Starting in Goal as an Adult

[IPv6Freely 2083]

That's the primary reason I decided to try it, just because they loop. The time and effort put into making these may not be worth it except for 2-3 of the most significant plays of the game. Definitely way less than showing every save and every goal like my YouTube videos show. 

[bunnyman666 445]

Drop in report:

 

Returned to the home rink. I actually was doing well today. My ear got pinched from a shot to the side of my head. No blood, no foul. I did let in a few clunkers, but more goals were from motionless pylons around the crease who were standing five feet away that would not even try and cheque the back door plays. Many I let in were tic-tac-toe plays that were poorly defended.  That group even noticed my improved play, though I also had puck luck today. I felt okay about my play.

 

Guess I have to go to that other pickup on occasion ;) They improved my game by a fair bit.

[IPv6Freely 2083]

Suffered our first loss of the season 7-4, breaking our win streak now at 6-1. Unfortunately it was against the hated Dead Deer, the team of douchebags who love to play chippy and talk crap. 

We had 7 skaters, and after a good first period (3-1 until I let a goal in with 5 seconds left) we just ran out of gas in the second. They also did a good job of picking the low corners - which is how they scored almost all their goals. Clearly I'm having issues with my squareness. 

 

It just seemed like I had almost zero shots against; the only ones they took seemed to go in. That's deflating. When your team is in their end for 5-6 minutes at a time, wear themselves out, and then don't have the gas to defend once it finally goes the other way. 

 

One of their guys ran our D-man into the boards to end the game, after the horn went. Not very happy about that, as you'll see. One of their idiots decided to wave to the camera and shout "who got the W?!" I considered leaving that in, but he doesn't deserve the air time. 

 

 

[bunnyman666 445]

@OptimusReim Hitting in beer league unprovoked is uncalled for; that being said, I have only hit four times in my modern day play:

 

1) and 2) I stood my ground on a guy looking down coming in like a freight train, which I admit was a bit douchey on my part. We're still friends after that. He now plays with his head up ?

 

3) In the league I used to sub in,  I drove someone into the boards who was head-locking my teammates (and myself) when he couldn't take the puck fair and square. He had the nerve to complain when the biggest bloke on my team went after him, even after he had "Paul Bunyan'd" half of us. Even his own teammates were pounding the sh** out of him for being such a douche in the bench clearing brawl that ensued. He was asked to NEVER RETURN.

 

4) Two of us went into the corners hard on a puck. This mofo tried to put all 250# into my knees when dropping and gave me the "I got you muthaf*ckah" look whilst doing it. The next shift, I took four hard strides and put him into the boards as he wound up for a (weak) clapper. He had it in for me since we started playing together with such stupid shit like grabbing me around my head, so it was time to stand up to that bully. 

 

Times 1 and 2 were not cool. Times 3 and 4 were to stand up for myself and/or teammates. I would have rather not done any of those times in retrospect.

 

I will watch the video and make a judgment. Knowing the history between your team and the Dead Deer, I hope you and your team exact revenge. Jawing makes me nuts; why not exhibit good sportsmanship?

[bunnyman666 445]

I was still playing forward on those occasions.

[bunnyman666 445]

@OptimusReim

 

Watched the video- those dead deer are wankers, plain and simple. They play very dangerously. I did like your super-aggressive save attempt (and it worked!), especially with how they trip your teammates.

 

My only criticism- if they are going to try and fish the puck from your glove that aggressively, you need to get in touch with your inner Billy Smith ? 

 

You are impressive in goal, sir.

[IPv6Freely 2083]

They are super chippy. However, as it turns out a couple of their guys found the video on youtube and posted some ... upset ... comments. Mostly about how calling them all douchebags when it's actually just a couple guys, and also about how uncool it was to bash their guy last season that chirped me after every goal. Apparently he has issues with seizures, and had one 3 days before the championship game. I had no idea about any of that until after the season was over.

