noticed it when playing with the QCats. It made me smile- it was sort of a bonding moment for me, I guess. Man, I love my teams!!!

Just a few nights ago GoalieHusband and I played in a pick-up game with @gionta182 and @hkygrl12 and some of their team-mates. This group has rented ice a few times, evidently, but I guess they needed a goalie, so gionta182 asked if we could come. (What's odd is, when I got there, there were actually two other goalies. And what's even odder is that one of them was a skater just playing goal for that night. But hey, with a 90 minute slot, taking shifts isn't the worst thing in the world.) It was a good skate, and I think I did pretty well. It wasn't until about 45 minutes in that I got scored on. How often does THAT happen in a pick-up game???

Towards the end of the game, my D suddenly disappeared and there was hkygrl12 coming down the ice on a breakaway, with gionta182 not far behind. GoalieBrain perked up for that one. It's always fun to face off against a friend, it adds that little extra competitive spirit. So I came out nice and aggressive to challenge her... and she totally blew it. It's ok, I can say that, because she told Twitter that I scared her into "Kovalchuking" herself. Gotta love it when a new word is coined. (And I'm sure she'll get me next time, so I'm staying humble. Maybe. Hee hee.)

And last but not least, GEAR!!!!!!! Merry Christmas to me! I finally was able to get that new pair of pants I've been wanting for oh, almost a year now. Yay! I also got a new bag. I've been using an old one with a broken zipper ever since my cat peed on my regular one this summer, and it's really a pain in the ass. What's also a pain in the ass is walking through doors and up stairs with a hockey bag balanced on one shoulder and a pair of pads balanced on the other. I always took some kind of dumb pride in the fact that I carried my bag, none of that wheel shit for me, thank you. Guess it's a bit of female machismo (machisma?), proving that hey I may be a girl but I can still lug my gear around without resorting to wheels.

Well, the guys at Goalie Crease made me see the light. Take the stupid machismo thing out of it, and really, it's pretty dumb to be struggling with a load like that when you could just be pulling it around behind you. Add to the fact that I suddenly began having problems with the shoulder I carry my bag on, and I figured maybe it was time to puss out and get a wheeled bag since I needed a new one anyway. I decided if I'm going to be making things simple I might as well go all the way and get the enormous goalie bag that you can put ALL of your gear in, including your pads. I can't wait to just go up to a door, open it and walk through, instead of having to maneuver myself to one side to get the bag through, then pivot slightly to get myself and the pads through, all while holding my sticks in one hand and water in the other. It took me so long to realize this, why? Dumbass.

Anyway, there is yet another reason why this bag will come in handy. I'm going to be *gulp* flying to a tournament in April. Most of you have only come to know me recently and probably don't know that I. Do. Not. Fly. Last time my ass was in a plane was in 2000, and that was for work so I had no choice. And no it has nothing to do with 9/11. But the QCats are going to Womens Rec Nationals (don't get too excited... it's the "over 40" division and last year there were only 4 teams. I'm allowed to go because you're allowed 3 players under 40 but over 35. So there, now you know how old I am.) So yeah, I'm flying with my gear, and somehow I don't think a goalie bag with a broken zipper is going to make it past security. The stench alone will set off the bomb detectors probably. And where the hell was I going to put my pads? So now at least everything will be all zipped up nice and tight and cozy and safe, and the bag handlers won't have to wear HAZMAT suits to load it onto the plane.

OMG did I just say plane? Aaaaaaaaaaaah! I confided in my captains that I am petrified of flying, so they'll have to take good care of me. They assured me that there is a bar right at the gate, so there's no problem. Also GoalieHusband will be going, so that helps too. He may want to smack me by the end of the flight but he'll be there. Yes, this flight is over 4 months away and I'm already stressed out about it. ACK!

Ok. Fun. It's going to be fun. And I have blathered on long enough for a post that's really about nothing. This is one of those ones that no one is reading at this point, isn't it? Hello? Anyone there? Oh well... off to do some work...

Fooled you!

With the Hawks in between seasons, and no practices or games for the next two weeks for the QCats, I find myself suddenly with... NO ICE TIME! Gaaah! I figured I'd hit the regular Friday morning open hockey session this morning, but was kind of dreading dealing with the influx of college kids home on break. Fortunately, the QCats coach rented out ice at another rink, and invited all of us. Only a few of us could make it, so besides me there were only 2 other women, and one (high school? freshman in college?) girl. The rest? With the exception of about 3 "old farts" (who can skate circles around me with their laces tied together), it was High School Hockey morning. Probably about half of them were still in high school and the other half were college age. So much for avoiding that college crowd eh. (Please note: I have no problem with, and quite frequently do, playing in games where the skaters are eons ahead of me skill wise. It's just that in general, the college crowd has a much higher d-bag percentage and I really just don't need that B.S.)

At first I started out grinning like an idiot behind my mask. I'm so lucky to be a goalie- we can get away with playing in games where we're in waaayy over our heads, and its not as obvious as if we were skaters, who had to physically keep up with and win footraces against the other guys. If I was a skater, I'd have hated this game. I did ok for a little while (about 5 whole minutes) and then it was Christmas-tree time. There really was no D at all on that side, and the opposing forwards had breakaway and odd man rush and 2-on-0 after the other, and I did end up getting pretty frustrated. Not that I had any delusions that I was on their level- what was frustrating me was the realization that my body knew what to do, it just couldn't do it quick enough. As each goal was scored, I growled inside (ok maybe once on the outside too) because I knew exactly what I did wrong and what I should have done, I just couldn't do it fast enough. What a humbling feeling.

I guess they got sick of having me on their side because all of a sudden as I was holding the post and tracking the puck behind the net, I moved back towards the middle and there was the other goalie. In my crease. Saying "switch sides". Ok buddy, knock yourself out. Off I went to the other side. I was barely situated before this kid got beat twice on the exact same plays I was getting beat on.

Ok then... maybe it wasn't ALL me. And I feel very guilty for thinking this about a fellow goalie, but man I was kind of glad to see this kid get lit up too. Not only that, but on the other side, there was some actual defense, and I clicked into my groove and started really kicking ass. In fact I only let 1 goal in during that whole 2nd half, and I was horribly screened. (Thanks, Coach.) Plus there was one guy who I just absolutely owned. I know for sure that I kept him scoreless. And at one point one of the kids turned around and said (with surprise in his voice) "hey you're doing great! good saves!" Ha ha. Thanks. Go wash your gear please.

Yeah that's the other thing. Teenage boy hockey players are really, really... fragrant. In the locker room afterward, the other women were talking about how they had to be pretty aggressive on the bench to get a shift, and one said that she spent some time out of the rotation, down at the end of the bench, just because she couldn't stand the smell of sitting amongst all of them. "God they smell bad," she said. "And they were farting."

All in all, it wasn't too bad. I had fun, I definitely got a workout, and got to challenge myself. When I was leaving the ice, one of the adults came over to me and thanked me for coming and said "I really give you a lot of credit, that really took guts". Dude. Thanks for the compliment but relax. It's still hockey. I'm still going to come out here and give it my all regardless of who else is out there. Russians, college kids, high school kids, whatever you throw at me, I'll at least attempt to stop.

So I guess next week I'll go to the Friday morning session after all, college kids or not. F 'em! I'm bringin' it!

Oh! Also...

See, this is what happens while I'm waiting for GoalieHusband to get home from his ungodly retail-at-Christmas-hours. I think of all kinds of things to tell the internet that the internet doesn't really care about.

The Hawks got our winter season schedule today, and right away several things stuck out at me. First off, there were more than three games on it. I'll be damned. Maybe this new league coordinator is actually going to tighten the reins a little and be quasi-organized. For quite some time, we'd get an email roughly 4 days before the first game saying "Ok guys here are your first 3 games. I'll get the rest of the schedule to you soon." Gee, thanks. At least the fact that most of our games are at 11pm means there really isn't a whole lot of schedule juggling you have to do when you finally find out what nights you're playing.

So, having a full schedule right off the bat is pretty nifty. Second thing I noticed? We have TWO new teams in the league! The drunk punks are back (whee!), and that other blue team from the level just above us dropped down. Might as well call 'em by their actual name, since it's pretty damn cool. The entire team is comprised of doctors and med students, and they very cleverly call themselves the MedWings. I have to come up with a blog name for my Quarry Cat d-girl who plays on that team, since I'm sure I'll be mentioning her throughout the season. Hey being in both leagues I'm in doubles your chances of being blogged about. At least I don't use real names. So, suggestions welcome. She's a kick-ass defenseman and sticks up for me. I love playing behind her. (Shut up, no ass jokes.) Playing against her? Well I hear she plays forward on that team so we'll just have to see about shutting her the hell down. Muahaha.

The last thing I noticed was that all of our games are either on Wednesday nights or Sunday nights. Wednesdays are Quarry Cat practices, so I'm going to have several more of those practice-to-game double headers (3 right off the bat). Only once is the game at the same time as practice, and I'll just have to miss practice that night. My attendance is stellar, so they'll just have to cope without me for one night. As for the Sunday nights, thankfully there is only one conflict, and it's only a partial conflict at that. QCats have a 7:50 in Westchester, NY, and the Hawks play at 11 in our home rink. Let's assume the QCat game gets over at 9, and I'm in the car and headed back to Jersey by 9:30 at the absolute latest. (If I leave my gear on and make GoalieHusband drive, it can be even sooner than that. I've also been informed that if I do that, photos must be taken for Facebook). That gives me a good hour to get to the rink with time to spare. Now... we learned our NYC traffic lesson this weekend, however I think going in the opposite direction (who the heck wants to go toward Jersey?) at that time of night will be pretty painless. *knocks on wood*

Wow that was a lot of babbling about essentially nothing. Bring on the double-headers and the metro-area mad dash! Well... after this nice little holiday rest, that is. I'm quite enjoying getting to bed at a decent hour.

