badger_14

Three games in a row! Bravo. Rest up, you earned it.

Did not play well today. Also not feeling well, so I think I can chalk it up to trying to play too much before being fully recovered from illness. At any rate, my teammates are all very good about reassuring me that I am not an awful goalie. Not in a patronising way (as in, they don't tell me I made a good try for a goal when it was clearly one I should have had), but nicely. They are looking for a second regular goalie and teasing about how they'll have to find one that can compete with me, and that I have possibly "set a world record for fastest time between starting to play and being paid by the Bruins". (last spring, the B's alumni were missing a goalie, and wrangled me and another guy to split the game.) Makes me feel better about having an off day. I am told that Screaming Goalie refuses to play unless a certain number of people sign up (at least 12 skaters, the max is 14 usually, since we play 4v4 on small ice), but also that my ride/teammate has deliberately not asked him to come back, even when it's just me signed up. (see? my teammates, they are nice.) There is probably no Saturday pickup next week, something about some sort of important holiday that a lot of people in the US celebrate at the end of November. (no, in all seriousness, while I don't like Thanksgiving on several levels, I don't begrudge other people wanting to spend time with family and all that jazz.)

I swear, I play my worst hockey with/against my ambulance company. Granted, two is not a fair sample, and both times I have either been getting sick or recovering from sick. Still, I feel disappointed that I am not giving a good showing, and nervous about players I don't know, and that leads to mini-feedback loops of despair where I decide that I don't deserve a drink of water because I made a poor play. On the brighter side, I am not quite as traumatized by highway driving these days, after several back-and-forth trips to ambulance and hockey. The nice B-level guys from a couple of weeks ago asked me to play this Saturday morning, but I had already committed to my usual Saturday guys. (my hockey is getting in the way of my hockey!) I feel flattered that I've been asked at all, considering they are very strong players who skate well together, and playing against them was a challenge.

My teammates have described the screamer as 'intense' about games. That is not the word I would use. I feel like, in the grand scheme of things, if I plot out the skates I've been to in terms of crazy people, when the skate skews toward both 'older' and 'more skilled', the crazy level mostly goes down. 'Younger' and 'more skilled' seems frequently populated by jerks, though. My Saturday skate is mixed age and level, but most of them have also known each other forever and, as mentioned above, also work together. (actually, now that I think about it, that's the case of the two B-level skates I've been to - both were company skates where most of the guys worked together.) I do kind of miss the possibility of scoring a goal, but I really enjoy goaltending, and I think I might ultimately be better at it than skating out. (not that I'm fantastic at either one). On Saturday, one of my teammates asked if I minded if the teams swapped ends (so the other guys had a chance to shoot on a live goalie), and I said no, and he said, "You won't get as much defence - will you be like [screaming goalie]?" I pointed out I've never been like screaming goalie, and I am fundamentally kind of a marshmallow. (which is why I would rather coach house/LTP than travel.)

I don't understand why he wouldn't at least come back as a skater, then. But I suppose I'm not complaining. I'd rather he be an angry goalie far away from me, than an angry skater on the opposing side.

I'm sure. It just seems stupid of him - he's skated with these guys much longer, I've only been skating with them (and playing goal at all!) for less than a year, and he's going to f*ck off because I happened to have one very good game against him? Short-sighted and bullheaded. And not fair to our friends, who (if he's decided to sulk) are now left with one reliable goalie (me). (it's apparently hard to scrape up a goalie who wants to play at 9am on a Saturday). Who wants to shoot against milk crates stacked on a wooden bench?

Seven rounds! Mercy. Nicely done!

He actually was not there today either as skater or goalie. I asked my ride/teammate and he made some vague grumblings about him maybe not wanting to come back. Which is even dumber, honestly.

We play on small ice (3/4 maybe? More than half) so no one really even has the time to think about the last goal before the puck is gone. One of the reasons it's my favorite skate is because of how fast it is, and when we have enough players, things are always moving, so it forces me (and everyone) to focus and think and react. In fact I'm not even sure where this guy finds time to berate people. No wonder he lets in goals ... (the despair is my own personal issue, not per se directly related to how well or poorly I play goal)

In my mind, all allowed goals are ultimately my fault, so I have no particular reason to yell at people. And I know what it feels like to be screamed at for something you don't understand or that wasn't your fault. I'd rather just hang in my crease/net, play the best I can, try not to feel despair (getting better at this), and enjoy whatever good hockey is being played in front of me.

Like you said, though, raising your voice to be heard isn't the same as screaming at your teammates for not playing up to your standards. Like if I'm being screened and need to be heard in Russian or English, I can speak up, but I'm not going to excoriate a 10 year old kid for not blocking a shot.