 

Quote

We don't like you guys either. Calling ALL of us douches when there's really only two guys that are a problem or making fun of our #17 that just came back from a seizure (your champ game video) doesn't help things either. We're the two best teams in the league, there's bound to be a natural rivalry, there's no need to name call all of us, most of us play a clean game and don't subscribe to chippy shit.

 

Quote

Look forward to more videos of you falling all over yourself, thought these highlight videos were cool until you talked shit, told you nice save during the game a few times but I guess we're all douchebags. Go fuck yourself buddy, can't wait for three weeks from now

 

Regardless, instead of talking sh*t I decided to take the high road on this one. Apologized for painting them all with the same brush, and modified the video description. Also asked about their guy because he has only played one game this season. I can't stand him on the ice but still, you never like to see somebody kept out of the game for medical reasons. The discussion turned out civil, so all good. At one point he replied:

 

Quote

Trust me, we've had our own internal issues with our chippy douchey players (you glove slapped one at the end of this vid). I complimented Tommy on holding his ground against our big douche at the end of the champ game, loved seeing someone stand up to him.

 

I guess add all this to the already big rivalry. It's just interesting that our team almost never takes penalties except for against these guys. And we had a LOT. Almost 16 minutes total. At one point we killed a 5-on-3. No wonder we collapsed with only 7 guys after dominating the first period. 

 

The aggressive save (attempted poke check I guess) actually won me the team belt. I don't think I should have got it but they said in a game where nothing went right I at least made it entertaining with that. Fair enough. I don't like getting the belt though unless it's a really significant performance. Mostly because it's just too easy to say "we won, give it to the goalie" so I end up with it almost every other week. But also because I bought it for the team and I'd rather they all get it. 

 

And on a crappy note... work forced me to work this Sunday so no game for me. Rather, they said I had to be at a customer site at 9am on Monday morning which meant I had to travel on Sunday. After a long discussion with my boss and CEO that nearly cost me my job, I finally reluctantly agreed despite only being paid for 5 days, not 6. In a small way I'm almost happy we lost because I would have been PISSED if we had had a 7-0 season ruined because I wasn't there. Especially since we're having an impossible time finding a sub goalie. Boss says "I wish you had told us earlier that you're not available on Sundays." Umm... It never crossed my mind that I needed to tell you that I'm busy on the weekend...? *shrug*

 

Sorry for the novel. 

[badger_14 601]

So the usual rink is closing entirely for - a month or two?  And so my Saturday guys are hunting around for a place to play (somewhat limited - most of the rinks closer to the city close for May/June/often July, except for the one or two private rinks that will charge your first born) and a day midweek (since most people apparently don't want to spend summer weekends in an ice rink - who knew?).  Thursday was suggested, and I said if they did Thursday I wouldn't be able to skate for them, but I said they could probably find another goalie.  He says: "We would rather have you." 

 

Which is so nice.  It makes me feel like it's worth it to play for three hours while sick and subsequently land myself in the urgent care for a nebulizer treatment.    My teammate says "reliable and enthusiastic goalie", perhaps more accurately "stubborn and not good at objective decision-making".  (in all seriousness though it's really nice to know that, of their selection of possible, and more experienced, replacement goalies, they would prefer to have me.)

 

I think this past Saturday went fairly well, and since the rink is closed as of Friday, we're playing Thursday night.  (ordinarily, I work, but I swapped out with a co-worker who needed a shift covered next week).  Hopefully the guys find a night that works out, otherwise I will be a sad goalie for three months. 

[psulion22 402]

Still haven't had my "try-out".  The captain keeps pushing for it, but i won't go out of my way to do it.  Season starts next Wednesday and as of now, I'm their goalie.  I continue to tell him that if we don't get out together that we'll just have to go into the season and he hasn't said anything contrary.  So I guess that's good.