I found my tennis ball

I work out in our (partially) finished basement. There's a wall at the bottom of the stairs which I use for my special tennis ball torture. So where did I find it?

At the top of the basement stairs.

W. T. F. ????

Alright. Who broke into my house and is fucking with me?

**Edit:
WAIT! Hold the phone. I've just been informed by GoalieHusband that that's a different tennis ball, one that was under a pile of cardboard boxes for recycling. I'm relieved... yet still curious about where the hell that damn thing went.

My laundry room ate my tennis ball

Can I just come clean for a second? I mean, we all know I have an atrocious glove hand and no hand-eye-coordination whatsoever, but good lord, you'd think I'd be able to catch a freakin' tennis ball off a wall. It's truly amazing how ridiculously awful I am at this exercise. Like, to the point that it's pretty humorous. Here I am, doing goalie off-ice stuff, one of the biggest no-brainers of which is catching a tennis ball off the wall, and I'm all thumbs. I can't catch the damn thing to save my life. And I end up swearing a blue streak at myself, which really does wonders for my performance, I'm sure. No wonder the cat perches on top of the wall and watches me.

Anyway. There I was this morning lobbing the ball off the wall and trying to catch it (I'd nab it about 4 times in a row and then it would all go to shit again), when it took a very weird bounce, hit the table to my left.... and completely disappeared. As in gone without a trace. I didn't even hear it land. I'm mystified. In searching for it I found an awful lot of dust bunnies, but no tennis ball. It's going to drive me nuts until it turns up, too.

Oh yeah, and I got another shutout. Yay! Looking strictly at the numbers, that's 2 shutouts in the last 3 outings. Woo and hoo! However... I can honestly say I really didn't do much to earn the last one. I may have had 12 shots. That would be a generous estimate, too. Pretty much the entire game was played in the other team's zone, so much so that after the first period, one of my D said to me "Hey. Nice... stop." Har har. I informed her that I did in fact have TWO shots thank you very much. So, I feel a little guilty being all happy about the goose-egg, because I almost feel like I really didn't earn it. I'll shut up now.

One thing I've noticed myself doing lately is getting all ballsy with the poke-check. Several times I've completely surprised a player by lunging and stabbing the puck right off their stick. I usually do it if I'm already down and I can't maneuver my stick the way I need to in order to corral it, so I shoot it out instead. I know not everyone's a fan of the poke check but I'm really starting to love it. It's not something I come charging out and do on breakaways*, so I don't really feel like it's a big risk, technique wise. It sort of just happens in certain situations. The bench always seems to love it, and the player who just got sniped usually makes some kind of extremely unsatisfied noise. And I love making players make noises like that.


*Hmmmm, I think I actually did do it on two breakaways in mens' league this season. So that's not a completely true statement. But both times it worked, so there.

"Totally worth getting changed in the car"

What's worse than NYC traffic on a Saturday night? NYC traffic the Saturday night before Christmas. GoalieHusband and I don't usually carpool to away games, because we live pretty far from the home rink (which is where everyone meets). But last night we were in the area anyway, so met up with a bunch of the team, and thank god for that. Because if I had been driving in that mess, there's no way my head would have been in the game. I think it took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get from Montclair to the GWB. There was Gionta182's car, with her, me and GoalieHusband, and another QCat's vehicle (some kind of insanely enormous SUV) with a total of 5 players and all their gear, with my pads perched on top of the pile of bags. When it became painfully clear that we weren't going to be at the rink anywhere near our scheduled ice time, the girls in the SUV decided to start getting dressed in the truck, and took turns digging around in the bags in the back for their gear. Evidently they even jumped out and switched places (half dressed in gear) at one of the toll booths, much to a policeman's dismay. Fortunately he knew better than to interfere. (One of our Canadian players pointed out that if this was Canada, the cop would have cleared the way and escorted us to the rink. Especially when he saw the goalie pads in the back.)

With GoalieHusband's knowledge of the area and Gionta182's creative driving (and liberal use of horn and middle finger), we got to the rink probably about 10 minutes after the game was supposed to have started. Since the majority of the team had been stuck, the game hadn't actually started yet, but the home team was already on the ice, as were a few of the early birds from our team. The ref started the game without us, which kind of pissed me off- you waited this long, and you see we've just gotten here, and NOW you're going to start? Whatever. I threw my gear on and got into the net with about 8 minutes left to go in the period. Evidently they'd scored 2 goals (and we had scored 1) during that time, but they were nice enough to keep the scoreboard at 0-0 until I and the rest of the team got out there.

After that kind of beginning you'd think we'd all be frazzled and out of focus. I guess it was the adrenaline that spurred us on because we played a GREAT game. We were up 3-1 by the end of the second, and were playing some of the best hockey we've played yet. Great passing, good communication, good pressure. I was pretty strong as well, though there was one dramatic moment when my D really saved my ass. I'd stopped a shot and knew it had bounced somewhere weird but had no clue where it was in the scramble. My D (the same one who fell on the puck and got us that penalty shot a few games ago) snagged it out just as it was reaching the goal line. WHEW.

But in the 3rd it felt like we let up just slightly. I let in 2 goals, neither of which I was too happy about, but one in particular pissed me off. The forward was coming down on a semi-breakaway, got me moving to the left and put it right through the 5-hole. Yes, I was moving. But jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick, why can't I keep my stick in front of my damn 5-hole when I'm going side to side?!!!? UGH. I felt like that goal negated all the really good work I'd done up until that point. The next one was a scrambly bouncy cluster-fuck, and I should have been able to freeze it. So with just a few minutes left we were tied 3-3 and I was really praying they'd be able to break the tie before the clock ran out.

And they did! With a minute left, we scored. I don't usually cheer for our goals, out of respect for the other goalie, but I let out a whoop and a holler for that one. Way to go teamwork. Naturally, they pulled the goalie to try to tie it up again, but we got the puck into their zone as she was coming to the bench, and she played it. With the 6th skater already on the ice. BUSTED! We finished up easily after that.

It was a fun game, but did get a little chippy toward the end. They started whacking at me late, and I was more than happy to return the favor. So was the rest of the team. When one player slashed at my back while I was covering a puck, one of our girls said something to the ref, who said "she was going for the puck". Oh really? The puck was on my back? That's a new one. But they all stood up for me and I stood up for myself pretty well. I think it's just one more indication that this team is really getting solid. Naturally it's the D I'm most familiar with, but I really think we have a great defensive unit and we work really well together.

Now on to the next game- tonight at 6:30. It's another away game, but not quite as far, so hopefully we won't have the same problem with traffic. Last night was our second win in a row. Definitely striving to extend that streak tonight.

A Blowout, and a Shutout

Ya gotta love a league with 4 teams in it. Even a team with a 1-11 record gets a "playoff" game. It's also great when the league has this rule, that all players must sign in before each game, so they can keep track of how many games people have played. Beacuse if you haven't played 4 games (i.e., are a ringer), you can't play in the playoffs. Pretty good system, right? (Leaving out the part where anyone can put a check mark next to anyone's name, whether they're there or not...) It was great to see that policy enforced on Sunday night when we got to the rink for our "playoff" game. There were no less than five non-rostered names written in on the D-bag Team's sign-in sheet. I guess they weren't happy with beating us 5-2 a few nights before that, so they had to bring in their ringers. Rolling over us 11-0 is so much more satisfying, don't you think?

And as Senator discovered when he did a little digging on the league website, this team is 11-1-1, with - wait for it! - 74 goals for and 26 goals against. Yep. They belong in our league. Clearly. (The point could be raised that if they weren't in the league, it would be just 3 teams, but that is a non-issue now with another team coming down from the level above).

I'm not sure if anyone's going to say anything to the new league coordinator, who's come in with all kinds of plans on cleaning up the leagues. We've heard all of that before though, which is why I'm personally not making any noise about it. Nothing like apathy right?

Fortunately I got a little pick-me-up a few days later, in the form of an outdoor game with the Quarry Cats. I have to tell you, I was not nearly as excited as the rest of the team with the prospect of playing outside. Yeah, yeah, hockey's roots... but there's an awful lot to be said for being able to feel your hands and face while playing hockey, and playing indoors has totally spoiled me. Although it was on our dinky flooded outdoor roller rink that I fell hard and fast for hockey on blades instead of wheels, I wasn't all that anxious to get back out there in the biting cold. Most of what I remember from playing outside is literally not being able to feel my fingers at all- except when I gloved a shot or stopped one with my stick. Then it was all nerve endings firing pain signals at once. Frozen water bottle... runny nose... fogged up glasses... none of that was on my list of things to look forward to.

However, I was pleasantly surprised. There is no comparison at all between a posh country club rink and a town-run outdoor cement rink flooded in the winter for skating. The country club rink has a zamboni. So right there, there's no divets or bumps to ruin your skates. They also have REAL INDOOR LOCKER ROOMS, so getting dressed doesn't reduce you to the equivalent of a popsicle before you're even ready to play. (An added bonus of country club locker rooms is, not only do the showers not smell like pee or have bugs coming out of the drains, they're actually clean and have soap provided!)

As soon as we got out on the ice I realized this was a piece of cake compared to what I remembered, and I relaxed and had fun. We had no coaches, but the team played a great game. It was probably the most pressure we've had offensively in any game yet, and it paid off in the 3rd period with 3 goals. Going into the game our record was 0-2-1, so it was our first win on the season. And, a shutout! That was certainly not a bad feeling after all the winless games, both teams combined.

But I really need to work on something. Now that I've got the stick angle thing figured out, I desperately need to not give up so many rebounds. Some Twitter and message board pals linked me some videos and suggestions, and I pin-pointed one thing I'm doing that's causing them, but I can't fix it without massive repetition. There's no time to think "do this with your pad, not that" when making a pad save- it needs to be burned in, rote muscle memory. So I have to figure that out. Because trust me guys (and gals), I know, the rebounds are bad.

