Starting in Goal as an Adult

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Yeah I've played there (and the Honda center) a couple times. Nothing beats NHL ice. It's an amazing experience.

[badger_14 601]

The Bruins held a raffle last month for an hour's ice-time at the Garden, and they have some vague promotions where if your youth org. sells enough tickets they can have a game, but as far as I know they don't rent it to regular ordinary people, which is a shame. I mean, it would probably be some obscene cost for a 50-minute hour, but people would still pay it. Harvard, Northeastern, BC and BU all rent their ice. Heck, BU rents out both its rinks.

I hope they rent out the ice at Gillette around the Winter Classic, like they did with Fenway (actually, they build a rink at Fenway annually now). I'd totally put in to rent that ice.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

If I recall we paid about $80 each which included a ticket to the game afterwards.

[bunnyman666 445]

I have had the distinction of skating in the old St. Louis Arena, the old Maple Leaf Garden, and the old Molson Centre. St. Louis Arena had the softest ice ever. All three places were done as a "sell tickets and you get the ice" deals in the late '80s and I was in high school and Junior hockey.

The closest I get to playing on NHL ice these days is stick and puck at the Blues practise facility.

Opti- does Honda Center tear down their ice in the summer?

[badger_14 601]

That's not a bad price at all, to skate on NHL ice and then go to the game afterward. How many people was that, 20? 15?

I heard the ice at the Boston Garden is actually pretty soft, slow ice. Something about sitting directly on top of a 11-track railroad terminal. Apparently MSG's ice is like that, too.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I'm not sure how many people. 20 probably? Two teams at least.

I don't think Honda takes their ice out but I don't know.

[badger_14 601]

Played well tonight. Got hit in the head six times with the puck, by one person. Six, I counted. He didn't mean to and felt terrible and apologized profusely. By the fourth time I was starting to think it was funny, though that might mean I've been hit in the head too many times. It was a nice pickup, I felt loose and comfortable if a bit tired, let in a couple of rotten ones, had a nice half-hour at the start where I blocked anything that came my way. Better than my last two pick-ups, for sure.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Heh, I'm getting tired of getting dinged in the face during warmups. Going to have to tell my teammates to stop trying to pick corners and just warm me up instead. They also tend to skip the "slapshots from the point" phase and go straight into the "trying to give your goalie a pulled groin" phase of the warmup.

[bunnyman666 445]

When I was at an all-age stick and puck, there was one kid who would shoot at my cage, and there was another who would shoot at my crotch area. Needless to say, that got old. Cage shots are noisy, and your cup only prevents injury, not stingers. I warned both kids that if they were to get the puck anywhere near those areas again, I would leave the crease when they would come up to shoot. Cage aimer didn't believe me until the time AFTER he dinged me in the cage AGAIN. Needless to say the next time he was up, I skated to the bench. He complained to the manager on duty, who then asked him,"What did bunnyman tell you about aiming at the cage?" Crotch shooter stopped aiming there as soon as I left the crease on Cage Aimer.

Now having been a tendy, I know what I like in a warm up. Shoot at my glove, shoot at my blocker, shoot at my stick. Don't deke me until I have had a few shots on those areas. Don't go threefer (as in three guys shooting at once), or I will leave the crease. And if I skate out again, I will not deke the goalie and will keep the shots low in warm up.

[magnets 98]

Two games in C2 tonight. My normal team got a 3-1 win, and I filled in for last place to help them to a 3-2 shootout win.

They're a great group of guys and girls, they deserve more in the W column.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Not a good game last night, and to make it worse my GoPro somehow got turned off almost immediately after I mounted it. I'm not sure if I accidentally hit the button or what. There was maybe 2 seconds of footage on it.

We played against a team who had only 5 guys show up, so their defenseman (who also plays a division up) asked his other teammates if they wanted to sub. So they had five subs from D4. At one point I recall noticing that they had an entire 5-man line on the ice with all of them wearing their D4 team's jersey. Equally frustrating that the refs knew it (was talking to them after the game, they said they knew they were D4 guys but they have no authority over non-roster players, which is fine... it's certainly not THEIR fault).

