The NHL season is underway, and now the Quarry Cats' season has officially started. YAY HOCKEY! This is my absolute favorite time of year. The excitement of the new season, with a whole season stretching out ahead of us, games and highlights to watch, plays and hits to talk about, and my own games ramped up now that both my teams are active. Love. It.
This weekend I got to play in two games, and that made me one happy goalie. On Saturday I subbed for the C team. We played in PA and I made the trip out and back by myself, which I enjoyed. Carpooling with teammates is awesome, but there is something to be said for a nice solo ride now and then. Now that I have a nifty little smartphone, I was able to use GPS navigation to get there, instead of scribbling directions down on a scrap of paper from Google Maps. And I discovered something: I kind of like the "nav". I found myself talking back to it without even realizing it. "Turn right onto Polk Street", the female robot-voice said. "You got it," I chirped back as I made the turn. "Ok now what?"
I need help.
Anyway, the game was a lot of fun. I can say that because we won. It was looking like a tie for a long while there, but we managed to break it with literally 30 seconds left in the game. One thing that's kind of neat is that the C team plays in an actual league, which keeps stats and standings etc. (We play an independent schedule, basically a bunch of teams that all play each other but we're not a formal league. We could be in a different division of the C team's league but no one wants to travel as far as would be necessary, myself included). So I got to keep track of my shot total; only 18 shots on me, and 1 goal. Not awful. But on the other end? Holy cow. The girls unleashed 50 shots on the other goalie and she turned away all but 48 of them. I tried to tell her in the handshake line how great I thought she played, but I could tell she was pissed about losing that close to the end of the game. I get it. I would be too.
That was a lot of fun, and I felt comfortable with the girls since I knew several of them from tournaments this summer, but what I was really excited about was my own team's opening game of the season. We played against the same team we opened the season against last year, and I don't know what the deal is, but I always feel like I play like crap when we play them. Maybe subconsciously I'm underestimating them, because they, like us, have improved a lot over the last 2 years. The game started out and on the first rush into our zone, they scored. It was a garbage goal I'd gotten the first save on, but thought I had the puck covered. Not so much. Man, that pissed me off. And the fact is, we spent most of the time in their zone. So there I am, standing around, watching the girls at the other end, with that big fat 1 and 0 on the scoreboard over the other goalie's head. And after they got a second goal (which incidentally was the same kind as the first)? Mortified. And pissed off. Fortunately I played much better after that, and we managed to tie it up in the second period. I think. The tying goal might have come early in the 3rd. Goldfishbrain, remember?
In the 3rd period we went ahead by one, and the bench went nuts and I felt immense relief. No matter what anyone says, I feel like those first 2 goals were on me. Those are pucks I usually smother. Anyway... In the 3rd period they spent a little more time in our end, and somehow I was endowed with a glove hand that actually works, because I snatched at least two pucks right from mid-air. Man, did that feel good. I love that. *Yoink!* Oh yeah, you that was going in, didn't you? Think again, sweetie. Hey. I don't get to feel that feeling very often, so when I do, I bask in it for a few seconds. I also was reminded of the way the announcer described, I believe it was Halak's, jaw-dropping flat-out larceny savegasm of a glove save in Saturday night's game. He said something like "And up comes that smelly leather mitt and nabs it right out of the air, while he's in the splits". Hahaha. Smelly leather mitt indeed. No splits here though. All the yoga and stretching in the world won't get that out of me.
Unfortunately they tied it up with only a few minutes left. I hate ties. HATE them. I know there's a lot of people who hate shootouts, but ties have to be worse. And in this league we don't even get a few minutes of OT to try to settle it. So, the final score was 3-3. I swear, next time we play them I'm going to shut them down.
Our next game is practically a month away, so that's it for now. And the next Hawks game isn't for another week. Fortunately, I have the week off this week, so I'm going to try to get to at least two open hockey sessions. Right now I'm going to enjoy my coffee and figure out which of several projects I'm going to tackle first.
I love hockey.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Of Hybrids, Goalie Pals, and Call-Ups
Hybrid.
What does that word make you think of? A smart little eco-friendly car? Or, as readers of a goalie blog, a goaltending style? Probably the last thing to come to mind, if at all, is a way to describe a female fan's experience of the game. But in so doing, my intrepid goalie gal-pal MsConduct seems to have opened quite a can of worms, if the endless string of comments is any indication. I'm referring, of course, to her execllent inaugural (and extremely well-illustrated) post over at Backhand Shelf. The Bunny Conundrum, indeed. And it's not just those readers who were inspired to come out of their bunny dens and confess... I as well have to finally admit that I am pretty much a "hybrid" myself. I'll let her column do the explaining, because she does a fantastic job of it. I'll wait while you go read it.
