Making this blog as public as I have has been a bit of a double edged sword. It's neat that my friends and teammates can read it and comment on it, and it's fun knowing other goalies and goalie fans across cyber space have stumbled onto it, either through twitter or other means. Unfortunately it also means that I censored myself quite a bit this season, and haven't felt comfortable voicing all of my thoughts here, knowing that a lot of people I know could possibly read them. I know... that's the whole point of a blog, right? But I really miss it, and so I'm going to try to find that balance between musing/sharing my thoughts and remembering that other people besides me are reading this.
Since my last post was about the all star weekend, I might as well do a quick season wrap-up. As you may recall, I split my time between two teams, the Red team (club team, not in the league) and the White team (in the White D1 division). I'm terrible and don't know the records offhand, but I believe the Red team finished something like 10-10-5. It was a very interesting season, because we had several new players. Two completely brand new to playing hockey, and one who had played elsewhere but had been off for a few years. The difference between that first practice and our last one was simply amazing. Tons of credit to GoalieHusband (head coach of the team) and Hkygrl12 (assistant coach) for teaching them so well. It was a little strange at first, having a very different group of people after the new (White) team was formed, but we really came together. We went to a tournament in February and all the rookies were with us, and what a blast we had. I think the tournament is what sealed the closeness within the team.
The White team finished first in the D1 division. Finishing first is accomplishment enough, but doing so your first season in the league, and your first season as a team, no less, is pretty exciting. There was the same get-to-know-you period going on with the White team, as we had some people formerly on the Red team, some formerly on the Blue team, and a few new members as well. I'm proud to say that team became just as tight as the Red team, and even better, both teams intermingle socially to the point where it just feels like one giant team. Actually it feels like a family. If someone had told me that I'd be feeling like this at the end of this season I wouldn't have believed them, given how unsure everyone was of how the 3-team system was going to work. Watching one teammate go through a difficult time off the ice and seeing how she was taken under the wing of one of the veterans, and generally supported by the whole team, was really moving. Hockey really is an incredible community.
Erm.... where was I? Oh right, the end of the White season. I probably veered off because I don't really want to think about how it ended (ice-wise). We went to the semi-final as the first seeded team, playing the fourth. In truth, I think we took the other team a little lightly. I think our success went to our heads a little and we were looking past that game to the championship game. I think given our circumstances it was kind of understandable that we were all a little giddy. Unfortunately we didn't expect the other team to be as physical and tenacious as they were (they hadn't played that way during the season) and it kind of set us back on our heels a little. The final score was 4-2. I couldn't get off that ice fast enough. I felt like the entire weight of the result was on my shoulders. When we got into the locker room it was very quiet, and I felt tears coming on (wtf??!?) and buried my head. Someone said "no one in this room should hang their heads, we had an incredible season" and I just lost it. I was off in my own little world of self-recrimination, sobbing quietly in the corner, head down so others wouldn't see me, and the next thing I knew a teammate was draped over me, enclosing me in a giant hug, and telling me I had NOTHING to be upset about, that we win and lose as a team. I actually don't even really remember exactly what she said, I just remember the feeling of her arms around me and the support coming off of her. I'm getting teary just thinking about it now. I eventually calmed down enough to be joking ruefully with everyone else. I'll tell you something though, mine were not the only eyes rimmed in red when we left that locker room. No crying in hockey, my ass. Losing like that really, really stung.
That loss, that feeling, and the very serendipitous timing of @revcon's special offer for the Ultimate Goalie Training VIP program prompted me to get my ass back into training. No more slacking. For whatever reason, ever since I came back from the knee injury, I just could not get back into a consistent rhythm working out. I'd get all gung-ho and get myself to the gym a few days one week, and then it was back to hitting the snooze button and feeling like a slacker and a slug all day.
So what's different about UGT VIP? Don't I already have a full UGT program sitting downstairs gathering dust? The thing that I think is the key with this one is the interactive coaching aspect of it. This program is a monthly one, paid for in installments. It's a six-phase program, one phase per month. You get access to the training logs, videos, etc for the phase of training you're doing, plus an online forum for members and a monthly webinar with Maria. It's fantastic. I know I should be my own motivator, but having the accountability component to this is what I think is making the difference for me. And I was lucky enough to jump on board when she was offering the program at an extremely discounted rate. It certainly wouldn't be feasible for me otherwise.
It's been a week and I'm loving it. I'm doing the in-season schedule instead of the off-season schedule because of all the tournaments. I also wanted to make it more realistic- if I went full bore on the off-season schedule I think I'd have a much higher chance of slacking off and having it fall by the wayside. And in response to a forum post about my motivation concerns, Maria said to set a goal for the next 30 days, and hold myself accountable. If I don't achieve that goal what will I give up? You have to set that ahead of time, to make it concrete. So I've made my goal to stick to the schedule for 30 days. If I fail at that, I will not be allowed to buy Dunkin Donuts coffee on my way to work for a whole month. (Believe me, that's a sacrifice. I think they put crack in it).
So you read it here. Now I'm accountable to myself, the UGT team, and all my blog readers. If that doesn't motivate me, I don't know what will. Oh yeah.... that awful feeling in the locker room after that loss. Nothing inspires victory like the bitter feeling of defeat. Look out, bitches. I know it's a team sport but I'm working my ass off right now to be the best goalie I can possibly be. No excuses.
PS - Back in Florida for Nationals in 10 days. We got bumped up a level after winning it all last year, so we have our work cut out for us. Stay tuned.
Showing posts with label quarrycats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quarrycats. Show all posts
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
All-Star (sort of) weekend
It's not very often your run of the mill beer leaguer who started playing in their 30's gets a chance to skate on professional ice, in a "real" arena. But that's exactly what I was doing on Saturday afternoon, and it was just as awesome as I expected it to be.
The league one of my teams is in holds what they call a "Classic" every year. Apparently it used to be an all-star game, but they changed it somewhat. Everyone still calls it the all-star game, even though I feel a little strange calling it that because based on stats, there's no way I'd be in it. But I was, and I stole the goaltending show for my side, so maybe it wasn't completely unwarranted for me to be there. It was held in Hershey this year, though I understand in other years it's usually an NHL affair. There were two different games (different levels), and later that evening everyone came back to watch the Hershey Bears vs the (I can't even type this with a straight face) Connecticut Whale. The league did a fantastic job with it, and I soaked in every minute of it, from stepping out onto the ice from the tunnel (don't trip... don't trip... don't trip...) to the end when it was over and everyone was taking pictures.
The benches were packed; with four full forward lines and three lines of D, there wasn't any room for us three goalies, so the two who weren't playing got to have a seat in the penalty box. That was pretty amusing. Even more so was the quip by the ref as we went in. I made a comment about how we had already been bad, and she said "this is your penance for all the times your teammates have had to sit for your penalties." I suppose that's fair.
There were three goalies for each side, so I sat for the first two periods and played the last. Still, with only 12 minutes of playing time I managed to get into the flow quickly and ended up with three bench-banging, audience cheering (!!!) saves. We were down 4-3 when I went in, and fortunately our forwards scored to tie it up. I kept my end of the bargain and flat out robbed a girl on a 2 on 1 with one of those saves my glove makes all by itself, and another desperation save where I launched myself to my left to stop a shot that was coming from an open player on the weak side. One of the spectators told me I looked like I was completely horizontal and not touching the ice at all, flying through the air.
There were several other QCats on my side, and one on the other side. It was really an experience playing with them in a game like that. Several other teammates made the trip out as spectators as well, so we ended up with a pretty large group tailgating in the parking lot between our game and the Bears game. It was the most pathetic tailgate ever in the history of tailgates I think. But it was also a ton of fun- other than the part where we nearly blew ourselves up with a small portable propane stove that wouldn't light. Until it WHOOOSHED into life, flames engulfing the whole thing. Most of us ran away from it, but one quick thinking Cat doused it with water, and we were able to take the propane canister out and keep the two components safely apart. Frankly, I'm surprised she found water so quickly. Most of what we were drinking was flammable.
Being at the Bears game was fun too; there aren't any AHL teams near us, and it's not a big college hockey area, so options for watching a live game of pro or similar caliber are limited. This was the first game most of us had been to this season, and it re-ignited the thrill of watching the greatest game on earth, live. Being able to hear the puck hit a stick on a perfect tape-to-tape pass, the sound of the skates on the ice, just watching the whole thing unfold... we all really missed it.
Tonight I'm subbing in the AIL, where the last version of the Hawks most recently played. The team pretty much disbanded, but one guy is still playing, and asked if I could sub. Eco_panda is on the team as well, so it should be fun. And the team we're playing against has a QCat too. It'll be her last game in the league for the foreseeable future, so naturally she'll be gunning for a goal. And of course, I plan on stopping her.
The league one of my teams is in holds what they call a "Classic" every year. Apparently it used to be an all-star game, but they changed it somewhat. Everyone still calls it the all-star game, even though I feel a little strange calling it that because based on stats, there's no way I'd be in it. But I was, and I stole the goaltending show for my side, so maybe it wasn't completely unwarranted for me to be there. It was held in Hershey this year, though I understand in other years it's usually an NHL affair. There were two different games (different levels), and later that evening everyone came back to watch the Hershey Bears vs the (I can't even type this with a straight face) Connecticut Whale. The league did a fantastic job with it, and I soaked in every minute of it, from stepping out onto the ice from the tunnel (don't trip... don't trip... don't trip...) to the end when it was over and everyone was taking pictures.
The benches were packed; with four full forward lines and three lines of D, there wasn't any room for us three goalies, so the two who weren't playing got to have a seat in the penalty box. That was pretty amusing. Even more so was the quip by the ref as we went in. I made a comment about how we had already been bad, and she said "this is your penance for all the times your teammates have had to sit for your penalties." I suppose that's fair.
There were three goalies for each side, so I sat for the first two periods and played the last. Still, with only 12 minutes of playing time I managed to get into the flow quickly and ended up with three bench-banging, audience cheering (!!!) saves. We were down 4-3 when I went in, and fortunately our forwards scored to tie it up. I kept my end of the bargain and flat out robbed a girl on a 2 on 1 with one of those saves my glove makes all by itself, and another desperation save where I launched myself to my left to stop a shot that was coming from an open player on the weak side. One of the spectators told me I looked like I was completely horizontal and not touching the ice at all, flying through the air.
There were several other QCats on my side, and one on the other side. It was really an experience playing with them in a game like that. Several other teammates made the trip out as spectators as well, so we ended up with a pretty large group tailgating in the parking lot between our game and the Bears game. It was the most pathetic tailgate ever in the history of tailgates I think. But it was also a ton of fun- other than the part where we nearly blew ourselves up with a small portable propane stove that wouldn't light. Until it WHOOOSHED into life, flames engulfing the whole thing. Most of us ran away from it, but one quick thinking Cat doused it with water, and we were able to take the propane canister out and keep the two components safely apart. Frankly, I'm surprised she found water so quickly. Most of what we were drinking was flammable.
Being at the Bears game was fun too; there aren't any AHL teams near us, and it's not a big college hockey area, so options for watching a live game of pro or similar caliber are limited. This was the first game most of us had been to this season, and it re-ignited the thrill of watching the greatest game on earth, live. Being able to hear the puck hit a stick on a perfect tape-to-tape pass, the sound of the skates on the ice, just watching the whole thing unfold... we all really missed it.
Tonight I'm subbing in the AIL, where the last version of the Hawks most recently played. The team pretty much disbanded, but one guy is still playing, and asked if I could sub. Eco_panda is on the team as well, so it should be fun. And the team we're playing against has a QCat too. It'll be her last game in the league for the foreseeable future, so naturally she'll be gunning for a goal. And of course, I plan on stopping her.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Most Awkward Game Ever
Well, that was just about as weird as I thought it would be. It was strange enough being on the other end of the ice from my teammates, but when play started and I had to yell "man on", etc., to the team I was playing for, I felt like a traitor. This team, however, was made up of all 20-something girls fresh out of college, with absolutely boundless energy and amazing skill. As a result, I didn't have to do too much. I think I had 5 or 6 shots. Which was absolutely fine with me, except for the fact that it meant that Bacardi was getting absolutely hammered (haha no pun intended) at the other end. The final score was 11-0, and it could have been much, much worse if the Wunderkinds hadn't backed off and focused on passing instead of making it a shooting gallery.
The strangest thing for me was seeing our team from a perspective I never see them; that of the other goalie. I am very glad I don't have to face #66, our very strong power forward, with a foaming-at-the-mouth tenacity for puck possession and a wicked shot. Seeing her come flying in on the forecheck was pretty intimidating! And our diminutive but speedy center known as "Pirate" was just as annoying around the net as she is in practice. No one ever seems to notice her buzzing around on the back door. So, in that regard it was pretty cool, seeing our forwards in action from a perspective other than hustling down on a backcheck or executing a breakout. Still, that is something I will never do again. Ever. It was just too weird. I had to stop thinking of them as the individual people they are and think of them as just some team in white. I have to say I am glad I got the shutout, if only because a goal on 5 shots would have made for a terrible save percentage going on the books.
We have another game today. By "we" I mean QC Red. (This multi-team thing is so confusing). It's a home game, early on a Sunday evening, so we'll have a bench full beyond bursting. I think all 17 of our players will be there, and so we'll probably doing some kind of team picture- I just hope it's before the game and not after. I'm going to be a very busy goalie today, this team we're facing is quite good. Two players who usually play on our tournament team are on this team, and it's always a fun challenge to face them.
Speaking of challenges, I have my work cut out for me. I've long known that I'm horribly un-flexible, in goalie terms, and today I had it unilaterally confirmed. Super awesome goalie fitness and training guru Maria Mountain posted a 9-point goalie assessment on her site a few days ago. Today I finally got around to taking it. I wasn't surprised by the results. In the area of mobility, I flunked big time. The only test I passed in that area was the one that was part of the butterfly flare widening program of hers that I did a while back. Hmmm... coincidence? Doubtful. Lesson learned: stretching DOES make a difference. Fortunately in stability and strength I passed with flying colors. But as she points out, what good are those if you don't have a strong foundation of mobility? Time to get to work on some serious stretching. I'd started planning out a fitness program that works with my schedule, and interestingly enough, I made stretching a big part of it, with injury prevention in mind. Hey, I'm 38, and I have had a few small reminders in the past week or so that my body is not as young as it used to be. But now I know exactly which areas to focus on. So I guess I'll spend a little less time on the stationary bike and a little more time stretching. My plan is to do the assessment again in 3 months and see if there is any improvement.
