tedpenguins

I guess one good day leads to a bad one. Had a game last night for the team that I skate out for. Our goalie that is notorious for not being able to make games didn't even give us a heads up that he wasn't going to be coming. Luckily we were able to pick someone up from a different team but now I'm going to have to start taking both of my bags with me just to make sure that we do have someone in net. I honestly have no clue what this guy is thinking. When I'm in net I make sure that I'll be there and I'll choose to play in net over skating out just because goalies are harder to find. At this point it looks like I might have to be in net for 2 teams this season and for sure in the future. This guy has definitely lost his welcome with us. I guess things happen for a reason though, more ice time in net for me

Had my fifth game in net last night, but this time I'm officially the full time goalie. My normal team that I play out with moved up a level so almost everyone on this lower team is new. Didn't really know what to expect from them but they played decent in front of me. I called out plays and directions a lot more than I normally would and they did give up a lot of odd man rushes but everything worked out. Stopped 3 different breakaways and I felt more calm and composed in the net. The one breakaway I was really surprised that I was able to get. It was actually a 2 on 0 with about 20 seconds left in the period and we were trying to protect a 1-0 lead. I don't know if the guy didn't realize he had a teammate right next to him because he decided to take it on his own. I dropped a bit too early and he tried to go high blocker side. I had a good enough angle though to catch the shot on my arm right as the buzzer went off. I'm getting more and more confident and I'm trying to focus on sliding across the crease. My angles and depth seem to be decent enough but I do give up some bad rebounds at time. One last night led to a goal against but if I can learn how to slide and move around more fluid the rebounds shouldn't be a huge problem.

Yea goalies are free in this league. Payments were due about 4 weeks ago and we had no problem with our goalie showing up at that point. I completely understand that it is a holiday time and work does get in the way sometimes but to miss almost the whole second half of the season is a bit much. Whether a goalie pays or not they've made a commitment to be part of the team and they should try to be there as often as they can like everyone else. This next season should be really interesting though. Our team is splitting in half so the stronger players can move up a league since we are dominating the other teams. I'm gonna end up being on both teams: playing in net in the lower tier and playing as a forward in the upper. I don't mind filling in in net when something comes up but there's no way I'm going to pay for it this next season if it becomes a habit.

Had games on back to back nights this weekend and for the 3rd week in a row our goalie couldn't make the games. Last night we ended up losing 2-0 but I got absolutely no help from my D, and as the case with Optimus' drop in, that obviously doesn't work too well. I was waiting for a reply all day today from our tendy of whether or not he was gonna show up to find out 2 1/2 hrs before game time that he wasn't going to be able to. Normally that wouldn't be that bad but I live about 45 mins away from the rink so I tend to leave about 1 1/4 hrs early to make sure I have plenty of time. Showed up to the rink to find out that the other team had no subs and they're already the bottom team in the league. We'll usually beat them 5-1 or something close to that. I think i faced 5 shots, and not very good ones at that all night. By the end of the second I had skated over to our bench and told my team to take it easy on them and give them a few chances since we were already up 4-0. I had 2 defensemen out of 12 players that were actually trying to give the other team a chance. Another guy was attempting to complete a hat trick and the rest of the forwards were playing like they were trying to win the Stanley Cup. We won 9-0 and I couldn't be more embarrassed by that win. Not to mention that this is the team that I play as a forward in so getting put in net for the second half of the season after I've already paid my dues for doesn't exactly sit well with me. Especially when I'm only facing 5 shots a game. I love playing in net but not when I literally skate around the net or practice doing push offs while play is going on because I'm so bored. My 2 D-men that were trying to let the other team get some shots apologized to me at the end of the game but 2 guys can only help the other team when they're dead tired and my forwards don't understand that you don't win any special trophy or award in this league. To put it lightly I'm just a tad bit pissed at my team from that one. If I would have known the other team had no bench I would have brought my gear to skate out. I basically showed up tonight to warm up my team and that was it. Complete waste of time, league dues, and gas money.

I probably won't at this point. Just having the landing pad in the right spot now made a huge difference. I didn't end up feeling anything when I would drop down and I've got no bruises so that's always a plus!

