Goalie :: Red: S2005
August 07, 2005 / Sunday
Another Goalie Injury?!
Played in net again this afternoon. Got better results: a win! Finished the game 2-1 (15 shots on my net). WahoO!
But wait, there's more! I made a crazy diving weak side save today, a mirror image of goal 2 from Friday night. I've been working on it in my head the last two days. See, it's good to remember every goal that goes in on your watch!
I did, however, give up a goal similar to goal 1 from Friday night. Someone had a breakaway, shot, and I blocked the puck. Once again, I gave up a rebound to my right, but this time I could at least reach over to prevent a direct goal from the rebound. The shooter did manage to poke the puck, though, and it slid over to the other side of the crease. I tried my darndest to reach it with the butt end of my stick, but I was a couple inches short, and a player from the opposing team finally came and knocked it in.
To add insult to injury (or perhaps we should say, injury to insult), I tweaked my right shoulder trying to reach the puck. It hurts. A lot. It hurts to drive. Shifting into 5th and 6th gear is really difficult.
I guess this means tennish is on hold once again.
:(
10:55 PM | Injuries:Red: S2005| Comments (0)
August 05, 2005 / Friday
Oh, Bah.
Played in net tonight, didn't do anything too terribly stupid, but still let 3 in and lost. Boo.
I don't have too much to say about the game overall. I will, however, write my usual goal recap.
Goal 1
Doris came in with the puck, there was D (sort of) on her, but she got an unhindered shot off. I went down and kicked saved it, and the puck came back out to Paula, who was wide open because, well, I don't know why. Paula shot, it didn't go in, and for some reason she was still wide open, so she shot again. It went in the 2nd time.
That goal made me a little grumpy.
To do: quit giving up fat rebounds. No rebound, no goal.
Goal 2
Someone on the other team had the puck behind the goal line to my right. She sent a pass out to just in the front of the crease, onto the stick of an open player, who sent the puck into the back of the net.
That goal really pissed me off.
Hi, I'm your goalie. I cover your post when your opponent has a player in position to score from the side. When I'm doing that, I'd very much appreciate if you could cover players hanging out past my field of vision, especially those parked in front of the very open side of the net. When I become a better goalie, I will be able to make crazy diving saves to stop wide open weak side shots. Until then, please don't let anyone hang out there.
Goal 3
I went down and stopped a shot on the right. It went wide past the goal line, and somehow Kat wound up skating the puck behind the net and to the left, leaving everyone still behind the net on the right. Just as I managed to get back up, I saw her, saw the puck, and the next thing I knew she had bounced the puck off my skate and into the net.
I should have stopped that one. I'll work on that, along with crazy diving weak side saves and not giving up fat rebounds.
Final score 0-3. Shots on net: 13-18. 18 sounds low to me, but I'm probably biased.
11:53 PM | Red: S2005| Comments (3)
July 25, 2005 / Monday
A Lucky Win
In the last 6 weeks, I've played in net once. Today I got to find out just how much goalie rust I've accumulated during that time.
The answer: a lot. 2 of 4 shots worth to start off the game. 3 of 9 shots worth halfway through the game. Fortunately, that was enough for me to shake off the rust and keep the puck out of the net for the rest of the game.
Final score: 4-3. 15 shots on me, 19 shots on Mary.
I totally got lucky today. For one thing, my team saved my ass by coming back from a 1-3 deficit to win the game. Thank you team!
For another thing, Mary the shutout machine had an off day. It's rare that you can let in 3 against her and come off the ice with a win.
Goal recap ...
The first goal came from a pass from beyond the right faceoff dot that went into traffic in the slot, off a stick just toward the far side of the traffic cluster, and into the net on the left side a few inches from the post. It wasn't something that I totally should have gotten easily, but it was something that I could have stopped, on a less rusty day.
The second goal came from a botched clearing pass that somehow left me with a 2-on-0 originating from my right faceoff dot. I still hadn't gotten my angle bearings yet, and left the right corner of my net open for the puck to slide in.
The third goal came from a pass into slot traffic and a tip-in/soft one-timer (not sure what to call it) that caught the right corner of the net.
