Level of frustration: rising

It's been a frustrating season in general, but Wednesday night's game was pretty much an encapsulation of everything that's really wearing me down about this league. We played against a team I'll call the Drunk Punks (a friend and I gave them that name, since they're all extremely young and all like to throw a few back before games). Several of the players on this team work at the rink. They also have a habit of calling in ringers on a regular basis. Yeah, everyone has 1 or 2 ringers. These guys, when they really want to wallop someone, call in the reinforcements. Funny how they're the only team in the league with a winning record eh?

Right from the get-go it was pretty awful. For the first 6-8 minutes we all played like we had our heads up our asses. We went down 4-0 in that span of time, and I started it off with a humiliatingly soft 5-hole goal. (I'm still not sure what happened there. I saw the guy in the high slot, all alone, with the puck, knew he was going to shoot, but something about the shot surprised me. I think I was expecting high and fast and he shot low and slow. Regardless- ugh.) The other 3... well I feel I probably should have had them but they were kind of a team effort. Fortunately we scored 2 goals at the end of the period. Going to the bench down 4-2 is a lot different than 4-0.

The second period we found our legs, and kicked some ass. Four more goals on our side and one on theirs brought the score to 6-5 with us in the lead. But that's also when everything fell apart. The Drunk Punks are probably all working with a mental age of about 13, and they play like it. Running guys, stickwork, tripping, you name it. Granted, we were giving it right back to them. The refs were pretty lenient. But it just kept escalating, and when one of our best players took a misconduct for going after someone after being sent to the box for roughing, all hell broke loose. It culminated at the end of the period, when one particularly hated Avery-esque douchebag blatantly fired a puck right at me AFTER the buzzer. I chased after him, swearing, and tried to trip him, and backed off when I saw the ref say "I got it, I got it", and then a few team-mates swarmed in on him.

The bench was a nuthouse. Senator yelled for everyone to "STFU for 20 seconds" and lo and behold, it worked. Though the third period was still pretty violatile, it didn't have the powder keg feeling of the end of the second. Unfortunately we pissed away our lead and lost 8-6. The third period brought several breakaways, and I do not fault the team for that, because the guys flying in on me were C level players at the very least.

My frustration, as it has been all season, is two-fold. First, the ringer issue. There's nothing at all we can do about that, so we have to either accept it or go elsewhere. And as we learned when we did go elsewhere, it's pretty much the same other places too. (I would venture to guess it's worse here with the Drunk Punks because they can get away with more, being rink employees). The other issue is the way the team completely unravels. It doesn't take much to get us off our game, and when we're off, we're OFF. The thing that really gets me about this last game is we know these guys, we know they play like that, and should expect it. There was one time we played them, two or three seasons ago, when we collectively just didn't let any of their crap get to us. And we dominated. I was actually standing in my net, laughing at their antics as they just rolled off our backs.

We had that game. We had that game and we gave it to them on a silver platter, with plenty of extra gravy on the side. They know exactly how to work us. What drives me nuts is that you'd think we'd know that and not let it get us off our game. We are the ones who give them the power to drive us to distraction- if we don't give them that power, they have nothing. (Well, nothing besides a bunch of ringers. But even against that lineup we came back to lead after being down 4-0, so yes they are beatable.)

Actually I lied. My frustration is three-fold. I'm really frustrated with myself too. Giving up 8 goals a game sucks the big hairy one. Hard. Yeah, the skill level is completely unpredictable, with the ringer factor. Yeah, there's a lot of guys being left wide open. But no matter how many excuses you provide, it still comes down to the fact that the puck is in the back of the net an awful lot, and I'm supposed to keep it out. Of those average 8 goals a game I'd say 2-3 are ones that I really know I should have had. And that frustrates the hell out of me. I spent all day yesterday moping and feeling like my confidence was shattered, but now I'm just pissed off and I want to get back out there again. And again. And again. Until I get it right.

We're off for the summer, due to everyone's vacations and summer events. Thankfully though, that wasn't the last game we'll play until the fall. We have at least one more game, since we got into the "playoffs" after all. I sure hope it doesn't leave as shitty a taste in my mouth as the last one. In fact, we might even play the Drunk Punks. And knocking them out would feel really, really good.