Good thing it's a team effort

Our undefeated streak (if three games can be called a "streak") continued last night, but I personally wasn't happy with the game, my performance in particular. The offense saved my butt, racking up 8 goals to the opponent's 4 in a late flurry of third-period firepower. But those four goals were all saves I would have made any other night in the last few weeks, so I don't feel especially victorious. Here's the breakdown...

Goal 1: Guy shoots from roughly the top of the left circle. I have a clear sight on it, there's no one in between me and him, and I went to the post and put one leg down (outside leg) but either I left a gap or didn't get my leg down fast enough because it went right past me. Argh.

Goal 2: Lots of activity in front of the net. I'm on the right post, focused on the guy with the puck, who is just in front of the goal line, and I hear a stick tapping to my left. For some reason I picked that moment to glance over to see if a guy was free so I could tell my D... and that's when the puck carrier took advatage of my inattention and shot it. Note to self: don't take your eye of the puck. That one sucked.

Goal 3: A pass to a wide open man, and I have to move laterally across. Any other night I'd have followed that pass and been there to make the save but I was just a second behind on my reactions (see: no focus).

Goal 4: Particularly frustrating because it was a breakaway, and the puck carrier didn't do much deking or anything fancy with it. I forced him to my stick side and went down to block it- and did. But it either bounced over my pad or slipped under it and into the net. Argh again.

I realize I'm focusing on the negative here, but it's just to illustrate what a lack of focus can do. For some reason I didn't feel like I was "there". I tried all my little mental tricks to get myself to focus, but it didn't really work. What made it worse was that play was mostly in the other end, so here I am not getting many shots and the ones that do come my way- in the net. Way to inspire confidence in my team-mates. Fortunately I pulled a flashy glove save out of my ass in the third period, and that seemed to get the bench going. If not for that save, I'd feel like I brought nothing to the game.

But it's a team effort, and the rest of the team was fantastic. Thankfully they covered my blunders, which I guess is what it's all about- working together.

And now for something completely different...

I've been feeling great about the progress I've been making with my coach; I can see a big difference in games, which is really encouraging. I guess I was getting a little too satisfied with myself because now we've moved on to a few things that have me feeling like I'm back at square one. As mentioned in an earlier post, I asked him if we could work on handling the puck, and we started a little bit of that last week- and it was quite humbling. That net is a lot farther away from the boards than it seems! This week he added tracking the puck behind the net, which I think I do a fairly good job of in games, but for some reason this morning I kept losing it in one particular spot. When you're wearing glasses, using your peripheral vision isn't really much of an option, especially when your vision is as bad as mine. So I have to work on becoming an owl so I can turn my head around a little farther.

One thing I felt good about though, was a technique used when the puck is being carried from behind the goal line out, towards the circles or for a wrap attempt. He had me positioned on the post and was sort of talking to himself saying "should we do this now? eh, what the heck, let's try it", and I knew exactly what he was thinking and put my far pad down (technically this is called a "VH position" though I have no idea why). I was happy to show that I knew a little bit of where he was going, and he just adjusted my stance in that position a little, to close a few holes.

He also tried to do a drill where he lobbed the puck at me, with the intent of me catching it in my glove, and then placing it down beside the net and setting it up for an imaginary defenseman. The key to this drill is actually catching it in my glove. Since I never played many sports growing up, and certainly not baseball/softball, I don't have any coordination whatsoever in that department. Add to that the fact that I tend to turn my wrist back as the puck makes contact with the glove (if it does at all), which sends it right into the net, and you have a bit of a disaster on your hands. This at least I can work on at home, with a tennis ball drill that will improve my hand-eye coordination. But as he observed toward the end of the lesson "I guess we have to work on that glove hand a bit". Yeah.... just a bit.

But all that aside, I'm looking forward to tonight's game. After two wins in a row the team is feeling pretty good and I hope we can carry some of that energy forward into our third contest.

Chemistry and victory

Our league started up again for the winter season, and I had a great feeling going into the game, and still do for the season in general. This is the first season (our fourth!) that everyone on the team knows each other. We have no new faces to get used to, no awkward breaking-in time where we're getting used to how each other plays. (This has made for some pretty horrendous first games of seasons). We played a really solid game, even scoring two short-handed goals, and ended with a score of 3-1. I had a shutout going until 7 minutes left in the game, and I was trying not to think about it too much but damn, I really wanted that shutout. I've never had one before. I don't think it distracted me though, I was really focused and played a really good game. The goal that got past me was stoppable, but I was scrambling a bit too much.

