Seriously, wtf WAS that?

I've been on this team for two years now, and the only times I've/we've ever gotten completely blown out is when we've gone to this one particular rink. The first time there were local TV crews there filming for some kind of special on women's hockey, so of course they brought all their ringers (gotta look good for the cameras, right?) and killed us 8-2. They didn't blow us out the next time we played there, but the relentlessly chippy and obnoxious play was the same. And then there was last night.

I don't even know how to describe last night other than a complete cluster fuck. At times I just stood there shaking my head and laughing in complete amazement. It seems they brought their ringers again, as well as their Class A Whiners. The first period, we played like we had our heads up our asses. We managed to get out only down 2-0, but there were two 3-on-0s (two!!!) not to mention several other odd man rushes. (I made the save on the first 3-on-0. Not so lucky the 2nd time around). Fortunately after that we played a little better. Unfortunately, a few bad deflections and one silver platter give-away by me resulted in the second period ending with us down 6-0. That was also when the real bullshit started heating up. At one point, one of their larger players completely flattened our smallest one at center ice. The nasty play just got worse from there.

I should mention here that the ref (yes we only had one, why bother getting two, it's just a women's game) was completely useless. We might as well have played without one for all he was doing. Aside from not calling penalties, except for the blatant center ice hit, he also seemed to forget that he was supposed to signal whether there was to be an icing or not. I lost count of the number of times one of my D would be trucking back to get a puck, and I'd be looking up at the ref, who was doing absolutely nothing, and have nothing to tell my D. Sometimes he'd blow the whistle when the puck crossed the line, sometimes he wouldn't. It was a gamble. He clearly didn't give half a crap about the game at all and was just there to collect his fee.

The third period is when it really started to get ugly. I missed what started the first fight, because I was once again trying to determine if the puck coming into my zone was an icing or not, when I heard a big commotion and looked up towards the benches to see "Pants" and another player rolling around on the ice. They were soon joined by several other players, from both sides, and separated. Even though I didn't see how it started, it was amazing to me that the other bench was screaming and yelling and carrying on, long after the players were separated and had gone to their respective benches. The ref was standing in front of their bench trying to talk to them and they were just all going completely ballistic. I later asked Pants what had happened and here's what she said: "What happened with mine was I got fed up with the way they were playing. So I just started playing the same game they were playing. It appears that they can dish it out but can't take it. After I leveled a couple of them by just playing their game the one decided to skate from mid ice and check me. So I threw a punch and there you go!"

The ref did not throw Pants out. He didn't even put anyone in the box. He just told us to continue playing 5 on 5, and that he would "start calling penalties now". Oh! Really! That would be great, thanks for noticing the game has gotten totally out of hand! By then, word must have gotten around the rink that the chicks were fighting, because there was quite the crowd gathered around my end of the glass. Several little kids were banging on the glass behind me and yelling; I was expecting them to break out in a sing-song chant of my last name at any moment, given that the score was 6-0 at that point. 

The game continued, with tempers on both sides still flaring. A few minutes later, one of their players had a semi-breakaway. I made the initial stop and was sprawled and covered the puck when the player gave me a pretty good whack. Gionta182 was just a few strides behind her, saw that, and took her out. Two or three players from the other team were suddenly there and piling on, and I heard Gionta182 yelling "don't hit my fuckin' goalie!". I'm not gonna lie, that made me feel pretty damn good. Eventually they were separated, and Gionta182 skated over to the bench to get her stuff, since the ref had suddenly decided to pay attention and threw her out of the game. The girl she had taken down skated by on the way to her bench and oh so "accidentally" brushed Gionta182 on her way past. Gionta182 turned and shoved her, and she fell to the ice. She came up swinging. It was at that point that I think Gionta182 decided not to even bother- this other girl was half her size. It was actually kind of amusing, like watching a small dog yip at a German Shepherd's heels.