It's a busy hockey weekend coming up- team party on Friday night, and an away game each on Saturday and Sunday. My goal, besides to deny all of them, is to keep my rebounds in check. Oh yeah, and to have fun on Friday night. If there's one thing the QCats know how to do, it's party.

1-11

The Hawks finished the season 1-11, with another balls-out game. We lost 5-2 (lowest goals against of the season! w00t!!!), but we really played hard and I don't think they were expecting it. This was against the team I've been referring to as the d-bag team, however they actually weren't d-bags that night. In fact one could have really put me out of commission for a while, but he had the decency to hold up and not come crashing down on me while I was in a defenseless position. Maybe they respect us a little more, for stepping it up the way we did. Maybe their major d-bags just weren't there that night.

Since the game was right after practice, we had fans again. Yay! Once again @gionta182 brought her GIANT sign and vuvuzela, and several of the gals stuck around for the first period. GoalieHusband earned himself a nickname, without even knowing it. He recently purchased plastic guards to go over the tops of his skates, to protect his instep and ankle from blocking shots (which he does quite a lot of). They're clear plastic though, and apparently they reflect the light and from the bleachers it looks like he's got glitter on his skates. He's been dubbed "Coach Sparkle" by @gionta182 and another d-girl. It's already stuck; even one of the Hawks referred to him that way during a post-game email exchange we had. Fan-freakin-tastic. He hasn't been able to be at practice for a few months because of his work schedule, but hopefully will be back in January. The ones who came up with the nickname realize they're going to get skated to death when he comes back to practices... but I think they also think it's worth it.

So, the Hawks' season is over, with the exception of one "playoff" game tomorrow night. Hey, when there are 4 teams in the league, EVERYONE makes the playoffs. Even teams with a 1-11 record. I'm not sure how long the break is before the winter season starts, and it looks like we'll just squeak by roster-wise and be able to play again. I think the plan is to give it one more season and see if we can't get our shit together. Hopefully we can. I don't want to see the team go separate ways.

Personally, I think we should switch back to our blue jerseys. There's another team coming into the league next season and they're- you guessed it - blue. So between them, Original Blue Guys, and We're Blue But We're Supposed To Be Green Guys, that's three blue teams right there. I say we add ours to the mix and really confuse the hell out of the refs. Hey if you can't win, at least make it fun right?

Yeah, about that double-header

(I wrote this Wednesday evening but forgot to post it. Oopsie)

Let's file one game under "it was a loss, but damn it was fun and I played my butt off" and the other under "meh".

The Quarry Cat game was the first one of the night, and we ended up with a 4-1 loss. I wasn't crying in my beer over that one though, because I felt like I stood on my head. GoalieHusband said he counted at least 50 shots and knows he didn't get them all. We were up against a team we'd never played before, and they were quite a bit faster than we are. Still I think we didn't do poorly. The D was absolutely fantastic. I can't speak to the forwards much because I wasn't really watching them. I got to experience the fun of a penalty shot, too. I don't even remember exactly how it got there (I think took a weird bounce off me while I was holding the post?) but the puck ended up behind me in the blue paint, skittering towards the goal line, while I was facing the right corner. One of my D launched herself towards it, with the intention of shoving it out with her hand, but when she landed she obscured the ref's vision and he assumed she landed on it. TWEEET. Penalty shot.

I felt really confident, like eh... no problem, I got this. Then I heard the bench chanting my name. Gals, love the support but that's making me nervous as hell. Benefit of having your husband on the bench as assistant coach? He knows stuff like this. Unbeknownst to me, he told them to stop saying my name and just cheer or call me "Goalie", because that's what the cheering suddenly changed to. Girl picks up the puck, comes down the middle.... fakes a shot that I don't bite on... so on her way in she tries to flip a backhand over my right pad. OH LOOK my leg is over here now. DENIED. Bench erupts in cheering and stick-banging. Damn, that feels good. I know I'm not supposed to get all carried away, but I have to say there's nothing like hearing your bench go nuts after a save. Warms my goalie heart.

After the game we had beer and pizza with the other team to welcome them (or maybe just because we wanted beer and pizza...), and a few gals stuck around for a while with us, but eventually we were left on our own just killing time waiting for the Hawks game. The team I subbed for was playing about an hour before our game, so we at least had that to watch for a while.

Annnd... as for the Hawks game I really don't have much to say. We lost, I think the score was 9-4 (see? blocking it out already), and it's just really starting to get old, letting that many goals in every single game. I'm really starting to feel like I am part of the problem. Guess I just don't belong at this level, and that's a very tough pill to swallow. "This level" is a step above instructional, and its depressing as all hell to think that I'll only ever be good enough for an instructional league. (That said, the levels at this rink are so f'd up it's unreal. Their "instructional" would be most rinks' D, and their "D" should be a C or higher, etc..)

But I have a game tonight, so all that is going in the vault.

Oh hi, blog

Kind of a "blah" week on the hockey end, so I didn't really have much inspiration to write. It started off with a big smack-down from the Hockey Gods, losing 7-4 on Sunday night. We had only 8 skaters vs their full bench, but I wasn't at my best either. So much for all that crowing about how strong and good I feel. Lesson learned there. I'm a little annoyed about the whole 8-skater thing; yeah it's a late night, but that's not exactly a surprise. Whatever. The general apathy is starting to seep back in, and whether we'll have a season after this one is up in the air. I get really grouchy about that, so best to move on.

Wednesday night was Quarry Cat practice, and while it was an excellent one for the team, it wasn't all that challenging for me. At the beginning of practice, Coach was talking about what he wanted to work on, and one of the things was a "firing squad". Rock on! I love that one. About six players line up across the slot in front of me, and two players are down behind the goal line, one on either side of the net. They alternate passing pucks up to the players in the slot, who fire one timers or really quick shots at me. I have to go back and forth really fast and it's exhausting but it's great. Unfortunately, we never did the firing squad drill; I guess we ran out of time or maybe there were too many people. We did work some more on set forechecking plays, and that's really coming together quite well. This time he added some D to D passing, which is really great. If we start doing that in games, it'll help out the offense big time.

Thursday night I got a call to sub for a friend's team, which naturally I jumped at. I knew going in that it was going to be a rout; this team is playing one level above where the Hawks are, and really should be in the same level as us. They get demolished every night. Nevertheless I got pretty rattled when, after the first period, the score was 8-2. It was pretty bad. My friend apologized to me profusely and said that was the worst defense they'd ever played (almost all of the goals were from a wide open guy on the opposite side of where I was squared up to the puck carrier). However, there were a few that I know I would have stopped if I wasn't so rattled. I felt totally shell-shocked. But I pulled it together and played much better in the next two frames, and so did everyone else really. Eight goals in the first period, two in the second and two in the third. Not too bad after that horrendous start. But still pretty traumatic. I felt like there was no way they'd ever call me again if they needed a sub but she assured me that first period was on them. Not sure how much of that is "platitudes to make the goalie feel better", but I'll take it.

Hoping to turn the corner tonight; I have two games on the ticket. Quarry Cats at 5pm, and then Hawks at 10:50. If we lived closer to the rink we'd come home in between, but it doesn't make sense to drive back and forth, especially since there's probably going to be some sort of pizza party thingy after the Quarry Cat game. The team I subbed for on Thursday has a game at 9:20, so I guess that gives us something to do for a while too. I'll have to try to avoid comparing myself to their regular goalie and wondering how he'd have handled Thursday night's game.

Fortunately the Hawks game isn't against the douche-bag team, so we probably have a fighting chance... if we can ice a full bench.

Nothin' but good stuff

The Hawks have a game tonight, and I'm sure it'll be a tough one. I'm ready for it though; I'm really pumped and can't wait to get out on the ice. I think my recent improved mental outlook (and improved play) has a lot to do with the training I've been doing. I was talking to GoalieHusband today about this, and I can't really put a finger on it, but ever since I started the training, I feel so much better out there. Maybe it's partly the training itself and partly mental, but I just feel great when I'm on the ice. I feel strong, I feel quick, I feel like I know what I'm doing. (Unless I attempt to play the puck...) I can tell that my hamstrings have bulked up somewhat, and I didn't even realize I was really training my hamstrings. I guess that means it's really working; if you notice a difference and you didn't even know you were working on that thing to begin with. I'm completely sold on Maria's philosophy of death to machines. There is no way working on machines would have ever given me the increase in stamina and sport-specific benefits I'm seeing now. So major kudos to Maria; any goalies out there, check out her newest product. (No I'm not getting anything for this, I just really think she knows where it's at.)

Good Stuff #2: finding pants that fit. Holy cow. If you've been reading this blog for a while you know what a royal pain in the ass it's been for me to find a pair of goalie pants that fit. I'm still wearing the pair I bought 4+ years ago when I first started playing - on pavement - and man is it evident. GoalieHusband and I went to the Hockey Monkey store today, with my pads, to try on some pants and hopefully finally find something that works. And hallelujah, we did. They're more than I was planning on spending ($170), but they fit pretty much perfectly. The secret? Once again: intermediate sizing. The Vaughn Velocity 7300s in intermediate XL fit absolutely perfectly. Now I just have to wait to save up my shekels and hopefully they'll still be either at the store or on the site and I can order them. The ones I'd gone to try were Vaughn Epics, in a senior size small; glad I tried them with my pads on, because the legs were way too long. The Velocity is a step up, quality wise (or, at least price wise), but that seems to be in fitting with what I'm finding. Intermediate gear seems to mostly be the higher end stuff. I guess if your kid is old enough to be wearing that size, he's pretty serious about hockey, so it's the higher end stuff that sells. Senior size stuff can have lower end quality because there will always be beer leaguers out there. Heh heh.

