Where Did I Leave Off??? (Tournament Blog Part III)

Yikes. I brought the laptop with me because I planned on being all organized and doing some blogging while there, rather than leaving it all for when I got home. I'm not sure what happened to that plan. Ok, yes I do. It got kind of lost in the whirlwind. We had a game on Thursday, one on Friday, two on Saturday, and one on Sunday morning. If we weren't playing, we were eating, or drinking, or sleeping. I'm still exhausted. But we had so much fun. Even GoalieHusband loved it, and I was a little nervous about him, being so completely outnumbered by females for that long. Fortunately the recently-ex Head Coach was there as well, so that provided a bit of testosterone to combat all the estrogen.

Our game on Friday night was a tough one. We knew going in that it wouldn't be the cakewalk our first game had been, and it didn't disappoint in that regard. There was a shot clock, and I can't remember now how many shots I had, but I know I tweeted it that night. Maybe 35? I'm not sure. We lost 6-1 (one goal was an emtpy net) and it was a fast, physical game. And I unleashed my inner Hextall. There was one chick who slashed me "accidentally" after the whistle in the first period, and I got her back as she skated away, but barely touched her. I considered mentioning her to my D, but decided against it. Then in the second, there was a scramble in front of the net, I smothered the puck with my glove, the whistle blew, and this same chick slashed my glove hand. I wasted no time in giving it right back to her, hard. One of my D started pushing her away, when the other came flying from across the ice and dropped her. The ref took both her and my overzealous D. She was busy crying about how I'd slashed her. I informed her she wouldn't have had a problem if she hadn't slashed me first. Only I don't think I said it quite that politely.

I feel like I played pretty well in that game, but not as well as I'd have liked to. Obviously 5 goals against is too high in my opinion. But the team felt differently, because I was unanimously awarded Sidney the MVP Chicken in the locker room after the game.

Here's the story behind Sidney: Fortunately one of the team members has a condo not overly far from the rink, so many of us stayed with her instead of getting hotel rooms. On Thursday when we were all hanging out, someone commented on the Thanksgiving centerpiece on her table. She lamented that she'd had someone else decorate the place after they'd bought it, and they did a really fantastic job... except for this bizarre centerpiece. It was pretty shabby, and there was a pathetic looking turkey right in the middle of it. She mentioned that she wouldn't be sad at all if the turkey disappeared, and that was all the goading it took for us to remove him and have all kinds of fun perching him on people's hats, drinks, etc. Someone decided that he would have to be the MVP prize for each game, and that the recipient had to wear him on their head. He was also christened "Sidney". And although he is a turkey, for some reason everyone kept calling him a chicken.

Somehow this seems a lot less aweseome now that we're back at home in our normal daily lives. I guess it falls under "you had to be there". Here's a very grainy picture of a very sweaty me in the locker room after the game, with Sidney in the place of honor:


After that game, everyone was completely drained and by the time we got back to the condo and cleaned up, no one wanted to go anywhere. We had an early game coming up the next day, so the (wise) decision was made to just chill in the condo in our jammies with our laptops and go to bed at a decent hour. ("Decent" meaning, sometime before 3 a.m.)

And we also played a game (Tournament Blog Part II)

There were no "festivities" Wednesday night, as by the time we got our luggage, rented a car, and got to our condos, it was close to 2 a.m. and we were all exhausted. It wasn't until around noon on Thursday that we all were up and about and decided to hit the grocery store for some provisions. We spent the day on the "lanai" drinking beer, eating chips and cheese, bullshitting, and napping. Not a bad pregame routine eh?

Our game wasn't until 9 pm, but I wanted to get there a little early. Good thing we did, because when we got to the rink, I discovered the little TSA approved padlock was still on my hockey bag, and my key was 40 minutes away at the condo. Oh. Shit. Fortunately, the zam driver had a grinder, and with some help from him and GoalieHusband, disaster was averted. I wish more than anything I'd had my camera then, because the shower of sparks flying away from my bag as the zam guy drilled through the lock was pretty impressive. I said "I bet this is a first," and he replied "Actually, it's not." I was surprised but also relieved that I wasn't the first dumbass to have done that.