 

I was at the rink while they concidentally had a game, so i watched their goalie.  He's a kid, not an older guy I thought when they said he didn't move well.  He's pretty technical, but doesn't seem to have any feel for the game or whats going on around him.  He makes good butterfly pushes and such, but really seems to be doing them just to do them.  Not reacting to the situation.  For example, there as a play where the puck was being battled for behind his net.  Intead of anchoring to one post or the middle and looking back through the net for the puck, he just kept sliding from one post to the other.  Not even really in following the puck.  It would move in one direction by maybe 6 inches or a foot and he would slide all the way across the net.  This happened easily 8 or 10 times.  Eventually it came out on the side he wasn't on and he had to get all the way across into the angle and made a really extended blocker save that could have been an easy controlled save if he just stayed put.  It also could have easily resulted in a goal.  I don't know really how to explain his play.  Something was just off.   Though he looked ok, nothing in his play ever inspired confidence.  He allowed 2 or 3 bad goals where he wasn't set for a shot, almost like he wasn't ready or expecting it.  Just strange.

 

I ran into the director and told him what was going on.  He said not to worry, that I'll be fine and the captain thinks every game is game 7.  But the rest of the guys are pretty cool.  Indeed, I was talking to some guys I knew while I was there.  Some of them were on my team and when I told them I was going to be their goalie they were genuinely excited.  And said the same thing about the captain.  Other guys I knew there were upset they were going to be playing against me, especially since this team was very good and I would make them very hard to beat.

 

Meanwhile, I've allowed a total of 5 goals in my last 3 games filling in for the other team that moved me to D, including a 3-2 win in a game that went to a 5 round shootout where I didn't allow any shootout attempts.  One game the only goal came with under 30 seconds left on a breakway where the player completely fanned on his shot and it dribbled under me because I had reacted to it.  I lead the league in gaa with a 1.89 right now in the 2 games I've played this season. I'm playing really well right now and hopefully won't be going into a bad situation.

[bunnyman666 445]

@OptimusReim i am sorry, but seisures are NO excuse for being a dick head, PERIOD. I don't like when my main rival (Mr. Kneediver) is out due to a medical issue, either; but his goony play is on him. 

 

On another note: what the hell company thinks they are *ENTITLED* to your leisure time? What a bunch of tossers.

[bunnyman666 445]

3 hours ago, badger_14 said:

So the usual rink is closing entirely for - a month or two?  And so my Saturday guys are hunting around for a place to play (somewhat limited - most of the rinks closer to the city close for May/June/often July, except for the one or two private rinks that will charge your first born) and a day midweek (since most people apparently don't want to spend summer weekends in an ice rink - who knew?).  Thursday was suggested, and I said if they did Thursday I wouldn't be able to skate for them, but I said they could probably find another goalie.  He says: "We would rather have you." 

 

Which is so nice.  It makes me feel like it's worth it to play for three hours while sick and subsequently land myself in the urgent care for a nebulizer treatment.    My teammate says "reliable and enthusiastic goalie", perhaps more accurately "stubborn and not good at objective decision-making".  (in all seriousness though it's really nice to know that, of their selection of possible, and more experienced, replacement goalies, they would prefer to have me.)

 

I think this past Saturday went fairly well, and since the rink is closed as of Friday, we're playing Thursday night.  (ordinarily, I work, but I swapped out with a co-worker who needed a shift covered next week).  Hopefully the guys find a night that works out, otherwise I will be a sad goalie for three months. 

 

I am so, so, so lucky that the longest I am without ice is three weeks at the most around here within reasonable driving distance. It's a laugh when I see what "improvements" were done to my home rink for three weeks in July. My new favourite drop in spot is closed for 2 months or so in the summer. I don't know how long my home away from home rink is closed for the summer, but my third choice rink is open 24/7/365, with few drop-in opportunities.

