badger_14

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.

So, in other words, you do get time before game for "Warm ups" but it's basically "2 minute danglefest". Which is mostly what happens around here (alternately: I sit there in the goal and people are STILL SHOOTING AGAINST THE BOARDS LIKE HI?? I AM A GOALIE???), except with the Russian Embassy, who are good and responsible people. Last Tuesday, I got no warm-up whatsoever and played like crap. I definitely feel better and more in the groove when someone endeavors to do a proper warm-up.

So this video showed up on my FB feed this morning. I like a lot of what it says, although I think it vastly overestimates the skill of a lot of adult league players with the notion that one skater can consistently pick glove, blocker, and then each pad. Also, how much warm-up time do they think we have, anyway? With the Russian Embassy, typically Misha or Gilad will set me up with five or six shots each from the top of the circle, the slot, and the top of the other circle. I like that. I did like the note about making eye contact with the goalie. I (personally) hate when people shoot on me blindside, or when my back is turned. What about you guys? What do you like for a warm-up? Do you get any warm-up time?

Welcome back to the ice. No more surgery! (at least, for as long as possible, fingers crossed for you). Glad you are looking healthy.

A two hour commute home while stained with and reeking of someone else's blood and fluids is not my idea of a good time.

I will rest. I might even go and see a medical professional about my leg and/or shoulder. Okay?

EMTs don't really make much more than minimum wage. (certainly not one with less than a year's experience on the job), and I'm also still only working part time. (part time on EMT job, part time at the gym, part time altogether). It's been a while since I was totally dysfunctionally sick, but I'm still working back into being stable and working a full 40 hour week.

@OptimusReim You know, it's a good thing that it's the beginning of the month, and that I worked extra hours the past two weeks, because one of those kits is roughly 1/3 of my usual weekly earnings... @bunnyman666 I seem to be okay. If there is hockey this weekend, I probably won't play, and with everything else going on I'll probably skip the softball double-header as well. Resting is healing, as the hospitals are fond of saying.

On the border of cage and mask, if I recall correctly. No dents, all fine. Brain is functioning well enough to parse my Russian homework with no more difficulty than usual. A little extra padding, I think.

I would describe it as an isolated incident. I mean, I basically took the puck right between the eyes from point-blank range.

Well, I'm wearing a CCM 9000 now. So. (I just got it last ... August? Might've been July.) It's possible I just felt crappy due to being dehydrated and sleep deprived. I'll look into throwing some extra padding in there for shock absorption. I'm probably not playing this weekend anyway, from every other body part going pear-shaped.

It just feels like a karmic insult. Like, if I'm going to get clanked in the face, at least let it not go in. I couldn't get my gear upstairs (it has to live in my room, on the second floor) last night or this morning so I guess I have to swallow my pride and take it easy for the rest of the week. I just feel so guilty when I don't play or work out. :/

Hahaha "low intermediate" pickup. Actually it was pretty evenly balanced, mostly C+ with scattered D's. Among the worst annoyances as a goalie is when a puck hits you in the face and still goes in. This did not happen tonight, but I did get hit square in the forehead and now I do not feel so good. (my leg and shoulder also hurt, which was expected, so I am just a hot broken mess at this time). What I should do: rest. What I will probably not do: rest.

Holiday weekends, I suppose. Perpetually confounding. :( Well, at least you got to work on something?

Where in the hell are all these goalies coming from?

I am feeling better, mainly what needs to happen is that I need some time to socialize with people who aren't my co-workers, other medical professionals, patients, or children under the age of 6. I'll go visit the ocean this weekend, or something. The water's a bit cold for normal people, but nothing that the Badger-shaped can't handle.

I had a really awful day on Saturday - my game probably wasn't that bad, but it felt bad and I was in a tough emotional state anyway. I may or may not have been trapped in a despair-thicket, which are treacherous, nasty places that sneak up on you and make you feel like you are nothing. Fortunately it improved within a good 24 hours but this week has already been tough, and there's no hockey this weekend because it's a holiday and people are doing other things. I'm not sure why "playing hockey" can't be one of those things. I would try to find another spot on Saturday, but I'm feeling pretty bad about my game, so perhaps a bit of a break will be for the best.

There was some sort of dispatching mix-up, which resulting in my partner and I covering a chair-car call (sometimes BLS ambulances do this if there aren't any chair cars available) which was more than two hours late. (patient was supposed to get picked up at 5:30, we were dispatched at 6:30, and got to patient at 7pm). Naturally, the patient took it all out on us, was extremely uncooperative (didn't even want to sit on the stretcher - sorry, this is an ambulance, not optional. Also, you get to lie down???) and verbally abusive towards me and my partner. The funny thing is, I felt far less safe in the back with this patient than I did with last week's knife-possessing ex-convict. Wild times.

Opti - that's awful, the whole thing. I hope your recovery goes quickly.

On Monday, my partner and I picked up a psychiatric patient for transfer from a major hospital ER to a psychiatric facility. Turns out that Major Hospital ER didn't do such a hot job searching Patient's belongings, 'cause when Patient asked if we could get his (sealed, no worries) Gatorade out of his backpack for him, we all discovered he was in possession of a steak knife. Fortunately, he was a cooperative guy, and told us we should take it and not leave it with him. (This was during the hour we spent in a locked 5x8" foyer waiting for someone to take Patient for admittance to the facility, because facility in question is badly understaffed and was in the middle of a crisis.) Thanks, Major Hospital ER. That could've gotten ugly. Fortunately it did not, and my partner and I got a reassuring rundown from the supervisor at the end of shift on what to do about contraband like that (or lighters, or matches, or drugs, or whatever else the patient has in their belongings), and then the supervisor made sure we got ice cream for EMS week.

Hooray! Hockey with the Russian Embassy returns at last! At 8am on Saturday, oof. Still looking forward to it.