The game itself was a great one - for the forwards. We won 9-1, had 38 shots for, and I think I did better as the cheering section, with only 6 shots on goal. To be perfectly frank, I was kind of bored. And evidence of that is the fact that I allowed a goal on six freakin' shots. And the shot that beat me, I should have had. It was a breakaway, for which my D came back and took full credit for but hello, that's what I'm there for right? To stop the ones that get past the D? I guess I was just thinking too much, because I didn't wait her out long enough and she got me moving to my left and put it past my right toe. Dammit. I know I'll be plenty busy in tonight's game though, because our opponent won their game yesterday by a similar score. So, I'm looking forward to that, but I'm not tempting fate by going on about how little shots I saw last night. Got that, Hockey Gods?

The post-game plan was to gather at KK's condo for beer pong and other festivities, and as much as I've been looking forward to the parties this week? By the time we were all showered and ready to go again, it was about 12:30. Honestly all I wanted to do was pass out, but off we went, and I did have a good time. I suck balls at beer pong, but hey, it was a good time. The highlight of the night might have been the other coach (not GH) bragging that he could unclip KK's bra in 2 seconds or less, and then failing miserably at it. He blamed the vodka & tonic. We decided he had to lose his Man Card regardless.

The two gallons of orange juice and two bottles of champagne that we impulsively stopped and purchased for the Royal Wedding Drinking Game remain unconsumed, however. It was after 3 when we left KK's and no one had any plans of either staying up or taking a 1 hour nap to be awake in time to participate. (Even when we came up with this stellar idea, I knew it was really not going to happen. But it sounded like fun.) It may still come to pass though, as I'm sure we can find the wedding online. I'll be sure to chronicle that if it does happen, don't worry.

PS - Do NOT let me forget to explain about Sidney the MVP Chicken (turkey).

Wait, what? There's NHL hockey going on? (Or, Part I of the Tournament Blog)

Call me Alice. I feel like I fell down the rabbit hole. It's only Friday, right? Somehow it feels like I missed a week. Time seems to have sped up since Wednesday when I overcame my fear and set foot on an AIRPLANE and flew to Tampa. And I survived! I only experienced two real moments of anxiety. The first was before I even caught sight of the plane. For some reason I fixated on the oversize luggage cart; this thing was piled so high with our bags, I was convinced it was never even going to make it to the right plane. I even stood there and in my fretting, announced that "if this stuff makes it to where we're going, I will buy everyone a bikini". PS, it got there just fine, so I guess I have to go shopping... But come on. Tell me this would inspire a lot of confidence? I seriously thought at least one bag was going to fall off and end up in Moscow or something.



But, the porter and one other baggage handler brought the cart into an elevator and off we went. To the bar! We found one literally right next to our gate. Happy hockey players! I was fine until we got onto the plane. We were standing in the aisle waiting to get to our seats, and I just stopped and said "oh my God". The teammate in front of me and the teammate behind me handled it well though and the moment passed. And when we got to our seats and I discovered that with Direct TV, I could watch the Bruins' Game 7? I figured I was absolutely set. What better way to distract myself during a flight than watching Game 7 hockey? Except that the tv worked fine until takeoff.... at which point it completely died. Arrrghh! They did manage to get it working again, but not until midway through the 3rd period. Oh, glorious NHL game 7 overtime. We had already started our descent when OT started. It was quiet. And then Horton scored and GoalieHusband and I let out a whooping holler, which my teammate up at the bulkhead later said even she heard (we were one row away from the exit row). Woopsie. Hehehe.

Unfortunately we landed and didn't get to see any of the Lightning game. Waiting at the carousel was interesting. Because of Flipper's Super Awesome Traveler Status, all our stuff was tagged with neon orange priority tags, and came onto the belt relatively quickly. It might just be that the baggage handlers wanted to get that stinky shit out of their presence as quickly as possible though... Just wait til they catch whiff of it on the way home.

