badger_14

Hooray for bilateral weight-bearing!

So this past Tuesday I finally saw an orthopedic doctor (same one I saw for similar issues several years ago), he poked around at my knee for a bit and said "yeah, this is sort of concerning in an active guy your age, an x-ray won't tell me much, go get an MRI and we'll follow up." So I'm due to have an MRI on the 5th. Hockey player mentality, tho, while scheduling: "Hm, do I really want the 5th? That's my day off, I was going to play hockey ... wait wait wait no, idiot, we're going for an MRI to solve the problem of being IN PAIN WHILE PLAYING HOCKEY god. Schedule it." Hopefully though it's nothing serious and just needs some PT. I hope this continues to go quickly, because all the other muscles in my back and leg are locking up from trying to avoid the pain in my knee.

Misha's kids - 10 and 15 (ish?) - have always been very well behaved about goalies, even when Lunatic Goalie screams at them for being out of position (or whatever he screams at them for.) The Nuclear Physicist (another goalie) suggests they behave well because their dad is actually there, but I prefer to think he's just taught them well and they would behave regardless. On that note, I did play on Saturday. I saw a lot of two-on-one's or two-on-oh's (cry) but by the same token, several of the goals were on the 3rd or 4th rebound (partially my fault for not being able to cover, partially the skaters for not clearing) and ultimately I didn't feel too terrible about my play overall. By the second 45 minutes I was feeling much better about how I was moving, and I think that I am getting better at reading the play, being able to watch the puck and the players at the same time and predicting (hopefully spoiling) their plans. Lunatic Goalie was at the other end, screaming at the kids, and Misha, and pretty much his entire team. He also tripped two of my skaters and straight up shoved one to the ice. I think he needs a couple of my ativan or something, I mean honestly. (I attempted to express to Misha that I do not like Lunatic, and either Misha doesn't understand why or he's being deliberately obtuse, and he's an Smart Important Physicist Nerd so both are equally possible.) My leg/knee did not feel quite so bad on Saturday as it has before. I had a light workout on Friday that involved about 15 minutes of rolling out every involved muscle group and I think that helps quite a bit, but there's still odd moments where I'll drive with the leg and it hurts like someone drove a spike down my tibia. I am playing phone-and-insurance tag with the orthopedics office and the hospital's recent software update has apparently had some sort of malfunction and eaten everyone's patient data (I've been dealing with this for my patients as well as myself). But I look forward to scheduling an appointment shortly, getting a referral for some PT and maybe some x-rays and getting this crap dealt with so I can play and workout and sportsball like a normal (ish) human.

BWH and the nurses' union came to a last-minute agreement, avoiding a five-day labor stoppage! :D

Like this, but with a goalie, of course.

We need some PSAs for appropriate use/treatment of goalies. Just blitz all the rinks.

Humidity is the worst. I already sweat like a box of popsicles in August, god save me when it's all humid and sticky in the rink on top of that.

Folks do get strangely uptight when a T-shirt is on the line. (or a medal. At least medals look like you accomplished something.) And I understanding wanting to have some tangible symbol that you have made a progression or done well in something. I'm nowhere close to swimming at a meet with a team, but I still like to mark down an improvement in my times. It's harder to do that, I think, in hockey, or even in softball, where there's no obvious progression beyond "I can stand up/I can skate forwards/I can stop/I can skate backwards". My basic anxiety about other people, coupled with perfectionism, (couple with my disinterest in alcohol), makes me a poor candidate for most leagues and tournaments around here, with how intense people get. I cannot begin to express how difficult it is for me to not think that the Saturday group is trying to get rid of me, and even then, it's like "well, do you really know they're not trying to get rid of you? Even if you asked, they might be lying." Can you imagine me trying to play in a league? I would throw myself under the zamboni by the third game. There is a tournament coming up in August that I would like to play in for specific reasons, but I'm waffling about it for the above reasons.

I like to think so. I'm quiet and generally noncombative. But people also want to win, so you see folks asking for B goalies to play in D leagues. I want to win, too, I mean it's nice to feel successful and we all like a bit of swag to show off. But I'm not good enough to give a team a halfway successful season or even tournament. So, pickup.

Actor, Anton Yelchin.

We had to replay the entire previously-rained-out softball game (we'd gotten halfway through) yesterday morning at 8am on the nefarious turf fields, and we lost. That wasn't much fun. But then our team and our sibling team all piled into various modes of transportation and went down to our teammate's house for a pool party, which meant swimming, food, music, an inflatable pegacorn pool toy, a slip and slide, and of course more food and swimming. It was a great time and a rejuvenating end to a difficult week.

Oh! Yes, sorry for the confusion. The Saturday hockey is pickup, assembled from a mailing list of interested persons. I have never played goal for a real team, not even as a sub. No one wants that. :P

I've seen similar things for public hockey, just to make sure there aren't like thirty skaters at once. This is just a pickup group and the teams are randomly sorted from the players who signed up. (More or less randomly.)

It's not, really. 99% of the time it works. Whoever's in charge sends out the email, people sign up, if it gets above a certain number (14 skaters for small ice, 20 for full ice) the person in charge closes it out. Lunatic and Montana signed up ahead of me, that's all there is too it. I didn't realize Lunatic had checked off as a goalie. (I also can't see who's signed up until I sign up). I don't really feel like I have any cause to complain because first-come-first-served is how it works. It's the fairest system there is. And whether or not Lunatic plays isn't my decision. If the people running the skate are okay with him playing, then, well, that's how it is. I don't have to like it, I just have to play goal. Peter, at least, knows full well that I hate Lunatic skating with us. Or strongly dislike.