Done? Good. My confession is more of a revelation. I've always been one of those people that thought the love of (and intricate understanding of) hockey and appreciation for the outward appearance of a player had to be mutually exclusive. I always felt like if I ever even indicated that I found Player X or Goalie Y attractive, all my "credibility" as a "real fan" would be lost. But reading MsConduct's post made me realize - it doesn't have to be that way. And the more women (and hell, men too) who can stand up and say "I can tell you about a 1-2-2 forecheck or a left wing lock, icing and offsides do not confuse me, and none of that is diminished by the fact that I am not a robot and can freely admit that that guy could single-handedly melt the polar icecaps", the more people will realize that the two viewpoints do not conflict with each other. I still get defensive though. The fact is I'm not watching it for eye candy, I'm watching it for the love and beauty of the game. But all of you certainly know that I know what I'm talking about, so admiting that Kari Lehtonen was my first Finnish goalie crush, and not only in a goalie-skill-appreciation way, isn't going to take anything away. (And if any of you follow both me and MsConduct on Twitter, that cat has been out of the bag for at least a week now anyway. It's so much fun to share the love.)
Back in the very non-glamorous world of beer league, things have been pretty much status quo for the Hawks. We played again two nights ago, and lost again 6-0. I honestly felt like I had a very good game. But I can't reconcile that with the score, and the fact that a few of those goals were just really awful bounces. (Does anyone else hate that term? Saying "it was a bad bounce" reeks to me of excuses. Maybe I'm just a perfectionist.) One was a screen that even Kari wouldn't have seen through. And... one was completely on me. Yes, we blew our coverage on this one guy, but I had every chance to make the save on him. It just so happened that it was one of their better guys, who knows to go glove side high on me for an easy goal. Damn useless glove hand. But I felt I made a ton of very good saves, many through traffic, and many in tight. I even used the VH a few times, and although it seemed the exact right thing to do, and it worked like a charm, I still question myself now every time I use it, because of the bad rap it's been getting in goalie circles from overuse.
We don't play again for over a week, but in the mean time I have two QCat games on my dance card. We've been practicing for a month now, and our first game is on Sunday. I absolutely can't wait to get back out there with the team. I'm really looking forward to the season; I want to pick up right where I left off before I got hurt. But before that game, I'm filling in for the C team on Saturday, for their first game. They have two goalies on their roster, but evidently neither one could make it to this game, so they asked me. Naturally I said yes, but I'm nervous. I'm sure I'll be fine, but of course I'm worried about making an ass out of myself. Don't worry though, as soon as I hit the ice - in both games - all that will be gone from my brain. Nothing to focus on other than how much I love stopping pucks. Come onnnnn, weekend!
What does that word make you think of? A smart little eco-friendly car? Or, as readers of a goalie blog, a goaltending style? Probably the last thing to come to mind, if at all, is a way to describe a female fan's experience of the game. But in so doing, my intrepid goalie gal-pal MsConduct seems to have opened quite a can of worms, if the endless string of comments is any indication. I'm referring, of course, to her execllent inaugural (and extremely well-illustrated) post over at Backhand Shelf. The Bunny Conundrum, indeed. And it's not just those readers who were inspired to come out of their bunny dens and confess... I as well have to finally admit that I am pretty much a "hybrid" myself. I'll let her column do the explaining, because she does a fantastic job of it. I'll wait while you go read it.
Done? Good. My confession is more of a revelation. I've always been one of those people that thought the love of (and intricate understanding of) hockey and appreciation for the outward appearance of a player had to be mutually exclusive. I always felt like if I ever even indicated that I found Player X or Goalie Y attractive, all my "credibility" as a "real fan" would be lost. But reading MsConduct's post made me realize - it doesn't have to be that way. And the more women (and hell, men too) who can stand up and say "I can tell you about a 1-2-2 forecheck or a left wing lock, icing and offsides do not confuse me, and none of that is diminished by the fact that I am not a robot and can freely admit that that guy could single-handedly melt the polar icecaps", the more people will realize that the two viewpoints do not conflict with each other. I still get defensive though. The fact is I'm not watching it for eye candy, I'm watching it for the love and beauty of the game. But all of you certainly know that I know what I'm talking about, so admiting that Kari Lehtonen was my first Finnish goalie crush, and not only in a goalie-skill-appreciation way, isn't going to take anything away. (And if any of you follow both me and MsConduct on Twitter, that cat has been out of the bag for at least a week now anyway. It's so much fun to share the love.)
Back in the very non-glamorous world of beer league, things have been pretty much status quo for the Hawks. We played again two nights ago, and lost again 6-0. I honestly felt like I had a very good game. But I can't reconcile that with the score, and the fact that a few of those goals were just really awful bounces. (Does anyone else hate that term? Saying "it was a bad bounce" reeks to me of excuses. Maybe I'm just a perfectionist.) One was a screen that even Kari wouldn't have seen through. And... one was completely on me. Yes, we blew our coverage on this one guy, but I had every chance to make the save on him. It just so happened that it was one of their better guys, who knows to go glove side high on me for an easy goal. Damn useless glove hand. But I felt I made a ton of very good saves, many through traffic, and many in tight. I even used the VH a few times, and although it seemed the exact right thing to do, and it worked like a charm, I still question myself now every time I use it, because of the bad rap it's been getting in goalie circles from overuse.
