Hawks, Cats, and beer - a week in review

First off, let me pat myself on the back for listening to my body. I'm off work today, but instead of going to open hockey this morning, I slept. I know some people will say "I'll sleep when I'm dead" but I've learned that when I ignore my body bad things happen. After a late game Sunday night, another on Monday night, and a hard practice Wednesday night, I was really dragging, so I decided to sleep in. I'm so glad I did. I slept until 11:00, and I feel so refreshed. I guess that's the upside to being forced to take your vacation time.

The week started off with two Hawks games, both of which we lost, but one left me feeling not so bad and the other left me "meh". Sunday night we played with a short bench (again), against a team that brings guys down from their upper level on a regular basis. We lost 6-0, but we all felt like we did damn well against them, considering. At the end of the first it was only 1-0, a personal victory for me since I am prone to giving up early goals, a fact that is frustrating the hell out of me lately. After the second, it was 3-0. Pretty awesome considering our dual handicap. Everyone was really gassed by the third though, and they scored 3 more goals. I'm blaming the last one on our d-man "Grimm". With about 2 minutes to go and the score 5-0, we had a face-off high on the right side after a sustained attack in our zone. Everyone was out of breath, and Grimm said to me as we set up "You're doing great. Let's just keep this at 5, they're all over us right now". I nodded- I'd actually been thinking the same thing. Naturally, they scored right off the face-off. GoalieHusband (who was subbing that night) came back and took the blame for deflecting it, but I placed it solidly on Grimm for jinxing us.

And despite the score, I really did play very well. I was hoping the momentum would follow into the game the next night, but it wasn't to be. I figured I'd be ok, because as I've mentioned here, I seem to play better when I'm exhausted. That wasn't the case on Monday though. I feel I played a pretty average game; a few goals that I definitely should have stopped, but one ridiculous save-gasm of a glove save that stunned even the refs. We'll just ignore the fact that 4 of their goals were scored by one guy, who clearly had no business being on the ice. Even I am sick of hearing myself go on about this issue. We've learned that nothing ever changes at this rink, so I am going to have to just accept that and move on.

After that game I had a much needed day off, and then it was the first practice of the season for the Quarry Cats. I was excited all day, looking forward to it. Yes, we played tons of tournaments this summer, but as most of them were a mixed C/D level, the team was mixed and I only saw a handful of people from our team. It was really great to see the whole team (almost- a few were missing) back on the ice together, and everyone seemed to feel the same. We also have kind of a unique coaching situation this season. When our head coach left, it was pretty unanimous from the team that they wanted GoalieHusband to step into that role. And he would love to be able to. But work combined with him going back to school just won't allow for the time he'd need to commit to the team. As a result we have three other people who are going to fill in the gaps, one of whom is our own @hkygrl12, which I am totally thrilled about. So it'll be an interesting season in that regard, and I'm looking forward to learning from hkygrl12 and the other two guys, who I also know. (One of them plays on one of the other teams in the Hawks' league, which should make for some good trash talking haha).

The practice went very well, but the best part may have been the after-party. Players and coaches from both the D and C teams all hung out in front of the rink, drinking beer and getting caught up. That really gave me a case of warm-fuzzies. We didn't leave until after midnight, and the next day I was a complete zombie after the week I had. But it was completely worth it, and if the after-practice revelry becomes a regular occurrance, I'm totally fine with that. Unfortunately I'll miss it this coming week though, as the Hawks have a game right after QCats practice. It'll be another 2-game, 1-practice week next week. Bring on the OysterGlove.