Oh yeah, and the lockout is over. Almost forgot about that. I'm of two minds about it. There's the "meh, whatever, I'm totally disgusted" part of me, but then there's the "ZOMG HOCKEY'S BACK!!!!!!!! THERE WILL BE STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS! YEEEAHHHHHH!!!!" part. The latter part is winning out, but you can be sure I won't be buying any tickets or merchandise for quite a while. Will it matter much in the long run? Probably not. And if we all did that, the owners would cry even more poverty and there we go again... but at least it makes me feel like I'm not TOTALLY drinking the Kool-Aid. I just want to watch some hockey, dammit. The WJC was awesome and now that it's over I want more. Oh I get to watch Tuukka again? Yeah, I'm not that mad/disgusted. Give me the remote.
The strangest thing for me was seeing our team from a perspective I never see them; that of the other goalie. I am very glad I don't have to face #66, our very strong power forward, with a foaming-at-the-mouth tenacity for puck possession and a wicked shot. Seeing her come flying in on the forecheck was pretty intimidating! And our diminutive but speedy center known as "Pirate" was just as annoying around the net as she is in practice. No one ever seems to notice her buzzing around on the back door. So, in that regard it was pretty cool, seeing our forwards in action from a perspective other than hustling down on a backcheck or executing a breakout. Still, that is something I will never do again. Ever. It was just too weird. I had to stop thinking of them as the individual people they are and think of them as just some team in white. I have to say I am glad I got the shutout, if only because a goal on 5 shots would have made for a terrible save percentage going on the books.
We have another game today. By "we" I mean QC Red. (This multi-team thing is so confusing). It's a home game, early on a Sunday evening, so we'll have a bench full beyond bursting. I think all 17 of our players will be there, and so we'll probably doing some kind of team picture- I just hope it's before the game and not after. I'm going to be a very busy goalie today, this team we're facing is quite good. Two players who usually play on our tournament team are on this team, and it's always a fun challenge to face them.
Speaking of challenges, I have my work cut out for me. I've long known that I'm horribly un-flexible, in goalie terms, and today I had it unilaterally confirmed. Super awesome goalie fitness and training guru Maria Mountain posted a 9-point goalie assessment on her site a few days ago. Today I finally got around to taking it. I wasn't surprised by the results. In the area of mobility, I flunked big time. The only test I passed in that area was the one that was part of the butterfly flare widening program of hers that I did a while back. Hmmm... coincidence? Doubtful. Lesson learned: stretching DOES make a difference. Fortunately in stability and strength I passed with flying colors. But as she points out, what good are those if you don't have a strong foundation of mobility? Time to get to work on some serious stretching. I'd started planning out a fitness program that works with my schedule, and interestingly enough, I made stretching a big part of it, with injury prevention in mind. Hey, I'm 38, and I have had a few small reminders in the past week or so that my body is not as young as it used to be. But now I know exactly which areas to focus on. So I guess I'll spend a little less time on the stationary bike and a little more time stretching. My plan is to do the assessment again in 3 months and see if there is any improvement.
Oh yeah, and the lockout is over. Almost forgot about that. I'm of two minds about it. There's the "meh, whatever, I'm totally disgusted" part of me, but then there's the "ZOMG HOCKEY'S BACK!!!!!!!! THERE WILL BE STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS! YEEEAHHHHHH!!!!" part. The latter part is winning out, but you can be sure I won't be buying any tickets or merchandise for quite a while. Will it matter much in the long run? Probably not. And if we all did that, the owners would cry even more poverty and there we go again... but at least it makes me feel like I'm not TOTALLY drinking the Kool-Aid. I just want to watch some hockey, dammit. The WJC was awesome and now that it's over I want more. Oh I get to watch Tuukka again? Yeah, I'm not that mad/disgusted. Give me the remote.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Swindled?
I've been accused of being a goalie whore, and it's really not that far from the mark. I instinctively side with the goalie in a given situation, and I'll sub for pretty much anyone who needs a keeper. (Pretty much- there are certain teams I will never ever play for). But I never expected to be playing against my own team- or rather, one of my own teams. This came about as a result of a miscommunication at best - at worst, I was tricked into it. But let's leave the jury out on that one.
I received an email last weekend from another team in the league the White and Blue QCats both play in. (Remember, White is the "middle" team, the team I've been splitting games with Bacardi for. Blue is the highest level.) The email went like this: "Hi, I'm Jane Doe from X-Team Blue, and we need a sub for our game against QCats Blue next weekend. Since it's your home rink, would you be willing to play?" I actually kind of laughed to myself. Why not, I thought, I've played against the Blue team twice already this season. It's not like they're "my" team per se. So I told them I would do it. And then I posted on FB about how hahaha isn't it weird that I'm playing against Blue again this weekend. Major confusion ensued.
White teammates posted saying they were playing this weekend and I must be playing against them. I insisted that it was a Blue game, as that was what the woman who emailed me said it was. But I looked at the schedule and yes, it was one of those cross-division games, where X-Team Blue was playing QCats White. I went into full panic mode. How could I possibly play against my own team??? Yet how could I go back on my word of saying I would sub? I frantically emailed the QCat Blue goalie to see if she could fill in for me (she can't). Then I texted the coach and the Captain of White and explained what was going on. The response, in essence, was don't worry about it, it doesn't count for us because it's a Blue team, and they're the only team in the league that beat OUR Blue team, so we don't expect to get many shots on you anyway. It'll be fun. Uhhhh... ok. Well I'm not sure about "fun" but at least my loyalty issues were allayed. Gionta182 did offer the solution of her taking my place and playing in net and letting in a bunch of goals, but I couldn't go for that. I think of myself as a pretty honorable person. If X-Team was purposely trying to mislead me, that's on them. I'm not going to be a jerk back and replace myself with a skater, or play like crap on purpose in return. Besides, it could have been an innocent error. (Ha.)
Honestly I half expect to get there and find that they rostered a different goalie to sub, because although I had emailed explaining the situation, and saying I was trying to find someone else to play for them, but then emailed back saying, it's ok, put me on the roster, they responded to that email with "Just tell us what name to put down". Erm. I just said me. So I replied again telling them to put me down. I never got a response to that second email, so who knows. It's not a big deal because it's my home rink, and since it's a Saturday night I'd probably be going anyway to watch.
It should be interesting to see how this unfolds. Maybe @hkygrl12 will score on me (again). Maybe I'll be as bored as @gionta182 predicts. At least I'll be on the ice. Too bad I don't have a USA jersey to wear. Gotta change that....
I received an email last weekend from another team in the league the White and Blue QCats both play in. (Remember, White is the "middle" team, the team I've been splitting games with Bacardi for. Blue is the highest level.) The email went like this: "Hi, I'm Jane Doe from X-Team Blue, and we need a sub for our game against QCats Blue next weekend. Since it's your home rink, would you be willing to play?" I actually kind of laughed to myself. Why not, I thought, I've played against the Blue team twice already this season. It's not like they're "my" team per se. So I told them I would do it. And then I posted on FB about how hahaha isn't it weird that I'm playing against Blue again this weekend. Major confusion ensued.
White teammates posted saying they were playing this weekend and I must be playing against them. I insisted that it was a Blue game, as that was what the woman who emailed me said it was. But I looked at the schedule and yes, it was one of those cross-division games, where X-Team Blue was playing QCats White. I went into full panic mode. How could I possibly play against my own team??? Yet how could I go back on my word of saying I would sub? I frantically emailed the QCat Blue goalie to see if she could fill in for me (she can't). Then I texted the coach and the Captain of White and explained what was going on. The response, in essence, was don't worry about it, it doesn't count for us because it's a Blue team, and they're the only team in the league that beat OUR Blue team, so we don't expect to get many shots on you anyway. It'll be fun. Uhhhh... ok. Well I'm not sure about "fun" but at least my loyalty issues were allayed. Gionta182 did offer the solution of her taking my place and playing in net and letting in a bunch of goals, but I couldn't go for that. I think of myself as a pretty honorable person. If X-Team was purposely trying to mislead me, that's on them. I'm not going to be a jerk back and replace myself with a skater, or play like crap on purpose in return. Besides, it could have been an innocent error. (Ha.)
Honestly I half expect to get there and find that they rostered a different goalie to sub, because although I had emailed explaining the situation, and saying I was trying to find someone else to play for them, but then emailed back saying, it's ok, put me on the roster, they responded to that email with "Just tell us what name to put down". Erm. I just said me. So I replied again telling them to put me down. I never got a response to that second email, so who knows. It's not a big deal because it's my home rink, and since it's a Saturday night I'd probably be going anyway to watch.
It should be interesting to see how this unfolds. Maybe @hkygrl12 will score on me (again). Maybe I'll be as bored as @gionta182 predicts. At least I'll be on the ice. Too bad I don't have a USA jersey to wear. Gotta change that....
Monday, November 19, 2012
Why pre-game routines are important!!!
If you follow me on Twitter, you know that a few weeks ago, I let my gear out of my sight and it ended up hanging out at the rink unsupervised for a while, prompting me to vow never to let anyone else handle my gear again. It was an innocent mix-up, but still, I was very angst-ridden until "eco_panda" came to the rescue, stashing it aside and threatening bodily harm to anyone who touched it. (Actually I'm not so sure about the bodily harm part. But knowing her, she did). You'd think that would teach me to keep better track of my equipment, no? Well apparently it's not just other people I have to worry about.
I'm very particular about how and when I pack my stuff before a game. Any variation from this routine usually ends in disaster. Yesterday afternoon I didn't follow my regular steps and wouldn't you know it, I forgot something. Something really important. Unfortunately I didn't realize it until it was much too late.
I was half dressed, sitting in the locker room, when a feeling of unease came over me. "Something's not right", I said. A few people looked at me askance. "Did you forget something?", someone asked. I replied that I hadn't, but something just didn't feel right. Something about my gear. The girl to my right, who is new on the team, blurted out "Goalies!", then laughed and apologized and looked guilty. She explained that her ex-boyfriend was a goalie and I reassured here that I understood. Trust me, I know we're kind of out there. I shook off the weird feeling and continued getting dressed, and all was fine until I stood up to head out of the locker room and grabbed my mask, blocker, and .... wait a minute. OH MY GOD I FORGOT MY GLOVE. Panic set in. How was I going to play without a glove???? I ran (ok, no one runs in goalie pads... I hobbled quickly) out of the locker room and told GoalieHusband about my idiocy and asked him to check with the other goalie to she if she had an extra. And then I took off in the direction of the front desk in hopes there was some random gear lying around.
There was, but it was all for kids. I have small hands, but not that small. Someone suggested I talk to the guy in the pro shop. I was aboslutely mortified - what goalie forgets their freakin equipment? He didn't have anything either but offered me his own skater's glove. "I don't know if you want it, it's falling apart..." he said. I didn't care- the teams were already on the ice at that point, and the refs had waited as long as they were willing, and play had started. I grabbed the glove and headed back to the rink. I figured it was better than nothing, at least some protection for my hand.
Threadbare doesn't even begin to describe this thing. In fact when I handed the ref the puck after I'd covered it, he laughed at me. There was no palm. At all. The fingers were barely hanging on. It took every bit of effort to hold my fist clenched and by my side instead of holding it out in normal glove position. I figured I'd use it like a second blocker, Dan Blackburn style. That worked pretty well and that's how I played for the next period and a half. GoalieHusband had left to go to a teammate's house and get a glove from her husband, who just started playing goal. It was the 3rd period by the time he got back with it, but I used it anyway- the more protection the better.
The game itself was unusual as well. The team we were supposed to play backed out (which they do a lot) so we had the QCat "white" team come play. We split the teams up though, to make it more even. I can't even tell you who won or lost, because the other goalie and I switched sides at one point. All I know is, the other side pulled their goalie in the last half minute, and they evened up the score with 1.9 seconds remaining. We went to a shootout and I lost that too. The first shooter scored. I knew exactly what she was doing too, but I completely overthought it. I may also have been slightly rankled because she did the Anisimov gunshot gesture toward me before she took center ice. I decided not to bitch at her about it though, because she scored. Not much I can say- if it was a distraction tactic apparently it worked. Still, I am pretty peeved that someone on my own team would do that. I guess she thought she was being "cute", but I still think that's B.S.
Because of the holiday we have no practice this week. I've been on the ice way too infrequently lately, so I intend to make my annual appearance at the shit-show that is Thanksgiving Morning Open Hockey. That one's always good for a post-game blog post if nothing else.
PS - Here's a picture of the glove I wore for most of the game. You can see why I kept my hand balled in a fist!
I'm very particular about how and when I pack my stuff before a game. Any variation from this routine usually ends in disaster. Yesterday afternoon I didn't follow my regular steps and wouldn't you know it, I forgot something. Something really important. Unfortunately I didn't realize it until it was much too late.
I was half dressed, sitting in the locker room, when a feeling of unease came over me. "Something's not right", I said. A few people looked at me askance. "Did you forget something?", someone asked. I replied that I hadn't, but something just didn't feel right. Something about my gear. The girl to my right, who is new on the team, blurted out "Goalies!", then laughed and apologized and looked guilty. She explained that her ex-boyfriend was a goalie and I reassured here that I understood. Trust me, I know we're kind of out there. I shook off the weird feeling and continued getting dressed, and all was fine until I stood up to head out of the locker room and grabbed my mask, blocker, and .... wait a minute. OH MY GOD I FORGOT MY GLOVE. Panic set in. How was I going to play without a glove???? I ran (ok, no one runs in goalie pads... I hobbled quickly) out of the locker room and told GoalieHusband about my idiocy and asked him to check with the other goalie to she if she had an extra. And then I took off in the direction of the front desk in hopes there was some random gear lying around.
There was, but it was all for kids. I have small hands, but not that small. Someone suggested I talk to the guy in the pro shop. I was aboslutely mortified - what goalie forgets their freakin equipment? He didn't have anything either but offered me his own skater's glove. "I don't know if you want it, it's falling apart..." he said. I didn't care- the teams were already on the ice at that point, and the refs had waited as long as they were willing, and play had started. I grabbed the glove and headed back to the rink. I figured it was better than nothing, at least some protection for my hand.
Threadbare doesn't even begin to describe this thing. In fact when I handed the ref the puck after I'd covered it, he laughed at me. There was no palm. At all. The fingers were barely hanging on. It took every bit of effort to hold my fist clenched and by my side instead of holding it out in normal glove position. I figured I'd use it like a second blocker, Dan Blackburn style. That worked pretty well and that's how I played for the next period and a half. GoalieHusband had left to go to a teammate's house and get a glove from her husband, who just started playing goal. It was the 3rd period by the time he got back with it, but I used it anyway- the more protection the better.