I guess I can at least be happy that I didn't give up any five-hole goals. Those really bug me. The angles, well, I just need to be more aware of where I'm positioned relative to the puck and the net. I'll blame a bit of it on rustiness and add an item to the list to work on it.
12:28 AM | Red: S2005| Comments (12)
July 04, 2005 / Monday
Kind Of Like An Almostgoal
Played in net tonight for the first time in 3 weeks. I was nervous, because (1) I hadn't played in 3 weeks and (2) I was in net for a team that hasn't lost all season, and I sure as hell didn't want to be the in net for their first loss. Talk about pressure!
Turned out I did all right. Before the game Andrea told me to get a shutout. I was sooooo clooose. Sooooo sooo clooose.
I let one in with 1:42ish remaining in the 3rd period. This one wasn't dumb, but it certainly could have been prevented. Sometimes, when a puck is sitting there, just out of reach, waaaiting to be put into the back of the net in a myriad of ways, I don't quite know what to do, and wind up doing not much at all. I hate when that happens.
Final score: 5-1. SOG: 38-18. I felt bad for the other goalie. There were Eyeballs swarming the other team's zone most of the game. I actually started to get cold in the middle of the game. Cold, in goalie gear? Craziness.
The groin held up pretty well. I did stretch it a little on one shot, though. The puck came at me pretty fast, I reacted by throwing my right leg out at it. Oops.
It's not totally reinjured, but it's a bit sore.
Ice. Advil. Rest.
12:20 AM | Red: S2005| Comments (2)
June 12, 2005 / Sunday
Netminding For Red Rover
Played in net for Red Rover today. I think this is the first time all season I've played for this team. We faced Seeing Red, who, if I'm not mistaken, has won every game this season.
Red Rover started off the game playing very well. We scored first, and with most of the 1st period over, we were up 1-0.
Then, with 4 minutes left in the 1st, Kevin called a timeout. The game completely turned around after that. Bah.
At the end of the 1st period, Karen got a breakaway on me, and pulled some weird move where she faked her body entirely to her forehand, and yet managed to keep the puck on her backhand. It was a great deke, and a well deserved goal.
At the beginning of the 2nd period, Paula got kind of loose, came down to my left, and put the puck in through the little gap I left open between me and the post. That was dumb, dumb, dumb on my part. In retrospect, I realize I was not focused on the puck, but on her, and by squaring myself to the skater instead of the puck, I left enough of an opening for her to score. Dammit!
I say dammit partly because I hate giving up dumb goals, and partly because this was the difference between a tie and a loss. This could have and should have been a tie.
Final score: 1-2. Shot count: 9-30. I think most of those 9 came in the 1st period. Whatever Kevin said during that timeout, it worked.
One of my strap ends got loose during the game, and instead of throwing off my helmet and stopping play outright, I decided to wait until a whistle before fixing the strap. Whistles usually come every couple minutes in Red. I think I played almost 5 before we had a stop in play, due to a penalty on my team.
After that stop in play, the whistle blew, oh, every 10-15 seconds. I think we spent the entire penalty kill in our zone, and they just kept shooting.
No complaints here. It was good for my save percentage. ;) More importantly, I finally started to learn to deaden and freeze the puck. Maybe this is the beginning of the end of all the fatty rebounds I've been giving up. That would mean a lot less scrambling to get back into position all game.
Liz G, who was on my team today, sat on me in the crease during a mad scramble in the 3rd. I think it's payback for my hitting her in the head with the puck during Le Snack warmups last week. I think I got off easy.
11:37 PM | Red: S2005| Comments (4)
May 31, 2005 / Tuesday
Back In Action
I'm pretty much done with my Denver Death Cough, but I'm totally out of shape from a week+ of nothing but eating and sleeping (on top of a week+ of the DDC). Plus, I was hurtin' for confidence going into tonight's game in net because I gave up 4 at my last outing, including one that was embarrassingly stupid.
Before the game, I realized that I'd forgotten my jill. Not good! Red suggested I stuff socks down my pants. Not exactly armor, but better than nothing. I stuffed. I laughed at myself.
I noticed the last couple times out that I wasn't tracking the puck all the way to my stick. I tried that during warmups today, and it worked *very* well. It helped me focus for the game, too. Woot!