Good Thing #3: the thing that is most important and will actually also make my team-mates happy. Remember my conundrum over my stick position? Here's a picture of my basic ready stance, and this is how I was taught to hold my stick:


As you can see, the blade is at an angle to the ice. I was taught by my coach to hold it like this, and that was reinforced by seeing the goalies I've watched holding it like that. However, it resulted, time and time again, in a puck hitting it at that angle and going straight up over my shoulder and into the net. Much to my team-mates' constant frustration. Obviously I understood that holding the stick like that was causing the problem, but I couldn't understand why my coach would tell me to hold it like that, if it was going to result in that kind of angle with the puck. I admit I stuck to it rather stubbornly, thinking if Coach D told me to do it that way, then it has to be right. (Seriously, he's pretty awesome.)

It wasn't until today that I finally understood the problem, and it took a fellow goalie over at GoalieCrease.net forums to point it out. That stick position is correct if I'm facing really hard shots. It's supposed to deflect the puck up and over to the netting or glass behind the net. But in my leagues, the shots aren't that hard. So they don't have the velocity to go that far; instead they go up over my shoulder and arc back down- right into the net. I have to think that some of the guys I face in open hockey (and some of the ringers that show up in the beer league) have hard enough shots for the puck to go where it's "supposed" to with that angle, but I'm not going to screw myself up with testing it out. Up until now I thought it was just when going into the butterfly that I should be having my stick blade perpendicular to the ice, and that was my problem; not bringing it up to the right position when I dropped. But I guess I have to focus on having it perpendicular ALL the time.

It seems silly, but it's such a relief to finally figure out the disconnect between what my coach had taught me and what was actually happening on the ice. Obviously if I was still taking lessons I could have talked to him about it, but I haven't had a lesson in a long time. So thank you, ItechWarrior, for making it finally make sense!

And... I'm sure I've lost about 99% of you by now. But hey, this is my blog and this was a huge "ah-ha" moment for me, so there.

Now it's off for a pre-game nap. Looking forward to KICKING SOME ASS tonight.

Moral Victories

Being as competitive as I am, I hate that expression. There's no "victory" in losing, no matter how well you played. But the reality is, sometimes it really is about how you play the game, and there's really no other way to describe the last two games my teams played, so I will begrudgingly label them as such. Two games, two teams, and I think they are both frikkin' awesome people and count myself lucky to be a part of them. (No, I'm not drinking. But it's almost Thanksgiving, so I give thanks for my awesome team-mates).

First up, a Sunday evening home matinee with the Quarry Cats. Our last game was over a month ago, so it almost felt like the first game of the season. We've been working extremely hard in practice, and a lot of credit goes to the coaches, who have been really honing our play and working on some finer points. We were matched up against a team who, from what I understand, usually beats us pretty soundly. I think everyone was up for the challenge.

Unfortunately, a goal against in the first minute, and then a complete bungle with the puck in my feet several minutes later put us down 2-0 to start. I was none too happy with myself about that second goal and even slammed my stick. I never slam my stick. But I got it together and so did the rest of the team, because we pressed very hard in the 2nd and 3rd and were rewarded with 2 goals. There are no OT or shootouts in this league, so we had to settle for the tie. I felt for a little while like we would have won if it wasn't for my screw-up, but I think I also made some pretty key saves to keep us in a position to tie, so I guess it washes out. Maybe. It was awesome to see the hustle and work that the girls gutted out, and even better to see it pay off with a few goals. Next time I'll do a little better job of controlling my clown feet and not kicking the puck into the net.

Next up was a Hawks re-match against the team of assclowns that ran up the score to the tune of 12-2 a few weeks ago, and played like complete douchebags on top of that. They used to be in a higher division but dropped down because they were losing; but not only did they drop down, they added some pretty decent guys. And they're mostly in their 20's. It actually wasn't too bad a game in the d-bag department. They're very fast skaters and never let up, and we kept up with them. Everyone out there hustled their tail off, and we came away with a loss (6-2), but it didn't feel nearly as bad as the others have felt. There's only so much you can do against a team that doesn't belong in your division, and keeping them to half as many goals as last time is pretty good in my book. I also feel like I had another really solid game. I made a mistake or two, but nothing I'm hanging my head in shame over. No complete brain farts, and it's about time. I even played the puck once or twice, and it didn't end up in the net. Go me.

What's really great is the teamwork we had. I told you this group would gel eventually. It's also nice to know your team has your back, even if they mis-read something that happened. (Not that I ever doubted for a minute that either team has my back... I know they'd go to great lengths to protect me and back me up). In the 3rd, there was a rush to the net, I bit on a deke, and a guy put the puck in just past my foot. There was enough force behind the shot that it bounced back out and was sitting just over the other side of the goal line, and just as I got to that side, a second guy came in and smacked it back in. In retrospect, I don't think he really knew it had gone in already, because the ref didn't blow the whistle. I just assumed he had, because play kind of stopped, and I looked up at the guy and said "WTF dude, it was in already." He barely responded when #48 came up and gave him a good cross-check to the back. Was it cheap? Yep. But he thought the guy was hacking at my glove. I think a lot of people thought that, because I heard him later saying to someone else "I didn't touch your goalie!" So thanks, #48, for having my back.

Somehow we got out of that without a penalty (I think the ref would have called both of them, but didn't feel like dealing with it and let it stay even), and not only that but the goal didn't go on the board because the ref never saw it. So really, we lost 7-2. Some team-mates will say if the ref didn't call it, it didn't count, but I know when a puck goes in my net, that counts. Regardless, I'm happy with my game and with the team effort all around. We'll play these guys again; there are only four teams in the league. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

Overheard at the Pro Shop

While at a local rink pro shop waiting for my skates to be mangled- I mean, sharpened, GoalieHusband and I overheard a conversation I thought was worth sharing. A dad walked in with his two sons, and one of them gestured excitedly at all the nice shiny new goal pads lined up on a shelf way up high.

Dad: Hey yeah, those are nice, maybe they'd actually close your 5-hole!

Me: [*snort*] Niiiice.

Dad: Oh, was that bad to say?

Me: Well, it was funny. (It was funny when I thought he was joking around. But then he said...)

Dad: What. I didn't tell him to be a goalie, I don't have to be nice to him.

Way to go, Pops. Douche.

The Color Game

I'm stuck answering phones at work for a while, so why not blog? Here's a little tidbit from Wednesday's game that I didn't include in the last post because it was already long enough, and I wanted people to actually read it. But since it's vaguely interesting I'll post it by itself.

When the Hawks joined the league many moons ago, it was comprised of several teams. The only choices left for jersey colors at that time were: orange (uhhh no thanks, not in NJ. SUCK IT FLYERS!), green (ahhh, yeah, I don't think so), or yellow or some shade thereof. Feeling like yellow was the lesser of the three evils, we decided to go with a nice loud yellow-gold. We ordered cheap gold jerseys with "HAWKS" written across the front and a vinyl number on the back and were good to go.

Several seasons later we decided that since we'd been around a while as a team and were likely to stick around for a while longer, we ordered nicer jerseys. We went with the St. Louis Blues jersey with "HAWKS" in gold, and splurged on not only numbers, but names, stitched on. They look pretty damn sweet if you ask me. We figured the one or two times we played the other team with blue jerseys we could just wear our yellow ones. Unfortunately there seems to be a jersey curse with this group. We used them for one season, and then things sort of fell apart and we didn't play over the summer (well documented by my whining on Twitter). While we managed to patch together a team for the Fall, since it's about half "old" Hawks and half "new" Hawks, we couldn't really ask all the new guys to shell out lots of money for a fancy jersey when it's really not clear what's happening beyond this season. Furthermore, all the "new" guys had gold jerseys already, so the decision kind of made itself.

All that back-story is for the new-ish readers who maybe weren't around when we got our fancy new blues and I subsequently butchered mine. So we hit the ice this week in what we're now calling our "throwbacks". Have I mentioned that now instead of having 6 or 7 teams in the league we have - count 'em - FOUR? Including us. Naturally, one of the remaining teams is the blue-jersey team. The other ones are white and green. The green team seems to have done the same thing we did at first- just got a bunch of cheap solid practice jerseys. Theirs didn't have a team name, or in some cases, even a number on them. Wednesday night, we got on the ice and there were all these guys skating around in nice blue jerseys trimmed with white. "Who the f*** are these guys?" I asked GoalieHusband. "Looks like Green Team got new jerseys", he said. So yes, in a league with all of four teams in it, two have blue jerseys, and one would really like to use their nice snazzy blue jerseys but at this point that would be ridiculous. I was remarking on this to #14 the other day when he relayed a conversation he had with the Formerly-Green-Team center prior to the inital puck-drop.

#14: Hey the new unis are nice.

Other guy: We're jackasses. They were supposed to be green. Since Blue Jersey Team wears blue, it's pretty stupid.

*puck drops*

#14 said the other center said on a later face-off "Sorry about that before. I should have just said thanks."

No, you really shouldn't have. What you said was far more entertaining. And now you're in my blog. Muahaha.

Finally!!!

Didn't I tell you we'd put together a win? I guess you could say "Damn, woman, out of 12 games you gotta at least win one", but you have to believe me when I say it really wasn't looking like we'd be able to do it. Until yesterday. I had that chomping-at-the-bit, get-me-the-hell-out-there feeling that comes from 7 days off the ice, but I also had a hunch. A feeling deep down in my goalie gut that we'd be able to pull this one off. And pull it off we did, to the tune of a 9-6 win. A 9-6 win which, as GoalieHusband would be quick to point out, would have been 9-5 if he hadn't turned and put the puck straight behind me short side while attempting it to wing it around behind the net. It's all good though. A win makes everything better. Now it's a funny anecdote instead of the dark cloud of insane fury and self-loathing (on his part) it could have been. Hey, I've told you he's an honorary goalie. He's just as nuts as we are. Almost.