At Saturday hockey/The Russian Embassy, the signup is a googledoc where you input name and check off skater or goalie. Both the other goalies can skate out, in fact the Lunatic Goalie is actually a really good skater, but apparently people complained that there were too many skaters last week (5 on each bench, and 5v5, for an hour and a half), and so instead of pushing one of the other two to skater status, Misha just bumped me off the slot, and says if a skater drops out he'll move Lunatic (or Nice Goalie) to skater and give me the net slot. It's not a question of not having a choice, per se, but that Misha didn't think it was fair to take up a skater slot with someone who *could* play goal, n'est-ce pas? I am only (not at all) annoyed that Lunatic is skating with the group at all in any position. I gather he apologized and said he would keep his temper in check and not throw his stick at anyone or whatever else. I think he's full of shit, but I have minimal faith in people. I know he was at another skate consistently for a while after being booted from this one (I'm on the mailing list for that skate as well) so maybe they got fed up with him, too. The less charitable part of me hopes he beats the crap out of someone so they get the hint that he's not to be trusted. This is the second to last skate for the summer, I can't skate next week, and I know I'm not all that good, but shit, I've never tried to hurt any of the other players. Myself, yes. But no one else. Of course I am not annoyed not at all of course not. It's only fair that the first signup gets the slot.

I understand that the sign up is first come first served, so I am absolutely not in any way frustrated that the lunatic goalie (the one who threw a tantrum because I played better than he did ONE TIME, the one who wasn't invited back, the one half the players didn't want back) got the spot instead of me.

Get him a can of febreze. Make a show of it. Tie a bow around it. Chances are everyone else knows he stinks too. I skated against a goalie once who stank so badly you could smell him from the bench. In fact, when he was on the opposite bench (at the time we had a rotation), past both penalty boxes and the scorekeeper's box, you could *still* smell him.

Jesus Christ! Seriously. Take care of that!

lol. Apologies Ash. I forgot about boobs. You could try a padded shirt underneath, or get a second pair of women's shoulders and have someone (a tailor) install the chest piece as an internal layer.

Woke up yesterday morning, ready to sing at the final service of the year. Then we all heard about the nightclub shooting in Orlando. For many of us in the congregation and choir, it hit terribly close to home. I am appalled, and angry, and hurting for the victims and their families.

Yeah, the actual impact isn't so bad with the padding. Some of the movements can be a little hard on the soft tissues, ligaments and IT band and hip flexors and all that fun stuff, but there's plenty of information about stretching and strengthening out there. The gear itself is basically unisex, other than the jock/jill. Since many adult women are smaller in stature than adult men, intermediate (teen size) gear may work well. I wear an intermediate catcher and blocker because I have delicate artiste hands, but they have been plenty protective excepting a few stingers from ex-NHL'ers and people who just plain have stupidly powerful shots. Kids grow out of their gear like there's no tomorrow, so if there is any youth hockey in your area, scour craigslist. Some poor parent somewhere is definitely trying to recoup their investment after their goalie grew three inches in as many weeks.

JOIN US.

Interestingly, for whatever reason, almost none of the adult leagues around here (in fact, only one that I know of) is USAHockey sanctioned or affiliated. So for us, it's really up to whoever's running the league (or rink). At any rate, you're right - it's having a consistent standard of enforcement, and having concern for the players' safety, rather than for the $25 per game. Or worrying about "image" or hurting someone's feelings (and I do understand that sometimes "hurt feelings" lead to "smashed faces in the parking lot", so I get a certain degree of wariness), which I think is more the problem here. That is, some league managers are more concerned with having teams and players (and their money) return, and/or with not wanting to look like they're taking the "fun" out of hockey by not letting people bust each other up. But "it's not okay to hurt people on purpose" is a concept I explain to the kids I work with all the time. Sometimes accidents happen, but basically speaking it's not okay to, for example, bodyslam your brother and slap him in the head because you want the ball he's playing with. But the kids I work with are 3, 4, and 5 years old. Adults should have grasped the concept. (even "frustrated" or "emotional" adults.) To a certain degree (because accidents happen, and refs are human) you have to take things on a case by case basis, but people in charge need to also say "no, you can't do X, X will result in punishment/suspension/ejection" else you just end up with people who think they can get away with X, Y, and Z. (I am sure pretty much everyone here who has ever worked retail can tell a story about a person who thought they could do X, Y, or Z because they'd "done it before".) I cannot say for certain (as above, almost none of MA's adult leagues are USAH sanctioned) how much effort USAH actually puts into the adult recreational end of hockey- training officials or making modified adult rulebooks clear and available for perusal or giving advice on how to operate an adult league. The impression I get is "very little effort".

I'm getting the sense that there are some league managers out there who need to get their priorities straight.

I'm sometimes honestly surprised that anybody would shoot on a goalie whose back is turned, or who isn't looking toward the shooter. I mean, sometimes it happens in a game that a shot comes from an angle you don't quite scramble too fast enough. But in practice or warm-ups, it should be basic courtesy (and safety awareness) not to fire off a small, hard chunk of rubber at someone who is not aware of the shot incoming. (padded someone, yes, but not everywhere). I mean, when my softball team practices or is warming up, we don't throw the ball at someone who's not looking. When I'm at a mixed-age stick time, I do have to remind young kids not to shoot at my back, and not to shoot when someone else is in the lane (the mite age group tends to wander), but like, adults. We should know this. At the very least, understand that if your goalie is injured, you end up with at best an annoyed goalie, and at worst an injured goalie who cannot play.