We don't play again for over a week, but in the mean time I have two QCat games on my dance card. We've been practicing for a month now, and our first game is on Sunday. I absolutely can't wait to get back out there with the team. I'm really looking forward to the season; I want to pick up right where I left off before I got hurt. But before that game, I'm filling in for the C team on Saturday, for their first game. They have two goalies on their roster, but evidently neither one could make it to this game, so they asked me. Naturally I said yes, but I'm nervous. I'm sure I'll be fine, but of course I'm worried about making an ass out of myself. Don't worry though, as soon as I hit the ice - in both games - all that will be gone from my brain. Nothing to focus on other than how much I love stopping pucks. Come onnnnn, weekend!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
New Game
Well folks, since there are only so many ways I can say "we played hard but we lost", I'm going to skip the recap of the latest Hawks game. Instead, we'll play a new game. It's called "New Guy In The Locker Room Bullshit Meter".
As is usual lately, we had quite the short bench, so we had to call in reinforcements where we could. There was a guy who subbed in our last game (and scored a nice deflection goal), and two other guys. One of these guys totally rubbed me the wrong way. When I walked in and introduced myself, he told me he knew me from open hockey. I wondered to myself if it was a game I'd played well in, or one I'd stunk to high heaven. Later I realized it was the latter.
He and the other sub were talking a blue streak about a league in another rink and how disorganized it was, and how uneven the competition can be (sound familiar?), and from the sounds of it, they both played there, but not on the same teams. One guy said that Mats Zucarello had been playing in the lowest level league and only recently had been "found out".
WHHOOOOOPPPSSS there goes my bullshit meter.
Folks, we are one step above "instructional" level. There is no way on this polluted stinking planet that The Hobbit was playing in a league equivalent to ours. And, further cementing his gold standard tool status, this guy went on to sing the praises of a dude who played with us for one season, who is mostly remembered for his 20 minute locker room soliloquy about his Way Awesome Car that was so much cooler than all of ours.
And from what I heard, he was none too gracious on the bench, either. I'm sure he had plenty to say about my couple of deer-in-headlights, didn't-even-flinch goals against, and that's fine. That's the first game I've ever played where I wasn't sure if I was going to puke or pass out first, for pretty much the entire game. And that's after a weekend of relaxation. I'm not sure what was going on there, I haven't ever felt like that, not even in a tournament. We have over a week to rest before our next game. One of our regulars who has missed all the games so far will be back. Hopefully we can put together at least a close game, if not a win.
In the mean time- QCats practice tomorrow night. I'm totally psyched for our first game, which isn't until the 16th, but until then: HOCKEY SEASON IS STARTING!!!!!!!!!! GoalieHousehold finally at long last has DVR. Ahhhhh.... no more missing games because of practices or games of my own. No more getting home, rushing to have dinner cooked by 7pm so we can be settled in front of the TV for our Rangers. This also means all the Law & Order SVU episodes I could ever want. Oh, the wonders of technology!
As is usual lately, we had quite the short bench, so we had to call in reinforcements where we could. There was a guy who subbed in our last game (and scored a nice deflection goal), and two other guys. One of these guys totally rubbed me the wrong way. When I walked in and introduced myself, he told me he knew me from open hockey. I wondered to myself if it was a game I'd played well in, or one I'd stunk to high heaven. Later I realized it was the latter.
He and the other sub were talking a blue streak about a league in another rink and how disorganized it was, and how uneven the competition can be (sound familiar?), and from the sounds of it, they both played there, but not on the same teams. One guy said that Mats Zucarello had been playing in the lowest level league and only recently had been "found out".
WHHOOOOOPPPSSS there goes my bullshit meter.
Folks, we are one step above "instructional" level. There is no way on this polluted stinking planet that The Hobbit was playing in a league equivalent to ours. And, further cementing his gold standard tool status, this guy went on to sing the praises of a dude who played with us for one season, who is mostly remembered for his 20 minute locker room soliloquy about his Way Awesome Car that was so much cooler than all of ours.
And from what I heard, he was none too gracious on the bench, either. I'm sure he had plenty to say about my couple of deer-in-headlights, didn't-even-flinch goals against, and that's fine. That's the first game I've ever played where I wasn't sure if I was going to puke or pass out first, for pretty much the entire game. And that's after a weekend of relaxation. I'm not sure what was going on there, I haven't ever felt like that, not even in a tournament. We have over a week to rest before our next game. One of our regulars who has missed all the games so far will be back. Hopefully we can put together at least a close game, if not a win.
In the mean time- QCats practice tomorrow night. I'm totally psyched for our first game, which isn't until the 16th, but until then: HOCKEY SEASON IS STARTING!!!!!!!!!! GoalieHousehold finally at long last has DVR. Ahhhhh.... no more missing games because of practices or games of my own. No more getting home, rushing to have dinner cooked by 7pm so we can be settled in front of the TV for our Rangers. This also means all the Law & Order SVU episodes I could ever want. Oh, the wonders of technology!
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