The game itself was unusual as well. The team we were supposed to play backed out (which they do a lot) so we had the QCat "white" team come play. We split the teams up though, to make it more even. I can't even tell you who won or lost, because the other goalie and I switched sides at one point. All I know is, the other side pulled their goalie in the last half minute, and they evened up the score with 1.9 seconds remaining. We went to a shootout and I lost that too. The first shooter scored. I knew exactly what she was doing too, but I completely overthought it. I may also have been slightly rankled because she did the Anisimov gunshot gesture toward me before she took center ice. I decided not to bitch at her about it though, because she scored. Not much I can say- if it was a distraction tactic apparently it worked. Still, I am pretty peeved that someone on my own team would do that. I guess she thought she was being "cute", but I still think that's B.S.
Because of the holiday we have no practice this week. I've been on the ice way too infrequently lately, so I intend to make my annual appearance at the shit-show that is Thanksgiving Morning Open Hockey. That one's always good for a post-game blog post if nothing else.
PS - Here's a picture of the glove I wore for most of the game. You can see why I kept my hand balled in a fist!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Back in the 21st century
I was one of those people all excited about that new TV show "Revolution". You know, the one where all the lights go out and there's no more electricity? Being somewhat of an apocalyptic-fiction nut, I'm familiar with the "electro-magnetic pulse" precursor to the Endtimes, and was really looking forward to seeing the series. Nevermind that I completely forgot about it and haven't seen a single episode- I certainly didn't expect to be living it. But for the last 13 days, including a nor'easter and sub-freezing temperatures, I found myself wondering if I maybe should have made a better effort to watch that show. Or to at least prepare our household for an extended lack of power. We have no fireplace, and our range is electric, not gas, so when the power goes out, we have exactly zero options available to us for heat. (Ha. Ok, maybe not zero. Wink wink nudge nudge). We were however extremely lucky to have friends with either woodburning stoves or actual working electricity, who housed our sorry asses on and off for the last two weeks. We spent the first few days at home, but once the temperature inside hit 41* we grabbed the cats and headed for my parents' house.
We are so, so, lucky. And during those few days when I really was losing it and having breakdowns over the slightest things, I was trying so very hard to remember that. We may not have had power, but we had a house that was still standing, and without any damage at all. Neither of our cars were crushed by trees either, as we witnessed just down the street, and played itself out all over our area. And while we were sorely inconvenienced for two weeks, here we are back in our house. Not like some folks, who won't be able to go back for 6-8 months. And now that I'm back into my more normal routine, I am going to find a way to help out others. But that really knocked me for quite a loop. I've never heard wind like that in my life. Ever. And that was only a category 1. But after last year's "Snowtober" storm (when we were out for a mere 6 days), and the myriad powerful storms we've seen since then, I think it's a fair bet to say this is going to be the new normal for a while.
Lest this post descend into politics, let me get to the hockey. Ah, that's right, there really hasn't been any for the last two weeks. We had a game scheduled for Sunday the 28th (the day before the storm), but the wind was already picking up and a lot of rain was expected, so since the rink is right on the water, it was called off pre-emptively. (PS - that rink has since been destroyed). There was practice a few days later, but by then, getting gas was a 2-4 hour endeavor, and we didn't want to drive the 50 miles round trip, not knowing when we would next be able to fill up. (We also both have quite a commute to our respective jobs). The one glimmer was the game down in Delaware. The white team had a game scheduled in New-ark the Saturday after the storm, and although I had misgivings about making the trip given the circumstances, I think it was what we all needed. Most of us were without power, one teammate had lost both the cars in her driveway, and people in general needed something "normal" after a week of insanity. Those of us without power booked rooms at a hotel and had a night of absolute luxury. (Truly, the ability to go to the bathroom with the light on should never be underestimated). We played a very well matched game and ended in a 1-1 tie. My sister and her family came to watch, which was awesome, because they also brought me a "no power care package". Including a card drawn by my niece, featuring a bird on power lines, and rows of light bulbs. Yeah, it made me cry. You wanna make something of it?
There was a practice scheduled for several days later but, oh hey, Nature wasn't done with us yet. Nor'easter time! It didn't drop as much snow on us as was predicted, but what did fall was very slippery, so practice was cancelled. (Yes, you can tell we don't live in Buffalo). And there were no games on the schedule for this weekend, so you can bet I'm raring to get back on the ice this week. To be honest, my mind wasn't anywhere near the rink these past two weeks, though the game in Delaware did turn out to be a welcome distraction. Now that life is getting back to normal, I'm looking forward to practice and games, and games, and clinics, and practice, etc. At least now I know I'll be able to wash all that stinky hockey laundry without a problem.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
A loss, a tie, and shirts vs skins
Hockey weekend started with a surprise party on Friday night for one of our own who is getting married. It was the most dressed up we've ever seen each other, and it was quite odd. The Mayor and her husband picked GoalieHusband and I up and we drove to the restaurant. We were all spiffy and felt like "real adults", going out for an evening. Fortunately, you can dress us up, but you can't make us act mature. The happy couple was surprised, and made sure to share some of their bacon-themed gifts with everyone. The bacon flavored jelly beans were NOT a hit. At all.
Saturday's game was much anticipated by all three teams. It was QC Blue vs QC White, and the Red team came out to cheer us on. I got to play the first game of the season for the White team, since Bacardi was in Rhode Island for the weekend. It was a blast. And even though we lost 5-0 (I swear one of those goals should not have counted), we played great against the Blue team. GoalieHusband was running the bench, and came into the locker room afterwards and said "I'm going to use a big word.... The score was not indicative of your play". Haha. He said "dick". It was actually a really fun game, in spite of the score. I made a few pretty decent saves, and my glove made a few saves on its own. Nice to see it's back for the season. Afterwards we all hung out for quite a while- I was pretty shocked when we left the rink and the clock read 1:00 a.m.
But two hockey related events aren't enough for one weekend, and we got up the next day to transfer the smelly gear from our car to Gionta182's and head south. To Delaware. It was a long rainy drive, but at least we got to listen to decent music. Gionta182 and GoalieHusband and I don't have the exact same taste in music, but it's a lot more similar than the general locker room population it seems. I'm not sure how the Golden Girls theme song became standard Blue team locker room pre-game fare, but there you go. Different strokes for different folks. Wait, that's a whole other TV show.
We played a pretty good game, but it was obvious about halfway through the 2nd period that we were pretty gassed. Our second game of the season, coming back to back after our first game, which was against our higher level sister team, had left most of us with not a whole lot in the tank. Except apparently for @pinballkillsyou, who hadn't played the previous game, but was skating with a pretty decent hangover, and managed a hat-trick. (Or two goals... depending on which score sheet you go by: what they called on the ice, or what they actually wrote down. #beerleaugeprobs) Even Gionta182 was somewhat subdued, even though she hadn't played the night before either. She chalked it up to getting the feel of the league, but we all know what the problem was: the pink tape on her stick. Breast cancer awareness is a great cause, but there was more than one double-take when we saw her taping her stick up in the locker room. She didn't get the nickname "#&(*)@!" for nothing.
That game ended in a 4-4 tie, which felt (at least to me) more like a loss. We were up 3-0 at one point, but they came back to tie it, and even though we scored a go-ahead goal, they pulled their goalie and tied it up again with about 30 seconds left. I played ok but I should have had that last goal, and 1 or 2 others that were screwed up bounces. Stuff isn't bouncing off my stick blade anymore, but in the last two games weird bounces off my blocker have gone in. Must examine this phenomenon. Practice would be a good place to do that, which leads me to.....
Last night. I learned a pretty valuable lesson too: one must eat properly on practice days. A day of very light consumption topped off by a Celeste microwave pizza and a bunch of BBQ potato chips does not provide much in the way of energy for practice. I ended up swooning in the crease and sat out a good 10 min of practice, stripped down to my shirt while my body righted itself and got its bearings. Fortunately I was recovered enough to participate in the Shirts vs Skins Scrimmage.
Yes, shirts vs skins. I certainly never expected to play a game of shirts vs skins in hockey, much less in women's hockey, but there we were at the end of practice, scrimmaging with the Blue team. After splitting up the players, GoalieHusband (or maybe someone else?) declared that one team keep their jerseys on and the other remove theirs. It was pretty hysterical. I was on the jersey-sporting side, but I yelled down to the other goalie that she had to take her jersey off too. She played the rest of the scrimmage in her chest protector. I was actually standing there in my crease just laughing, watching people skate around in various stages of undress. (Some of our skaters don't wear shirts under their chest protectors).
I'm off this weekend, as Bacardi is back and taking both White games this week. Next weekend we're both in the net; a Red and White game for each of us. I think. This scheduling thing is a little difficult to get used to, especially for someone like me who likes to have everything defined and mapped out. We've managed to split up all the games for this month and will deal with next month as it gets closer. I guess that's a pretty good compromise. So, no hockey for me this weekend. At least, not unless we end up at the rink anyway to cheer on the White team...
Saturday's game was much anticipated by all three teams. It was QC Blue vs QC White, and the Red team came out to cheer us on. I got to play the first game of the season for the White team, since Bacardi was in Rhode Island for the weekend. It was a blast. And even though we lost 5-0 (I swear one of those goals should not have counted), we played great against the Blue team. GoalieHusband was running the bench, and came into the locker room afterwards and said "I'm going to use a big word.... The score was not indicative of your play". Haha. He said "dick". It was actually a really fun game, in spite of the score. I made a few pretty decent saves, and my glove made a few saves on its own. Nice to see it's back for the season. Afterwards we all hung out for quite a while- I was pretty shocked when we left the rink and the clock read 1:00 a.m.
But two hockey related events aren't enough for one weekend, and we got up the next day to transfer the smelly gear from our car to Gionta182's and head south. To Delaware. It was a long rainy drive, but at least we got to listen to decent music. Gionta182 and GoalieHusband and I don't have the exact same taste in music, but it's a lot more similar than the general locker room population it seems. I'm not sure how the Golden Girls theme song became standard Blue team locker room pre-game fare, but there you go. Different strokes for different folks. Wait, that's a whole other TV show.
We played a pretty good game, but it was obvious about halfway through the 2nd period that we were pretty gassed. Our second game of the season, coming back to back after our first game, which was against our higher level sister team, had left most of us with not a whole lot in the tank. Except apparently for @pinballkillsyou, who hadn't played the previous game, but was skating with a pretty decent hangover, and managed a hat-trick. (Or two goals... depending on which score sheet you go by: what they called on the ice, or what they actually wrote down. #beerleaugeprobs) Even Gionta182 was somewhat subdued, even though she hadn't played the night before either. She chalked it up to getting the feel of the league, but we all know what the problem was: the pink tape on her stick. Breast cancer awareness is a great cause, but there was more than one double-take when we saw her taping her stick up in the locker room. She didn't get the nickname "#&(*)@!" for nothing.
That game ended in a 4-4 tie, which felt (at least to me) more like a loss. We were up 3-0 at one point, but they came back to tie it, and even though we scored a go-ahead goal, they pulled their goalie and tied it up again with about 30 seconds left. I played ok but I should have had that last goal, and 1 or 2 others that were screwed up bounces. Stuff isn't bouncing off my stick blade anymore, but in the last two games weird bounces off my blocker have gone in. Must examine this phenomenon. Practice would be a good place to do that, which leads me to.....
Last night. I learned a pretty valuable lesson too: one must eat properly on practice days. A day of very light consumption topped off by a Celeste microwave pizza and a bunch of BBQ potato chips does not provide much in the way of energy for practice. I ended up swooning in the crease and sat out a good 10 min of practice, stripped down to my shirt while my body righted itself and got its bearings. Fortunately I was recovered enough to participate in the Shirts vs Skins Scrimmage.
Yes, shirts vs skins. I certainly never expected to play a game of shirts vs skins in hockey, much less in women's hockey, but there we were at the end of practice, scrimmaging with the Blue team. After splitting up the players, GoalieHusband (or maybe someone else?) declared that one team keep their jerseys on and the other remove theirs. It was pretty hysterical. I was on the jersey-sporting side, but I yelled down to the other goalie that she had to take her jersey off too. She played the rest of the scrimmage in her chest protector. I was actually standing there in my crease just laughing, watching people skate around in various stages of undress. (Some of our skaters don't wear shirts under their chest protectors).
I'm off this weekend, as Bacardi is back and taking both White games this week. Next weekend we're both in the net; a Red and White game for each of us. I think. This scheduling thing is a little difficult to get used to, especially for someone like me who likes to have everything defined and mapped out. We've managed to split up all the games for this month and will deal with next month as it gets closer. I guess that's a pretty good compromise. So, no hockey for me this weekend. At least, not unless we end up at the rink anyway to cheer on the White team...
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Season of Change
Shame on me for letting the blog go "dark" for a few months. But the old adage about absence making the heart grow fonder appears to be true- at least in terms of my hockey journey. It's been several months now since the terrifying night GoalieHusband's playing days ended, and since I decided to take a little break. I think it did me a world of good. I've come back from the time off with renewed hunger, impatiently straining at time's leash to get back on the ice and in the swing of a season again. I've decided to continue my break from the Instructional League, mostly for financial reasons. We have a kitchen remodel (of necessity, not vanity) looming over our heads in the next few months, so the more pennies saved the better. As much as I will miss playing with the guys (and with guys in general), it's something I need to do right now. And as it stands, it doesn't look like I'll be hurting much for ice time anyway, with the new structure of the QCats teams. This is another reason I didn't write over the summer- I had some very mixed feelings about how this season would turn out, and was hesitant to express them. But here it is, opening night of our season, and writing seems to go hand in hand with the cycle of schlepping gear, playing games, relaxing in stuffy locker rooms with a cold beer, and long road trips on Sunday afternoons. As such I guess I ought to welcome you to the new world of the red white & blue Cats.
Over the past season or so, our two adult teams began realizing that our numbers were swelling beyond the confines of two reasonable rosters. There are also several girls' teams, the oldest being U19, and we started to see girls who "grew up" in the organization coming back from college still wanting to play. It became pretty obvious that we needed to expand, and a lot of thought and meetings and organization went into how we would do it. Somehow I ended up part of this committee. I know, I know, they really had to twist my arm. The end result is that we now have three adult teams, two of which play in a league, and the other remains a "club" team. This is the team formerly known as the "D" team, which has been my team. The "C" team will continue to play in the league they've been part of for the last few years, and our new team will play in the same league, one division down. The league designates levels by color: red, white and blue, with red being the novice level, white the middle, and blue the highest. It's taken everyone a good month or so to get the hang of using colors instead of letters, but I think we've got it now. We're calling the "D" team the "red" team even though it's not part of the league, because if it was, red would be the level it would be in. (Technically there are several white divisions in the league, designated by number. Don't ask me why they did it that way)
Are you confused yet?