But that's not where my night started. It started at the rink a full hour and a half before the rest of the Hawks got there, because it was Quarry Cat practice night. Fortunately, the main focus was once again on working on forechecking, so despite being worked pretty good in the first half of practice, I wasn't all that busy for the second half. Perfect. We got off the ice, I went into Locker Room 2, grabbed my bag and dragged it into Locker Room 3, chatted with the boys for a few minutes and then it was back out to face some more rubber.

I wish with all my heart that last night's game was the one that was recorded, because I think I played my best game of the season. I was so focused, probably from being partially in the "zone" for practice, and I think I played slightly more aggressively, and certainly completely balls-to-the-wall, anything-it-takes hockey. I felt like I channeled my inner Hasek with some of the saves I was making. Certainly not your textbook butterfly stuff. The one I'm most proud of would probably even make the Dominator himself smile, given that he was often credited with having eyes on the back of his head. (Ohhhhkay maalivahti, let's bring it down a notch, shall we? Perhaps he wouldn't have smiled. Maybe one of those slight goalie nods.) At any rate, I had one save where I came out to challenge, and somehow (why are the details always so foggy?) the puck ended up behind me in the blue paint while I was already down. I reached back behind me and I swear I knew EXACTLY where that puck was and just slapped my glove down over it. The whistle blew, and there I was on my back, with my glove over my head and behind me, thinking "holy shit" at the very same time I was staring up at a team-mate who was staring down at me, his voice echoing my thought. Damn that one made me feel good. I still have no idea how I knew exactly where that puck was, but I did. I wasn't guessing. Maybe I smelled it. Who knows. Way to go inner Goalie-sense.

I am by no means crediting myself for this win. We had some great offense again with the return of two guys who hadn't been playing with us this season. One is on the roster, he'd just been gone most weeks preparing for his wedding and then spending God knows how long on some gorgeous tropical island with his beautiful new wife. (Every Hawk crushed on her the instant she came and played with us one season back in Instructional League. Yes, every Hawk.) The other wasn't on the roster but he hardly counts as a ringer; he'd been playing with us for well over a year, but just didn't sign up this season. With those two clicking, the whole game seemed to open up and flow better for the entire team, and it was awfully nice to be a part of a game with that feel again. Everyone played well. I want to bottle that and bring it back next week.

Those weren't the only awesome parts of the game though. As promised, most of the Quarry Cats stayed for at least a little while to watch some of the game. And yelled. And cheered. And clapped and stomped. They had an absolutely enormous sign that they unfurled and taped to the glass that said GO HAWKS! Gionta182 and her friend took quite a bit of time to make it and that really made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. She also had her obnoxious vuvuzela with her, which she blew at every opportunity. It was fantastic. At one point, preparing for a faceoff at the right circle, I heard the ref ask one of our guys "are they here for the team or for the goalie?". They were cheering their heads off for me and for GoalieHusband, but they were certainly carrying on for the team as a whole. "LETS GO HAA-AAWKS!!!!!" *Bang-bang-bangbangbang* on the metal bleachers. It was hysterical. It sounds totally dumb but it does make a difference having people there yelling in support. And this morning, still floating on first-win and goalie-high I was totally in a "man I love you guys!" place. My team-mates - on both teams - are frikkin awesome.

Hockey is Better Than Zombies

Since I just scared the ever-loving wits out of myself watching the second episode of "Walking Dead", I'll just come bask in here in the nice safe world of hockey and try to de-freak myself. There is a reason I don't watch horror movies. I'm ridiculously easily freaked out (big tough hockey player here!). But the first episode was really not that scary, had more of a "The Stand" feel to it than anything else. But yeah. I went from window to window watching my husband as he took the recycling out, just to make sure the zombies didn't get him. I also briefly entertained the notion of barring up our windows so we'd be safe in here during a zombie attack.

So! How about that cleansing of the palate? Well let's see... last night's Ranger game was EPIC on the excitement-level scale. I wish they could all be like that! Sunday's game... well I'm probably better off not voicing my opinion on that one, because it's probably an unpopular one. To sum it up in a nutshell? Avery was a class A douchebag for sucker-punching Smid, but you know what? Smid didn't have to challenge him on a clean hit either. And Pekham didn't have to try to follow him down the tunnel. OF COURSE Boyle is going to grab him. That's what you do, you protect your team-mates. And once Boyle grabs Pekham, naturally everyone else is going to square off. And Dubinsky getting fined for defending himself when someone grabbed him is just complete and utter bullshit. I fail to see how the Rangers are the bad guys in all this (other than Avery). But hey, I know everyone loves to hate the Rangers, so have at it. It'll make the rest of the season that much more exciting I guess.

Crap, I said I wasn't going to go there didn't I. Ah well. That's a hell of a lot more interesting for you to read about than how the light bulb went on and I figured out how to solve my "ARRRGHHH I can't keep up with this workout schedule while working full time with a sucky commute and playing hockey at the wee hours of the morning!" problem. Actually, GoalieHusband solved it. We were talking it over one night (things are INSANELY exciting in this house, let me tell you!) and he said why don't you just do the workouts when you can and not worry about getting them done in a week? Well DUHHHH. 'Cause, um, that would like, make sense. So, I'm almost finished with "Week 3" but in reality it'll be more like 10 days. I would have knocked off that last day this morning but the stabbing sharp pains I was getting in my knee all day yesterday made me decide to give it a rest. Not sure what that was all about- it's completely gone today, thankfully.

Tomorrow is double-header night. I can't wait. Practice and then a game. I am completely nuts for being this excited about that. Yay hockey! (See? I told you it was better than zombies).

Not-stalking Lundqvist

Yesterday was a whirlwind but it certainly was interesting. Started out with a workout (yeah baby, almost done with week 3 and therefore Phase 1!) and baking some delicious muffins, and then I headed out to the Monkey Sports store that just opened in Woodbridge, NJ. As part of their grand opening they've had player appearances the last two weekends, and yesterday Lundqvist was there. I've never gone to one of these things so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it pretty much was what I thought it would be; crowded, stuffy, hard to see/hear, but hey, you don't get the opportunity to see the King in person very often so what the heck. I think the most memorable part about it though was getting there. I'd only been there once before and got hopelessly lost, but I blame that on Tom Tom.

I wrote down directions from Google Maps and it seemed pretty straightforward, so after a quick chat with Hkygrl12 on Twitter (who had completely forgotten about it and was going to go to a skate with Ron Duguay instead, HELLO???), I hit the road. It's about an hour from where I live, so I was having a good time relaxing and rocking out to some tunes, and when I got closer and had to start paying attention to my directions, it still seemed pretty easy. I was even getting all cocky about how much better Google Maps was than Tom Tom. I was stopped at a light when a car in the next lane caught my attention. It had a puck-shaped magnet that said "Hockey Rules". Yes, indeed it does, I thought. Then I noticed the Quarry Cat magnet. Huh, I thought, interesting. And then I saw the Red Sox sticker. Heeeyy waitaminnit that's gotta be Hckygrl12! As luck would have it, I ended up right behind her when we got off the exit. Driving along, I got a text from her asking if there were a lot of people there. "Im behind u", I texted back. I figured great, I'll just follow her. Except it wasn't long before we were in another town and knew we were completely lost. We pulled over to laugh about it and figure out what to do and hit the road again. After MANY u-turns on Route 9 (and a few calls to GoalieHusband, who knows the area a little and was meeting me there) we finally made it to the store. Google gave us some really ass-backward directions, involving taking a side street with no street sign that looked kind of like a scary back alley, so I guess my cocky "ha! Google Maps kicks Tom Tom's ass!" moment was premature.

Regardless, we made it, had some good laughs about the fact that we were jammed up against the jock display while waiting, and tried to take pictures of Hank through some dude's really big greasy head. I have to say, he may be a fantastic goalie, but he's a hell of a boring interview. And the Bauer rep who was with him spent about 10 minutes asking him about why he liked Bauer, etc. Ok, we get it. Bauer's great and there's a sale on all Bauer equipment. Let's move on to the real stuff. I think the best question from the crowd was the first one, from a young kid who blurted out "When you retire are you going to become a US citizen???!???" (Hank very diplomatically answered that he loves NY and will probably always have a place here but also loves Sweden.)

It was kind of interesting to go and check one of these things out, but I don't think I'd do it again. If he was some kind of goalie thing, and he was going to be talking about goaltending, I'd probably go. But otherwise? Just don't really see the point. I also felt a little bad for him, because it was obvious he still wasn't feeling all that great after having the flu two nights before. (I only know this because Biron got an unscheduled start, and the TV announcers kept talking about how Hank had the flu and wasn't even on the bench. Really. I don't have a camera in his bathroom or anything. Come on, that's gross.)

That's the extent of hockey for me this weekend, other than watching games on TV. The Hawks don't play until Wednesday night- interestingly, right after Quarry Cat practice. That'll be a nice exhausting night. It feels kind of weird to not have a game on a Sunday night. What am I going to do with myself from 11pm - 1am? Ohhh yeah... I'll be asleep. Nice!

*THUD*

I have officially hit the wall. I was doing so well, except for the 2 days I was sick, right up until yesterday. And then I careened into the wall and came to a dead stop. I have been really digging the Ultimate Goalie Training but I'm not gonna lie- it's hard. The workouts themselves are tough, and being disciplined enough to get up really early and spend an hour or more on them isn't any easier. But I love the way I feel when I'm done and I love the improvements I'm already seeing, so I push onwards.

But man oh man, something has to change. I'm not sure if I need to slightly reduce the number of sets on certain things or maybe start eating a little more to replace the energy. Wednesday night I had a late practice, so I didn't get up early to work out on Thursday morning. By the time I got home from work I was so wiped out that I almost didn't make it through the Ranger game- I went straight to bed as soon as I saw the stick salute. And I had no intention whatsoever of getting up early today to either go play open hockey, or work out. I slept like the dead straight through to 6:30.

