Slinky
(click to enlarge)
(click here to view the game pics)

If I thought I was nervous about playing back-to-back games in Week 1 of the Spring Mixer — ha! I was pretty anxious before this game, so much so that once I began to exit the locker room to hit the ice early and warm up as much as possible, I realized I forgot to put my leg pads on! My leg pads of all things! Christ. I guess it was because I was subbing for a different team altogether, rather than one of my own teams.

I played against the Gold team (Goldschläger) with the Turtles in the pre-season game, losing 6 – 5, and against Moussaka last week, also with the Turtles, for a 3 – 3 tie. This was the first time these two teams played against each other. We were down 2 – 0 (the final score), and things got really ugly late in the third period.

I’ve never played a game in which things got that bad. Women’s hockey doesn’t allow checking, or at least our league (WCHL) and certainly the Mixer, which is a house league do not. I don’t even think it’s allowed where I sometimes play rat hockey with guys. Anyway, the puck was behind the net in our zone, controlled by one of our D’s. A Moussaka player was practically on top of her, going after the puck — nothing out of the ordinary. I was hugging the post watching the play, which happened so fast, next thing I saw was my teammate’s face contorted in pain! I mean, I’ve never seen such an expression that close up, that near me, and live as opposed to like, TV and the movies. She hit the boards so hard that the glass was shaking! I was so stunned, and even more so because I thought Moussaka would get a penalty. It’s certainly possible that the offending player tripped, but it looked to me that she deliberately took down my teammate with her.

Shortly afterwards, a different Goldschläger teammate either checked or cross-checked (hit a player from behind with both hands on your stick and no part of the stick touching the ice) a Moussaka player, but I don’t know if it was the same one who slammed our D into the boards. Although this occurred behind our net, I didn’t see it happen, but I felt it. The puck must have been somewhere in front of me, and I remember making an extra effort to track it this game. Witnesses say that the ref already blew the whistle (but I’m not sure what for) when the incident took place. It took a while for Moussaka to get up, but she did.

Now rumors abound that a formal complaint will be filed; the Goldschläger teammate will be booted out of the league supposedly, etc., etc. I also learned that someone on another team has already been kicked out, though I don’t know what her offense was.

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Brian’s Goalie Summary
After losing two games (the pre-season one doesn’t count), and then a tie last week, I lost yet again. Brian, and even some of my teammates said we only had 9 or 10 SOG’s the whole game. Meanwhile, I faced 18 and only let 2 in — that’s 16 saves, which is pretty good, I think, especially for someone in my level facing more advanced players, so why doesn’t it feel that way?

First Period: Scoreless.

Second Period: One goal by Moussaka. It was another one of those plays where an opponent to my left shot it to her teammate on my right, and I gave up too much of the net on my glove side, allowing the shooter an easy one-timer. You can see the play happen here. Brian captured the photo op spectacularly!

Third Period: Moussaka hit a slapshot from just inside our blue line, which I blocked. Unfortunately, the puck rebounded and after a scrum in front of the net (see above pictures), they managed to push it in for their second goal.

But hey — a save story! Minutes later, I stopped a breakaway from Moussaka #5, who scored their first goal and happens to play on the Tigers White squad. Check it out — all this happened in three seconds! You’ll have to click to enlarge, of course, and be sure to check out the large sizes!

Definitely an accomplishment — I stopped a breakaway by a white-level player!

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Goalie Stats

For stats abbreviation key, see below.

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How fucking annoying. Not all of my uploads from my old host/server actually transferred to my new host/server. So now I have to re-upload shit and so there are missing images and stuff in some posts. Others have weird characters, like apostrophes turning into something other than apostrophes. Oh, and since the More Smilies 2.1 plugin is all fucked up, I have to go and change all of those cool smilies from that frickin’ Kopete set! And that one was so cool! Good thing I found them somewhere and saved the images. I have no idea how I’d implement them into my comments or post section, though. I am not a happy camper.

I am, however, currently uploading the game pictures from last night, so there will be another game post soon. This past week has just been absolutely horrid, and hockey’s about the only thing keeping me together. And even that sometimes becomes discouraging.

I’m really glad that Brian made it home, albeit later than expected Wednesday night, but at least he made it home that night and not the next day. The storms were really bad in Fort Worth, and he was lucky to even be able to get a flight out.

Besides that, I’ve been feeling nauseous on and off, and my frame of mind is off-kilter, too. I’ve been having trouble concentrating except when I’m on the ice. It’s strange, but it’s the only time and place where I can really focus.