A few players were so frustrated at that point that they suggested leaving. Coach put it to us for a vote and the majority decided hell no, we're not quitters, we're going to finish the game, get the hell out of there, and never come back. The general consensus in the locker room later was that this repeated bullshit was not worth driving as far as we did (an hour and a half for me) and paying $28 in tolls. Our Captain was working that night and wasn't at the game, but texts were flying afterwards and she concurred; this team is definitely being crossed off our list. I believe we have a home game scheduled against them, but it won't be hard to get an extra game from one of the other teams we play, in their stead. Enough is enough. 
 

Goalie lexicon, black socks, and furry gloves

Hey guys, guess what it's stream of consciousness night. Meaning, I have no unifying thread but just needed to share these few things with you all. Because I know you're clamoring to find out what's rattling around in my brain.

First up - Goalie Lexicon
Some might think being married to the coach gets you extra perks. Not really. What it really gets you is homework. After Sunday's scrimmage it became evident that not everyone (and by "everyone", I mean "forwards") understands what the heck I'm yelling out there all game long. I know, it came as a shock to me too. Not everyone speaks Goalie. So, GoalieHusband asked me to come up with a list of things I shout on the ice and what they mean, to clear up any possible uncertainty.

You'd think things like "TIME! TIME!" would be pretty obvious, but it was really eye-opening to me to see all the light bulbs go on over people's heads as I ran through the things I yell most frequently on the ice. Good call on GoalieHusband's part, because I had no idea that what made perfect sense to me in my head didn't necessarily translate in a forward's brain.

Next - The Black Sock Effect
For the most part, I'm a big ol' honey badger when it comes to what socks I wear on the ice. Or, I used to be. I'm the goalie, who cares what color I wear, right? But somewhere around the end of last QCats season I got a bug up my ass about having white socks to wear when we wore our home white jerseys. (I have lots of dark colors, but no white). It festered for a while, because I really felt stupid going out to buy socks to match my jersey. I mean, that's like a totally girl thing to do. But eventually it got the best of me and I ordered white socks. I used as my justification the fact that the Cougar(hawk)s also wear white, so I figure between those games and QCat home games I'll get lots of use out of them. I happened to tweet about buying them, and gionta182 responded that as an opposing forward, she can't wait to play me when I'm wearing white socks (she's on another team in the same league as the Cougar(hawk)s). I had no idea what she meant, until she explained; if the goalie's wearing white socks, and the puck is somewhere on her and she doesn't know it, it's a lot easier to find and jab at it than if she's wearing black socks. I sort of wrote this idea off until I noticed something- Rask wears black socks. Even when the Bruins are wearing yellow ones. So maybe there's something to this after all. Regardless, I'd already informed gionta182 that when we play her team, I'm definitely wearing the black socks, just for her.

Finally - There's No Explaining Taste (or lack of it)
A few days ago the team got an email from our former coach, with whom we are still in touch, and invite to team parties. The subject was "Attention! Front Office Mandate!" and all it contained was a link, and the words "Do it.". A link to these:

There are a lot of times I'm really thankful that I'm a goalie and not a skater, and this is definitely one of them. I'm not sure how many people are going to take him up on his directive, but I know Flipper said she would order them specifically for use in tournaments. Now that is going to be a sight.

We know how to have fun

I recovered from a nasty cold this week just in time to have some great memorable times with my QCat girls. Originally there had been a game on our schedule for Saturday night at 9:15, but we found out last week that - surprise! - in actuality it was Saturday morning at 9:15. Initially I said no problem, I could do it. But by Thursday night I was feeling so awful that I figured there was no way I'd be able to get up early on Saturday morning, make a nearly 2 hour drive, play a tough game, and have another almost 2 hour drive home. They found a sub for me, fortunately, and I got some much needed zzzz's.