We lost 6-3, with the D4 subs scoring 5 of the 6 goals. One guy repeatedly shot at my head. He hit me in the mask three times over the course of the game. Frustration was starting to set in for sure... we had a guy tossed for verbal abuse of official and it got REALLY chippy, something you NEVER see from our team. It actually started to work since our guys were forechecking so hard and we scored to bring it to 4-3 at one point, but then I guess their D4 guys decided they'd turn it up a notch and scored two quick ones.

At the start of the season they actually had a guy at the gate checking your number off the list to make sure you were a roster player. I don't know why they stopped doing that. Our league director is actually away dealing with a concussion from a car accident he was in, and it seems there are teams that are taking liberties because of it.

We were lobbying for a rule change in the league I used to play in where if you had less than 6 skaters you could legally have ONE sub (so you'd have 1 forward and 1 d-man on the bench total), but the sub could only be coming from one division up and was limited to scoring 2 goals. The team was allowed to have more than one sub only with the permission of the other team BUT they'd forfeit the game. I think that's a pretty good rule, in my opinion. At least on a D5 team where the skill increase going up a division to D4 is so huge.

Whatever, we'll throw a big asterisk next to that game. On the bright side, no back pain!

Edited November 30, 2015 by OptimusReim

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Just gave Passau the green light to put these babies into production.



Here's my specs:

Pads
- Size 33+2
- Bindingless top
- Open Knee Cradle
- Closed leg channel
- Stiffness from top to bottom: stiff, medium, medium soft, soft
- No outer breaks
- Triangle outer rolls
- Aggressive curve
- Smart Strap clone
- Smart Toe Strap clone
- Maltese knee spacers pre-installed
- Black weave on entire sliding surface and boot binding

Glove
- 60 degree
- Double-T
- Intermediate palm
- Red skate lace
- Pre-break in
- Maltese palm

Blocker
- Stock

All this, including custom modifications, comes out to less than the price of a top end pair of Brian's leg pads. Thank you crappy Canadian dollar!

Edited December 2, 2015 by OptimusReim

[bunnyman666 445]

Opti-

Passau makes some nice, nice stuff. It is highly rumoured (by more believable sources) that they actually manufactured my Warrior Messiah (pre-Smith) glove. They just do great stuff and since they don't have to pay the high NHL fee, they pass that savings on to you.

Nice looking bit of kit.

[Hills 712]

Opti-

Passau makes some nice, nice stuff. It is highly rumoured (by more believable sources) that they actually manufactured my Warrior Messiah (pre-Smith) glove. They just do great stuff and since they don't have to pay the high NHL fee, they pass that savings on to you.

Nice looking bit of kit.

They did the entire Messiah line and the Fortress line (well at least the pads for the Fortress).

Or, why did you get a stiff and medium with no outer breaks at the top?

[IPv6Freely 2092]

They did the entire Messiah line and the Fortress line (well at least the pads for the Fortress).

Or, why did you get a stiff and medium with no outer breaks at the top?

Typically you'd get outer breaks and a soft flex because you want the pad to curve, but I ordered the aggressive curve. I wouldn't want the pads to actually curve MORE. This is what the aggressive looks like:

[Hills 712]

Interesting that their stiff will be curved like that.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

It's two separate and independent line items. The pad will be heavily pre-curved but stiff. You wouldn't want it heavily pre-curved and soft.

[bunnyman666 445]

Opti-

I find your specs fascinating. That is one CRAZY curve on those pads!!!!! I know that so many people do some downright WEIRD stuff to get their pads to curve like that. At least you're not going to have to do anything to cut the life of your pads shorter by bending them yourself.

I can't wait to read your impressions of these pads, especially a few months into owning them.

[beedee 227]

Haha he's way further ahead than I am. I need to get a couple lessons and a stable job where I'm actually at home to get more ice.