When in Doubt, Fall on It!
(click to enlarge)
(click here to see this week’s game photos)

If you view the original size of the photo on the right you can see that the Purple team (now called Moussaka) skater is still trying to shove the puck in with her stick blade, despite the fact that I’ve got it pretty well covered. A previous Moussaka goal was scored this way. At least this time, the ref blew the whistle. After the game, which ended in a 3 – 3 tie, both teams agreed that the refs were slow to blow the whistle, if they blew it at all, whether it was for goals that shouldn’t have been scored (by both teams), or penalties.

I’m still trying to figure out what icing is and have heard different things. Obviously, this is a house league so the rules probably vary from the NHL’s and maybe even some women’s leagues. After our first game I thought someone said that if the other team dumps the puck and it crosses our blue line, and there’s no chance our defense can get to it, then I can call icing. So I tried to remember that, but when I’d raise my hand to call it, I’d hear one of the refs yell, “No icing,” only to call it seconds later! WTF? How’m I supposed to learn?

At one point in the second period, the puck was coming straight at me, with both our defensewomen and a Moussaka skater coming after it. They were far enough away that I knelt down on one knee, set my glove on the ice directly behind my stick blade, then covered the puck to freeze it. Yet the refs kept yelling at me to keep it in play, so I was really confused. Other goalies I’ve seen done that and the few times I’ve done it, the refs stop the play. Fortunately, Moussaka didn’t score on us, but my teammates told me that next time, just keep it covered and take the penalty.

So now I know how goalies can get penalties aside from hooking and shoving opponents in front of the crease. Or, for that matter, doing anything Ron Hextall used to, like slashing the other team’s skaters with his stick. According to the above-linked Wikipedia article, in the ’87 Stanley Cup finals, “any Oiler player that approached the Flyers’ net would receive welts on their legs from Hextall’s stick.” Hmm…well if I’m Darth Goalie….

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Brian’s Goal Summary

First Period: Moussaka scored one goal on a slow-rolling puck, closely followed by one of their skaters. Apparently, I wasn’t sure whether to block or cover, the puck didn’t stop completely, and Moussaka poked it into the net.

Second Period: Moussaka scored two goals, the first of which was the one I mentioned earlier. I fell on the puck — it was directly underneath my leg pads, but I was faced with the two best Moussaka players who relentlessly kept shoving at it until they got it out from underneath me. My teammates and I were astounded that the ref didn’t stop the play, and I remember giving him a look combining confusion and anger, but I didn’t want to cause trouble.

Their second goal flew in on my stick side — totally my fault. My angle was off and I was giving up way too much of the net on my right side.

Third Period: Scoreless for them! Woohoo!

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Goalie Stats

For stats abbreviation key, see below.

(more…)

Thanks to Rachel and Danalyn at Weblog Design Studios, I found a great web host who helped me fix up my blog: Blogs About. Many thanks to both Lisa and Chris, especially Lisa, for putting up with all of my questions and helping me get this new WP 2.1.2 straightened out. I’m sad that my old template isn’t quite ready for this version yet, and I still have many image and other things to fix, but I’ll deal. Oh, yeah — Lisa designed the one I’m currently using and a whole bunch more available for download at the WordPress site. She’s also a designer at E. Webscapes and is writing the new WordPress for Dummies — she comes highly recommended!

It’s been a tough last week or so: blog problems; Internet problems; PC problems, which is why I now have this new laptop with the built-in webcam. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get to see Hopper’s butt.

Brian’s been traveling for work since Monday and his flight’s been delayed tonight; he may not be home ’til tomorrow afternoon because of the weather. My pdoc assured me that it’s a good opportunity for me to start regaining my autonomy, except that all sorts of shit happened. On Monday, I was on my way to the gym before my pdoc appointment and got into a fender bender — minor, not a big deal, everyone’s fine. I forced myself to drive to the health club anyway and the pdoc’s office said it was OK if I was late.

Later that night, the living room fuse blew, and I had no idea where the fusebox is located, plus I never go into the basement because I’m a huge scaredy-cat when it comes to basements. All I can think of is Blair Witch. I didn’t think I could, but Brian walked me through it, even though our calls kept getting dropped. I think I managed the strength to do that because I had to feed the cats, and do chores and stuff, and because my blog and Web access were still fucked up, all I wanted to do was sit in the living room and read.

For the most part, I’m fine, but there are all of these little things that keep adding up and turning me into a huge basket case. It is my goal to regain autonomy, but not like this. I’ve jumped into doing all sorts of things in the past when I’ve felt better after an ECT, and I always end up crashing.

I went out to dinner with a friend last night, so that was a very welcome distraction. I hadn’t seen her in a while, and we had a lot of fun. But I should have just gone to bed when I got home. Oh, well.