But since everyone had Saturday night open, we figured... why not have a party? Or, as our captain put it in an email "turn an 'oopsie!' into a party!". 'Cause we really need an excuse to party. Happily for me, by Saturday night I was feeling well enough to hang with my girls and knock a few back. And participate in the invention of a new drinking game we called "carpet pong" (lesbian overtones not intended, I swear). Basically it was born of about 9 of us all sitting around on the (carpeted) floor, suddenly realizing we should play beer pong, but too lazy to actually get up. So we started flinging a set of about 6 ping pong balls around at each other, attempting to sink the balls in each others' Red Solo Cups of Joy. Strangely, after a a little while balls started disappearing, prompting shouts of "Everyone! Check your triangle for balls!!!", and much delight upon finding said balls, which by then were both wet (from the beer) and hairy (from the dog hair on the carpet, which though I'm sure was recently vacuumed, anyone who has a pet can attest the job is never truly done).

Can I use more parentheses in a paragraph? I'm not sure I should try. I may have used up my quota for the rest of my life.

From Saturday night's fun we rolled right into Sunday evening's light-hearted game. The team we had been scheduled to play tonight blew us off at the last minute, something they are known to do, not just to us. We were able to get a few players from other teams, and snag our (male) coaches and a few players sons, and we had ourselves a scrimmage. Since the ice time was booked as a game, we had our 2 refs and a scorekeeper, so even though it was essentially a scrimmage amongst ourselves, it felt like a decent game. We split the "kids" and the guys between the two teams, and split ourselves up pretty evenly. The goalie who subbed for me on Saturday came out to play in the other net.

We had a fantastic time. The game was actually quite fast-paced. I continue to marvel at this team's ability to rise to the level of our opponents. And having the guys and the youngsters involved did raise the bar quite a bit. There was an awful lot of good-natured chirping and even a few "scrums" between a mom and her teenaged son, and we came out with a 2-2 tie. Pretty fitting; I guess you can say we all won. In truth, I was a little peeved at the 2nd goal against us. I was on the white team and we had initially gone up 2-0. In the 3rd period, GoalieHusband was covering someone in front of the net, and I was yelling bloody murder about the wide open guy on the back door, but no one got back in time and he buried it. Then only a few minutes later a collective lapse lead to a weird bounce off my D's shinpad into my net. I was pretty ticked about that one. Not at the D - she at least was trying. But for about 6 or 7 minutes there it seemed like some folks were more concerned with screwing around than playing an actual game. I'm all about having fun- you guys know that. But I'm also competitive as all hell, and that just frustrated me.

All in all though, it was a blast. A good note on which to end a pretty crappy week, personal-life-wise, and not a bad one to take into our now 10 day break. (Our next game isn't until Feb 11th.). Add to that the ridiculously long layover the Cougar(hawk)s have had and hockey's a bit sparse for the next two weeks. Somehow though, I'm sure we'll find a way to get on the ice one way or another. There's been some talk of a "We Don't Care About the Superbowl" ice rental for next Sunday. Sounds good to me.

Not. Fair. ... and a question

Goaliepost.com has Rask as a probable start this afternoon against the Rangers. I know I'm jumping the gun here, but what the...????? So not fair, hockey gods, so not fair. Yes, yes, I will be rooting for the Rangers, could never betray my boys, but you can bet I'm hoping for a 1-0 outcome. In a shootout.

But I didn't come here just to whine. I've been thinking about something and I want to poll my goalie buds and see if this has happened to anyone else. There have been two times now where I've been watching another goalie, and something very subtle about their game or stance jumps out and practically hits me in the face. The first time was when I was watching a college practice while waiting around the rink for something, and something about the goalie's stance just clicked with me. It was something extremely subtle, just the way he held his torso so straight, and although I already knew that's something you're supposed to do, I guess I needed a visual to remind myself. I call it the Meerkat Effect.

And the second time was watching Rask in pre-game warmups the other night. I feel like a completely lame fangirl because he took shots for all of probably 45 seconds total, and seemed like he was really just mailing it in. So much so that I even thought he might be hurt (and I may have posted a few panicked tweets to that effect...). We were standing up at the section entrance, so we weren't even that close to the ice, and our vantage point was behind the net. But I noticed something about his legs. Like, besides the fact that they are about 8 feet long. I can't even explain it here. Something about his stance and how he moved clicked in my brain, and I kept it in mind in my next game and I wound up doing a damn good job, especially considering I couldn't see much.

