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.