Red - "my" team, the D team
White - middle team comprised of some D players who wanted a bigger challenge, and some C players who felt this new team would be a better fit for them.
Blue - the "C" team, the young fast ones. Hehe.
Lucky for us, we already had 3 goalies amongst our 2 adult teams: me, "Bacardi", and "Dina". (The "Bacardi" nickname should be self-explanatory. "Dina" on the other hand, is not the real name of this goalie, but apparently that's what a lot of the girls call her because she looks like someone on Jersey Shore. I'm going to have to take their word on that one). Dina will play most of the blue games, and Bacardi and I are going to split the white and red games between us, with both of us subbing up on the blue team if need be.
Ok, admit it, NOW you're confused. Don't worry, it took us forever to figure it out too. Because Bacardi also runs the girls' teams in the organization, she ends up with schedule conflicts a lot more frequently than I do. Guess what that means for me - more games! Yay! For instance, tonight's game, our season opener. Since I think I've bored/confused you enough with league details, I'll skip the bizarre (but sound) logic that results in our blue team playing our white team in the first game of the season. Because Bacardi is away this weekend, yours truly will be in the white net, facing Dina and all the hot-shots on the blue team. We're making a party out of it, and the red team is coming to cheer us all on. (I have informed several team members that I expect their loyalty to be towards white tonight.) Tomorrow white is off to Delaware for another game. That's one thing about the league that is a bit of a drawback - most of the away games are quite a hike. I'm happy about this though, because it means there wasn't a mass exodus from the red team to the white team this summer; the red team still has a decent core of players and although we lost some of our best, we should still be able to compete.
It's been a little bit of a rocky summer, figuring this all out, and adding in the emotional factor of splitting up a team that has been extremely close for the last few years, and people unsure of where they will end up or what the season ultimately will look like. But I think for the most part, folks are excited about growing the organization, and realize that this inaugural season will undoubtedly have some kinks that need to be worked out, and we just have to roll with it. I'm really looking forward to being able to play some games in the league with the white team, and I'm happy I'll still get to play with my buddies on the red team. Really, I have the best of both worlds. And tonight should be very interesting. Me and hkygrl12 vs eco_panda and monx77, with lct29 & cohorts cheering us on. There is no way this is not going to be a blast.
Over the past season or so, our two adult teams began realizing that our numbers were swelling beyond the confines of two reasonable rosters. There are also several girls' teams, the oldest being U19, and we started to see girls who "grew up" in the organization coming back from college still wanting to play. It became pretty obvious that we needed to expand, and a lot of thought and meetings and organization went into how we would do it. Somehow I ended up part of this committee. I know, I know, they really had to twist my arm. The end result is that we now have three adult teams, two of which play in a league, and the other remains a "club" team. This is the team formerly known as the "D" team, which has been my team. The "C" team will continue to play in the league they've been part of for the last few years, and our new team will play in the same league, one division down. The league designates levels by color: red, white and blue, with red being the novice level, white the middle, and blue the highest. It's taken everyone a good month or so to get the hang of using colors instead of letters, but I think we've got it now. We're calling the "D" team the "red" team even though it's not part of the league, because if it was, red would be the level it would be in. (Technically there are several white divisions in the league, designated by number. Don't ask me why they did it that way)
Are you confused yet?
Red - "my" team, the D team
White - middle team comprised of some D players who wanted a bigger challenge, and some C players who felt this new team would be a better fit for them.
Blue - the "C" team, the young fast ones. Hehe.
Lucky for us, we already had 3 goalies amongst our 2 adult teams: me, "Bacardi", and "Dina". (The "Bacardi" nickname should be self-explanatory. "Dina" on the other hand, is not the real name of this goalie, but apparently that's what a lot of the girls call her because she looks like someone on Jersey Shore. I'm going to have to take their word on that one). Dina will play most of the blue games, and Bacardi and I are going to split the white and red games between us, with both of us subbing up on the blue team if need be.
Ok, admit it, NOW you're confused. Don't worry, it took us forever to figure it out too. Because Bacardi also runs the girls' teams in the organization, she ends up with schedule conflicts a lot more frequently than I do. Guess what that means for me - more games! Yay! For instance, tonight's game, our season opener. Since I think I've bored/confused you enough with league details, I'll skip the bizarre (but sound) logic that results in our blue team playing our white team in the first game of the season. Because Bacardi is away this weekend, yours truly will be in the white net, facing Dina and all the hot-shots on the blue team. We're making a party out of it, and the red team is coming to cheer us all on. (I have informed several team members that I expect their loyalty to be towards white tonight.) Tomorrow white is off to Delaware for another game. That's one thing about the league that is a bit of a drawback - most of the away games are quite a hike. I'm happy about this though, because it means there wasn't a mass exodus from the red team to the white team this summer; the red team still has a decent core of players and although we lost some of our best, we should still be able to compete.
It's been a little bit of a rocky summer, figuring this all out, and adding in the emotional factor of splitting up a team that has been extremely close for the last few years, and people unsure of where they will end up or what the season ultimately will look like. But I think for the most part, folks are excited about growing the organization, and realize that this inaugural season will undoubtedly have some kinks that need to be worked out, and we just have to roll with it. I'm really looking forward to being able to play some games in the league with the white team, and I'm happy I'll still get to play with my buddies on the red team. Really, I have the best of both worlds. And tonight should be very interesting. Me and hkygrl12 vs eco_panda and monx77, with lct29 & cohorts cheering us on. There is no way this is not going to be a blast.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Things I Learned At Nationals
It's been about a week and most of us Cats still have that giddy feeling, though the real world has slowly crept in to bring us back down to earth. But before all the magic is gone, I figured I should record a few things I learned.
- Walking through the airport en masse in your hockey jerseys looks really badass.
- My hockey bag weighs 58 lbs, though how much of that weight is sweat is unknown.
- Geckos do not like to be picked up.
- An athletic sock makes a great beer cozy.
- A Bentley convertible is a chick magnet.
- Manatees are very friendly and like to have their bellies rubbed.
- Having a lens fall out of your glasses is a great goalie delay tactic.
- A triple overtime game will draw every person in the rink into the stands.
- Eight pina coladas won't erase the pain of a fractured finger and severed tendon, but being a National Champion will, at least for a little bit.
- In a pinch, frozen broccoli can be used in place of ice cubes in a vodka tonic.
- Do we have the best team on the entire planet? Bitch, please.
- Walking through the airport en masse in your hockey jerseys looks really badass.
- My hockey bag weighs 58 lbs, though how much of that weight is sweat is unknown.
- Geckos do not like to be picked up.
- An athletic sock makes a great beer cozy.
- A Bentley convertible is a chick magnet.
- Manatees are very friendly and like to have their bellies rubbed.
- Having a lens fall out of your glasses is a great goalie delay tactic.
- A triple overtime game will draw every person in the rink into the stands.
- Eight pina coladas won't erase the pain of a fractured finger and severed tendon, but being a National Champion will, at least for a little bit.
- In a pinch, frozen broccoli can be used in place of ice cubes in a vodka tonic.
- Do we have the best team on the entire planet? Bitch, please.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
NATIONAL. CHAMPIONS.
Flipper is crashed on the couch with a Stella. GoalieHusband is standing in the lanai watching bad golfers (with a Magic Hat). Flipper's husband is snoring in the easy chair. And I'm getting a quick blog post in before we all converge on the hot tub and ease our aching muscles and joints. (Also with a Magic Hat).
When we got up this morning and headed to the rink for our 8 a.m. game, we never imagined we'd still be playing at 10:20. When we were sitting in the locker room all groggy, we never imagined we'd have a player with a broken finger shoved in an ice bag after the 1st overtime, when they forced us off the ice to resurface it. (She refused a splint, because then she wouldn't be able to get her finger into her glove). But what was not ever a question in my mind, was that we would come out of this as champions. As we walked into the rink this morning, I turned to Flipper and said "You know we're going to win this, right?" She grinned and nodded.
We played the only team we lost to this weekend, ironically the team from Westchester NY, who we play all year long. When we played them on Friday afternoon, it was an extremely chippy affair which we lost 4-3 after scratching and clawing our way back from a 3-0 deficit racked up in the first few minutes of the first period. They came out strong, and we had a weak first period. But after that we got into the game and nearly tied it. Finding out that they were the team we'd be facing in the championship game just made it that much sweeter.
At this point I'm so exhausted I can't remember many details, other than Jullee's broken finger, a concussion-prone player going hard into the boards in the 6th period and panicking us all when she immediately grabbed her head, only to buy us time, a few miraculous toe saves, and what felt like millions of amazing saves by the goalie on the other end. But three minutes and 58 seconds into that period, "Bentley" won the puck in a battle down in the corner off to the goalie's right, and dished it out to "Poutine", who was waiting in the slot and slammed it home. Players poured off the bench, and I booked down to the other end of the ice to jump into the pile. My joy was tempered by sympathy for the other goalie, who was on the ice just behind our jubilant knot of players, but I pushed that aside and celebrated with my girls. (I did end up turning to her and telling her I thought she played an absolutely amazing game, but of course she was in no mood to hear it right then).
I have to say, USA Hockey does it right. They had a pile of white hats with the logo and "National Champions" on the side. They gave each of us an acrylic puck with the same sentiment, and a large duffel bag that says USA Hockey on one side and NATIONAL CHAMPIONS on the other. We have all decided that we are going to use those bags as our carry-ons on the plane on the way home.
Flipper keeps saying "Who's better than us?" and grinning and answering her own question with "No one!!!"
This one tastes really, really, good, and is going to last us a nice long while.
When we got up this morning and headed to the rink for our 8 a.m. game, we never imagined we'd still be playing at 10:20. When we were sitting in the locker room all groggy, we never imagined we'd have a player with a broken finger shoved in an ice bag after the 1st overtime, when they forced us off the ice to resurface it. (She refused a splint, because then she wouldn't be able to get her finger into her glove). But what was not ever a question in my mind, was that we would come out of this as champions. As we walked into the rink this morning, I turned to Flipper and said "You know we're going to win this, right?" She grinned and nodded.
We played the only team we lost to this weekend, ironically the team from Westchester NY, who we play all year long. When we played them on Friday afternoon, it was an extremely chippy affair which we lost 4-3 after scratching and clawing our way back from a 3-0 deficit racked up in the first few minutes of the first period. They came out strong, and we had a weak first period. But after that we got into the game and nearly tied it. Finding out that they were the team we'd be facing in the championship game just made it that much sweeter.
At this point I'm so exhausted I can't remember many details, other than Jullee's broken finger, a concussion-prone player going hard into the boards in the 6th period and panicking us all when she immediately grabbed her head, only to buy us time, a few miraculous toe saves, and what felt like millions of amazing saves by the goalie on the other end. But three minutes and 58 seconds into that period, "Bentley" won the puck in a battle down in the corner off to the goalie's right, and dished it out to "Poutine", who was waiting in the slot and slammed it home. Players poured off the bench, and I booked down to the other end of the ice to jump into the pile. My joy was tempered by sympathy for the other goalie, who was on the ice just behind our jubilant knot of players, but I pushed that aside and celebrated with my girls. (I did end up turning to her and telling her I thought she played an absolutely amazing game, but of course she was in no mood to hear it right then).
I have to say, USA Hockey does it right. They had a pile of white hats with the logo and "National Champions" on the side. They gave each of us an acrylic puck with the same sentiment, and a large duffel bag that says USA Hockey on one side and NATIONAL CHAMPIONS on the other. We have all decided that we are going to use those bags as our carry-ons on the plane on the way home.
Flipper keeps saying "Who's better than us?" and grinning and answering her own question with "No one!!!"
This one tastes really, really, good, and is going to last us a nice long while.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Ahhhhh.... vacation!
It's not even 8 a.m., and I'm flopped on the couch with my netbook, enjoying the peace and quiet of the morning. As a matter of fact, the only thing this relaxing scene is missing, is a nice cup of coffee. Pardon me, I'll be right back...
Ahhh, much better! So, here we are, in Florida for Nationals. Flipper (@lct29) and her husband and GoalieHusband and I are staying in a lovely 2 BR condo overlooking a golf course. It's the perfect arrangement, because although KK has a condo and generously invited as many people who wanted to, to stay there, it's pretty much organized chaos over there all the time. Which, in moderate doses, is fun. But the four of us like our quiet time. Flipper's husband is a morning person too, and yesterday when Flipper came out and saw us both sitting quietly on the couch reading, she said "Oh my God, I've walked into a library".
But this is pretty much the only place where we're quiet. I really have to apologize to the people on United flight 1223. We were pretty rowdy on the way down. Hey, the flight attendant announced us over the P.A. at the beginning of the flight. With an introduction like that, you're off to a great start. We also all wore our bright red jerseys, and turned lots of heads walking through the airport en masse. A few random Canadians even came up to talk to us.
Since our first day was a travel day only, no games, we made the trek from the airport to the condos and descended upon KK's living room for the Bruins game. I was itching to watch it, because there'd been a buzz on twitter that Rask might be starting. (Which I thought was insane, starting a goalie just back from injury in a Game 7, but hey, I didn't want to miss it.) There was pizza and beer and merriment, but it was all quite tame. Flipper's husband was surprised, and I think just a little disappointed, after having been warned for months that things can get a little crazy down here. But travel day is like that. We called it a night a few hours after the game ended, and most of us were laying on the couch like slugs, in various stages of drowsiness.
The next day we got a nice early start, since our game was in a rink over 60 miles away. (The great thing about the condos is comfy and inexpensive accommodations, but the drawback is a long drive to the rinks). Fortunately that was our only game in that rink. We got there ridiculously early, signed in, browsed the USA Hockey t-shirt table, and eventually made our way to the locker rooms to get changed. Everyone was greeted with a custom skate mat, with our logo and "National Cats 2012" on it. The player we call "Bentley", for the gorgeous powder blue luxury car she has down here, had had the mats made for us as a surprise. But it was like Christmas in that locker room, because not only were the mats handed out, but Flipper and her cohort had had t-shirts made, since they were such a big hit at last year's tournament. These shirts are just as awesome. Anything that says "GET IN THE CAR, BITCHES!" on the sleeve gets my vote.