My best save though, was not even a save. There was a ringer on the other team, and he managed to get out on a breakaway. I came out of my net, stood my ground and stayed with him the entire time, and when he shot he missed the net. So I guess it wasn't really a save, but I had the feeling that I was really giving him nothing at all, and that was confirmed by my teammates later in the locker room, when one said "Tell your goalie coach to put that in his pipe and smoke it". To which someone else answered "Tell your goalie coach to put that on DVD and watch it". So, I think I done good. ;)

"I think I have a tired goalie"

I was back on the ice at the butt-crack of dawn this morning, slaving away under my coach's instruction. He did some different things with me this time, which revealed that I can do a certain move to my right but not to my left. Bingo- something to work on. He also ran me through a drill that was intended to get me moving the same way I did in that open game where I was playing so well and getting up on the correct leg every time. For some reason though, my brain wasn't having any of it, even though I knew what he was looking for. I told him about that game, and told him I knew it was in there, and I knew what I should be doing, but I guess not being in a game situation was making me overthink it. He agreed- but kept at it.

For the last few minutes we played the "rebound game". He told me as soon as I made 10 saves I could go. (He takes a shot and if the rebound doesn't go off into the corner, he plays it and shoots again, etc.). I did great- stopped the first six cold. Then as I wore down he racked up a few points. With the "score" 9-4 I completely flubbed a save and landed on my butt. I said "Ugh!" and flopped down onto my back and laid there. He laughed and said "I think I have a tired goalie. Excellent! That's how I like it, it's the only way I can score!". Happily for me, I jumped back up and made the next save.

Next week, at my request, we'll be working on stickhandling and stopping the puck along the boards behind the net. I mentioned that I was pretty bad at that and my friends have told me it's ok to emulate Lundqvist in my game, just not in that regard! He agreed and said Brodeur's the guy to watch for that technique. Then he paused and said "just don't pay attention to anything else he does." I got a huge kick out of that. Obviously, what he does works... even though he's the one who insists "Lundqvist is weird".

Yippeeee! ... I think

It's official. My lessons are starting up again as of next week. I've missed them, but I'm a mental case, so I'm still nervous about them and still think my coach thinks I'm a tedious bored housewife who's going a bit overboard.... but in the end it doesn't matter, right? Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself.

Mojo only goes so far

I wore the Russian jersey for the tourney, mostly because there was a skater who needed to borrow the team jersey. Holy crap did we get our asses handed to us. But we skated hard, really hard, and kept pressing, which I guess is all you can ask. I don't think I'd like to do another one though, unless it was on the full ice surface. They had the nets set up across the rink, and not only did that make it awfully crowded for 6 skaters, but it completely disoriented me in terms of where I was when I came out of the net. Over the course of the tournament I got a lot more used to that, but I still didn't really care for that format.

As for my own performance, the first game was a complete joke, as I had no idea where I was half the time and was getting used to the weird cross-ice dynamic. After that I settled down a bit and made some good saves, kept up with the pace, and I think did my part for the team. There were a few bad goals through the 5-hole but those guys had really fast releases and by the end of the night I was just gassed and didn't get down fast enough. But overall I'm pleased that I seem to have gotten my feet back under me after being sick so much and not playing. Our new season starts in about two weeks, and I can't wait. I'm hoping to play a bit of open hockey until then, to stay sharp.

From Russia, With Love

For Christmas, my parents gave me a jersey from the Russian team I like, goalie-cut so I can wear it when I play. This was actually a request from me, because I discovered a website where you can purchase Russian hockey jerseys and actually select any size and then select "goalie cut" as an option. I haven't seen this anywhere else- usually "goalie cut" is a size all its own and is so big two of me (with gear) can fit inside.

I was really excited for my first opportunity to wear it; open hockey this morning. It fit perfectly- no struggling to get my arms through the sleeves, and no yoga-like positions to get it over my head without getting it caught on the back of my chest protector. I don't know if it brought me luck, but I had the best time at open hockey that I've had in a really long time. I played beyond my usual ability, and the game itself was great. It was fast and high-skilled, and pretty much to a man all the guys seemed to be really laid back and very respectful. It was clear that they were there to play hockey and have a good time. I also realized toward the end of the session that I'd recovered with the correct leg every single time. (Naturally, right after that I got up on the wrong leg, but other than that, yeah, EVERY time!). Even better than that is that I realized why I was able to do that- I was following the puck with my head and shoulders, and when you lead with your head and shoulders the rest of your body follows and you get up on the right foot without even thinking about it. Funny.... just like my coach kept telling me.

There were three goalies there today, so I had to take a few turns on the bench, which allows me to bring you "Humorous Bench Comment of the Game":

D-man (just off the ice and trying to stretch out a kink in his back): I feel it right back here- in my fallopian tube.

Me (totally unable to resist): Yeah. I know how you feel.

2nd D-man: Well yeah... I guess you'd know.


I'm playing in a tournament tonight, and even though the team is mostly guys from the old roller days and they're going to wear the jerseys one of them designed and we all bought, I'm really tempted to wear that Russian jersey tonight again. We'll see. I'll bring them both. The idea of presenting as a true "team" is fun, but when you're talking about mojo.... that's another topic all together.