Drop in with the new pads was phenomenal. I ended up being with the normal drop in group which had a total of 3 goalies for about 15 minutes when another group came over and asked if one of us would like to head over to the rink they were on. I headed over to find out that I was going to be the only goalie over there. All the extra ice time was nice but I was starting to feel it after the first 15 minutes with that group. Ended up switching nets every 15 minutes and had a whole 45 minutes in net. The pads themselves were awesome. I could easily kick the rebounds into the corners and the 5 hole wasn't a problem at all. One puck ended up squeezing through after I had stopped it but that was just because I wasn't expecting someone to come whacking at me for a rebound. Had a few go in that I probably should have stopped but I was pretty pleased considering it was only my third time in net and I was adjusting to new pads. Stopped a few break aways and I was really surprised on the one save. Their winger came into the zone all alone and got me to go down. I stuck out my leg just hoping that I would get a piece of it and I ended up getting every bit of it! Hopefully this next weekend I'll get another chance to play in net with my actual team. I'm not the full time goalie but we do have one early game out of the two this weekend, so I'll just have to wait and see if our goalie can get out of work on time to get to the rink.

I've also been working on breaking in my glove but I haven't been making much progress. I've boiled water and put the glove over the pot so the steam could get up into the foams and loosen them up a bit. That helped a bit but I'm still struggling to close the glove all the way. Any tips or ideas of what to do? I've also been using the good old-fashioned "sit on the couch with the glove on and open and close it until it starts breaking in".

Thank you! After looking at the padskinz online I'm probably going to pick some up. I was really anticipating a higher price tag on them but you can't beat $20 for a small amount to just try it out. I've been thinking of doing some minor adjustments to my pads already. My first set of pads were actually the Reebok X-Pulses so they do have a lot of protection and the leg channels were super comfortable. I might stitch some velcro into the leg channel of my new pads and just take the removable liner out of the X-Pulses to put into the X24's. I'm gonna head to drop in on Sunday before I do this so I know what the pad feels like without them, but I'm still not 100% sure if I'll do it or not. If it's not a huge difference in feel then I probably won't just to save the extra room in the leg channel and to keep the pad lighter. I'm not quite sure how much the different types of padding in the pads has changed throughout the years so I have no clue how a higher end pad from a while ago will compare to a newer, low end pad. I'm expecting a noticeable difference between the two but the X-Pulses had a good amount of use on them so the padding was probably broken down to about the amount the X24's have. We'll find out later this weekend I guess!

I'll definitely have to check those out then! I was under the impression that they only sold them in the sheets.

The blocker definitely needs some black on it. I'm gonna try out some duct tape first and see how well that holds up first then I think I'll check out the pad wraps. I've got Vaughn LT80 knee pads and I'm actually really impressed with them. I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of them since they were the cheapest on the market but they've been phenomenal so far. I had a bit of a problem with some of the velcro straps rubbing against my legs weird but a pair of knee compression sleeves took care of that. The thigh boards just seem like dead weight and I'm surprised no company has really done anything with them yet. They just take up space and seem to agitate pretty much everyone.

Here they are! I'm not quite sure how they got white/black/black because they look like the white/white/black to me but they still look awesome and I'm happy with them. I added the rest of my gear into the pick too. My blocker is a Reebok 28 and the glove is a CCM extreme flex 400. The helmet is a bauer 940 custom painted to look like Fleury's from the stadium series a few years ago. I can already tell I'm probably going to be taking the thigh risers off of the pad just because they like to get caught on my pants but everything else works awesome!

My pads have been delivered! I should have pictures on at around 3ish tomorrow once I get home. Can't wait to see them let alone try them out. I'm gonna have to see about some drop in over the weekend.

Sure will! I should get them Tuesday or Wednesday but I won't be able to actually see them until Thursday when I get home from college. Ended up going with a white/black/black. If you look at the navy/sport gold option its basically those with any color on those being black on mine. I just think the white and black looks sharp with pretty much any jersey colors and it'll match good with the rest of my gear.

