badger_14

New kneepads, purchased yesterday. Bauer Supremes. It was a choice between these and a pair of CCMs, but these ultimately fit better against my knee and thigh. Of course, there's never any certainty til you get them on ice, but after trying them on under pads and bouncing around HockeyMonkey's fitting area for a while, I think they'll do. They're definitely going to be better than nothing, and they have good reviews as far as I can tell. Next up is finding a slightly better chest protector. Everything else is okay, but I do get stung through mine (CCM 500L, intermediate) enough to make me reluctant to go to any skate C or better.

They're a really great bunch of guys. They've had me as a goalie literally since I first started - I came to the rink for a clinic, showed up early, and Peter (who runs the skate) was like "hey! come and goalie for us!" The fact that I had never played goal except on asphalt before did not deter him. And, in spite of that, they've stuck with me. I had mentioned my "goalie birthday" to Peter a few weeks ago (in the context of "I'll try to be less hard on myself after my 1 year mark") but I was in no way expecting any kind of acknowledgment, and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

My teammates celebrated my "goalie birthday" (as of tomorrow, I've been playing goal for one year) with much applause and a copy of "Red Army". I couldn't ask for a nicer bunch to skate with.

I had a good game - felt much more relaxed, I think having the movement practice on Tuesday helped. I made more of an effort to butterfly slide properly (vs. shifting my hips) and ended up in unexpected places, so that will take more practice, but I got back alright. I did let by a dumb goal or two. However: Tomorrow is my "goalie birthday" (as my teammates called it - that's one year now of playing goal) and so today they surprised me after the game with a present (a copy of "Red Army") and lots of applause. Best team.

I might be biased because 3v3 (or 4v4) is virtually all I play, but it doesn't take much to adapt to it. It's true there aren't as many breaks as in full ice 5v5, but you just get extra good at keeping one eye on the play while downing a swig of water. It's what the long-nozzle water bottles are for, after all - drinking through the cage. You do see a lot of the puck, although the trade-off for playing on small ice is that (for me) when I go to regulation ice I have to adapt to the angles, and more of the shots are from a distance rather than scrambles close in, with more bodies to hit along the way. It's sort of like - well, when you haven't gotten new glasses for a while, or the first time you get glasses and you suddenly see so much more clearly, but also get dazed and lopsided because you aren't used to seeing that way. (of course this analogy only works for the half-blind goalies among us.) It's exciting, anyway, and I encourage everyone to try it.

Stick time down the street was pretty quiet. Me, a dad putting his son a grueling-looking practice, a kid getting a private lesson with one of the coaches, and later two kids and their dad. I asked the kid and the coach if they would like a goalie to shoot on, they said yes, so that was a nice 45 minutes or so. I had plenty of time to stretch and sprawl and work on movement without game pressure, the kid seemed to enjoy getting a goalie instead of just an open net, worked out for both of us.

My Saturday group plays on a small ice surface - I don't know the exact dimensions, I think it's 130x60 - so there are never really any "slow, trickling" shots from the point. There's just not enough space. It is also why I usually face a lot of shots (more than 20-25) - 4v4 on the small ice is much faster, much more puck movement generally than 5x5 on regulation ice. (unless I am playing against Raytheon, or a similarly skilled group). Many of the goals are simply me not being fast enough to follow the puck as player A passes it to B to C and C shoots - not tracking the puck, per se, but actually getting to it, because it's like playing in a pinball machine some days.

Holy hot damn, that is nice.

I would wager they had twenty or twenty-five shots on me, but 5 or 6 out of 20-25 is pretty awful. I would like to get to a point where like ... if I was in a D league, I could win maybe half the games. This seems like a not-unreasonable standard. I have been very sick the past two weeks, but I don't want to make excuses for anything. You might be surprised how many shift workers hit up lunchtime hockey. There's a skate Tu/Th/F run by a neighboring town's rink, and it's like - 12 to a bench, not counting the guys on the ice. If people know about it - and the rink is quite busy with school and youth hockey and adult leagues, so if it's posted, people certainly know about it - it could be fairly crowded. $10/skater is a pretty typical price for an hour. They're charging goalies $5 which is very unusual (90% of the time goalies are free at any skate). What I will probably do at some point is schedule another lesson with the folks down the street, get an objective eye on things, and go from there.

