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....