[magnets 98]

6 hours ago, badger_14 said:

So the usual rink is closing entirely for - a month or two?  And so my Saturday guys are hunting around for a place to play (somewhat limited - most of the rinks closer to the city close for May/June/often July, except for the one or two private rinks that will charge your first born) and a day midweek (since most people apparently don't want to spend summer weekends in an ice rink - who knew?).  Thursday was suggested, and I said if they did Thursday I wouldn't be able to skate for them, but I said they could probably find another goalie.  He says: "We would rather have you." 

 

Which is so nice.  It makes me feel like it's worth it to play for three hours while sick and subsequently land myself in the urgent care for a nebulizer treatment.    My teammate says "reliable and enthusiastic goalie", perhaps more accurately "stubborn and not good at objective decision-making".  (in all seriousness though it's really nice to know that, of their selection of possible, and more experienced, replacement goalies, they would prefer to have me.)

 

I think this past Saturday went fairly well, and since the rink is closed as of Friday, we're playing Thursday night.  (ordinarily, I work, but I swapped out with a co-worker who needed a shift covered next week).  Hopefully the guys find a night that works out, otherwise I will be a sad goalie for three months. 

Trust me, I know the feeling of needing ice and the rink being closed.  Ours closed almost two months ago now after the spectacular failure of the refrigeration system...  

 

Fortunately, they have secured government funding, and plan on reopening in two weeks - I got there last night for a meeting though, and noticed that the work hasn't started yet...  I'm hoping it's quick...

[badger_14 601]

Oh, there are open rinks within decent driving distance (25-30 minutes), for sure, but we're trying to keep it fairly close to the city because so many of the guys live in Camberville (Cambridge/Somerville) or in Boston or Brookline (all neighboring towns) and it's not fair to make a bunch of mostly-grad students drive all over hell and gone and on top of that, pay significantly more per game.  Some of the rinks are as much as $300+ per 50 minute hour.  (vs. the $160/hour + extra time because the rink manager likes us)  Couple of guys are trying to use their connections (such as they are) to get time at the Harvard rink, at least temporarily.  Hoping everything will work out - I would miss my teammates as much as the ice time.  I mean, I can play anywhere, I suppose, but they're my favorites, so.

 

Bunnyman -  almost every company I've ever worked for has felt entitled to my "leisure time", or rather, assumed that any time that I am not currently working for them means I am available for work.  (oddly, the ambulance company I work for has been the most flexible about scheduling.)  It's obnoxious.

 

psulion - I hope this works out for you, that captain sounds like a piece of work.  Hopefully he doesn't ruin an otherwise good time. 

 

 

[IPv6Freely 2083]

8 hours ago, bunnyman666 said:

@OptimusReim i am sorry, but seisures are NO excuse for being a dick head, PERIOD. I don't like when my main rival (Mr. Kneediver) is out due to a medical issue, either; but his goony play is on him. 

 

On another note: what the hell company thinks they are *ENTITLED* to your leisure time? What a bunch of tossers.

Boss said I'm expected at the customer site Monday morning at 9am and I'm required to do whatever I have to do to make that happen. Thing is, I've never ever had a customer have any issue with making Monday a travel day when they know I'm flying across the country. They also told me I could fly back home for weekends. But... fly back late Friday night, and then have to fly Sunday to be back at the customer site Monday morning. Why bother? So I'm in a hotel for 11 nights, now. 

 

To top it off, I was just told they need me here for a third week. I'm really REALLY going to pressure them into letting me fly Monday. Now that I'm actually on-site and can talk to the customer, it's a lot easier to make that kind of request. Heck, I'd bet you anything that if I were to say something about the first Sunday travel day that they will tell me flying Monday would have been fine. I guarantee it. 

 

Oh, and of course the goalie for my Thursday team that I skate out for is out this week and I was asked if I could fill in. Looks like another game where we have an empty net (first game of our season the net was empty for the first period because we had no goalie and it took me 40 minutes round trip to go home and swap my player gear for goalie gear). 

 

We're also still unable to find a goalie for Sunday. 