Here's how it's been going, on average:
Monday- usually have a very late Sunday game, so Monday morning is out.
Tuesday - up at 5, do one of the longer workouts
Wednesday - up at 5, medium length workout. 10pm, hockey practice
Thursday - nothing is happening on Thursday morning other than me sleeping as late as possible
Friday - up at 5 to work out, or to go play 2 hours of hockey
Saturday - up by 7, work out
Sunday - light workout, usually a hockey game at night

But this week I just couldn't do it. This morning I just could not drag myself out of bed and do it. And I really needed that sleep. So, what do I do? Cut out a rep here or there? Or start having some protein-rich snacks throughout the day? I think I'll try that first. I haven't been consuming any more calories since I started this than I was before. And since the goal isn't to lose weight, that's probably a factor in the wiped out feeling. If that doesn't work, I'll have to do a little less, but I hate the thought of doing that, because I'm already not keeping to the schedule as it is, with such late games/practices.

Oh yeah, and I really need to drink lots of water. I do great for a few days and then slack back off and barely drink any. Any fitness gurus out there with any input, please feel free to post a comment. But I'm thinking maybe a higher calorie intake (of the right stuff, obviously) might help.

Right now, though, I'm intaking calories in the form of fermented grapes and sugar. And about to watch Marty's return and (hopefully!) Khabibulin. Man, I love watching goalies.

Goalie envy, and late night beer & chips

Practice last night was pretty good, but not as physically intense as it's been. Coach is starting to teach the skaters some set plays that they can use in given situations, so those drills end up being a lot more cerebral. I didn't get nearly as many shots as usual, as the last 25 minutes or so were spent on diagramming plays and then working on them. Lots of stopping to explain details, etc., which is fantastic, don't get me wrong. There just wasn't a whole lot for me to do. For the last half of that time, the C team (on the other half of the ice) wrapped up their practice with a shootout contest. As I stood around waiting for our drill to pick up again, I watched the other goalie and wished I could be down there. I love shootout contests. (I'm not complaining. I completely get why what we were doing was important. I just was having some serious goalie envy.)

I kept my mouth shut though and didn't even joke around about not having many shots, because if next week's practice goes the same way I'll be more than happy. The Hawks have a game at 11. This'll be interesting.... Practice at 10, then hop over to the other surface for a game. I mentioned this in the locker room last night afterwards, and asked the girls to go easy on me next week. And that's when they decided they needed to stick around to watch our game. Ohhh boy. I warned them. I told them we're 0-7 and we've been getting killed every night, and it's not going to be pretty especially against the opponent we've got lined up. But they wouldn't be swayed. Gionta182 said she's going to make signs (oh dear lord)... But that's not all. She's bringing her vuvuzela. I hope she has at least a few occasions to make lots of obnoxious noise with it.

In truth, although I don't really want them to see how badly we are doing, I think it will bring a little bit of levity to have them yelling and banging on the glass like we did when we watched another team-mate's mens' league game. It's been a rough season. I think anything that makes it a little more light-hearted is good. And who knows, maybe this will be the week I've been saying is coming eventually.... the week that we break our winless drought.

It will certainly be fun if the revelry in the locker room last night was any indication, that's for sure. Captain sent out a text saying to bring beer, it was the Assistant Coach's birthday (not GoalieHusband... he's unfortunately on a bit of an enforced hiatus because of his miserable hours at work lately). What the Captain asks for, the Captain gets; we had about five coolers stocked in the middle of the locker room floor. I gotta tell ya, it put the mens' leagues teams that me and another girl play for to shame. Some of the girls from the C team came over and joined us, and it was packed to the gills in there. We were all putting our disgusting hockey-glove-hands into bags of chips and passing them around, and drinking beer and generally making lots of noise. I guess having 2 beers right after playing (instead of rehydrating with actual water) goes right to my head. Fortunately I wasn't driving. My car pool buddy was trying to convince me to have a third, so the ride home would be more fun. Fortunately, I declined. Two beers and three-quarters of a bag of salt & vinegar potato chips at midnight? That would have been fine 10 years ago. Even maybe 5. Not so much now. Ugggh.... Pepto, you are my friend.

It's worth every stomach-churning morning minute though.

Just call me TOSKALOL

You know, because I've told you, that the last few games I've felt really strong and I felt I played quite well, despite what the scoreboard said at the end of the night. We lost, yet again, this time by a score of 8-3. This yoke keeps getting heavier. I would say my play last night was pretty mediocre, but only if you average it out. Some of the time I was "good lord what is that stench" awful and some of the time I made some of those saves that I have no business making. It just figures that last night I had to pull one of my more bone-headed moves, something I haven't done in a while (thankfully). It just figures, because unlike all our other games, last night's debacle is now memorialized forever on video.

One of our team-mates is half owner of a video production company. He's been saying for a while that he was going to have someone come film one of our games, and it turned out last night was it. I'd give them a shameless plug but I'm afraid you'd then go to their website and find our video, and I really don't need that stress. Because in addition to seeing a few sloppy bad goals, you'd also see my best Toskala impression.

Now, I know I know that I should be chained to the net and never, ever, ever be allowed to touch the puck. But sometimes it's just unavoidable. We were down 5-2, somewhere around the middle of the 2nd period, and with play going on in the other end, suddenly the puck came out and rolled down into my zone. Right towards me, dead on net. An attacker from the other team gave chase so I had no choice but to do something. I went out to corral it, even had my pad down behind it and everything, but it hit the cheater on my glove and bounced back out. And with me down in the wrong kind of position to be pushing over and making a save, said attacker scooped it up and plopped it into the net. And that's on video for ever and ever. Lovely.

On the other hand, I did make some good saves. I guess it was Channel Finnish Goalies Night in my brain, because I also made several awesome "take it in the flaming C" Kiprusoff saves. I really have to get a Flames jersey that I can wear over my gear (I have one but it's way too small for on-ice wearing). Because that will just never, ever get old. Ever.

Bottom line, we lost again, which I think puts us at 0-7 now. And strangely I'm still doing ok in the confidence department. Yeah, I sort of shat the bed on a few goals last night, but for some reason I'm keeping perspective on it. (Except for the whole BEING ON VIDEO thing. UGH.) In conversation with a friend, I compared myself to his big, dumb, dopey, loveable, single-brain-celled dog, and said maybe I'm just stupid like Bertha because I'm just excited to get out there every night. Good girl, Bertha!!! *dumb happy tail thump*

The chasm of GoalieBrain

Well, I played open hockey yesterday and the only person I gave nightmares to was myself. And maybe anyone playing in front of me. I had a pretty crappy outing but amazingly enough, I just sort of shrugged it off and didn't get down about it. I just felt like I couldn't get into my groove at all. As I mentioned on Twitter, the rink was playing god-awful music (who the heck gets pumped up to play hockey listening to "Cornflake Girl" and "Champagne Supernova"???). It's fine though. I guess that just means I'm saving my "A" game for the Hawks on Sunday night.

Speaking of Twitter, I guess I never realized how completely stream-of-consciousness my tweets are. (That's kind of the point, isn't it?) I'd say 99.9999% of my tweets are hockey related, and about 94% of those are goalie related. The other .00001% are probably rants about traffic or people being complete dillholes in general. But it wasn't until I got this response from a friend (blog reader known as "#14") that made me realize just how completely goalie-centric pretty much everything out of my twitter-mouth is. After randomly musing about the way Lundqvist reportedly has his skates cut, I got this IM from him: "You understand that reading your tweets is like walking directly into the chasm of the Goalie Brain, right?" Hmmm. He's right. So be it. It's honestly how my brain works. It's kind of like this: work thought - work thought - work thought - check twitter - work thought - work thought - OMG holy crap I just figured out something I was doing wrong on the ice!!! - work thought - work thought - Rask - Rask - Lundqvist - VarLAmov - work thought - Lehtonen - Rask - Kiprusoff - Rask - work thought.... etc. It's ok though, because on Twitter I've found a little cadre of people whose brains all work the same way. Mostly. Just substitute "Brust" for "Rask" in one person's case. Actually, substitute "Brust" for all of them. (hee hee hee).

On the training front, things are moving along nicely. I'm wrapping up Week Two and find myself a little anxious to get going on Week Three, because the exercise sets are going to change up a little. I peeked ahead at the schedule and saw "Core 2" on some days instead of "Core 1". Woo hoo! Something different! The only thing that's bothering me a little is fitting the schedule into my regular work/hockey schedule. For example, every Wednesday night I have practice at 10pm, which means I'm not home and curled up in bed until 12:30 at the earliest. Sorry but there's no way I'm getting up 4 1/2 hours later to work out. (I have to be up at 5 to work out in order to get to work on time). So Thursdays are out. Then this week on Friday morning I got up early to go play open hockey. So no training on Friday morning either. But it's not like I sat on my ass and did nothing - I was on the ice for an hour and a half. I've resolved it this way: some days on the schedule are just core and flexibility. Some are speed or strength AND core and flexibility. I make sure that I get in all the days with all three so I'm not missing anything. I hope that'll be ok. I just keep reminding myself that something is better than nothing, so if I'm missing a core/flexibility-only day here or there, at least I'm still doing a heck of a lot more to improve myself than I was before I started this. Sleep is important. If I don't sleep, I get sick, and then I can't work out (or play!) at all.

And now that I've really rambled, I doubt there's anyone still reading this. It amazes me that people even want to read this in the first place, since if Twitter is walking into the chasm of GoalieBrain, this has to be complete immersion. Probably only other goalies can stand it, and even then only the obsessive ones. But that's how my brain works... I have to pour stuff out or it rattles around in there and drives me nuts. So thanks for reading, if you've made it this far.

