Catching up

I'm writing from the beach. I love the ocean but I'm not a typical beach person- I hate the sun and the crowds, but every year my family rents this cottage on the shore and I can sit inside if I have too much sun, and listen to the crashing of the waves and relax. Most years I'm fidgety because I'm missing hockey. One year we even left in the middle of the week to drive back home and play, and come back.

But not this year. This year, I sorely need this break. Maybe I've been making up for lost time since I broke my knee, but I've been going at full tilt. Hawks games, open hockey, five tournaments, rent-outs, subbing here and there, and keeping up with training when I can - I'm exhausted. I haven't written since that ridiculous foggy game, but since then we had another "Goat Rodeo", a Hawks game, I subbed for @gionta182's team, and we just finished a tournament, sort of.

The Hawks game, the final one of the season, was a 6-0 loss, but one after which we all felt really good. Sounds crazy, right? But as with most games, the score doesn't tell the whole ("hole") story. We went up against a team that was undefeated, the team that's moving up to the next division. A whole week ago now, I can't remember exactly how many skaters we had, but it wasn't many. Nine at the most? They had a full bench. And we lost 6-0 but every single person on the team left absolutely every last ounce of energy and will on the ice. I've never seen us so satisfied after a loss that lopsided, and it was well deserved.

Two days later I subbed for gionta182, and her team also was very short on players. And I was short on mojo. Big time. I had probably the worst game I've had in about two years... I can't even explain what happened because I haven't figured it out. I'm going to chalk it up to fatigue. But I let in some ridiculously soft goals, in succession, shot after shot. Fortunately after the first period I got my shit together. But that was just flat out awful. The worst part about it was feeling like I let gionta182 and her whole team down. But I've gotten over that now.

Whatever it was, it only lasted partly through the next game and now is gone. The next game was the first of our most recent tournament, and we faced a team of cheaters. There were two divisions. We were in the lower of the two, and this team would have skated circles around the teams in the higher division. They weren't even really a team, just a group made up of ringers. At the end of the first period it was 6-0 and I had that horrible sinking feeling, that "oh no, it's happening again" feeling. I pulled myself together, and they dialed it way back, and we got out of the game with a score of 9-2.

The next two were much better. The second game was a 7-2 victory, and the third was by far my best performance in a while; a 1-0 shutout. Maybe it was partly emotion that kicked me into high gear in the zone, as we had a scary moment in the first period when one of our players got hurt. She went into the dashers with her chin, head snapping back and back twisting strangely as she fell. An ambulance was called but she insisted on coming off the ice on her own. Play resumed but after a few minutes trying to recoup on the bench, she wasn't doing very well, so when the EMTs arrived, she was taken to the hospital. We learned later she had one broken rib, and given how dizzy she was I wouldn't be surprised if she had a concussion as well. She's kicking my ass in Words With Friends though, so she can't be all that befuddled right now.

When we got off the ice after that 3rd game, knowing that that win guaranteed us a spot in the championship game, against Ringer Team, we unanimously decided to wear our red jerseys. Now, these jerseys were purchased at the beginning of last season, a fun "3rd jersey" to complement our regular ones, but they seem to be cursed. We have never won a game in them. We even wore them in an exhibition game against a team we usually beat, hoping to get the stank off them, but we lost that one too. At first no one listened to gionta182 when she insisted they were cursed, but now no one wants to wear them in a game that means anything. But with a game against the Ringer Team, we figured we had nothing to lose. I know a lot of us were looking forward to it; coming off two very strong games, we were in a position to give them a little more fight than we had in that first game, and I knew I was going to play a lot stronger than I had.

Unfortunately, we never got our opportunity. It's almost comical at this point, really. Recall that we decided the night before to wear our red jerseys in this championship game. The game wasn't until 1:30, so I was lounging in my hotel room when the phone rang at 10:30. It was gionta182, calling me from the rink parking lot. There was a sign on the door saying that due to "unforeseen ice conditions", the rink was closed. Closed?!!? But.... we had a championship game to play! I contacted the QCats' tournament organizer and informed her, and she discovered she had an email saying the rink compressors had died and the game was canceled.

Given that the previous three days had been over 100 degrees, I'm not surprised. This wasn't one of the better rinks we've played in (which is putting it very diplomatically) and I'm sure it wasn't well prepared for keeping two ice surfaces frozen in temperatures like that. Although we knew we didn't stand much of a chance, it was a huge disappointment. I know I'd been looking forward to one last challenge, and leaving without playing the championship game was pretty anti-climactic. However, GoalieHusband and I had delayed our vacation for the tournament, so when all was said and done, we arrived here at the beach earlier than we thought, which gave us some time to spend with relatives we'd otherwise have missed.

So you know what this means. Not only is the Red Jersey Curse real, it apparently extends to mechanical equipment as well. We better get the schneid off them before we travel to Florida again next year. They've been designated as travel jerseys, but at this point, I'd be afraid to get on a plane wearing one.

But there's another tournament and a whole hockey season ahead of us before we have to worry about that. Right now, I think I'll just lay on the beach (under an umbrella, of course) for the week and read. My body is giving me all kinds of signals that I need to slow the f*** down and recuperate for a bit. I've learned I ought to listen to it.

Have a good week or so, folks. I doubt I'll be writing much in that time frame. Our next tournament is the second week in August, and the new Hawks season starts somewhere around that time. Until then... zzzzzzzzzzz....