Games, practice, and dreams

This is really odd, not being on the ice as much as I was. I kinda don't like it. My OysterGlove might dry up! And the QCats' last two games were... less than challenging, shall we say. We played a team that's the weakest of all the teams we play, twice in a row. We beat them 7-1 on Sunday at home (17 shots), and then went to their rink for an outdoor game on Wednesday morning. (They play at a country club. La-de-da! But seriously... it's very nice.) That was a lot of fun because it had that church of hockey feel to it. It was a gorgeous day, around 45*F. On days like that the air just smells different. It was sunny, and the only thing I could have asked for would have been a bit of cloud cover, because the sun is right behind one of the nets. Naturally, they use that net as their home net, so visitors have the sun in their eyes twice. But as the other goalie cheerfully told me between the 2nd and 3rd periods "Well you're really good at hockey, and I suck, so I'll take any advantage I can get!"  I'm not sure how she does it. They get blown out all the time, and yet she always seems happy and perky.

We went up 4-0 in the first period, so after that we backed off quite a bit. Hkgrl12 was doing the Paul Newman player-coach thing, and told us to work on passing and setting up plays rather than bombarding the net with shots. We definitely don't want to be "that team". The final score was 5-0 and it was a pretty easy shutout to earn. I counted 16 shots, and I'd say 2 or 3 of them were pretty tricky, very good scoring chances. There was one save that felt very awkward to me, but the girls said from the bench it looked awesome, fluid. (There was someone on the back door that I just knew was going to get the puck and shoot and as I tracked it across I sort of dragged my left leg, and caught the shot with my pad. That was a bit of GoalieBrain right there, I just knew how it was going to go. At the time I felt like it was pretty ugly but hey it kept the puck out of the net.)  Although both games were a big success team-wise, I do have to admit I was a little bored. So I told hkygr12 that I wanted lots of shots in practice later that night. Boy did I get them, and then some.

The rink gives the adult teams one practice slot, so every week we split up and practice on half ice, C team on one side, D team on the other. It's a little frustrating sometimes because there are things you just can't get the feel of on half ice. But it's certainly better than nothing. Last week the C team only had 5 skaters, so we absorbed them into our practice and used the entire ice surface together. I guess it went really well because this week we did the same thing, even though there were a good number of C players there as well as their coach. I think some D players were a little put off by it, but I also think practicing with higher skilled players is only going to make you better. I wouldn't say we should do it 100% of the time, because there might be stuff we really need to work on that they can do in their sleep, but I would definitely not mind doing it more often. Given the setup, not only were there tons of shooting drills, but I was facing a wide range of skill sets, which really kept me on my toes. There's one C team girl that I somehow manage to play very well against, and it always feels like a feather in my cap (mask?) when I can stop her. I think I shut her out this time. *happydance* There's another of about the same skill level who totally owned me though. Oh well... more practice!

Our next game is this coming Sunday, and it's going to be quite the challenge. I'm really looking forward to it. Until then, I'll leave you with the email my roomie (@lct29) sent me the morning after practice, which amused the hell out of me all day:

I had a weird dream last night.  We went to some dive bar, wearing hockey jerseys.  There were all kinds of creepy people there and they kept hitting on you. We just ignored them and rolled our eyes and moved to different seats.  Then the waitress wanted everyone to take a blood test (the kind when you just stick your finger).  I refused and you wanted to just take the test.  I wasn't about to let someone poke me with a sharp object in some seedy bar.  I convinced you not to do it and then everyone was mad at us and made us leave.  Weird, right? I woke up all pissed off that we got kicked out of a bar!!!

A little inspiration?

The one thing about not having Hawks games now is that my playing time has been cut in half. I'm not too thrilled about that, but that will change once the new season starts up for AIL. So I was pretty happy to be able to pick up an extra game last night, and it turned out to be a really great one. The Westchester C team had an ice slot to fill and asked our C team to play, but they already had a game on the schedule. I'm not sure how it all came about because I wasn't involved, but what ended up happening was that we cobbled together a team of D players and a few C players, some from previous years who aren't on this year's roster, and some die-hards who hopped into the car, fully dressed, after their game and zipped to the rink for a second round of hockey.

I was fully expecting to get my ass kicked, as was my buddy the Mayor, but I shouldn't have worried. We played a really solid game, and it was tons of fun. AND we won! Our rag-tag combination team beat their C team! We won 4-3, and I feel I had a pretty good game. All three goals were mistakes on my part, but fortunately they were forgiven by the goals on the other end. (Two of them, I was too deep in the crease and would have had if I was out a little farther. The other was a misguided poke-check. I thought I was making the right play, but it bounced from the girl I poked it away from right to another girl waiting at the top of the slot. Stupid.) Also fortunately, I redeemed myself with lots of really good saves, including one rather nifty glove save through a partial screen with less than a minute to go, to keep the lead intact. So what was the secret to my good game? I'm pretty sure the increasingly giddy and ridiculous conversation I had with hkygrl12 as we were getting suited up had a lot to do with it.

As I think I've mentioned before, hkygrl12 used to play for the C team but this year is coaching us. She joined us on the ice last night though, as part of the combination team we put together for the game. We sat across from each other in the locker room, and when she proudly showed me her new Bruins t-shirt, I remembered that GoalieHusband and I are going to a Devils/Bruins game next month, and mentioned it. What a coincidence, she's going to the same game. "You know," she said, "I know where the players come out after the game. We can hang out and wait and you can get Tuukka's autograph."

I may have spazzed out slightly, (may have?) and immediately started wondering aloud what in the world I could say to him that wasn't boring and didn't make me sound like a complete tool. "I should say something in Finnish," I said, "but what?"

Hkygrl12: Find out how to say 'milk crate' in Finnish!

Me (giggling): Yeah!!! And I'll just yell it at him.

Hkygrl12: Or you could draw one on yourself and ask him to sign it!

Me: Omg. I'll just bring one with me!!! That would be hilarious!

And so on, our ideas getting sillier and our peals of laughter getting louder. I'm quite sure the other players around us thought we were nuts. One of them even said "hey go easy on the goalie, don't kill her before the game".  No worries, I had Tuukka-power on my side. I'm going to have to get that giddy before every game, apparently.

Now, to figure out how to get a milk crate into the Rock....