So, have any of you had an experience like this? Where you had kind of an "a-ha!" moment while watching another goalie? And I'm not talking about conscious imitation, like "Henrik holds his glove like this, so I will too". Just something that worms its way into the goalie consciousness and nibbles at you. Or, maybe I'm nuts. That is entirely possible and I'm completely willing to accept that fact. I am a goalie after all.

Mission Not Accomplished

I was really hoping for two things yesterday; a chance to watch Rask play live (and up close, because we had AWESOME seats), and a chance to maybe tell him that I think he's awesome ('cause he's never heard that before right?) and maybe possibly have him sign my goalie t-shirt. I came up short on both counts. At least I have good friends though. Toward the tail end of the morning skate, my friend who works at the rink texted me to let me know that Thomas was the first one off the ice and Rask was still out there taking shots. I expressed my disappointment and said I had really wanted to watch him play up close. A few minutes later my phone went off again, with another text from my buddy, and what was it? A short video of some of the guys shooting on Rask. Awww. Now that's a pal.

Eventually I got used to the idea of not being able to watch Rask work his magic and instead watching the beast known as Tim Thomas. Not a bad deal. (Is there a better tandem, anywhere, past or present?) He didn't disappoint. We got a nice flashy glove save in the second period, which is when he was in our end. And although the Bruins played the first period and a half as if they were asleep, they finally woke up and it was like the proverbial sleeping bear (haha pardon the pun). It was a treat to watch a game that close- 10th row, behind the net and off to the left side- and it was great to see the Bruins win. But with the sounding of the final buzzer, it was time to get into fangirl mode. Hkygrl12 had texted to let us know where to meet her outside the rink, and we joined the herd of people headed toward the exits. While we were in a big crowd on the stairs I jokingly said to GoalieHusband "Look for a Bourque jersey".

GH: There are Bourque jerseys everywhere. Look, there's one right there.

Me: Hey... that's Hkygrl12!

GH: No its not.

Me: Yes, it is! (yelling) HEY!!!! HKYGRL12!

And off we went to stalk - erm, I mean wait for- the players. There were a considerable number of people waiting there already, including two separate groups of Slovak guys who were chanting for Chara. We got right up to the barrier though, and .... were mostly ignored. What a letdown. Two guys came over to sign Hkygrl12's stuff: Tyler Seguin and Andrew Ference. Everyone else seemed to be in quite a hurry to get to the bus. Including Tuukka, who was one of the first guys to come out. Thomas at least grinned and partially waved, but he didn't stop to sign anything.

I was actually quite a bit more bummed about it than a sane person would be, but I guess that's probably no surprise. Hkgrl12 did tweet @ Seguin and told him to "Tell Tuukka he broke my goalie's heart". Haha. We're not stalkers. Honest. Maybe at some other point the hockey gods will see fit to allow me to greet Rask in person, but if not, I'm content with watching his awesomeness on TV. I guess.

But, now it's back to reality and back to my own hockey merry-go-round. We QCats have another 3-in-3 this weekend. We just played this morning at the posh country club outdoor rink. Man, is that some fantastic ice. We won, 4-1, despite the fact that I could hardly see a thing. I thought it would be smart to wear sunglasses, since the last time we played there the sun glare in my eyes was brutal. They did cut down on the glare, but unfortunately they cut down on everything else too. I had such a hard time seeing any of the lines on the ice and was totally disoriented. I kept losing the puck in the shadows too. Next time, I'll just suffer and squint.

Tomorrow night and Sunday night we have home games. Hopefully the weather won't ruin tomorrow night's game, because it's supposed to snow and our opponent is coming down from Connecticut. Both games are going to be a pretty good challenge. I'm really looking forward to it. It's a good thing we're this busy, too, because the Cougars got shafted in the scheduling department and don't play again until February 9th. Or maybe it's the 6th, but regardless, that's a whole month in between games, which flat out sucks. So until the next Cougar(hawk)s affair, it's Cats time. Spectators will receive free tampons and deodorant.