That would be really awesome though. Maybe he and I should organize one of those afternoon games at Staples Center for our two teams at some point!

That would be fun man! I know my Copper level team has dicussed it. I played there at Staples a couple years ago and I think each team just had to buy 2 tickets per player and maybe a small fee on top of that? I can't remember. Like you said in your other post, there is nothing quite like NHL ice! It was funny because I was nervous out there (played as a winger, wasn't playing goalie yet) even though we were only playing in front of family and friends!

I wish I could still do more Stick Time's but ever since our daughter was born on July 15th, I haven't been able to get out there on Saturday morning's since then. I would also like to say thanks again to Opti for all of his help when I had a million and one questions when I was taking the same plunge he took into the goalie realm. This thread is the best thing that has happened to MSH since I have been on the forum. So much help and support, and tons of laughs as we share our stories from our great games, and not-so-great games.

This weekend I have a game with my Copper team at 10:10pm on Saturday night and then one on Sunday at 6:40pm with my Rookie team. I'll post updates here when I get a chance. By the way, I am going to use my old Sherwood and I hope it breaks so I can have an excuse to buy a new stick in the very near future! I might have to accidentally put too much weight on it late in a game.

Happy Holidays everyone! and Opti, those new Passau's look suhweeeet!

[badger_14 601]

I play some of my best hockey when I'm sick. I made a pretty damn good showing today, letting in maybe 5 shots? While in intense pain from infections in both my feet. Went home, spiked a fever, went to the doc-in-a-box and was immediately given a round of IV antibiotics and a course of oral antibiotics and instructions to come back tomorrow.

I sent my teammate a photo of the IV to remind him what a determined goalie I am...

[bunnyman666 445]

I play some of my best hockey when I'm sick. I made a pretty damn good showing today, letting in maybe 5 shots? While in intense pain from infections in both my feet. Went home, spiked a fever, went to the doc-in-a-box and was immediately given a round of IV antibiotics and a course of oral antibiotics and instructions to come back tomorrow.

I sent my teammate a photo of the IV to remind him what a determined goalie I am...

I am saying this with love and respect; however- wtf, matey?!? Seriously- I don't want you hurting yourself! I want to read more stories. Be careful.

[badger_14 601]

Honestly, I didn't think I was all that sick until I got home and spiked the fever. I mean, I've been working a lot, more than I have in a long time, so I attributed the tiredness to that, and the usual early-Saturday-morning-it's-cold-out disjointedness.

[bunnyman666 445]

@ badger_14, I spent most of my 20's ill, as I was trying to make my mark in the ranks of cycling and multisport (duathlon) overtraining. I was ALWAYS sick with some sort of respiratory illness. When someone actually talked some sense into me, I was *this* close to having some REAL bad stuff going on. When I stopped going so hard (work/play/partying), I wasn't getting ill like that anymore.

I am off of my soap box. I just read these things and think of where I was when I was younger. Just try hard to rest more. If you feel ill, take a good rest. I know it's hard, but overworking AND overplaying comes back to haunt you.

That was your bunnyman666 sermon about ample rest. ;)

[badger_14 601]

Nah, I appreciate the thoughts, I do. You are correct. (One of the reasons I wanted to play was because I have been working so much, and wanted to see some people who were not work-related and/or small children.) I don't even work full time right now, but this is a stretch of the most hours I've worked since getting mowed down by my non-physical illnesses about 5 years ago. One more week of extra shifts and then I take it easier for a while.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Nah, I appreciate the thoughts, I do. You are correct. (One of the reasons I wanted to play was because I have been working so much, and wanted to see some people who were not work-related and/or small children.) I don't even work full time right now, but this is a stretch of the most hours I've worked since getting mowed down by my non-physical illnesses about 5 years ago. One more week of extra shifts and then I take it easier for a while.

I'm with you there. An hour a week where I shut the entire world out completely is something I look forward to all week long. It's therapy!