Blame Twitter

I'm noticing a trend. Twitter is making me a terrible blogger. I vent my spleen in short bursts there, and then never come here and write out the whole story. Since my last post, I've played a Hawks game (first back on the ice with them!), a game of open hockey, and attempted to play another... but haven't written squat about any of it. That trend has to change, especially with the tournament coming up. We're bringing the netbook, and I definitely have to write at least a few times while we're gone, because there's no way I'm going to be able to cram 5 days of hockey and vacation into one post when I get back. Well hey, there's always the @Geffman47 twitlonger approach. Haha.

The Hawks game was a re-match against the team that beat us for the championship. We won 9-6. I'm happy about the win, but not happy about the goal total. A couple were impossible screens, one shouldn't have counted at all but the ref just wanted to go home, and the rest... well I should have had those. At no time were we trailing, though. We went up 2-0 in the first, but they came back, and then we just traded goals from there. It felt great to get that win, but like I said I wasn't thrilled with my play.

GoalieHusband had a rare weekday off of work, so I took 2 hours of personal time myself and we hit open hockey Wednesday morning. I am so spoiled by morning open hockey at that rink. General lack of douchebags, great skill level and pace, and I just seem to really do well there. This time I really killed it. There was one hot-shot who had to do everything himself, but he was easy to handle, since with a guy like that you never have to worry about the pass. There was another guy who was really good, and got a few breakaways on me on my first shift, but I stoned him every time. Man that felt good.

We intended to play some more open hockey this weekend, but the rink that has stood us up like a lousy girlfriend several times screwed us over again. Shame on us for going back after a few years expecting anything different. Here's a hint, South Mountain Arena: if you have ADULT OPEN HOCKEY listed on your website, don't allow 10-12 yr olds to sign in, and don't tell parents it's ok if they just skate around on the ice with them. At least they were good enough to give us our money back. But no way in hell will we ever be going there again for "open hockey".

At this point though, I have knots in my stomach already for the upcoming trip to Tampa. But before I get to that hurdle, we have a Hawks game. Tuesday night. Against the Drunk Punks. I can't wait. Hell, my gear's already packed, since I never used it last night. Perfect way to start a hockey vacation; with a hockey game.

Quick reader poll: should I bring my Khabibulin Lightning jersey on the trip? I was going to bring my Ranger jersey, to show my colors, but since they're out of it now... I'm thinking maybe I'll show some local support while I'm down there.

Hockey Laundry is Fun

Here's how lame I am: I'm excited to be folding and putting away the hockey laundry that's in my dryer, because that means I'm going to use it again. And I'll be using it again soon; in 5 days as a matter of fact, which is when I make my return to the Hawks' crease. Not that I'm counting or anything.

The plethora of (now clean) t-shirts, sports bras, bandannas, and hockey socks is the result of this weekend's tournament. I'd love to be able to say we kicked ass and brought home some kind of trophy, but the hockey gods had other ideas. The first game was Friday night, and I have to confess it wasn't my best. After two days of not eating much other than ginger ale and pretzels (thank you, stomach flu), I didn't exactly have much in the tank when we got on the ice, and found myself buzzing on adrenaline and not much else. I honestly can't say much about how we played because I don't remember a lot of details. We went down 2-0 in the first, and managed to score a goal, but the final score remained 2-1. That second goal was a screen that even even Superman would have had trouble finding, but I don't even remember how the first one went in. I was upset with myself- I'd played ten times better than that in open hockey earlier in the week, but everyone was very complimentary of my game. I think I was just wound up way too tight.

