The View From the Bench

Saturday morning I woke up to the reality that no, I was not going to be able to play on Sunday, and I should get to work with finding a sub. Fortunately, the first person I called was able to fill in.

Injured D-girl "Flipper" and I had planned to watch the game from the stands (with beer cleverly hidden in stainless steel water bottles haha). When Coach found out we were both scratches for the evening (he'd been away all week and wasn't aware of any of this drama) he told us to come to the bench for the game. So it was that I watched my team from the bench for the first time. Man, did that suck. Actually, it alternately sucked and was kind of cool. But I realized how tough it had been for GoalieHusband and #14 to be off the ice for as long as they had to be. I can't even imagine it and hope never to go through a lengthy rehab like that myself (hear that, Hockey Gods?).

While it was no fun not being out there with my girls, it was kind of cool to be involved, even if it was on the fringes, yelling my head off the entire time, and getting a feel for the ebb and flow of line changes and bench chatter. That's one thing I miss out on, being a goalie. I never get to be involved in the jawing on the bench, and that's one reason I was so adamant about changing with the team at the very beginning. If I'm not on the bench and not in the locker room, I might as well be a Mylec shooter tutor for as much as I'll be part of the team. Fortunately everyone's an adult and no one had/has a problem with my being in the room.

Whoops, tangent. Sorry. It ended up being a good game for me to miss, if I had to miss any. We won 7-0 and I think my sub saw maybe 5 shots. One interesting side-story of the game was the player carousel. The Captain had emailed us that she wouldn't be able to be there until the time the game started. We were short D to begin with, with Flipper out. So what a surprise when gionta182 came barging into the locker room with her gear. We all thought she had to work! She informed us that she did, and was only here for the first period (to cover for the Captain) because she was on the clock and no one knew she was gone. Now that's dedication! Gotta love it! And it worked out perfectly. The Captain was ready after the first period and gionta182 ran off back to work. I was texting score updates to her from the bench, but my fingers were so frozen I kept making typos and it probably looked like drunk texts on her end.

Also, I got to wear my real jersey for the first time. It's a 2XL, so it looks pretty ridiculous over just clothes. After the game when we were hanging out having beer and pizza with the other team (still can't get my head around that one, but when in Rome...) I stood up, modeled my jersey and asked Captain if she liked my dress. "Yeah," she said. "But why do you still have pants on?"

Ahhh, I love my girls. Haha.

Next game is Wednesday night and it's a big one. I told Senator as long as nothing's broken/torn in my knee I'm playing. I don't care how many painkillers I have to chug to get myself out there, I need to play against my D-girl's mens team. She told me I have to play, because she wants a chance to score on me. I told her just because I'm playing doesn't mean she's going to get that chance. She has to get through GoalieHusband first. BRING. IT. ON.