[Thinkingjack 51]

On April 1, 2016 at 2:02 AM, bunnyman666 said:

@Thinkingjack That sucks. I hope your rehab goes quickly and you're right as rain in no time.

 

When someone jumps on your knee, it is scary stuff- ESPECIALLY when they are HEAVY. Glad to hear nothing major happened. 

 

I think the fat hero deserves a knee-capping with your goal stick the next time you play against him.

thanks man, i'm not too much into being that goalie but i have started playing out as a forward because playing out doesn't make my knee feel like its falling apart.  He has since taken a few pucks off his body, its amazing how i can make a shot to his body look accidental.

[bunnyman666 445]

Drop-in Report:

 

Does the group you play with make a difference? Hell's yeah!!!!

 

The first shot against me in goal was a softy (and really embarassing), but other than that and maybe a couple of others, I didn't do too badly. I still get beat on a  2-0. 

 

I did my best OptimusReim impersonation a few times on break aways with a poke cheque; sometimes they worked, sometimes I was Father Christmas and gave up a goal. Once I was beat on my poke cheque, but the shooter's angle was so bad that the puck went 3" wide of the post. I am feeling more confident and am able to recover better from poor angles. My stick shaft saves more goals that should have gone in, and it has many dents to prove that point.

 

Can't wait to get my Wilcox blocker as that silly Vaughn is so wallowy, especially after I get amply warm.

[psulion22 402]

16 hours ago, bunnyman666 said:

Drop-in Report:

 

Does the group you play with make a difference? Hell's yeah!!!!

 

The first shot against me in goal was a softy (and really embarassing), but other than that and maybe a couple of others, I didn't do too badly. I still get beat on a  2-0. 

 

I did my best OptimusReim impersonation a few times on break aways with a poke cheque; sometimes they worked, sometimes I was Father Christmas and gave up a goal. Once I was beat on my poke cheque, but the shooter's angle was so bad that the puck went 3" wide of the post. I am feeling more confident and am able to recover better from poor angles. My stick shaft saves more goals that should have gone in, and it has many dents to prove that point.

 

Can't wait to get my Wilcox blocker as that silly Vaughn is so wallowy, especially after I get amply warm.

If you are making a lot of shaft saves, try moving your hands further out in front of you.  Maybe come out a few inches further also.  You'll get a blocker on those instead, or they'll go high/wide because the shooter will see less to shoot at.

[bunnyman666 445]

5 hours ago, psulion22 said:

If you are making a lot of shaft saves, try moving your hands further out in front of you.  Maybe come out a few inches further also.  You'll get a blocker on those instead, or they'll go high/wide because the shooter will see less to shoot at.

 

I need to get out further to cut off some sightlines for the shooter. I guess I play like some Euro goalies, lol. This is where *dunh dunh dunh!* a video camera would probably convince me that my angles suck.

 

Thanks for the tip. I only need 10,000 more to get better.

[tedpenguins 93]

Had my fifth game in net last night, but this time I'm officially the full time goalie. My normal team that I play out with moved up a level so almost everyone on this lower team is new. Didn't really know what to expect from them but they played decent in front of me. I called out plays and directions a lot more than I normally would and they did give up a lot of odd man rushes but everything worked out. Stopped 3 different breakaways and I felt more calm and composed in the net.

 

The one breakaway I was really surprised that I was able to get. It was actually a 2 on 0 with about 20 seconds left in the period and we were trying to protect a 1-0 lead. I don't know if the guy didn't realize he had a teammate right next to him because he decided to take it on his own. I dropped a bit too early and he tried to go high blocker side. I had a good enough angle though to catch the shot on my arm right as the buzzer went off.

 

I'm getting more and more confident and I'm trying to focus on sliding across the crease. My angles and depth seem to be decent enough but I do give up some bad rebounds at time. One last night led to a goal against but if I can learn how to slide and move around more fluid the rebounds shouldn't be a huge problem. 