I'll give you nightmares

I'm getting my swagger back. I'm not sure how that's possible losing games 7-1, 12-2 and now most recently 8-2, but I am. I'm feeling strong and powerful on the ice and I'm looking forward to every single outing. I give a lot of credit to the training I've started doing; that really pumps me up and makes me feel strong. Well, afterwards it does. At the time it makes me want to die and almost puke, at least the speed and agility portion of it. I'm loving the other stuff though.

So we had another game last night, and came out with another loss. Maybe I'm just delusional but this isn't frustrating the hell out of me on a personal level. Hell yeah I want to win. Losing sucks. Losing by so much sucks too. But I think it's the overall feeling of the team that makes the difference. There isn't a poisonous atmosphere anymore. Everyone out there is working their tail off, no one's slacking. It's hard to be upset when everyone's giving it their all. I guess we'll probably end up dropping down to the instructional league after this season, which is going to be hard to swing in the GoalieHousehold, but we'll figure something out. Regardless, right now we're still in this league, and yes we're getting killed every night but by HockeyGods, if anyone could get a win for pure balls-out effort it should be us.

I had a little bit of a confidence boosting experience during/after the game as well, which never hurts. During the 2nd period, we were down by I think maybe 4 goals, and there was a breakaway down the left wing. I saw it unfold, I waited... I waited.... and I totally STUFFED the guy. As in he thought he had an easy goal and BAM there I was nice and tight, no rebound thank you very much. That save made me feel great, and having him tap me on the pads between periods and say "great save" made me grin, but it wasn't until after the game that I felt the swagger come back. Right after getting off the ice, I was talking to a friend who'd come to watch the game, and that skater came over to me and said "Man that really was a good save. I'm going to have nightmares tonight because of that."

Six more days 'til I'm back out there again. Trust me, I've got perspective. I may have made a few great saves but at the end of the night we still lost 8-2. But damnit, I'm determined to just keep plugging and get that win.

Goalie-watching, and training partners

I'm sitting here relaxing with a beer after doing my workout. I have a feeling that's probably counter-productive but... too bad. So, let's see, since I last blogged, did we have a game? Hmm, I think we might have. I have a vague memory of a 12-2 thrashing around midnight at some point this week. The less said about that game is probably better. (Technically the scoreboard read 10-2 but they stopped counting and went to running time after 10. Ouch.) However, I do have one observation to make. Aside from the first goal and the last 5 minutes of the 3rd period, when we all lost our heads due to the opposing team's collective douchebaggery, I felt really great about my game. How can I say that with 12 pucks in my net? I guess I really probably can't. But in terms of mental sharpness, energy, strength in my legs and crispness of movement? I felt awesome. I made some kick-ass saves. I guess I just didn't make enough of them.

From that disaster we move on to something much more fun. A friend from Minnesota is out for a visit this week, and we went to a Ranger game last night. Actually, first we went to the awesome new hockey super-store that just opened in NJ and tried stuff on and drooled. THEN we went to a Ranger game. She was in charge of getting tickets and she completely surprised me with jaw-droppingly awesome seats; section 133. Oh I'm sorry, section 133, Row A. For anyone not familiar with the Garden layout, that's smack behind Lundqvist's net. (Does she love me or what?!) So I was treated to two periods of watching my idol, as close as I will probably ever get, and one period of watching Cam Ward, who is pretty high up there on my list as well. (Interesting observation: Ward does not wear any neck protection. What's up with that, is he a complete idiot?) Both goalies played really well, and Hank made some amazing saves, so not only were we able to cheer for 3 Ranger goals, we got to chant "HEN-RIK!" several times. Unfortunately, with the game tied late in the 3rd, after a series of awesome stops, the puck went into Hank's net. DAMMIT. Soooo frustrating. It was all over his body language too. Poor guy.

Um yeah, so that's my game recap. This is how I watch games- I watch the goalies. I honestly found myself watching them even when play was in the other end and they were literally standing there doing nothing. Just studying them. I'm hopeless.

And a quick report on the goalie training- I was going along great and then I got sick. So, I ended up skipping two days, one of which I just substituted for my "off" day this week, and the other I guess I just get my butt kicked for. But hey, I didn't go to Quarry Cats practice either. No one wants a goalie dripping and spewing snot all over the place. But I got back into action yesterday, and continue to be completely amused by my cats. They just can not leave me alone when I'm stretching or doing anything that involves anything other than my feet being on the floor. While doing a "quadruped superman" (picture yourself kneeling on all fours, and then lift up and extend one arm and one leg), Bulin hopped up onto my back. The program doesn't say anything about doing it with a 13 lb. weight on your back but hey, I guess it can only make me stronger right? I maintained good form throughout. Then today Commie was winding all around me and leaning up against me and trying to get me to pet him while I was stretching out my adductors. Mommy's little workout partners.

One day in

No, I am not going to post daily updates about Ultimate Goalie Training. As corny as it sounds, I'm really excited about this and feel like I'm on a new adventure. (Ok. I just rolled my eyes at myself.) When I had to leave the gym I despaired that I'd ever get a decent workout at home, mostly because there was so much info out there I couldn't sift it all down and figure out what I really should be doing. So to not only have a program geared for goalies, but one that tells you EXACTLY what to do, and when to do it, is perfect. Yeah, I'm the one who gets overwhelmed in the toothpaste aisle looking at all those boxes going "gaahhhh, I just want something to clean my teeth!".

This morning I got myself out of bed nice and early and headed downstairs to start working. I have to say I never thought I'd sweat that much working out at home. Whoa nelly. What I think is really neat about this system is that it's something different all the time. Today was working on footspeed (along with core and flexibility). The next one will be strength, etc, etc. There are so many different things to do that I don't think it'll ever get boring. I'll be sucking wind, and ready to die at times, but it won't be boring. And the cats are just going to have to get used to me jumping around like a nut on my "white trash agility ladder". Yes folks, I marked off an agility ladder on my basement floor using painters' tape. I don't want to spend $50 on a proper one, so this will have to do for now. Besides, it goes really well with our white trash furniture down there: folding lawn chairs. (I shit you not. One of these days we're going to get around to getting an actual couch. Or something.)

So yeah... as you can tell I'm totally gung ho about the training. I'm hoping to be able to keep up with the schedule even days after obnoxiously late games, but we'll see how that goes. I might cheat and flip days around; tomorrow is supposed to be a bit easier of a day than Wedensday, but I'm going to be dead on Wednesday morning, so I might switch them. Shhhh don't tell Maria. She may be small but she could totally kick my butt.

Navel-gazing, and Ultimate Training

You all love me right now. You don't know you do, but you do. You love me for my "NO POSTING FOR 24 HRS AFTER A BAD GAME!!!!" policy. Because that policy saved you from having to read some really whiny, self-doubting, depressing, melodramatic bitching and moaning about how much I suck. See? Aren't you glad I have that policy? Because I almost broke it. I almost came home from a 7-1 Hawks loss (on the heels of a 3-2 Quarry Cats loss that I beat myself up over too) and posted "Ok you know what this is how I really feel..." Cue spewage.

But I've had a day to brood, which has actually been kind of productive because I've managed to do some decent analyzing. I really think I'm starting to hate the number 7, which used to be a favorite, because that seems to be the magic number in terms of goals against. Disgusting, I know. But, I tried to objectively figure out what was going wrong, and what I came up with was this- it seems like a lot of goals are a result of rebounds going back out in front or weird bounces. And when I say weird bounces I mean it goes in off me. I make the save initially but it bounces off me (arm, glove, poorly angled stick) and into the net. So I know what I need to work on, and am getting some help from the good folks over at the boards on GoalieCrease.net.

That lopsided loss somewhat dampened my excitement over Something Really Cool, or I would have been blogging about that a day ago too. Right before we left for the game I discovered I had won a copy of Ultimate Goalie Training.... the training program I've been coveting since I found out it existed. Huge goalie bear-hugs to Maria, who picked me as one of the winners for the Butterfly Widening Challenge. (I gained 5 inches, in case anyone was wondering. Which doesn't seem like much, but as we have been snickering about on the boards, who doesn't want an extra 5 inches?) The prize was none other than UGT, and I was ecstatic. I've downloaded all the videos and printed all the handbooks (thank you, work, for the use of your color copier... shhhh....) and am kind of overwhelmed by how comprehensive it seems. I have a LOT of reading to do before I even get started. Yes, I'm one of those "read the instructions first" types of people. I want to read through everything, watch all the videos to familiarize myself with the exercises, and map out a plan to get started.

I absolutely love that all this can be done at home and does not require a gym membership. I need to pick up a few simple things (dumb-bells, a bungee, and a mirror so I can make sure my form is right), but I think this is going to be really fantastic. I have to be honest, I'm pretty intimidated. But I need to do this. I need to be disciplined and do this. So if any of you want to harass me from time to time and make sure I'm sticking to my schedule, feel free.

Twelve weeks. Twelve weeks to being a better goalie. I do have to be realistic- due to work and game schedules it might take slightly longer than 12 weeks. But I'm going to do it, and try not to let the schedule get screwed up too much. Yikes. Here goes nothing!

Goalie Whore, Jerseys, First Game

Yeah, really, it's not what you think (my obsession with Tuukka Rask aside). This is what my best friend calls me on a regular basis and I'd be hard pressed to deny it. Looks like I'll be whoring myself out lending my services to another team for the next several weeks. A friend's team lost their goalie, so she asked me to fill in. Woo hoo, more ice time, more pucks to stop, yay! When I told my name-calling friend about this she said "you'll tend goal for anyone". (This is not a comment on the team I'll be subbing for. She's not involved in these dopey beer leagues and could care less who I sub for.) My natural reaction was to say "No I wouldn't", but when I thought about it, she's right. I would play for just about anyone. Except for the Drunk Punks. I may be a whore but I do have standards.