3-in-3... and then some.

I have no games this coming weekend, and nothing next week until Friday. I'm thinking this is a pretty good thing, after my marathon of hockey crammed into 72 hours this past weekend. I had three games scheduled; a QCat game on Saturday and Sunday, and then a Cougar(hawk)s game Monday night.

The QCat games were against the same opponent; a home-and-home.  The first one was at home,and in all honesty was one the whole team would rather forget. We lost by a score of 2-0 but more than that, we played horribly. It was the first game for most of us since the holiday break and boy did it show. It was pretty awful. In fact I've blocked out the goals and can't even remember how they were scored. Probably much better that way.

We headed out to their rink the next night for a rematch, determined to pick up a win. Coach @ramad451 (aka Coach Sparkle) gave a pre-game pep talk, telling us all to just forget the previous game and start fresh, and to remember that we win and lose as a team, and no one person is responsible for any outcome. (People had begun to start taking blame personally for things, and that's never good.). It worked- we went out and played a very sound game, and it was a lot of fun to play because we were so evenly matched with our opponent. So evenly matched in fact, that we ended up with a 1-1 tie. We were all really hoping for an overtime or shootout, but their goalie had pulled something on the last play of the game and wasn't in the best shape, so we just called it. A post-game gathering at the nearby Houlihan's was a perfect cap to the evening.

But what could be better than two nights of hockey in a row? Ding ding ding, you got it, three nights of hockey! The Cougars are still throwing around possible new team names, and the combination of Cougars and Hawks that resulted in "Cawks" was the front runner until Monday. (Actually, in our silliness at Houlihans, @lct29 and @hkygrl12 and I thought "Wicked Cawks" would be even more awesome.) But a teammate who until recently I only knew as "the defenseman with the glasses who pairs up with orange socks guy" offered an alternative. It's so obvious it escaped us. The Cougar Hawks. Thank you, Urban Dictionary dot com.  I don't know if there will actually be a name change, but I think that is pretty fantastic.

And the game itself was pretty damn fantastic as well. Another evenly matched affair, lots of play in both ends, and from what I could tell, everyone really enjoying themselves on the ice and on the bench. And I think I probably had one of my best games ever. It's too bad it ended in a 1-0 loss, but I am pretty proud of how I played. And how I felt. It's all coming together now, the confidence is back, there's even a little bit of swagger poking through. I felt unstoppable out there. And I almost was. Almost. The one goal I allowed was a wierd scramble after a first and second save; I'm pretty sure I had it frozen, but the ref didn't blow the whistle and I think somehow one of my own teammates got it away from me. I don't really know what happened, as I was down on the ice in a forest of legs and skates and sticks, and suddenly I didn't have the puck anymore and it was headed straight to a wide open opponent. Argh. Chalking that one up to a collective brain fart. Other than that, we played great. We had a few breakaways, and it was great to see Senator48 with one. I know he's been feeling very much like I have in terms of not being able to contribute much to the team. So when he went flying up the ice and dished it off at the last second to another guy, I had a big grin on my face. Unfortunately it didn't result in a goal, but you can tell from the way things are going that this is a solid team. I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the season.

I didn't count shots in that game, but I'd estimate about 40. So when I came off the ice I was pretty exhausted, from that game and also from the cumulative effect of the two before that. I walked into the designated women's locker room, really looking forward to a nice cold beer, and saw that Gionta182 was there getting ready for her game, which was next on the schedule. I was barely three steps into the locker room before she told me her goalie was sick and asked if I could play. I was already exhausted but what was I going to do? Leave them goalie-less while I sat outside and drank beer and ate cupcakes? Absolutely not an option. (If it had been a bunch of strangers, I don't think I'd have agreed. But I couldn't do that to my buddy). I consented, but warned her that I didn't think I'd be much good, this being the 4th game in 3 days.