Just feeling straight-up depressed about my play. I didn't actually see a lot of shots total (my teammates kept it mostly down at the other end of the rink) but let in stupid goals and felt accordingly stupid. I think I let in 5 or 6? Whatever it was did not feel like a good ratio. They insist I played well, though whether that's honest or just trying to protect sad goalie feelings is another question entirely. I did find out that the rink down the street from me has actual, honest-to-god scheduled stick times, that are even on their website (the rink is part of a private school and their online info has been limited at best in the past) and there's one on my usual day off so I might go out Tuesday. There's no telling who might be there. Kids on lunch break? (it's PreK - 9th grade, junior boarding) Adults on lunch break? Homeschoolers? No one?

As someone who started at roughly your same ratio (although I've dropped quite a bit since playing goal) I say go for it. I didn't have any particular back problems, but I had no previous history of injury. I did find it took a while to build up strength in my legs and thighs, along with core. My thighs were quite sore after games for a while! Definitely exercise off-ice in addition to playing, and don't play too much all at once.

I would say most of them have been glancing - this was the first really direct hit (hence, the bruising). If I recall it was from a fairly tight angle and I didn't get over to the post properly.

I have still not discerned if my problem with shots to the ribs has to do with a lack of positional coverage or a lack of external coverage (i.e. padding). Now I have a fine looking bruise on my upper right ribs. Upside: that shot did not go in. I actually don't remember most of the pickup today, because I have (yet another) respiratory infection. I played reasonably well. I may have let in fewer goals than the other goalie. No one screamed at me. Some players who haven't played with the group in a while are back and surprised at my progress, which is nice. I am noticing that I slide backward (toward the net) when butterflying or dropping, which probably means I am canting my shoulders and torso forward instead of throwing my hips out and down, and that's something I need to work on. I'm thinking about splurging on another goalie lesson sometime this month or early next (perhaps as a "yay I got through a whole year playing goalie" present to myself). Last year, I went to a guy who works out of the rink down the street from me, and had a good experience. He usually works with kids, but that's about where I am. There is also a group goalie clinic after my Saturday pick-up, but if I do that I'm SOL on a ride home or to the T. ;)

Looking good. I see you taking a brief doze there around 3:45. ;) It is true your butterfly looks a little tight (call it ... the pupal phase of butterfly) but I don't know if I can critique because mine probably doesn't look much better. But you generally look to be pretty square to the puck and following it well.

Got notice Friday that I'm officially off probation with the ambulance service, no caveats, no sweat. Nothing weird happened on shift today, and dispatch even sent us back about an hour early, which gave me a chance to practice driving the ambulance around for about 45 minutes. Feeling much better about the prospect of having to drive sometime. (probationary EMTs can't drive at my company, but they also don't train you on driving the trucks, so you have to practice when you can.)

So this morning went much better than Wednesday or Thursday, although Thursday's whole experience (being screamed at, being hit a couple times, etc.) has apparently undone a lot of good therapy since I was shaking-nervous and nearly cried after letting in a third goal. In my defense, it's been a very long week overall. Wednesday was a good, clean butt-kicking (playing against guys who are several levels above me in terms of skill), but Thursday was a nightmare. Today started out pretty rocky but my teammates persist in reassuring me (depending on the day this can be like drilling through bedrock with a super-soaker, so props to them) and I was feeling much better as the game went on, and played much better as well.