Since we'd played a 10pm game and our next one was scheduled for 11am the next morning, there wasn't much in the way of post-game hotel room revelry. We gathered for some drinks and snacks, and because I called it a night on the early side, I have no idea how late everyone else stayed up. My goalie routine had gotten all out of whack with that game; not knowing the rink, and getting there much later than I like to kind of rattled me, and I felt all out of sorts. I wanted to be up bright and early the next morning to have time to have a decent breakfast, organize the giant chaotic pile of crap in my hotel room, and get to the rink early enough to claim the perfect spot in the locker room and get dressed at a leisurely pace. And that's exactly what I did. As GoalieHusband and I drove over to the rink that morning, I was grinning and looking forward to the whole day ahead.

Unfortunately, our next game ended up being extremely frustrating. We played a team called the "Black Sheep", but we took to calling them the "Fainting Goats" because of how easily they appeared to fall over and die. And the refs completely bought it. I don't even know how many penalties we took, but there were a LOT. I will admit we deserved some of them. But some of them were pure Coxsackie*.

While the D was good all tournament, there were two lapses in this game that ended up with goals going in off the back door. We didn't do any damage on the other end, either, so ended up with a 3-0 loss. (The other goal was a wacky bounce off a player's stick in front of the net.) There was one pretty awesome part about the game though- we had fans! The Mayor's cousins came out to support us, and I got to meet a twitter buddy face to face. As it turns out, @brutbran doesn't live all that far away, so he stopped by to see a game. It was really cool meeting him, even though we didn't really get much of a chance to chat. If I'd known ahead of time that we were going to find a bar for lunch and the Ranger game afterward, I'd have definitely asked him to stick around. Sorry, bud! (Yes, he is that rare species known as Ranger-Fan-in-Boston).

Our final game was our best, hands down. It was a very physical game, but not chippy. We were extremely well matched against our opponents, and gritted out a mutual shutout by the final buzzer. And here's where Psychic GoalieBrain comes in. I'll have to elaborate more in another post, because this is just getting way too long, but over the last few weeks I've had some creepy experiences of just flat out *knowledge*. There's no other way to describe it. At some point in the 2nd period, I just knew the game was going to end 0-0. It wasn't a hunch, it wasn't a gut feeling, it was a pure, flat "knowing". Very weird. The tournament rules called for a 3-person shootout, and I thought I had it in my back pocket. No sweat. Shootout? I got this. After all, I just stood on my head for three periods, three shooters coming at me with no traffic whatsoever should be easy as pie.

Not so much. We shot first- no goal. I stuffed the first one with my blocker. Right into the corner, biatch. But our next shooter didn't score either. And then their second shooter came in, and I guess I forgot my Lundqvist-like-patience, because I moved first and she put it around my toe. Damn. What a frustrating way to lose such a hard fought game. I know I could have made that save. I wasn't too happy after that game, but one can't stay mopey for long around a team like this one.

The off-ice highlight of the weekend was, hands down, the beer pong game in The Mayor's hotel room. Each room had a nice sensible desk, one that looked like it could *almost* be used for beer pong. So if one was almost good enough... what about two?! GoalieHusband helped one of the girls drag a desk over from her room, and viola- perfect beer pong table. A beer pong table complete with "Zamboni" (a towel from the bathroom) for clearing up the inevitable beer and water spillage. The best part about this particular set of games? About 90% of the people had never played. Add lots of crappy beer and liberal amounts of chocolate whipped cream flavor vodka, and you've got yourself a party. My abs were literally sore the next morning from laughing so hard. It was one of those nights when EVERYTHING is funny, and spawned several memorable phrases that still send us into hysterics when posted on each others' Facebook page or texted randomly to each other during the day. GoalieHusband turned to me at one point, somewhat in awe, and said "Is every tournament like this?" If by "like this", you mean lots of hockey, lots of eating, and lots and lots of drinking, then yes. They are.


*O hai, upstate NY, you have really funny town names. Hehe.

It's Go Time

This week has felt excruciatingly long, waiting for this tournament. Up until yesterday, that is, and then it felt way too short. I ended up sick with some kind of strange not-quite-a-stomach-flu that I was afraid was going to get worse and keep me from being able to play. So, even though I felt a tad better today, since I have more vacation time than I'll ever be able to use before my company is bought and it's been maddeningly slow at work, I decided to stay home and sleep a lot. It seems to have helped. I would have gone with GoalieHusband to cheer on the Hawks in their playoff game, but I figure a little more rest can't be a bad thing.