It felt like an eternity, but we finally got onto the ice for our first game. We played against the Lady Everblades, a Florida team we hadn't faced last year. We played very well, and for most of the first period I didn't have much to do. We scored first, a gorgeous shot from the point that made the back of the net balloon out. Although I had long stretches of inactivity, there were several scrums and a few breakouts that kept me busy. Unfortunately on one of those scrums, they scored. There were just way too many of them in front of the net and although I made an initial save (or two?), they were successful on the ensuing scramble. I was pretty frustrated, because with so few shots, I felt I shouldn't be letting anything in. Fortunately, we scored again to gain the lead, and it ended at 2-1. There was a big cooler full of LaBatt's waiting for us in the locker room, and we hung out in there for quite a while afterwards. (Can I just say one thing about that locker room? Best. Rink shower. Ever.)
We headed back to the condos, with the plan of meeting up at a bar on the beach, but 30 miles into the trip, GoalieHusband realized he'd left his keys at the rink, and still had the locker room key in his pocket. Since we aren't playing any more games at that rink, we had to head back to get them. Note to self: If you're not the driver, don't hand your keys over for the locker room key. Way too easy to forget. We got back with just enough time to hit the supermarket for a few necessities (read: beer) and head over to KK's for the Rangers and Devils Game 7 double-header. As Flipper put it, we had the trifecta of hockey awesomeness, with a win for the Cats, Rangers and Devils all in the same day.
Now I'm just waiting for the others to wake up, and we'll head over to Waffle House for some breakfast with the rest of the group. Game time today is 4:45. Tomorrow we play at 10 a.m. Sunday, if we make the championship game, is at 8 a.m. Good thing the goalie's a morning person, eh?
Ahhh, much better! So, here we are, in Florida for Nationals. Flipper (@lct29) and her husband and GoalieHusband and I are staying in a lovely 2 BR condo overlooking a golf course. It's the perfect arrangement, because although KK has a condo and generously invited as many people who wanted to, to stay there, it's pretty much organized chaos over there all the time. Which, in moderate doses, is fun. But the four of us like our quiet time. Flipper's husband is a morning person too, and yesterday when Flipper came out and saw us both sitting quietly on the couch reading, she said "Oh my God, I've walked into a library".
But this is pretty much the only place where we're quiet. I really have to apologize to the people on United flight 1223. We were pretty rowdy on the way down. Hey, the flight attendant announced us over the P.A. at the beginning of the flight. With an introduction like that, you're off to a great start. We also all wore our bright red jerseys, and turned lots of heads walking through the airport en masse. A few random Canadians even came up to talk to us.
Since our first day was a travel day only, no games, we made the trek from the airport to the condos and descended upon KK's living room for the Bruins game. I was itching to watch it, because there'd been a buzz on twitter that Rask might be starting. (Which I thought was insane, starting a goalie just back from injury in a Game 7, but hey, I didn't want to miss it.) There was pizza and beer and merriment, but it was all quite tame. Flipper's husband was surprised, and I think just a little disappointed, after having been warned for months that things can get a little crazy down here. But travel day is like that. We called it a night a few hours after the game ended, and most of us were laying on the couch like slugs, in various stages of drowsiness.
The next day we got a nice early start, since our game was in a rink over 60 miles away. (The great thing about the condos is comfy and inexpensive accommodations, but the drawback is a long drive to the rinks). Fortunately that was our only game in that rink. We got there ridiculously early, signed in, browsed the USA Hockey t-shirt table, and eventually made our way to the locker rooms to get changed. Everyone was greeted with a custom skate mat, with our logo and "National Cats 2012" on it. The player we call "Bentley", for the gorgeous powder blue luxury car she has down here, had had the mats made for us as a surprise. But it was like Christmas in that locker room, because not only were the mats handed out, but Flipper and her cohort had had t-shirts made, since they were such a big hit at last year's tournament. These shirts are just as awesome. Anything that says "GET IN THE CAR, BITCHES!" on the sleeve gets my vote.
It felt like an eternity, but we finally got onto the ice for our first game. We played against the Lady Everblades, a Florida team we hadn't faced last year. We played very well, and for most of the first period I didn't have much to do. We scored first, a gorgeous shot from the point that made the back of the net balloon out. Although I had long stretches of inactivity, there were several scrums and a few breakouts that kept me busy. Unfortunately on one of those scrums, they scored. There were just way too many of them in front of the net and although I made an initial save (or two?), they were successful on the ensuing scramble. I was pretty frustrated, because with so few shots, I felt I shouldn't be letting anything in. Fortunately, we scored again to gain the lead, and it ended at 2-1. There was a big cooler full of LaBatt's waiting for us in the locker room, and we hung out in there for quite a while afterwards. (Can I just say one thing about that locker room? Best. Rink shower. Ever.)
We headed back to the condos, with the plan of meeting up at a bar on the beach, but 30 miles into the trip, GoalieHusband realized he'd left his keys at the rink, and still had the locker room key in his pocket. Since we aren't playing any more games at that rink, we had to head back to get them. Note to self: If you're not the driver, don't hand your keys over for the locker room key. Way too easy to forget. We got back with just enough time to hit the supermarket for a few necessities (read: beer) and head over to KK's for the Rangers and Devils Game 7 double-header. As Flipper put it, we had the trifecta of hockey awesomeness, with a win for the Cats, Rangers and Devils all in the same day.
Now I'm just waiting for the others to wake up, and we'll head over to Waffle House for some breakfast with the rest of the group. Game time today is 4:45. Tomorrow we play at 10 a.m. Sunday, if we make the championship game, is at 8 a.m. Good thing the goalie's a morning person, eh?
Monday, April 2, 2012
Pure Poetry
Last year we stayed in a teammate's condo when we were in Florida for Nationals. It's a fantastic arrangement. There's just no way you're not going to have fun when a whole team is crammed into two condo units. One unit had a very large screened-in patio in the back, facing a lake. In the lake there was an alligator. No lie. I saw it myself. This is why no one was allowed to sleep on the patio. There were also, despite all the screens, dozens of geckos running around in the patio, to my complete delight. This was all well and good when we were just hanging out, but as the week wore on we began spreading our equipment out in the sun to dry. Several people were concerned that they'd pack up their gear and get to the rink only to have a gecko pop out of the bag. Or worse, find a gecko corpse in the bag, having been asphyxiated by the hockey stank.
The condos, as great as they were, were unfortunately quite a distance from the rink. It was a roughly 45 minute drive each way, and to amuse ourselves during the commutes, @lct29 (Flipper) and I began composing haikus. This kept us entertained for several car rides, and we still crack up even now when we think about them. Here were our two best:
Oh mini lizard
Stay out of my hockey bag
No dirt naps allowed!
-by me
Governor concerned
Beer supplies dwindling
Liver rest needed!
-by Flipper
The practice of making up haikus stuck, and we still will randomly email them to each other, usually when we are at our most stressed out. Flipper even was on a haiku-a-day streak for quite a while, but both of us had kind of forgotten about them for the last month or so. Until today. In the midst of my harsh return to reality at work, towards the end of another draining day in which I'm expected to continue working when no one knows anything about anything, I got an email from Flipper. She must be having the same kind of day I am, because she chronicled the entire tournament, using haikus. I got her permission to share the joy with all of you:
Game on Friday Night
Decide to hit road early
No slug-Cats on ice!!!!
Cats win the first game
Goalie kicks ass in shoot-out
Friday night curse ends!!!
Sleepy Cats on ice.
BUT Goalie loves the morning!
Hell's Belles fall to Cats.
Second game of day
Cats win a nail biter
See it on You Tube!
New game ritual
Meow mix song with Goalie*
Hey...it really works!
Cats like to party!
But we like to win games more
Early night for most.
Another shut out
Claudia gets a hat trick
The Cats win it all.
*We have a tradition that before the start of each period, we get into a group at the bench, someone yells "Cats on three! 1 - 2- 3 " and we all yell "CATS!" Once in a while as we're skating away someone will add a "meow!" which sometimes sounds suspiciously like "beer!". Well this weekend, I was moved by the Hockey Gods to sing the "Meow Mix" song to Flipper as we skated back to our positions on the ice to start the period. From that point forward, we sang it after every "CATS" chant. I know it was divine inspiration, because we won all our games. So from now on, we must always sing the "Meow Mix" song to each other. It cracks us up to no end, which is probably a good thing. I find myself wondering if it will catch on, and the entire team will start doing it. I think if that happens, the refs will surely find some kind of penalty to give us for making their ears bleed.
The condos, as great as they were, were unfortunately quite a distance from the rink. It was a roughly 45 minute drive each way, and to amuse ourselves during the commutes, @lct29 (Flipper) and I began composing haikus. This kept us entertained for several car rides, and we still crack up even now when we think about them. Here were our two best:
Oh mini lizard
Stay out of my hockey bag
No dirt naps allowed!
-by me
Governor concerned
Beer supplies dwindling
Liver rest needed!
-by Flipper
The practice of making up haikus stuck, and we still will randomly email them to each other, usually when we are at our most stressed out. Flipper even was on a haiku-a-day streak for quite a while, but both of us had kind of forgotten about them for the last month or so. Until today. In the midst of my harsh return to reality at work, towards the end of another draining day in which I'm expected to continue working when no one knows anything about anything, I got an email from Flipper. She must be having the same kind of day I am, because she chronicled the entire tournament, using haikus. I got her permission to share the joy with all of you:
Game on Friday Night
Decide to hit road early
No slug-Cats on ice!!!!
Cats win the first game
Goalie kicks ass in shoot-out
Friday night curse ends!!!
Sleepy Cats on ice.
BUT Goalie loves the morning!
Hell's Belles fall to Cats.
Second game of day
Cats win a nail biter
See it on You Tube!
New game ritual
Meow mix song with Goalie*
Hey...it really works!
Cats like to party!
But we like to win games more
Early night for most.
Another shut out
Claudia gets a hat trick
The Cats win it all.
*We have a tradition that before the start of each period, we get into a group at the bench, someone yells "Cats on three! 1 - 2- 3 " and we all yell "CATS!" Once in a while as we're skating away someone will add a "meow!" which sometimes sounds suspiciously like "beer!". Well this weekend, I was moved by the Hockey Gods to sing the "Meow Mix" song to Flipper as we skated back to our positions on the ice to start the period. From that point forward, we sang it after every "CATS" chant. I know it was divine inspiration, because we won all our games. So from now on, we must always sing the "Meow Mix" song to each other. It cracks us up to no end, which is probably a good thing. I find myself wondering if it will catch on, and the entire team will start doing it. I think if that happens, the refs will surely find some kind of penalty to give us for making their ears bleed.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Safe words, and post-tourney bliss
I would have blogged about our third game on Saturday night, but I was spent. (And we were partying). It was incredibly intense. We scored first, but then they got two goals I beat myself up pretty badly about. It held at 2-1 for quite some time, well into the 3rd period. I was thinking to myself, we CAN NOT lose this game, we just CAN NOT. Play was mostly in the other end, but the two goals against came off breakouts by the same speedy little forward both times. But with 3 minutes left, we scored to tie it. And then with about a minute left, we had a breakaway of our own and scored for the win. The whooping and hollering sounded like a championship game itself, but the relief was immense. Those two goals put us into the final game, to be played at 9:50 Sunday morning. With that in mind, we enjoyed ourselves at the Saturday night league-hosted party, but kept our merriment to a compressed schedule. I'd say most of us were in bed by 11pm.
That's not to say there wasn't plenty of blog-worthy ridiculousness. All day I've been remembering things I wanted to blog about, but 4 hours behind the wheel aren't conducive to note-taking. The best story though, certainly can not be forgotten. There was a raffle of gift baskets as a fund raiser for the tournament and their selected cause (a local young girl with leukemia), and one of our players had put a copious amount of tickets into the "spice" undergarments basket. (It's a womens' line of hockey undergarments. These particular items were a sports bra and coordinating velcro shorts in a saucy red and black tiger print). Our player, we'll call her "M", was lucky enough to win the basket. Now, "M" and another player, "F", are both openly gay and can be quite graphic about their exploits. They're also two of the biggest horn dogs on the team. "G", a happily married heterosexual mother of two, who is just a little shy when it comes to hearing all their stories, got caught between them. M was holding her prize, and G got sandwiched between M and F, in slightly more than a friendly hug. The next thing you know, G is yelling "baseballs!!!! baseballs!!!" and M and F are literally rolling on the floor with laughter. Apparently, "baseballs" was G's 'safe word'.
At this point I had the following thoughts: "G has a safe word???? Wow, I am totally lame in comparison". And then "Wait.... G has a safe word and both M and F know it?!?!? Whoa..." Fortunately for my self-assessed coolness-factor, we found out the next day that G had said previously that she needed a safe word for when M and F start getting into "uncomfortable" territory. One of them told her "baseballs" would do. I know, it makes the story much less lurid, but it made me feel a little better.
This was revealed in the locker room as we prepared for our championship game. M was conspicuously absent for quite a while, and when she arrived, we understood why. Someone had been indulging in juuuust a tad too much Scotch the night before, it would seem. M was not in good shape. I guess she sweat it out of her system though, because she ended up having a good game. We all did... although I didn't really have to do much at all. I'm not positive of the shot total, but I'd be stunned if I had more than 12 or 15. We went up 2-0 very quickly, within the first 3 minutes or so. Their goalie seemed awfully shaky, and we took advantage of that. At the end of the first it was 3-0, and we scored another in the second. An empty net goal in the third sealed it, and we won by a score of 5-0.
We were pretty surprised. We'd been expecting a game similar to our first one; somewhat chippy, and pretty challenging. We hadn't faced this team previously in the tournament, as the final was the top team from each of two separate divisions. Given that our previous games were all quite close, we're confident we won't get boosted up to the next level based on that final game score alone. We played in that level last year, and scored one goal in all three games combined. So, while this game was a pretty easy one for me, I was happy to be playing on a Sunday morning, instead of packing up the hotel room in a leisurely fashion and lingering over the breakfast buffet.
Now I'm home, and I've uploaded the post-game celebration pictures to Facebook and basked in all the comments and "likes". I cooked GoalieHusband and I a nice dinner and we're watching the Ranger game on DVR. (No one spoil it please). What a fantastic weekend, and so sorely needed. We don't want it to end. But it's back to the office tomorrow, although I'll have a pretty damn good picture to put on my desktop monitor. And in four short weeks, it's time for the debauchery of Nationals down in Florida. Tournament season RULES!
