A Blowout, and a Shutout

Ya gotta love a league with 4 teams in it. Even a team with a 1-11 record gets a "playoff" game. It's also great when the league has this rule, that all players must sign in before each game, so they can keep track of how many games people have played. Beacuse if you haven't played 4 games (i.e., are a ringer), you can't play in the playoffs. Pretty good system, right? (Leaving out the part where anyone can put a check mark next to anyone's name, whether they're there or not...) It was great to see that policy enforced on Sunday night when we got to the rink for our "playoff" game. There were no less than five non-rostered names written in on the D-bag Team's sign-in sheet. I guess they weren't happy with beating us 5-2 a few nights before that, so they had to bring in their ringers. Rolling over us 11-0 is so much more satisfying, don't you think?

And as Senator discovered when he did a little digging on the league website, this team is 11-1-1, with - wait for it! - 74 goals for and 26 goals against. Yep. They belong in our league. Clearly. (The point could be raised that if they weren't in the league, it would be just 3 teams, but that is a non-issue now with another team coming down from the level above).

I'm not sure if anyone's going to say anything to the new league coordinator, who's come in with all kinds of plans on cleaning up the leagues. We've heard all of that before though, which is why I'm personally not making any noise about it. Nothing like apathy right?

Fortunately I got a little pick-me-up a few days later, in the form of an outdoor game with the Quarry Cats. I have to tell you, I was not nearly as excited as the rest of the team with the prospect of playing outside. Yeah, yeah, hockey's roots... but there's an awful lot to be said for being able to feel your hands and face while playing hockey, and playing indoors has totally spoiled me. Although it was on our dinky flooded outdoor roller rink that I fell hard and fast for hockey on blades instead of wheels, I wasn't all that anxious to get back out there in the biting cold. Most of what I remember from playing outside is literally not being able to feel my fingers at all- except when I gloved a shot or stopped one with my stick. Then it was all nerve endings firing pain signals at once. Frozen water bottle... runny nose... fogged up glasses... none of that was on my list of things to look forward to.

However, I was pleasantly surprised. There is no comparison at all between a posh country club rink and a town-run outdoor cement rink flooded in the winter for skating. The country club rink has a zamboni. So right there, there's no divets or bumps to ruin your skates. They also have REAL INDOOR LOCKER ROOMS, so getting dressed doesn't reduce you to the equivalent of a popsicle before you're even ready to play. (An added bonus of country club locker rooms is, not only do the showers not smell like pee or have bugs coming out of the drains, they're actually clean and have soap provided!)

As soon as we got out on the ice I realized this was a piece of cake compared to what I remembered, and I relaxed and had fun. We had no coaches, but the team played a great game. It was probably the most pressure we've had offensively in any game yet, and it paid off in the 3rd period with 3 goals. Going into the game our record was 0-2-1, so it was our first win on the season. And, a shutout! That was certainly not a bad feeling after all the winless games, both teams combined.

But I really need to work on something. Now that I've got the stick angle thing figured out, I desperately need to not give up so many rebounds. Some Twitter and message board pals linked me some videos and suggestions, and I pin-pointed one thing I'm doing that's causing them, but I can't fix it without massive repetition. There's no time to think "do this with your pad, not that" when making a pad save- it needs to be burned in, rote muscle memory. So I have to figure that out. Because trust me guys (and gals), I know, the rebounds are bad.

It's a busy hockey weekend coming up- team party on Friday night, and an away game each on Saturday and Sunday. My goal, besides to deny all of them, is to keep my rebounds in check. Oh yeah, and to have fun on Friday night. If there's one thing the QCats know how to do, it's party.

Nostalgia, numb feet, and broken glass.

The town roller rink where I first made my fledgling attempts at stopping pucks floods one of the rinks in the winter and lets it freeze over, for some good old-time pond hockey. Since its been about two years since I played out there, when talk started last week about gathering a group for our very own "winter classic" this past weekend, I figured what the heck, I'll give it a go.

Then I looked at the forecast. Ouch. But having already given my word that I would be one of the two goalies I could hardly back out. Besides, the chance to play against and with some of the guys I haven't seen in a long time was too good to pass up. I steeled myself for some bitter cold and decided to suck it up and have a good time. (Ok, so it wasn't "bitter cold" by lets say.... Minnesota standards. But 15*F in the sun is a tad bit nip). It actually wasn't too bad once I got moving out there. Pretty soon the feeling came back into my fingertips and I was having fun stopping pucks fired from old acquaintances. As the afternoon wore on, more people stopped by the rink for whatever game they could jump in on, and we had quite a lot of players. After two hours of playing, I could no longer feel my feet, and a tweak of pain in my problem hip had me concerned, so I packed it in.

Although I had fun being out there and playing hockey, especially playing with GoalieHusband again, after a long recuperation from knee surgery, ultimately the experience wasn't as great as I remembered it. I chalk that up to being totally spoiled by indoor rinks and their new-fangled climate control, and things like nets that stay in one place, and lines and circles as reference points, and boards that don't have 2 feet of snow piled up along them. There's also a lot less danger to your car in an indoor rink parking lot. Apparently, when we were all warming up (literally and figuratively), a puck went off the crossbar of the net closest to the parking lot and took a weird carom up and over the protective fencing and landed on my windshield. Fortunately it didn't go through the glass, but probably due to the extreme cold, my windshield is now covered in a giant spiral crack with a puck-sized piece of untouched glass in the middle. Untouched, that is, except for a black puck mark. It's actually kind of on the amusing side.

What's not amusing though is the fact that I have to have it replaced. The guy who shot the puck came right over and told me about it, and insisted on paying for it, but I feel bad taking his money considering I parked right in the first row of spaces, and I know from experience playing roller that pucks sometimes go over that fence. So I have an appointment for a mobile glass place to come replace it tomorrow, since I don't feel comfortable driving it in that condition. (I drove it home from the rink, but the cracking and popping sound of the glass as the crack spread further was quite unsettling). Which is really too bad, because while talking to a mutual hockey friend I discovered that my coach (of all people!) used to own an auto glass place in a nearby town, and replacing a windshield would be a breeze for him. How hysterical would it be if I showed up at his place with my puck-shaped disaster of a windshield and said "Hey... I heard you know how to fix this."

Of course, I'd be opening myself up for a comeback something like "well it'll be a heck of a lot easier than fixing your glove hand"... so it's probably all for the best that I won't be doing that.