Except now I'm wide awake. I'm packed for the most part- except for all those girly shower and makeup things that I won't be able to pack until tomorrow morning. And now that I'm feeling a little better I'm getting really excited again. Tomorrow afternoon, GoalieHusband is going to meet me at my office, as will Flipper and the Mayor. We'll take 2 cars but we'll head up together - hey, we have to stop at Belchertown and take a picture, come on. Hopefully we'll have enough time to check into the hotel first before heading to the rink for our first game, which is around 10pm.

I can't wait. I feel like I've been watching sand in an hourglass for the last few weeks. Not only am I getting back on the ice with my team, but tournament season is just about underway. Last year around this time I was nervous as hell. My first tournament was our home one that we hosted, so that wasn't so bad. Then a few weeks later I was on the road to Ithaca, knots in my stomach, way outside of my box. I had a few "OMG whatamidoinghere" moments but for the most part I was fine, and I even had fun. And I wore my silver medal all the way home.

Now, knowing what to expect, and more importantly, knowing the girls now as well as I do, I'm really excited to whoop it up again. We have this one, then in a few weeks we're off to Tampa. A few weeks after that we head back up to Ithaca. A month later we host our own tournament. There's one in July, but I'll be on vacation so I'll miss that one. And then there's one when I get back from vacation in August. So that's 6 for the team, 5 for me.

But it all starts tomorrow. And I'm determined to win this one. It's going to be hard; it's a mixed C/D division, and we have a short bench. But I know we can do it.

Bitter disappointment

Most people outside of sports would probably say the passion I have for playing, and the dedication I have to my teams borders on unhealthy. Hockey has become my life. So on Wednesday morning, when I played open hockey and felt like my old self again, I was elated. That meant I could catch the next game with the Hawks! There was a game that night, but of course I wasn't going to push myself in at the last minute and tell my sub to take a hike. If they won, and there were going to be subsequent games, I had no reason to believe I wouldn't be playing them. After all, I had been told I could come back whenever I was ready. When I found out there was going to be a game this Sunday, I got really excited. I'd be playing with my team again!!! And then I came crashing down.

Evidently, it had been decided by the team after Wednesday's game that even though I was ready to come back, the sub would still play the one or two playoff games remaining. It was decided that it wouldn't be "fair" to him when he came in, played two-thirds of the season's games, some with obnoxiously late times, without complaint and with a good attitude, to say 'hey thanks but our goalie is back, see ya'. While I can kind of see that side of it, I feel like I've been kicked in the teeth. It makes me wonder what about what's "fair" to the goalie you've had for four years? Also complicating matters is the fact that I'm ready sooner than I thought I would be. In previous conversations with the captain I'd speculated that I'd probably be out through the playoffs (should we get in) and would just start fresh with the next season. So he in turn told the sub that he'd be playing all of the rest of the games. I didn't know that. All I knew was that I was told I could come back as soon as I was ready. So this all came as a bit of a shock yesterday.

It's not an easy situation, from any side. Like I said, I can kind of see their point. They didn't have to scramble every week looking for a goalie. This guy came in and played games at 11pm when he'd had a game earlier that night and never complained. So they want to "thank" him by throwing him a few more games. And to them, it's no big deal, two games, who cares. But to me, who has been working so hard for the last two and a half months to be back in that net, with that team, it is a big deal. I'm assured that when the new season starts I'll be in net, no question at all. I'm assured that this is nothing more than the team showing their appreciation to this guy, that it is not a reflection at all on any kind of "choice" between us or preference. As long as that is truly the case I will just suck it up and deal with it. It sucks, I'm pissed off and disappointed, but I grudgingly kind of understand. Sunday night is going to be really, really hard though.