That's not to say there wasn't plenty of blog-worthy ridiculousness. All day I've been remembering things I wanted to blog about, but 4 hours behind the wheel aren't conducive to note-taking. The best story though, certainly can not be forgotten. There was a raffle of gift baskets as a fund raiser for the tournament and their selected cause (a local young girl with leukemia), and one of our players had put a copious amount of tickets into the "spice" undergarments basket. (It's a womens' line of hockey undergarments. These particular items were a sports bra and coordinating velcro shorts in a saucy red and black tiger print). Our player, we'll call her "M", was lucky enough to win the basket. Now, "M" and another player, "F", are both openly gay and can be quite graphic about their exploits. They're also two of the biggest horn dogs on the team. "G", a happily married heterosexual mother of two, who is just a little shy when it comes to hearing all their stories, got caught between them. M was holding her prize, and G got sandwiched between M and F, in slightly more than a friendly hug. The next thing you know, G is yelling "baseballs!!!! baseballs!!!" and M and F are literally rolling on the floor with laughter. Apparently, "baseballs" was G's 'safe word'.
At this point I had the following thoughts: "G has a safe word???? Wow, I am totally lame in comparison". And then "Wait.... G has a safe word and both M and F know it?!?!? Whoa..." Fortunately for my self-assessed coolness-factor, we found out the next day that G had said previously that she needed a safe word for when M and F start getting into "uncomfortable" territory. One of them told her "baseballs" would do. I know, it makes the story much less lurid, but it made me feel a little better.
This was revealed in the locker room as we prepared for our championship game. M was conspicuously absent for quite a while, and when she arrived, we understood why. Someone had been indulging in juuuust a tad too much Scotch the night before, it would seem. M was not in good shape. I guess she sweat it out of her system though, because she ended up having a good game. We all did... although I didn't really have to do much at all. I'm not positive of the shot total, but I'd be stunned if I had more than 12 or 15. We went up 2-0 very quickly, within the first 3 minutes or so. Their goalie seemed awfully shaky, and we took advantage of that. At the end of the first it was 3-0, and we scored another in the second. An empty net goal in the third sealed it, and we won by a score of 5-0.
We were pretty surprised. We'd been expecting a game similar to our first one; somewhat chippy, and pretty challenging. We hadn't faced this team previously in the tournament, as the final was the top team from each of two separate divisions. Given that our previous games were all quite close, we're confident we won't get boosted up to the next level based on that final game score alone. We played in that level last year, and scored one goal in all three games combined. So, while this game was a pretty easy one for me, I was happy to be playing on a Sunday morning, instead of packing up the hotel room in a leisurely fashion and lingering over the breakfast buffet.
Now I'm home, and I've uploaded the post-game celebration pictures to Facebook and basked in all the comments and "likes". I cooked GoalieHusband and I a nice dinner and we're watching the Ranger game on DVR. (No one spoil it please). What a fantastic weekend, and so sorely needed. We don't want it to end. But it's back to the office tomorrow, although I'll have a pretty damn good picture to put on my desktop monitor. And in four short weeks, it's time for the debauchery of Nationals down in Florida. Tournament season RULES!
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Two down, one... two?... to go
The down-time between games on Saturday: it's never enough time to really take a good nap, but it's just enough to make you wish you could. So here I am, blogging after a nice burger (protein!) and beer (carbs!) and the hotel restaurant.
Friday night's game was a very intense one. It was fast, and it got progressively chippier as the game went on. The other team scored first, a goal I really wanted back. It started out as a screen, but I yelled and Flipper moved out of the way just in time for me to pick up the shot, but I didn't get my pad down in time and it slipped underneath it. Very frustrating. That score held through the second, and most of the third, but fortunately The Mayor managed to poke in a rebound no one else seemed to see. Hallelujah. I would have felt like complete and total ass if we'd lost that game on that one goal. It would have completely sealed the "Friday night game curse" for me. But, as there are no ties in this tournament, we went straight to a shootout. No problem. I was definitely in the zone, and I knew I had it. I stuffed all three of their shooters, and our last shooter scored, off a series of sweet moves that had the goalie going too far to her left. It was an easy goal at that point.
I can't even express how relieved I was that we got that Friday night game monkey off our backs. And I was very happy to have had a hand in our comeback, after allowing that crappy goal. I think I grinned all the way back to the hotel. After showers, we all met up in one of the rooms, which had been upgraded to a suite, so there was plenty of room for us to all hang out. It was subdued revelry though, as we had a game at 11:00 the next day.
Which was today. Everyone was all pumped up, going into a Saturday game that actually meant something. (If you lose on Friday night, the chances of making the final game are virtually nill.) We wore our black jerseys again, since we felt so bad-ass in them the night before. We ended up winning, by a score of 2-0, but it was nerve-wracking for me. The play was in the other zone most of the time, and we kept getting close calls, but nothing was going in. Then they had a breakaway on me and I pulled one of those toe saves that everyone on the bench loves. After that, it was still pretty one-sided on our part but we still couldn't score. Finally, in the third period, we got one. And I had a sneaky feeling that we were going to need two, that something weird was going to happen, a strange bounce or completely bad luck. There was one save I made where the puck bounced up strangely, but fortunately it landed on the side of my pad, instead of out in the middle of the crease for anyone to pick off.
So, we have one more game this afternoon, and if we win, we have the final game tomorrow morning. Which is at some obnoxious time like 9a.m. But first we have to win this afternoon. The team we're playing lost to this morning's opponents 1-0, so it could be a pretty close game. And afterwards is the big party here in the hotel atrium. Flipper and The Mayor have a room right on the ground floor, with a sliding door opening onto the patio of the atrium, so we'll be in perfect position to refresh our beer without having to pay an arm and a leg at the bar. And there may even be some swimming, since the pool is open this year. I wonder if they'll have the mechanical bull again???? Beer, swimming, and bull-riding. What could possibly go wrong? ;)
Friday night's game was a very intense one. It was fast, and it got progressively chippier as the game went on. The other team scored first, a goal I really wanted back. It started out as a screen, but I yelled and Flipper moved out of the way just in time for me to pick up the shot, but I didn't get my pad down in time and it slipped underneath it. Very frustrating. That score held through the second, and most of the third, but fortunately The Mayor managed to poke in a rebound no one else seemed to see. Hallelujah. I would have felt like complete and total ass if we'd lost that game on that one goal. It would have completely sealed the "Friday night game curse" for me. But, as there are no ties in this tournament, we went straight to a shootout. No problem. I was definitely in the zone, and I knew I had it. I stuffed all three of their shooters, and our last shooter scored, off a series of sweet moves that had the goalie going too far to her left. It was an easy goal at that point.
I can't even express how relieved I was that we got that Friday night game monkey off our backs. And I was very happy to have had a hand in our comeback, after allowing that crappy goal. I think I grinned all the way back to the hotel. After showers, we all met up in one of the rooms, which had been upgraded to a suite, so there was plenty of room for us to all hang out. It was subdued revelry though, as we had a game at 11:00 the next day.
Which was today. Everyone was all pumped up, going into a Saturday game that actually meant something. (If you lose on Friday night, the chances of making the final game are virtually nill.) We wore our black jerseys again, since we felt so bad-ass in them the night before. We ended up winning, by a score of 2-0, but it was nerve-wracking for me. The play was in the other zone most of the time, and we kept getting close calls, but nothing was going in. Then they had a breakaway on me and I pulled one of those toe saves that everyone on the bench loves. After that, it was still pretty one-sided on our part but we still couldn't score. Finally, in the third period, we got one. And I had a sneaky feeling that we were going to need two, that something weird was going to happen, a strange bounce or completely bad luck. There was one save I made where the puck bounced up strangely, but fortunately it landed on the side of my pad, instead of out in the middle of the crease for anyone to pick off.
So, we have one more game this afternoon, and if we win, we have the final game tomorrow morning. Which is at some obnoxious time like 9a.m. But first we have to win this afternoon. The team we're playing lost to this morning's opponents 1-0, so it could be a pretty close game. And afterwards is the big party here in the hotel atrium. Flipper and The Mayor have a room right on the ground floor, with a sliding door opening onto the patio of the atrium, so we'll be in perfect position to refresh our beer without having to pay an arm and a leg at the bar. And there may even be some swimming, since the pool is open this year. I wonder if they'll have the mechanical bull again???? Beer, swimming, and bull-riding. What could possibly go wrong? ;)
Friday, March 30, 2012
On The Road Again
Ever since I was about 5 years old, my family has been making annual pilgrimages to Cape Cod for a week in the summer. My mom's side of the family is from there, so we have a big 'ol reunion every year. It's a blast. One year, when my sister and I were still living at home in the summers, during our college years, we had to take two cars because my Dad had to leave halfway through the week to go to work. My parents were in one car, my sister and I were in the other. It was the mobile equivalent of the "kids' table" at Thanksgiving dinner. That trip remains to this day one of the best in my memory.
One thing that made it especially memorable was our method of communication between the two cars. My Dad had the brilliant idea to purchase a set of walkie-talkies. They were clearly intended to be nothing more than toys, as they were both bright yellow plastic, one with a red knob on the end of the antenna, the other with a yellow one. They didn't work unless the cars were very close to each other, and to conserve battery life, we left them switched off until we needed to communicate. The signal to turn your walkie-talkie on was someone from the other car waving their walkie-talkie out the window. It was nothing short of fantastic.
Fast forward holy crap is it really something like 20 years- and Flipper (@lct29) The Mayor and GoalieHusband and I are on our way up to a tournament in Massachusetts. Flipper and The Mayor are in one car, and GoalieHusband and I are following behind. Cell phones have eliminated the need for ridiculous walkie-talkie displays out the car windows, but the content of the messages wasn't much more mature. In response to an "Are we there yet????" text, The Mayor proceeded to text us every two miles to tell us how many more miles of the trip were yet to be traveled. There were also several Beavis & Butthead-esque exchanges, as well as lots of speculation as to where exactly my hands were, if they weren't both on the steering wheel.
I'm not sure I believe in coincidences, but let's just pretend for a moment- by coincidence, my sister happened to call just as we were heading up I-495. I told her where we were, and that I'd been thinking about that trip we made up to the Cape so many years ago. She laughed and said "Oh, the time we were rocking out in the car the entire time?" Yep. That was the other thing that made it so memorable. A complete performance of Bohemian Rhapsody at as high a decibel level as that 1995 Neon would allow.
So here we are. Relaxing for a bit before heading over to the rink for our first game, which is at 9:40. We're aiming to get there early, so we have time to check in, and oggle all the gift baskets available for "auction". (It's a tricky-tray type thing.) I just remembered that last year there were several Bruins baskets. One of them had several Tuukka-signed items in it. I bought tickets for it, but didn't win. If there is anything even remotely Tuukka-associated this year, I'm buying butt-loads of tickets for it. That puppy will be MINE.
Time to log off for now... lines are being arranged, and I have to bring my jersey in from the balcony over the pool where I hung it the minute we got here.
GO CATS!!!
One thing that made it especially memorable was our method of communication between the two cars. My Dad had the brilliant idea to purchase a set of walkie-talkies. They were clearly intended to be nothing more than toys, as they were both bright yellow plastic, one with a red knob on the end of the antenna, the other with a yellow one. They didn't work unless the cars were very close to each other, and to conserve battery life, we left them switched off until we needed to communicate. The signal to turn your walkie-talkie on was someone from the other car waving their walkie-talkie out the window. It was nothing short of fantastic.
Fast forward holy crap is it really something like 20 years- and Flipper (@lct29) The Mayor and GoalieHusband and I are on our way up to a tournament in Massachusetts. Flipper and The Mayor are in one car, and GoalieHusband and I are following behind. Cell phones have eliminated the need for ridiculous walkie-talkie displays out the car windows, but the content of the messages wasn't much more mature. In response to an "Are we there yet????" text, The Mayor proceeded to text us every two miles to tell us how many more miles of the trip were yet to be traveled. There were also several Beavis & Butthead-esque exchanges, as well as lots of speculation as to where exactly my hands were, if they weren't both on the steering wheel.
I'm not sure I believe in coincidences, but let's just pretend for a moment- by coincidence, my sister happened to call just as we were heading up I-495. I told her where we were, and that I'd been thinking about that trip we made up to the Cape so many years ago. She laughed and said "Oh, the time we were rocking out in the car the entire time?" Yep. That was the other thing that made it so memorable. A complete performance of Bohemian Rhapsody at as high a decibel level as that 1995 Neon would allow.
So here we are. Relaxing for a bit before heading over to the rink for our first game, which is at 9:40. We're aiming to get there early, so we have time to check in, and oggle all the gift baskets available for "auction". (It's a tricky-tray type thing.) I just remembered that last year there were several Bruins baskets. One of them had several Tuukka-signed items in it. I bought tickets for it, but didn't win. If there is anything even remotely Tuukka-associated this year, I'm buying butt-loads of tickets for it. That puppy will be MINE.
Time to log off for now... lines are being arranged, and I have to bring my jersey in from the balcony over the pool where I hung it the minute we got here.
GO CATS!!!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Wait.... it's over???? Already?!?
I still can't get over how quickly this season went. The QCats played our final game on Saturday, a win in which I saw 15 shots if I was lucky. Our unofficial record for the season is 12-5-5. That is pretty damn satisfying. We have one practice left, which GoalieHusband and @hkygrl12 have promised will be "fun", but will not reveal any other details. We're all hoping that "fun" means "no Herbies".
We have tournaments lined up for the whole off-season, and I'm definitely looking forward to them, but it's still a little sad for the season to be ending. We're going to feel pretty aimless the next few Sundays, with no games to hurry off to. I guess we can probably fill the void with firepit gatherings and other warm-weather type stuff. (Yuck. Warm weather.)
Fortunately, being the hockey whore I am, I am impacted a little less than the rest of my teammates, since Cougar(hawk)s games go year round. We've got another matinee tonight, and then a game at 11pm tomorrow night. We've also learned that several regular Cougar members are coming back for the Spring session, so our Cougar-Hawk blend is going to have to part ways since there isn't enough room for all of us on the same team. It's too bad, because this team has some pretty good chemistry. But, GoalieHusband and the other Hawks and I are already working on forming a team of our own. It looks like we'll even have a few QCats on the roster. We're tossing around the idea of calling ourselves the Hawks again, and busting out the snazzy yellow jerseys we all bought. More on that in the coming weeks.