Final score: 3-1. Woot again!
29 shots on net, 28 stopped. The one that went in was off a cross-ice pass from my left to a player on my right just in front of the crease. She got her stick on it and sent the puck over my stick side shoulder. Oh well. I can live with that.
The injury report: reaggravated both wrists and retweaked the left shoulder. Phooey.
Thank goodness I was in net for Doris's team. They did an excellent job of controlling the puck most of the game, and my out of shape ass got plenty of much needed rest between spurts of action.
Heather McJedi made her return to the ice tonight, and she looked great! She had a good number of runs down the ice that totally had the other team scrambling. Welcome back, Heather! :)
11:01 PM | Red: S2005| Comments (7)
May 14, 2005 / Saturday
Well, It Could Have Been Worse
I played in net tonight, and I didn't hack up a lung. Phew!
I also didn't win. In fact, I let in 4 goals. Final score: 0-4. *#(*$&(*&@!!!
At least it was 4 goals on 37 shots. Not quite over 90%, but given that it hurt to breathe, I guess I'll take it.
So yeah, the cold rink air hurt. A lot. And I was just standing there most of the time. I'll be sitting out my RWC game tomorrow night, 'cause there's no way I can take deep breaths of the stuff. Maybe I'll just go and enjoy the food there for once. And perhaps cheer Red on, if he decides to play tomorrow.
When I let goals in I want to learn from them, so here's how it went down:
- Goal 1 - Julie came in on a breakaway on my left. She shot it, I stopped it, but I gave up a rebound to my right. The puck sat 2 feet from the goal line, wide open. I looked over, I saw a white jersey and a red jersey, and no movement, except for the stick belonging to the white jersey swatting the puck over the line. What's this mean? I want to say, darnit, why wasn't the red jersey shoving the white jersey out of the way? That said, the puck wouldn't have been there if I hadn't given up a rebound to begin with. So, I'll take this as a lesson in rebound control:
rebounds. - Goal 2 - Paula approached my net from the left along the goal line. She very daintily passed it 2 feet over to her teammate, parked in front of my net, who backhanded it in over my shoulder. That pass should never have reached her teammate. I should have swiped it away. I have to remember that I'm not there just to block pucks. If I can reach them I can play them too. Gotta use my stick more.
- Goal 3 - This was one just dumb. Lucinda came in on a verrry slooow breakaway. Instead of skating out to swipe the puck (I could have beaten her to it), I stayed in net, but absolutely could not focus. I knew it, too. I kept trying. Focus, focus, come on! Too late. She shot the puck straight at me and it went between my legs. *&@*(&!!! I'm better than that! Sheesh, might as well go back to being a Christmas tree if I'm going to give up goals like that.
- Goal 4 - There was a crazy mad scramble for the puck, I thought I had it, but apparently I didn't, and it somehow ended up behind me, over the goal line. Not sure how I can handle those better. I guess I just need more practice with crazy mad scrambles for the puck. Blah. That's pretty much how I felt by this point in the game. Here, let me say that again. Blah.
- Congrats to Mary on her second shutout of the season ... on a total of two games in net so far. Bummer that my team didn't get to score, though.
- I think I played against most of the Red Division Burninators tonight. Mary, Marci, Julie, Chris, Steph ... yup, everyone except for Heather, who is on the disabled list, and Jean, who showed up before the game but didn't play. I felt so unBurninating tonight, despite being the one in the Red jersey. Siiigh.
- I'm not sure how many people the other team had, but my team had a bench of 9, which is waaay tough at Fremont. That probably explains the 37 shots.
- Thanks Marci for coming over when I covered the puck and really needed a whistle late in the 3rd period. :)
- I don't know how many times during the game I said, "Will someone pleeeeease cover Juuuuulieee?" Didn't seem to matter; she continued to skate around with no one on her. When the whistle eventually blew, she'd look over and smile. Ha.
- In the 3rd, I heard Julie yell to her puck-possessing teammate, "See Lucinda!" Lucinda was hanging out in the high slot with a 5 foot buffer of open ice all around. "Don't see Lucinda!" I yelled back. All this yelling about Lucinda and she still got to hang around the high slow with a 5 foot buffer of open ice all around. She didn't end up with the puck, so I can only guess that perhaps she wasn't really there, and that Julie and I imagined it all.