Tried on the Brian's in store but they just seemed like too much adjustment for me while I'm still getting used to pads in general. The way they rotated was insane! I ended up getting the Reebok's. I just couldn't beat the price of them, with my rewards from Total Hockey I ended up getting the price down to $250. They didn't have many colors in stock so I ordered online right there in the store. Can't say enough about the customer service of Total Hockey! My 5-hole problem should be completely fixed though. Ended up with a 33+1 and they're absolutely perfect! When I do decide to upgrade again in the future it will for sure be a tough decision between Brian's and CCM. I just couldn't stop myself from taking up the great deal I was getting on the Reebok's. The employees also told me that they've been selling those left-and-right since they started the deal so that lead to me acting pretty fast on those. Can't wait for them to get here but too bad I've got a bye week this next week. I'll have to see about some drop in over the weekend.

I'll definitely try on the Brian's in store then! If the Reebok's really grow on me while I'm there I'll probably get them but if the fit of the Brian's really stands out to me I'll wait them out a bit and save up some extra money to get those. At least I'm shopping while everything's going on sale!

http://goalie.totalhockey.com/product/Reebok_Premier_X24_Goalie_Leg_Pads_%5bSENIOR%5d/itm/15612-41/ I might go check these out later today or tomorrow. I like the way that the Reeboks I have right now fit and I think I would like them twice as much if I had a pair that actually fit. I'll check out a pair of Brian's, Vaughn's, and Bauer's while I'm there though.

Dang thats one heck of a deal! I can fit between a 32 and a 33 just depending on brand of course. I've never actually tried on a set of Brian's. How do they compare with the other pads on the market?

My team must have really thought I played pretty well last week cause they gave me the start again last night. We ended up winning 7-2 and I thought my positioning had already improved drastically from last week. The other team brought in a ringer and he ended up beating me on the last goal. He managed to sneak it in 5-hole and the first one ended up doing the same. I had bought my leg pads used and they are about 2-3 inches too short so my 5-hole doesn't get completely covered. Now that I know that I enjoy playing in net I'm gonna start putting together some money to buy a pair of leg pads that actually fit me perfectly. I wanna try and stay at around $500 or less but if there's a pad that is only a bit more and has outstanding reviews I would definitely consider them. Based off of that does anyone have some recommendations? All my other gear I got for good deals and it's all decent stuff but the leg pad problem needs to get fixed.

Thank you! This was the first time. I've taken a few shots out on the pond in the dark but that's about the extent of it. I've been a catcher in travel softball since I was about 10 so I'm thinking that was a huge help to how I played last night.

First career start resulted in a first career win! The score ended up being 3-2. I had a few good saves; the first goal was a breakdown of my defense. I made the initial save with the shaft of my stick but the puck ended up behind the net with my defense in front of me. The other team retrieved it and came around front for the shot point blank while my defense just watched. Second goal was just a great shot that went bar down. Being in goal was a whole lot more stressful then I thought it was going to be but I had a blast! I really noticed that I was having trouble sliding from post to post while I was down in the butterfly so that'll be my first thing to work on.

Thanks! I sure will, at this point we aren't expecting to come out on top. We're missing 2 full lines and the other team is known to have a ringer that somehow has stayed in the same division for 5 years. Hopefully we'll be able to add a few players to the roster before game time but if not we've got a pretty comfortable lead in the standings to take a loss. For a first game, I'm just aiming to have a GAA under 10

I've got my first ever game in net tonight. I'm a bit nervous but I'm sure once the game starts I'll cool down a bit. Any quick tips?

Love the jerseys Optimus

Ice finally froze on my ODR today so I'm finally going to get out on the ice with my gear today. Temps are supposed to soar again tonight so I'll only have the ice for the day. This goofy el nino year is really messing up my extra ice time this year Currently having my helmet painted and I should have it back by the end of the week. Can't wait to see the final product of that. I'm thinking of getting some knee guards pretty soon too and I'm really looking at the Warrior Ritual X. When I bought my leg pads they ended up being slightly small on me but the discount I got on them was so worth it that I was thinking of just modding the knee cradle a bit but the knee guards don't seem like a bad idea at this point (better to have too much protection instead of not enough). Would a senior knee guard fit into an intermediate leg pads cradle or would it be too tight of a fit?

My team was able to get some ice for practice in our last season for dirt cheap (I think about $10 a piece for an hour). I'll have to check into that again. I'm only the backup goalie for now until we move up a league next season so little bits of playing time shouldn't be too hard on me either. As long as that's what it is, LITTLE amounts.