On the NHL front, I'm still extremely mopey about Rask being hurt, so I went searching on Youtube for the pre-game interview he did on NESN last week. My perusing also revealed a nifty little video that I watched out of mild curiosity, but which ended up with a huge "A-HA!!!" moment. Bless Tuukka's crazy little Finnish heart, he solved my slimy-glove problem! (Ok, technically I guess his trainer solved it. Tomato, tomahto.)
We have tournaments lined up for the whole off-season, and I'm definitely looking forward to them, but it's still a little sad for the season to be ending. We're going to feel pretty aimless the next few Sundays, with no games to hurry off to. I guess we can probably fill the void with firepit gatherings and other warm-weather type stuff. (Yuck. Warm weather.)
Fortunately, being the hockey whore I am, I am impacted a little less than the rest of my teammates, since Cougar(hawk)s games go year round. We've got another matinee tonight, and then a game at 11pm tomorrow night. We've also learned that several regular Cougar members are coming back for the Spring session, so our Cougar-Hawk blend is going to have to part ways since there isn't enough room for all of us on the same team. It's too bad, because this team has some pretty good chemistry. But, GoalieHusband and the other Hawks and I are already working on forming a team of our own. It looks like we'll even have a few QCats on the roster. We're tossing around the idea of calling ourselves the Hawks again, and busting out the snazzy yellow jerseys we all bought. More on that in the coming weeks.
On the NHL front, I'm still extremely mopey about Rask being hurt, so I went searching on Youtube for the pre-game interview he did on NESN last week. My perusing also revealed a nifty little video that I watched out of mild curiosity, but which ended up with a huge "A-HA!!!" moment. Bless Tuukka's crazy little Finnish heart, he solved my slimy-glove problem! (Ok, technically I guess his trainer solved it. Tomato, tomahto.)
Friday, March 16, 2012
Shootouts everywhere
I neglected to write about any games last week mostly because I was busy sulking about them. There were three, a loss and two ties. The first game was last Friday night, the first of the Quarry Cats' two final home games, and we played a team that is more of a C/D mix than a true D team. We lost 5-2 and that was pretty darn good for the competition we were up against. My post-game locker room expletive-filled rant about one particular ref notwithstanding, it actually wasn't too bad morale-wise. We all knew we played decently against a much better team.
The next game was a tie, and that one actually felt more like a loss than the one before it. We were up 4-2 and with about 3 minutes to go the other team scored not once, but twice, to tie the game. We asked the refs for a shootout, and they gave us what seems to be the rink standard: a 5-man shootout. (Not sure what's up with that). Unfortunately, although I turned away the first 3 shooters, the next two found their mark, and we had two goals out of 3 as well. The refs wouldn't give us any more shooters so we ended in a tie. Not sure what the point of the shootout is then... but ok. Everyone (myself included) was kind of ticked at letting that one get away.
We had Sunday off and then on Monday night the Cougar(hawk)s were back in action for another matinee. (For my new readers, in our world, "matinee" means basically "any time before 9 pm") I don't feel I played my best game, even though two goals were complete screens. I'm supposed to have those anyway, right? Have to learn to find the puck no matter where it is, etc, etc. Fortunately we managed to tie that one up in the last few minutes, in mirror image to the QCat game two nights before; we were down 4-2 and tied it 4-4. UNfortunately, for whatever reason the refs didn't see fit to give us a shootout. Both I and the other goalie stayed in our nets at the final buzzer, and teams milled about waiting for a shootout, but one ref skated to the benches and said "That's it, you're done", much to everyone's chagrin. I can't say for sure but it may have something to do with the fact that it had gotten juuuuust a little chippy at the end there, with one particular guy from the other team really ticking off several of our players. (He really was a grade A d-bag).
So, from that wholly unsatisfying hockey weekend into a week full of work drama, stress (oh the life of a Chapter 11 proceeding), and germs. Yes, for the third time this winter I've come down with a cold. At least this time it seems to be a minor one. I was supposed to be off on Thursday but ended up working 6 of the more stress-filled hours I've had in my 15 years there, and was banking on the fact that when I woke up the next morning I'd feel better, and not worse. Good thing that was the case, because we had a morning game out in Westchester, NY.
GoalieHusband drove my germy ass and The Mayor to the rink, and I wasn't at all confident that I'd be able to stop much more than the most non-threatening of shots. I told the team beforehand that the game plan was "keep the puck in their zone" because not only was I sick, but I was having some kind of odd issue with my pads sticking to the ice (this later resolved itself). Bless my teammates, because they listened. I've never seen a better forechecking game than ours today. The puck was rarely in our zone at all, and when it was the D was sound. I didn't count shots but I couldn't have seen more than 15. The lone goal against came on a breakaway that I normally would have had in my sleep. I challenged, my angle was fine, but I just didn't react, and she beat me blocker side. Thankfully, we tied it up in the next period and the score stood at 1-1, even through the OT period they allotted us. With plenty of time left, they allowed us to go to a shootout. My teammates had to be a little nervous about that, knowing I was sick, and that I'd allowed that crappy breakaway goal. But by then I had my head on straight and I knew I could do my part.
We scored first, then their first shooter came in, went to the left, and shot towards the right. She thought she had me, too, until I flicked out my right leg like a snake's tongue and kicked her puck to the corner. Their goalie made the save on our next shooter, and then I got a freebie when their shooter completely flubbed it and didn't even get a shot off. Again our next shooter was denied, and their next one came at me pretty straight, but made a series of odd moves with her stick blade, above the puck. Really? Did she think I'd bite on that? SAVE.
That win felt good, because I'd felt pretty crappy about giving up that goal, after all that time spent in the other team's end. I've spent most of the rest of the day chilling (and fielding panicked calls from work), and I feel a million times better tonight than I did last night. Which is good, because we have to do it all over again tomorrow morning. We'll be in Bridgewater for our final game of the season. I can not believe that it is March freakin' 16th, and our season is over tomorrow. This season absolutely FLEW by.
No matter, though, because we have TOURNAMENT SEASON right around the corner, and plenty of Cougar(hawk)s games left to play. One on Monday and one on Tuesday, to be exact. And then our final practice on Wednesday. So that's five times on the ice in 6 days. I think I can live with that.
BOO YAH.
The next game was a tie, and that one actually felt more like a loss than the one before it. We were up 4-2 and with about 3 minutes to go the other team scored not once, but twice, to tie the game. We asked the refs for a shootout, and they gave us what seems to be the rink standard: a 5-man shootout. (Not sure what's up with that). Unfortunately, although I turned away the first 3 shooters, the next two found their mark, and we had two goals out of 3 as well. The refs wouldn't give us any more shooters so we ended in a tie. Not sure what the point of the shootout is then... but ok. Everyone (myself included) was kind of ticked at letting that one get away.
We had Sunday off and then on Monday night the Cougar(hawk)s were back in action for another matinee. (For my new readers, in our world, "matinee" means basically "any time before 9 pm") I don't feel I played my best game, even though two goals were complete screens. I'm supposed to have those anyway, right? Have to learn to find the puck no matter where it is, etc, etc. Fortunately we managed to tie that one up in the last few minutes, in mirror image to the QCat game two nights before; we were down 4-2 and tied it 4-4. UNfortunately, for whatever reason the refs didn't see fit to give us a shootout. Both I and the other goalie stayed in our nets at the final buzzer, and teams milled about waiting for a shootout, but one ref skated to the benches and said "That's it, you're done", much to everyone's chagrin. I can't say for sure but it may have something to do with the fact that it had gotten juuuuust a little chippy at the end there, with one particular guy from the other team really ticking off several of our players. (He really was a grade A d-bag).
So, from that wholly unsatisfying hockey weekend into a week full of work drama, stress (oh the life of a Chapter 11 proceeding), and germs. Yes, for the third time this winter I've come down with a cold. At least this time it seems to be a minor one. I was supposed to be off on Thursday but ended up working 6 of the more stress-filled hours I've had in my 15 years there, and was banking on the fact that when I woke up the next morning I'd feel better, and not worse. Good thing that was the case, because we had a morning game out in Westchester, NY.
GoalieHusband drove my germy ass and The Mayor to the rink, and I wasn't at all confident that I'd be able to stop much more than the most non-threatening of shots. I told the team beforehand that the game plan was "keep the puck in their zone" because not only was I sick, but I was having some kind of odd issue with my pads sticking to the ice (this later resolved itself). Bless my teammates, because they listened. I've never seen a better forechecking game than ours today. The puck was rarely in our zone at all, and when it was the D was sound. I didn't count shots but I couldn't have seen more than 15. The lone goal against came on a breakaway that I normally would have had in my sleep. I challenged, my angle was fine, but I just didn't react, and she beat me blocker side. Thankfully, we tied it up in the next period and the score stood at 1-1, even through the OT period they allotted us. With plenty of time left, they allowed us to go to a shootout. My teammates had to be a little nervous about that, knowing I was sick, and that I'd allowed that crappy breakaway goal. But by then I had my head on straight and I knew I could do my part.
We scored first, then their first shooter came in, went to the left, and shot towards the right. She thought she had me, too, until I flicked out my right leg like a snake's tongue and kicked her puck to the corner. Their goalie made the save on our next shooter, and then I got a freebie when their shooter completely flubbed it and didn't even get a shot off. Again our next shooter was denied, and their next one came at me pretty straight, but made a series of odd moves with her stick blade, above the puck. Really? Did she think I'd bite on that? SAVE.
That win felt good, because I'd felt pretty crappy about giving up that goal, after all that time spent in the other team's end. I've spent most of the rest of the day chilling (and fielding panicked calls from work), and I feel a million times better tonight than I did last night. Which is good, because we have to do it all over again tomorrow morning. We'll be in Bridgewater for our final game of the season. I can not believe that it is March freakin' 16th, and our season is over tomorrow. This season absolutely FLEW by.
No matter, though, because we have TOURNAMENT SEASON right around the corner, and plenty of Cougar(hawk)s games left to play. One on Monday and one on Tuesday, to be exact. And then our final practice on Wednesday. So that's five times on the ice in 6 days. I think I can live with that.
BOO YAH.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Weekend roundup
I am in my bliss right now, with both teams' schedules picking up. For some reason the QCats schedule is always much heavier on the back end (that's what she said) than in the first few months. And now that the Cougar(hawk)s got our 6 bye weeks out of the way, we're playing weekly games. From Friday through Monday I had three games, two wins and a loss.
Friday night the QCats had a home game against a team we haven't played in a while. We weren't sure what to expect, as their organization has several levels and you never know which players are going to show up on any given night. As it turned out, we got the low end of the spectrum. Coach (aka "GoalieHusband") was delighted and said it was an awesome game to coach, and all the skaters were pretty jazzed about it too, but I was kind of bored. We won 3-2, and it shouldn't even have been that high. The first goal was courtesy of my d-man's stick blade. The second was probably due to a slightly slower than usual reaction on my part, with my head somewhat out of the game. I find it so hard to stay focused when you're only seeing a few shots a period.
Fortunately our next game was more exciting. It was a Sunday night away game, against a team we match up against fairly well. We were down 4 players; one injured, three with whatever germs are running rampant right now. We managed to get two extra bodies on the ice though, since gionta182 was free (even though she'd originally not planned to play), and our very own Assistant Coach hkygrl12 hit the ice with us. I don't really know what was going on that night, but our D was nowhere near as tight as is usually is. It might have been a combination of unfamiliar partners, and the other team's tendency to creep down really low. I've never yelled about my back door so much in one night. Also, the refs were fairly clueless. Icing was apparently optional, as was indicating whether it had occurred or not, and one was either completely oblivious, or purposely baiting me. With the score 2-0 and only a few minutes to go in the 3rd period, play was deep in our zone when the net came off slightly. It was the right post that got knocked off, and the near ref was right there to my right watching the play. I started saying "net's off", and when he didn't pick up on it, hkygrl12 joined in. It went something like this. "Net's off".... track track track skate.... "net's off!!" ummmm the other team has the puck, what's the deal here .... "HEY! Net's OFF!!!"..... "wtf THE. NET. IS. OFF!"
Yes, the other team had the puck the whole time I was yelling my head off. Apparently the bench was going bananas too, with the far ref right near them. He was craning his neck to see but I guess I was blocking his view. I told hkygrl12 later that if I didn't have a shutout on the line, I would absolutely have let my "inner Tuukka" out and shoved it WAY off myself, and taken the penalty. The funniest part though? After that play, and me adjusting the post myself, the play came back into the zone and suddenly there was a whistle. Everyone - including me- was looking around, looking for the ref for an explanation. "Net's off" he said, calmly putting it back into place.
And that is why I think he was f-ing with me.
Regardless, we won, and I got a shutout, one which I felt was pretty well-deserved. I worked hard for it and made some decent stops, and I guess I got a little too cocky about it, because the hockey gods handed me a slice of humble pie when I played again on Monday night.
This was a Cougar(hawk)s game, one I was particularly amped for, due to our opponent's reputation. Those who have been in the league for a while were indicating that this might be the "d-bag" team of this league. They pretty much lived up to expectations. They were also the "Italian Soccer Player" team, flamboyant dives being a specialty of theirs. Unfortunately we were pretty scrambly in the first period and although we did score first, they got 4 in that frame. I feel that I definitely should have had 2 of them; one being a bad bounce off my arm, the other being a complete paddle-down fail. The other 2 were pretty impossible though. And they only got 1 more goal for the rest of the game, early in the 2nd period. After that we shut them down. The end result was a score of 5-2, and a very humbled goalie. I was told that it's not unheard of for this team to score 8 or more goals though, so I wasn't pouting too much.
We've got another similar weekend lined up, with games on Friday and Saturday, and then a game on Monday night, which is a good thing because it gives me a nice outlet for all my pent up my-company-went-bankrupt-angst.
Friday night the QCats had a home game against a team we haven't played in a while. We weren't sure what to expect, as their organization has several levels and you never know which players are going to show up on any given night. As it turned out, we got the low end of the spectrum. Coach (aka "GoalieHusband") was delighted and said it was an awesome game to coach, and all the skaters were pretty jazzed about it too, but I was kind of bored. We won 3-2, and it shouldn't even have been that high. The first goal was courtesy of my d-man's stick blade. The second was probably due to a slightly slower than usual reaction on my part, with my head somewhat out of the game. I find it so hard to stay focused when you're only seeing a few shots a period.