When we do tournaments, 4 games in 3 days is nothing. But when we do tournaments, we also have a few hours in between games to relax and recharge. I gobbled a couple of Starburst for the sugar, refilled my water bottle, and was back out on the ice. At first it seemed like it would be just fine; there was an early flurry of shots on which I made some really good saves, including a save on a shot on a rebound off my forehead. But that's where it ended. I just had absolutely nothing left in me. At all. I've never been that tired on the ice. The first period wasn't too bad (2-2 at the end) but after that everything unravelled. To be fair, the team didn't play very well in front of me either, by their own admission. But after standing on my head in a 1-0 game, to allow 11 goals (ouch, yes I said 11) was like a hockey bitchslap. We even had the same refs we had my game right before it. They must have wondered where the hell the Jekyll & Hyde routine came from. I felt absolutely awful, and apologized to everyone. I'd say about half of the goals were on me due to complete exhaustion and not moving as quickly as I usually do, or being off in my angle slightly, but the other half were back-doors, or screens, or just bad coverage. So I'm trying really hard not to take the double-digit to heart. We all decided that game didn't count against my save percentage, since it wasn't my actual team. I can live with that.

GoalieHusband and I went to the diner afterwards with Gionta182 and other Cougar(hawk) who had stuck around for the second game. It was after 2a.m. by the time we left, which put us at home at 2:45. Yesterday was pretty rough for both of us, and I think the only reason we managed to stay awake for the Ranger game last night was because of the pure awesomeness of the game itself (and mostly the awesomeness of the goalies. Savegasms everywhere!).

Practice tonight.... I'm tired just thinking about it. But I don't care, because everything is awesome right now. Yay hockey. <3

Ohhhh yeah, THIS is what it's supposed to be like

Glass of wine? Check.

Alternating live look-ins on Finnish goalies? Check. (Heeyyyyy Kari, I missed you!)

Lingering post-game after-glow? Check!

You know how when you're so entrenched in a situation, you can't see the reality? At least until you remove yourself from it and look back and go "what in the world was I thinking???" I had one of those moments last night. From the time I packed my gear until the time I was back at home in front of my computer, stinky but wide awake and unable to tear myself away from the love-fest on FB and twitter, I had one big long "a-ha!" moment. What was my big epiphany?

Hockey is supposed to be fun.

Is it frustrating sometimes? Sure. Do you have to deal with douchebaggery? Of course. But on the whole, you're supposed to look forward to going to the rink, be excited at the drop of the puck, and not want it to end. Well, mission accomplished. All week I looked forward to the debut of the cobbled-together Hawks and Cougars team (for now, called the Cougars, but we have some other lewd ideas about how to combine the names...), and it didn't disappoint. We scrapped and battled and came out with a 5-3 win.

There were some things about the game and the league that I am still absorbing. It wasn't all sunshine and roses. But in comparison to what games had been like before, it was wonderful. And I didn't realize how much I'd been suffocating in that other environment until last night. This is hard to express, because although some of my very best pals from the Hawks are with me on this new team, I've also left behind friends on the "old" team. I have nothing at all against the old team. It has nothing to do with them, it has to do with me. It has to do with me understanding where I belong and stubbornly refusing to face it for far too long. I miss the feel of the old team, but I know I'm where I'm supposed to be now. Due to the strange locker room situation that presents itself with this league, we females are missing out on quite a bit of team camaraderie, but what is lost in that regard is made up for on the ice. (Also, once it gets warm I'm sure we'll all be gathering outside for a few post-game refreshments and I'll get to know the other guys better.)

It's not just me being a gushy mushy chick. I touched base with a few of the guys and everyone seems to have the same feeling: one of excited optimism for the season. My twitter stream and 18-hour-long Facebook status commentary are proof of that.

I'll write more later about the two things that unsettled me most: the locker rooms and the weird uncontrolled abandon on the ice, but for now I'm just basking.