Game Three, ?06 – ?07: Tigers Orange 0, the Jets 8

I am not giving up goaltending to play right wing again.

Losing 8 – 0 sounds so bad, doesn’t it? Too bad they don’t keep track of all of the saves that I actually make, and from what I heard, apparently I made a few great ones! Even the other team would compliment me when they actually happened. Heh. Too bad we don’t have pictures of those. Both the coach and my teammates keep telling me that I’m doing a great job, and that last night I was just peppered (Coach’s word) with the puck.

The other team had three players who shouldn’t have been playing at our (beginners) level. I’ve learned that since we only play exhibition games, pretty much anyone can play. If they were actual league games, the people on the roster would have to play at their appropriate level. Granted, we have a few women on our team who should probably be playing on the Blue team at least, but they already have a full roster, and the Orange team really needs people.

In fact, there are some team members who play both on the Blue and Orange squads. Our entire team wasn’t there last night, but more than half were Orange players. I think there were seven of us, including me. Then we had three or four Blue players, though one of them is also on the regular Orange roster.

Something Brian pointed out is that because the Tigers have been around for so long, a lot of the other local teams, most of whom are pretty new, don’t have three squads, so the Orange team will probably be facing teams that are just better than we are.

I also heard that “no one” beats the Jets. They practice two or three times a week and have been playing together as a team for a long time. I even heard that the goalie comes down from like, Wisconsin or Indiana to play. During the game I noticed that their defensemen could actually skate backwards and face our wingers when we had breakaways into their zone! Our defense usually ends up chasing after the puck.

Afterwards, a few of us went out for dinner to celebrate one of the player’s daughter’s 13th birthday. It was fun and good for Brian and me to actually socialize, which we haven’t really done since we’ve moved back here. At the restaurant, the White team goalie drew diagrams for me about positioning, which I really need to learn. She said that I improved during the third period. White and Orange are sharing the ice at this Thursday night’s practice and she offered to work with me then.

See the latest game pictures here.