Fortunately our next game was more exciting. It was a Sunday night away game, against a team we match up against fairly well. We were down 4 players; one injured, three with whatever germs are running rampant right now. We managed to get two extra bodies on the ice though, since gionta182 was free (even though she'd originally not planned to play), and our very own Assistant Coach hkygrl12 hit the ice with us. I don't really know what was going on that night, but our D was nowhere near as tight as is usually is. It might have been a combination of unfamiliar partners, and the other team's tendency to creep down really low. I've never yelled about my back door so much in one night. Also, the refs were fairly clueless. Icing was apparently optional, as was indicating whether it had occurred or not, and one was either completely oblivious, or purposely baiting me. With the score 2-0 and only a few minutes to go in the 3rd period, play was deep in our zone when the net came off slightly. It was the right post that got knocked off, and the near ref was right there to my right watching the play. I started saying "net's off", and when he didn't pick up on it, hkygrl12 joined in. It went something like this. "Net's off".... track track track skate.... "net's off!!" ummmm the other team has the puck, what's the deal here .... "HEY! Net's OFF!!!"..... "wtf THE. NET. IS. OFF!"
Yes, the other team had the puck the whole time I was yelling my head off. Apparently the bench was going bananas too, with the far ref right near them. He was craning his neck to see but I guess I was blocking his view. I told hkygrl12 later that if I didn't have a shutout on the line, I would absolutely have let my "inner Tuukka" out and shoved it WAY off myself, and taken the penalty. The funniest part though? After that play, and me adjusting the post myself, the play came back into the zone and suddenly there was a whistle. Everyone - including me- was looking around, looking for the ref for an explanation. "Net's off" he said, calmly putting it back into place.
And that is why I think he was f-ing with me.
Regardless, we won, and I got a shutout, one which I felt was pretty well-deserved. I worked hard for it and made some decent stops, and I guess I got a little too cocky about it, because the hockey gods handed me a slice of humble pie when I played again on Monday night.
This was a Cougar(hawk)s game, one I was particularly amped for, due to our opponent's reputation. Those who have been in the league for a while were indicating that this might be the "d-bag" team of this league. They pretty much lived up to expectations. They were also the "Italian Soccer Player" team, flamboyant dives being a specialty of theirs. Unfortunately we were pretty scrambly in the first period and although we did score first, they got 4 in that frame. I feel that I definitely should have had 2 of them; one being a bad bounce off my arm, the other being a complete paddle-down fail. The other 2 were pretty impossible though. And they only got 1 more goal for the rest of the game, early in the 2nd period. After that we shut them down. The end result was a score of 5-2, and a very humbled goalie. I was told that it's not unheard of for this team to score 8 or more goals though, so I wasn't pouting too much.
We've got another similar weekend lined up, with games on Friday and Saturday, and then a game on Monday night, which is a good thing because it gives me a nice outlet for all my pent up my-company-went-bankrupt-angst.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Beating the Eisbrechers
Knowing what a ice-time-whore I am, you know getting amped up for a game is never an issue. But when bragging rights are on the line, that just makes it even more fun. Our opponents on Saturday night were the Icebreakers (or as GoalieHusband calls them, the "Eisbrechers"*). One of their players is one who we've absorbed onto our tournament team, so we have a very friendly rivalry with them. They're also quite good, and I don't think we've beaten them in the past two years. All week I was looking forward to this game, and was determined to win.
There are some games I go into just feeling so confident and so "in the zone". I wish I could bottle that feeling and put it on the back of my net with my watter bottle. Saturday night was one of those games. The game was pretty even, but I came up with some big saves at key times to keep it that way. We scored first, getting an odd one that I couldn't see clearly but it was one I know the Icebreakers goalie rarely gives up and most certainly wanted back. I hung in there on my end, steadily turning away pucks. I think my best save was probably one that wouldn't even look that impressive to anyone on the bench. There was a lot of traffic in front, and I saw the release of the shot, and saw the puck coming at me end over end, but then it disappeared in the forest of players. Somehow I knew exactly where it would end up, dropped into a butterfly, and put it neatly into the corner with my stick. I love when I have that "spidey-sense" about a shot.
In the third period they tied it up, on a shot that I was set for, but bounced off lct29's calf. I was already going in one direction but reached out with my glove and tried to lean the opposite when when I saw it change direction. It was like a "NNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!" slow motion kind of moment, but I wasn't even close. Flipper felt awful about it, but as I told her, it turned out ok so no big deal. Even though I teased her for breaking my shutout.
At the final buzzer we were tied 1-1 and the refs conceded us a shootout. A five person shootout, no less! We haven't had much luck with those this season, but feeling as good as I felt, I knew I'd have my end of it covered, no problem. And I did. I flat out stuffed all four shooters. And on the other end, we scored twice (hence why I only saw 4 shooters, not 5). It was one of the most fun games I've played. Unfortunately for our bragging rights, the tournament-player wasn't there. And she's one of their best players. So I feel kind of personally that I can't really wear the feather of that win in my cap until we beat them with her and a few other players who didn't make it that night. Still, it was a blast. I love, love, love shootouts. I'll take one of those over overtime any day.
*At GoalieHousehold, there exists quite a love of German industrial music. The band "Eisbrecher" is one of our favorites in that genre, and for some reason GoalieHusband can't seem to get the word "icebreaker" out without it turning into "Eisbrecher". I'm not sure if anyone on the team has even noticed it, or maybe they have and just pass it off as "one of those weird things Coach does". Regardless, here's the band's self-titled song off their self-titled album. Enjoy (and if you're curious about the lyrics there's a rough translation in the comments).
There are some games I go into just feeling so confident and so "in the zone". I wish I could bottle that feeling and put it on the back of my net with my watter bottle. Saturday night was one of those games. The game was pretty even, but I came up with some big saves at key times to keep it that way. We scored first, getting an odd one that I couldn't see clearly but it was one I know the Icebreakers goalie rarely gives up and most certainly wanted back. I hung in there on my end, steadily turning away pucks. I think my best save was probably one that wouldn't even look that impressive to anyone on the bench. There was a lot of traffic in front, and I saw the release of the shot, and saw the puck coming at me end over end, but then it disappeared in the forest of players. Somehow I knew exactly where it would end up, dropped into a butterfly, and put it neatly into the corner with my stick. I love when I have that "spidey-sense" about a shot.
In the third period they tied it up, on a shot that I was set for, but bounced off lct29's calf. I was already going in one direction but reached out with my glove and tried to lean the opposite when when I saw it change direction. It was like a "NNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!" slow motion kind of moment, but I wasn't even close. Flipper felt awful about it, but as I told her, it turned out ok so no big deal. Even though I teased her for breaking my shutout.
At the final buzzer we were tied 1-1 and the refs conceded us a shootout. A five person shootout, no less! We haven't had much luck with those this season, but feeling as good as I felt, I knew I'd have my end of it covered, no problem. And I did. I flat out stuffed all four shooters. And on the other end, we scored twice (hence why I only saw 4 shooters, not 5). It was one of the most fun games I've played. Unfortunately for our bragging rights, the tournament-player wasn't there. And she's one of their best players. So I feel kind of personally that I can't really wear the feather of that win in my cap until we beat them with her and a few other players who didn't make it that night. Still, it was a blast. I love, love, love shootouts. I'll take one of those over overtime any day.
*At GoalieHousehold, there exists quite a love of German industrial music. The band "Eisbrecher" is one of our favorites in that genre, and for some reason GoalieHusband can't seem to get the word "icebreaker" out without it turning into "Eisbrecher". I'm not sure if anyone on the team has even noticed it, or maybe they have and just pass it off as "one of those weird things Coach does". Regardless, here's the band's self-titled song off their self-titled album. Enjoy (and if you're curious about the lyrics there's a rough translation in the comments).
Monday, February 20, 2012
Get 'Em Next Time
It feels so weird to be writing about a tournament in February that I can't figure out how to get started. Perhaps my brain is warming up for the writer's block I'll have later when I finally force myself to sit down and work on my resume. (If I keep ignoring it, it'll go away.... right???)
The weekend started off with what could have been quite a disaster. Flipper (aka lct29) and The Mayor stopped at my office to pick me up, and we were barely 2 minutes into our journey when I spilled the entire cup of coffee I'd just purchased- all over my feet. If you've ever bought coffee at a Dunkin Donuts, you know they serve it at approximately 387*F. We were just pulling out of the parking lot and I let up a howl that had Flipper wondering where the nearest hospital was, and in my panic, I thought if I could just get out of the Jeep the pain would stop, so I opened the door and swung my legs out. That was when logic kicked in and I realized, duh, just take off your socks, idiot. With several people behind us, we couldn't just stop, so we pulled into a gas station next door to assess the damage.
I felt absolutely awful about dumping a whole cup of coffee into Flipper's car, but fortunately what didn't end up on my legs and feet all went on the floormat. There was a large angry red patch on my foot, but no blisters were forming, so we counted our blessings and I kept an ice pack from the cooler on my foot for the next hour. It did end up blistering, but not until sometime overnight. What saved me from a certain 3rd degree burn was the fact that I was wearing socks. Pretty ironic considering I'm a big proponent of being barefoot. Perhaps I need to reconsider that, at least when I've got a scalding hot cup of coffee in my hand.
Coffee mishap notwithstanding, it was an otherwise uneventful trip. We got to the hotel with plenty of time to spare, and made our way over to the rink early so there'd be time to figure out where we were going, and sign in, and all that fun stuff. I don't know if it's the stress of travel, or traffic or what, but we always seem to have a bad first game in our tournaments. I figured we'd be ok, with all the extra time we had, but that was not the case.
We definitely could have beaten the team we played, but all of us seemed to be a step off. We ended up losing 4-2, and I'd like just about all of those goals back. Monx77 was busy beating herself up over a turnover that resulted in a goal, but that certainly wasn't the deciding factor in the game. We just.... crapped the bed. That's the only way to describe it. The other team was ridiculously chippy and bitchy, too. So much so, that one player got called for unsportsmanlike conduct - mid game - for yapping at the ref. Apparently she'd been warned already but just kept at it. They took lots of penalties, and we only took one. And when we did get called for that penalty, their entire bench erupted in cheers. So, not the classiest team we've ever played.
That was Friday night, and since it was a late game we knew nothing would be open afterwards, food-wise, so Pants had brought up an entire sandwich and salad and cookies spread. We feasted in her room, all 13 of us jammed in there, listening to music and drinking beer and flinging ping-pong balls at each other in a modified version of "carpet pong". Gionta182 supplied us with a box of 36 balls, so for an all-female team, there were an awful lot of balls flying around.
We had two games on Saturday, and we played extremely well in both. The first was a 3-1 (I think???) win, and the second was a shutout for me, 5-0. If we'd played like that we'd have easily beaten Friday night's team. And that team was the one that ended up going on to the championship game, too. Those two things combined kind of stuck in our craw. Even though we had a great time and had two really strong games, we were all pretty bummed about not playing on Sunday. Discussing it on the ride home, Flipper and The Mayor and I decided it seemed to have a lot to do with playing right after traveling up there. (It was about a 4 1/2 hour trip). We have another tournament in just over a month, and we all decided that if we can, we'll take Friday off work and head up in the morning, so we're up there and settled way before game time. I know that would make a huge difference for me - I always seem to be janky and just not quite right when playing right after a road trip. So the verdict for this one was: lots of fun, but we know we can do better, and are looking forward to the chance to prove it.
The weekend started off with what could have been quite a disaster. Flipper (aka lct29) and The Mayor stopped at my office to pick me up, and we were barely 2 minutes into our journey when I spilled the entire cup of coffee I'd just purchased- all over my feet. If you've ever bought coffee at a Dunkin Donuts, you know they serve it at approximately 387*F. We were just pulling out of the parking lot and I let up a howl that had Flipper wondering where the nearest hospital was, and in my panic, I thought if I could just get out of the Jeep the pain would stop, so I opened the door and swung my legs out. That was when logic kicked in and I realized, duh, just take off your socks, idiot. With several people behind us, we couldn't just stop, so we pulled into a gas station next door to assess the damage.
I felt absolutely awful about dumping a whole cup of coffee into Flipper's car, but fortunately what didn't end up on my legs and feet all went on the floormat. There was a large angry red patch on my foot, but no blisters were forming, so we counted our blessings and I kept an ice pack from the cooler on my foot for the next hour. It did end up blistering, but not until sometime overnight. What saved me from a certain 3rd degree burn was the fact that I was wearing socks. Pretty ironic considering I'm a big proponent of being barefoot. Perhaps I need to reconsider that, at least when I've got a scalding hot cup of coffee in my hand.
Coffee mishap notwithstanding, it was an otherwise uneventful trip. We got to the hotel with plenty of time to spare, and made our way over to the rink early so there'd be time to figure out where we were going, and sign in, and all that fun stuff. I don't know if it's the stress of travel, or traffic or what, but we always seem to have a bad first game in our tournaments. I figured we'd be ok, with all the extra time we had, but that was not the case.
We definitely could have beaten the team we played, but all of us seemed to be a step off. We ended up losing 4-2, and I'd like just about all of those goals back. Monx77 was busy beating herself up over a turnover that resulted in a goal, but that certainly wasn't the deciding factor in the game. We just.... crapped the bed. That's the only way to describe it. The other team was ridiculously chippy and bitchy, too. So much so, that one player got called for unsportsmanlike conduct - mid game - for yapping at the ref. Apparently she'd been warned already but just kept at it. They took lots of penalties, and we only took one. And when we did get called for that penalty, their entire bench erupted in cheers. So, not the classiest team we've ever played.
That was Friday night, and since it was a late game we knew nothing would be open afterwards, food-wise, so Pants had brought up an entire sandwich and salad and cookies spread. We feasted in her room, all 13 of us jammed in there, listening to music and drinking beer and flinging ping-pong balls at each other in a modified version of "carpet pong". Gionta182 supplied us with a box of 36 balls, so for an all-female team, there were an awful lot of balls flying around.
We had two games on Saturday, and we played extremely well in both. The first was a 3-1 (I think???) win, and the second was a shutout for me, 5-0. If we'd played like that we'd have easily beaten Friday night's team. And that team was the one that ended up going on to the championship game, too. Those two things combined kind of stuck in our craw. Even though we had a great time and had two really strong games, we were all pretty bummed about not playing on Sunday. Discussing it on the ride home, Flipper and The Mayor and I decided it seemed to have a lot to do with playing right after traveling up there. (It was about a 4 1/2 hour trip). We have another tournament in just over a month, and we all decided that if we can, we'll take Friday off work and head up in the morning, so we're up there and settled way before game time. I know that would make a huge difference for me - I always seem to be janky and just not quite right when playing right after a road trip. So the verdict for this one was: lots of fun, but we know we can do better, and are looking forward to the chance to prove it.
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