The other goalie is a screamer when he skates out, too, just somewhat less so. I think everyone else was kind of done with his BS last week, though. I mean, he threatened to leave over losing in a pickup game. Dude needs to borrow some of my ativan.

Seriously. The core is a bunch of physics guys from Harvard and MIT, plus assorted friends, colleagues and anyone else that can be dragged into playing, including one guy's 10 and 15 year old kids. Competitive, but when the buzzer sounds life goes on, yannow? No need for screaming or stick-throwing.

I'm sure it will be fine, as long as the other guy just stays at his end of the ice. I wish he wouldn't yell at our teammates, though. I mean, it's just not worth it to get that frothed up over a pickup game. And it's not their fault if he's playing badly that day...

My teammate was teasing me about being worried about the other goalie (he's an angry guy with a stick, I don't think my concerns are entirely unfounded), when I said that "He got angry because I played better than he did it in one game," and my teammate replied that if I can play better than him one time, "then soon it will be more than one time". I have told him that's fine, but since he and the other Russians all served in the Soviet army, they are tasked with protecting me if the other goalie loses his sh*t again. So we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Had a great game of my own yesterday, and back to coaching Learn to Play as of this morning. Just a small bunch this year (not enough to split into two hours - only 40 kids). The guy my association hired to provide drills seems like a good egg, and the parents are nice so far. Looking forward to the season. :)

Played an excellent game today. Only let in one goal, early on, and then proceeded to stop everything that got to me. The other goalie (the yeller) got so angry (he let in 9, my teammates told me) that he threw his stick at one of them and threatened to leave if they didn't start scoring (they didn't, obviously). At one point he yelled at them that it was "embarrassing" that they couldn't score on me, which only made me more determined. Dude needs to chill out, but as long as he's playing goal he's far away from me. Doesn't help the other players, though. But I played well and everyone else was very pleased, and I am happy about it.

I mean, tournaments are always fun as a concept, but my track record (albeit as a forward) does not inspire confidence. I'm excited for it, I just don't want to let my team down (randomly assigned teams from the registrants). Seems like it should be pretty low-key, and FMC typically runs good programs. I need my Russian friends to teach me some less-charming Russian for when things go badly.

The company that manages several of the local rinks is sponsoring a mini-tournament on Black Friday for beginner adults (mainly from their instructional programs), so for some reason I decided to sign up. I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea, but I now have 22 days to contemplate my poor decision making. (seriously: as a skater I have been in four tournaments, and never once have any of my teams won even a single game. I think I am bad luck.)

Happy (pre) Halloween! Played a challenging pickup with a group of mostly-B level skaters, but good guys, fun to watch when they weren't about to score on me (good passing and skating). Played to 5 and swapped ends - out of an hour, I lost the first one, but won the next two. Tomorrow, back to my usual pick-up skate.

In the midst of an uncomfortable situation at the non-ambulance job. A recent transplant (vaguely managerial but not actually my supervisor - he was sent by our corporate overlords to "improve" us) keeps trying to intimidate me with vague threats about my job security and has now flat-out lied to me by saying that my co-workers have told him I am "cold" and "disrespectful" to customers. (since no one had ever told me this - and I have in fact been commended several times for my good customer service - I asked my co-workers and boss their opinions and they were just as bewildered as I was.) So either my boss and co-workers are lying, or the new guy is lying, and I don't know why, and I'm meeting with him and my boss later this week. I really do like my job, and I'd like to keep it.

I do talk to my teammates. In English and Russian lately, actually. I just don't say anything more than I have to, and neither do they. I don't say anything when I make a save, and I don't say anything when I miss one, either. Well, "sorry". (Or "извените") I think it's a little different on the small ice, too, when the situation changes as soon as the words are out of my mouth. (the other goalie just yells at everyone about everything)

For some reason I seem to play really well when I'm not feeling well. Yesterday the asthma was giving me such trouble that I considered leaving the game early, and in general I have to be pried off the ice with a crowbar. I haven't gone to any of the goalie clinics that are held after my Saturday pickup, because I haven't been well enough to manage both game and clinic. It's getting me down. But I played pretty tenaciously, bouncing from post to post, scrambling for the puck, stopping breakaways. Good times. Maybe after I see my doctor and update my medication, I'll be even better... (ha, ha). On the other hand, my teammate's son thought it was hilarious that I was "stopping everything and saying absolutely nothing" while the other goalie was "not making saves and shouting at everybody".

Not messing around. (uh, who wants a biohazard sticker?)

Thanks! My Saturday teammates are the bee's knees. They tolerate my slow, uneven development as a goalie, they play defence, they don't steal my water... they take pretty decent photos for using a 15 year old low-end digital camera... Good deal, beedee! I've never played a game with a score attached, but I know I have never had a shutout. Congrats!