I don't mind pointers (unless they're screamed at me, and/or accompanied by a slap with a stick). Nor do I mind apologetic defence (although when the Russians are playing 3v3 on the small ice, the concept of defence is somewhat distorted. I get a lot of shots in 3v3, and that's okay.) One guy, last night, cleared the puck by shooting it over the back of the net. While I was in the net. Directly over my shoulder. I was kind of ticked about that - that could've hurt like a bejeebus. Never seen anyone do that before. Presumably, because it's an incredibly stupid thing to do. The times I've skated with [ambulance service] I sometimes feel like there's a point where they decide defending me isn't worth the effort, but I could just be paranoid. On an unrelated note, I probably need to upgrade my chest protector. The damn torso keeps curling inward, leaving my squishier parts vulnerable. (I also get hit in the upper ribs fairly often). I will try tightening the belly strap - I've lost about 40lbs since playing goal. Then I will consider the options for 'senior torso, intermediate arms'.

No. Honestly, like I said, it just makes me more nervous and thus more likely to mess up. See, the Scary B Level guys (I should just refer to them as Raytheon, because it's a skate for current/retired employees) are physical, but not goons. They also don't scream at inexperienced goalies, and will in fact warn me if [x] guy has, say, a high shot, or a really powerful shot and is likely to use it. (my equipment is largely intermediate, and not quite built for B-level shots so I can get a bit bruised, but I don't mind because the skate is enjoyable and a challenge.) But knocking people's sticks out of their hands, facewashing, tripping people into the boards, it's stupid. Particularly if you work at a job where being injured can really screw you over. If I break an arm, I can still work a desk job, or even babysit, but I'm not going to be able to lift a 400lb patient on a stretcher.

Well that was unpleasant. The [local ambulance company] skate is civil for about 5-10 minutes, then devolves into goonery. And also, lots of me getting screamed at for not being very good. Many of the individual players are quite good, but unlike the guys I skated with yesterday (B-level) and unlike the Russians (C-ish), they do not play well as a group. Also, neither the Scary B Level Guys nor the Russians scream at me. Which, just for the record, does not really help me improve. (actually, it makes me play worse in the moment.) I mean not just the getting screamed at as goonery, but dingbats fighting with each other and knocking sticks out of players' hands and tripping and all kinds of dumb things in that vein.

So sorry to hear about your player ... that's rough, poor kiddo. Hopefully, like Beardo says, the road is not so bumpy as it appears now. Good luck to her.

A local B-level group was in need of a goalie today, and I decided it was about time for an ass-kicking, so I signed on. I've skated with them before - they are loud and competitive, but no goonery. Most of them are ex-college or prep school players and big shots aside (plenty of people can have big shots) they play fast. I didn't do as well as I wanted, but I think I held my own considering their experience and skill levels versus my own. They play to five goals, then swap sides. I think the other goalie and I were even - two and two. This week is a test of my goaltending endurance: I will play with my ambulance company tomorrow night, and then Saturday morning with the Russians.

Pretty ticked at one of the local hospitals after tonight's fiasco. Utter negligence on their part, signing off on the discharge of a patient who absolutely should not have been discharged - altered mental status, didn't know his address, no one seemed to know his address, no next of kin, no shoes, and their original plan was to send him walking out the door with his bag, his cane, and bus fare. It's 12F out right now. Somehow, someone noticed his lack of footwear, and called our company for a chair car, but as no chair car was available, we got the call, which is probably a damn good thing, since our patient is now back at the hospital and hopefully staying there until someone competent figures out a plan for him.

Welcome to the madhouse. Love your username. :)

Several parents have told me this. I think it's probably easier to be patient when you know that you can give the child back to their parent eventually.

Highlights of today's pickup include an ex-college player (who ordinarily does not shoot on me at all - he passes instead) rifling every shot in his arsenal at me, ostensibly to impress his visiting friends. Pro tip: scoring on me is not impressive. However, he only got two by me over the course of an hour and a half in spite of leveling a blitzkrieg at me. (we were playing 3v3 with one sub a side, and defence does what defence can, but I face a LOT of shots.) Also, in keeping with the running joke of "when I am sick, I play my best hockey" my teammate texted me this afternoon: "I hope you're not sick, since you played so well today."