Practice, and WJC musings

The holiday season is over, and I have to say I am happy for things to get back to "normal" in Goalie Household. As I type this, on a Saturday morning, GoalieHusband is upstairs in bed lost in a good book. And he'll be off tomorrow too. Unreal! This more reasonable schedule also allows for him to return to QCat practices as assistant coach. I know the D have been looking very much forward to his return, in spite of the fact that he threatened to skate them to death for the whole "Coach Sparkle" thing. It was great having him back.

I mentioned in my last post that I had a private coach of sorts at practice this week. After our introductory run-down of what we were going to be working on that night, Coach took me aside and said he'd asked his son (a college freshman, home on break) to come and work with me a little on my own. I had a couple of thoughts... "Oh no, this kid absolutely owns me every time we play pickup"... "Ok you know what this will actually be good, I could use some individual attention"... and "damn am I glad I didn't wear my Russian jersey tonight."

Coach and his family are Canadian. After finding out in the locker room that Canada had blown its 3-0 lead in the World Juniors and that Russia had come back to tie it- all in the 3rd period mind you, I very smartly suppressed my glee. I hate gloaters, so I try not to do it myself. For example, I think I'm doing an admirable job of not cracking jokes and ragging on the Devils' general state of disaster right now. *wink* By the time we went out on the ice Russia had finished its triumphant comeback, something that Coach ruefully mentioned in his pre-practice speech. Don't get me wrong, I think Canada's pretty awesome. But when it comes to national hockey rivalries there is none like USA/Canada. It's fantastic. Plus you know my penchant for Russia and things Russian (second only to Finland). So I'm pretty excited about the outcome of the WJC; regardless of their nationality, that a team battled back the entire tournament like that is pretty cool. And watching these teenagers whoop it up during their national anthem was touching. And that was before the alcohol!

Crap. That was a hell of a tangent. Where was I? Right. Coach's Kid and my personal lesson. As it turned out I needn't have been leery of feeling like I couldn't stop anything, because he's a smart kid and he knows how to work with goalies. We had a net up against the boards by the penalty box, and he started off with some low shots, then warmed up the blocker and attempted to do the same with the glove, but I can't catch a puck for shit. He had me hold the post and banged a puck off the boards behind the net to simulate a rebound and took a shot that way. It was pretty interesting, and definitely productive, because he gave me lots of feedback and pointed out some things I didn't realize I was doing (dropping a shoulder, cheating to one side, etc).

I worked with him for a bit, then worked with the team, and went back to working with him at the end of practice. It wasn't long before I realized that because we were running late, a crowd of impatient hockey players was gathering just on the other side of the glass. Impatient hockey players from the team I was about to play as soon as the ice was cut. And because I was pretty exhausted at that point, I wasn't doing very well at all. Kid was also sneaking in some trick shots (grrrr....) that no goalie in our league would have been able to stop. I just put it out of my head that my opponents were watching me struggle, but it was definitely not the best feeling in the world. (This team is the Drunk Punks. They all work at the rink, so they all know who I am. I'm not sure they knew I also play with the QCats, but I'm sure they recognized me the second they saw me. Not too many chick goalies with glasses playing at this rink).

After practice, I said a quick goodbye to the girls, and dragged my giant (empty) bag from one locker room to the next. The Hawks were all sitting around, antsy to get out there, but I was glad for the break the Zamboni gave me. I mentioned that they'd kicked my ass out there, and one team-mate said "all right, well shake it off". And I think I did just that...

(game recap coming soon...)