So, now that I'm official on the women's team, I need to order some jerseys. I contacted the woman who is placing orders for the entire organization, who happens to also be a goalie (for the C team). I told her I wanted a goalie cut but evidently if you order goalie cut what they really send you is a size 4X. This makes me nuts. I have a hard time finding any goalie cut jersey that actually fits, because I think jersey makers just assume the entire thing needs to be humongous and flap around like an unsecured tent in the breeze. Really, all I need is a little more room in the chest and much wider sleeves. C-goalie offered to hold the order until next week, when I can try her jersey on at practice (she has a 3X). She thinks I can get away with a 2X but I want to be sure. It's kind of dorky but I'm excited to be getting the jerseys. I've been wearing just any old dark or light jersey when I play with them, and I know the goalie can wear whatever the hell she wants, but this will make me feel like more a part of the team.

I'm not too positive about the proposed "3rd jersey" they want to order though. I think my jersey budget is going to be tapped with these two regular ones, so I may not go for it. Thankfully they switched from the insanely obnoxious red-white-black horizontal striped Ottawa 67's jersey to a much more palatable red one with black trim. Unfortunately they're all gung ho on getting nicknames on the back. I gotta say, I don't love this idea. First of all, not everyone has a nickname, and even those who do aren't called by it on a regular basis. And, I just think it's kind of dopey. I guess this is the difference between mens' and womens' hockey...

Jersey issues aside, we have our first game tomorrow night and I am stoked. We've been practicing for almost a month now, really productive practices at that. And because of all the tournaments and summer ice rental, there wasn't much rust to shake off overall, so we pretty much picked up right where we left off. I'm excited about the season, I think we're going to do very well.

So, game on Sunday, game on Monday (for the goalie-less team), Hawks game on Tuesday, practice on Wednesday. If this is being a whore then I embrace it fully.

Sleep deprivation and Twitter induced crankiness ahead

Either it's my crappy computer or Twitter is fubar'd. I've been trying to tweet and it keeps telling me "oops! we did something wrong!" Ok, so fix it. I might have a meltdown if I can't ask the incredibly important question that came to me while watching a Caps game and I didn't have my phone nearby to tweet from.

So in the mean time, I'll blog. There's really not a whole heck of a lot to say but that might be because my brain is completely fried. Our 11:10 pm game ended up being an 11:30 game last night because they cut they ice late (and very slowly- yet somehow there were still deep cuts in it). Another "L" on the board for the Hawks. I'm aggravated because I don't feel I played that great a game. But what else is new. We lost 7-6. I continue to believe a win is just around the corner for us... somewhere.

I'll just blame it on the ref. Before the game started, he came over and checked my net ('cause you know I just might be hiding pucks in there. 'cause goalies love having a puck hanging out in the back of their net for no reason), nodded, looked at me and said "Good luck tonight. Have fun." and clapped me on the shoulder before skating away. My first thought was "Wtf?! Thanks a lot, ass!". Then the normal part of my brain told the goalie part to unbunch her panties, that not everyone who says "good luck" to a goalie really actually means "eff you". I'm still a tad paranoid about it but I'll just pretend he was just being nice.

I'm also less than thrilled to report that after 6 weeks of stretching (almost) every day, I only gained 5.5" in the width of my butterfly flare. (Now there is a sentence that makes NO sense whatsoever to anyone but a goalie. And even then it sounds strangely dirty.) The challenge over at Goalie's Crease ended today and I know for sure that a few folks ended up with more progress than I did. That's ok though, 5.5 more inches is still 5.5 more inches right? (Really, really, really behaving myself here....)

And lastly, the jersey number decision has been made for me. I finally settled on 37, but I am a giant momo, because I completely forgot that number is retired in the entire Quarry Cat organization, in memory of Michelle Polis. In the locker room after practice I asked the captain if I could have 37 and everyone stopped talking and stared at me. Yeah, hi, I'm the idiot in the corner over here. There's only a big 37 in a giant heart behind the net on both rinks. (In my defense.... when am I ever behind the net???) Her jersey is only framed and hanging in a box in the lobby too. And I only just played a tournament in her honor a few months ago. No reason why I should remember 37 is sacred ground at that rink.

Dumbass.

So, 39 it is. It's a good goalie number. It's not over-used, but it's not a number that makes you go "huh???" either.

Yeah I think it's time to take my rambly ass off to bed now. Maybe by now Twitter will let me post my incredibly important burning question.

Feed the beast

The "new" Hawks are now 0-2 on the season and I let in 7 goals last night, but I am actually feeling pretty darn good this morning. I have this feeling that if we keep pushing and keep working it'll come together for us. I felt really strong last night, I know that's odd to say given the goals against, but I did. For the most part, I had a really good game. For the most part. I also had some real head-up-my-ass mistakes that resulted in goals, so I'm really not too thrilled about that. I did learn something from both things though, so I guess that's good at least.

Mistake #1- Somehow the puck came sliding right down the middle and no one was near it. As it came straight towards me I realized that I'd have to play it, but for some reason had absolutely no idea what to do with it. My brain thought all of this in the span of about 2 seconds: "Crap, what do I do with this? Treat it as a shot and make a save? It's going too slow. Cover it? No, there's no one else around. Play it like a pass? Oh shit ... oops." What happened was as I was dithering about what to do with it, I went down in the butterfly, it hit my stick and took a weird bounce up to my mask, and I turned my head, giving it a perfect line right to the corner of the net. UGH. Note to self: NO THINKING. Second note to self: Know what you're going to do with the puck before it gets to you.

Mistake #2- Puck comes down into my zone but there's an opponent approaching (alone) so I don't go out to play it. He gets it just below the goal line and comes even with the side of the net. I'm on the post waiting for the shot. I probably could have poked it but it was on my glove side and I didn't trust that reaching out and around to poke it wouldn't pull me off the post. Yeah, except I wasn't really on the post. Plink- right past my foot. DAMMIT. Hold the post, dumbass.

Of course I'm not saying I only make 2 mistakes in the whole game- I'm just saying those were the real dumbass embarassing ones. I did manage to make several really good saves, and I guess that maybe sort of kind of makes up for them. One was pretty awesome, gave me that "FUCK YEAH!" feeling. They got a breakaway and the guy was coming down the left side. I stuck with him, moved across with him, and when he shot it hit my pad and went back out in front of me a little. I didn't realize he had a trailer coming in and that guy went for it but as the momentum of my save had me still sliding to the right, I reached out and smothered it with my glove and took it with me. Ha. There's probably a few things I did wrong there too, but it worked out in my favor. And felt damn good, even though by then we were already down 7-3.

Our next game is next Sunday and that's just too far away. My blood is pumping and I want to get right back out there and feel some more pucks. I have a good feeling about this team.

Birthday ice! (and beer. and cupcakes.)

As birthdays go, mine was pretty great yesterday. It started on the ice and ended on the ice. Can't beat that, right? At 12:01 a.m. on the 29th I was on the ice with the Hawks. At long last!!! It was an interesting game. We only had 9 skaters, 7 of whom were defensemen As a result most of our "forwards" were actually defensemen in forwards' clothing- including GoalieHusband. It was also our first game with the mixed group of "old" and "new" Hawks, so there was a bit of a different dynamic. The other team fared worse than we did, numbers wise (only 6 skaters!) but they still beat us 4-3. I'm actually not too worried about it. We played hard, and played as a team, which is something that had kind of been lacking in our last season. There was no yelling or grousing on the bench either. The new guys seem really cool and I'm sure it'll just be a matter of a few games before we all gel. Our next game is much earlier, so we should have better numbers.

I was surprisingly energetic all day at work, not dragging like I thought I'd be. I got home, had a PBJ, a quick nap, and GoalieHusband and I headed back out to the rink for Quarry Cats practice. Practices have been going great the last few weeks; the coaches are really organized and working towards specific goals with us. I can't wait to play an actual game and see how this all pays off. I think we're really going to be kicking some butt this season.

But the two best things about practice last night didn't happen on the ice. First off, as we were all changing afterward, there was a knock on the door. The coaches usually give us time to change and then come in to chat. They seemed a little early this week. I was on my way into the shower and half the room was in various stages of undress, so we yelled for them to wait. And then after I got out of the shower and was standing there in my towel, there was more banging at the door. Our "enforcer" (who I know will read this and be proud I called her that haha) got up and yelled "Not yet! We'll tell you when we're ready!" I dressed hastily and went to the door to let them in... and in comes GoalieHusband and the other two coaches with a tray of cupcakes with hockey-stick candles! They sang to me, I turned multiple shades of red, and we all pigged out on cupcakes and beer. Then we all headed over to the other ice surface...

One of our defensemen also plays on a men's team, which up until now had played at a different rink. They just started the fall season here at "our" rink, and had a game last night, so she did half our practice, and then headed over to play with them. Naturally we had to go over and support her team. The rest of her team and the team they were playing against were absolutely astounded by this small group of yelling, screaming, cheering, glass-pounding sweaty disheveled women. D-Girl wasn't embarrassed at all. Not one bit. ;) All she did was step on the ice and we went bananas. We heckled the other team's players. (Come on, if you're wearing 69 and take a douchey penalty you deserve to get heckled). One of the guys on the other team is someone GoalieHusband and I have played open hockey with several times, and he just turned and stared at us at one point. I grinned and banged on the glass at him. We greeted her with a cupcake and a bottle of beer when she got off the ice. Someone came over to us and asked "Are you D-Girl's family?" Well yes... in a way we are. Ha.

We bribed the rink worker with a few cupcakes and Twizzlers and he let us hang out back in the locker room again for a while. So, after a ridiculously late game on Tuesday, and smelly locker-room-party until late last night, I'm a little worse for the wear today. To make matters worse I left my wallet in my hockey bag, so it's going to have to be crappy office coffee for me, not the elixir that is Dunkin Donuts.

It's ok. It's all completely worth it. Back on the ice again with the Hawks on Sunday night.