[badger_14 601]

Thursday was a good time.  I got there early and spent the extra free ice practicing moving, squaring up, angling, butterfly slides where I get my vertical leg against the post (this did not end well but it was a good try).  I thought I played pretty well - 7 or 8 goals over two hours.  Very mobile, feeling quick, although my ability to stretch had to save me a few times.  Not a whole lot of defence, but they did their best.  Other side was somehow stacked with all the offense... better talk to the guy in charge of our pickup about that ;) (that would also be the guy who gives me a ride). 

 

After the game, for whatever reason, our teammate Saint Nik (vs another teammate, Naughty Nick) trotted out onto the ice in his underwear, like a sort of poor man's proto-sauna.  This is why the latest missive has a photo of Saint Nik rubbing snow on himself and the notation: "Some people were driven to sadness after the game.  But don't be sad!  We will play again next week."  I have great teammates. 

 

No hockey today, but we found another rink to skate at the next couple of Saturdays while we scout around for somewhere mid-week for the summer.

[IPv6Freely 2083]

Nice, @tedpenguins! Sounds like some pretty good progress! 

 

@badger_14 man I wish getting to the rink early meant extra ice time. They pack all the games in where I play so there's really no opportunity like that.

[tedpenguins 93]

I guess one good day leads to a bad one. Had a game last night for the team that I skate out for. Our goalie that is notorious for not being able to make games didn't even give us a heads up that he  wasn't going to be coming. Luckily we were able to pick someone up from a different team but now I'm going to have to start taking both of my bags with me just to make sure that we do have someone in net.

 

I honestly have no clue what this guy is thinking. When I'm in net I make sure that I'll be there and I'll choose to play in net over skating out just because goalies are harder to find. At this point it looks like I might have to be in net for 2 teams this season and for sure in the future. This guy has definitely lost his welcome with us. I guess things happen for a reason though, more ice time in net for me 

[badger_14 601]

16 hours ago, OptimusReim said:

Nice, @tedpenguins! Sounds like some pretty good progress! 

 

@badger_14 man I wish getting to the rink early meant extra ice time. They pack all the games in where I play so there's really no opportunity like that.

 

It's rare.  It happened that I had thought we were on at 8pm, and the kids' practice before us ended at 7:50 and they made the ice, and since I was dressed by then I figured I might as well hop on.  A few of the other guys were early as well.  Since we typically skate in the morning, sometimes if we get there early we also get extra ice.  Typically I am dependent on my teammate for a ride, though, and I can't make him wake up any earlier. 

[psulion22 402]

Season starts Wednesday and I didn't have to try out.  So I'll have a goalie spot again, which is good.

 

What's not is the other team that I play out for now told me today the other guy got hurt and is out for the season.  So they want me to play goal.  I don't really know if I want to play goal twice a week and only skate out once.  So now I'm stuck again.  Why can't this ever be easy?!

[bunnyman666 445]

Drop-in Report:

 

I played against mini-MacInnis today. Fack me!!!!! Every shot he took against me STUNG, made HUGE noise on the glass and made the goal SING that familiar E flat "tink" of a goal post a whole note (okay, maybe exaggerating a whole note); bloody fackin hell- he has a HEAVY, HEAVY shot!!!!!!

 

He found every stinger spot on my CA (which was anywhere he shot), popped it over the stick blade when shooting my 5 hole (and I have the dents to prove it) and managed to ding my jaw bone and the top of my knee cap (fack me). Every shot against my Factory Mad knee guards were a non-event until mini MacInnis came along.

 

That was in the non-scrimmage part. The scrimmage was challenging, to say the least because we had bonafide benders to mini MacInnis (and every type between). One bloke shot low-speed knuckle ball shots that were vexing, to say the least. One would wind up to compete with mini MacInnis and those shots would be weakly elevated to well above the goal. 

 

But the bar I normally go to apres' hockey stepped up fine, as the tender happily provided me an ice bag for both my knee and my face. The beer tasted very good.