- Also in the 3rd, Julie and Lindsay somehow wound up with the puck near my net with enough time to carry on a full conversation. "You take it." "No, YOU take it," they said. Afterward they joked that they could have ordered pizza. I hope that they would have shared it with me.
So, to recap, yes, I'm frustrated, but I could have played better too, and I'm sure my team du jour is frustrated with me also. I guess all I can really do is look at what I could have done better and do it better next time.
On the upside, I got to hang out with some peeps after the game and play with Sparky in the parking lot. What a sweetie. Also got a hug from Heather McJedi, which was awesome, 'cause it means she's recovered enough to hug people! I was afraid to hug back really hard, though. I think I'll give her some more recovery time first. :)
12:13 AM | Red: S2005| Comments (4)
May 13, 2005 / Friday
Ice Advice From The Douglet
Of the three other Red goalies, one's on vacation, one has plans, and the third is still MIA. Looks like I'll be playing tonight ...
douglasadler: good luck tonight
SoopahViv: thanks douglet
douglasadler: not to hack up lung on ice
douglasadler: ok?
SoopahViv: ugh, i sure hope not!
douglasadler: besides, lung not make it out of helmet cage
douglasadler: then you have to play goalie with a bloody lung on your face
At least it'd match my jersey.
Might be hard to breathe, though, if the lung's covering my nose.
05:10 PM | Red: S2005| Comments (0)
April 24, 2005 / Sunday
RSO!
I played my first game as an official Red goalie tonight. I was both nervous and excited going in -- more nervous than excited, actually. Fortunately, Irene the ref was there, and she had some encouraging words for me before the first puck drop. That helped at lot, because ...
The warmups were terrible. I don't think most of the folks in Red Division know that you're supposed to warm up your goalie by shooting into them, not by trying to deke or sneak the puck by them. If I'm cold, I can't get every corner of the net, and if I can't get to the puck, I won't get a good feel for the puck before the game starts. Silly skaters!
I say that now, but I didn't know it back in my Red Division days either.
Fortunately, once the game started, I was pumped and able to focus. I definitely had some close calls and acrobatic miracle saves, but when the final buzzer sounded, no pucks had made it past me. That's right, Zarro Poocks Found in the back of the net.
In case you were wondering, yes, the feeling of Zarro Poocks Found is quite similar to that of Zarro Boogs Found.
Final score: 3-0. My first Red shutout! Yesh!
• • •
Now that I'm done with my blogging tourrettes, I'd like to add that I had kickass D tonight -- no one screened me, not once! They also did a good job of keeping the puck away from me in general.
That said, I'd also like to add that I stopped a WOG breakaway shot. *grins*
• • •
Oh, and my new trapper rocks! Catching pucks is easy now! That thing is worth every penny. It feels like a 30,000+ penny extension of my left hand. And on a somewhat amusing note, it's quite appropriately misnamed a Bionic.
09:00 PM | Red: S2005| Comments (9)
April 05, 2005 / Tuesday
Track, Don't Traaack
Subbed in net for the Red eval session tonight. Had a decent time during the drills, but kept tracking the puck too wide during the scrimmage. 3 goals in 15 minutes? Puhleeease!
Or maybe it's 'cause Heather's a Jedi. She scored two on me. That little pause she makes before shooting, that's probably when she's waving her hand, saying, "You don't see the puck." I'm guessing that's also the reason I always lose the puck skating it in on her. Puck, what puck? Where'd it go? Into the back of my net, unfortunately.
Having an upset stomach the whole night didn't help. Perhaps I should have had some of Heather McJedi's magical pink power drink before the session. It looks thick enough to coat a stomach ...
11:24 PM | Red: S2005| Comments (0)
April 03, 2005 / Sunday
I Match My Pads! WhoO!
I had my evaluation for Red Division goalie today. Given that our league's short on Green goalies and has a surplus of Red goalies, I was a little nervous beforehand. I felt like I'd get booted back to Green if I messed up.
I think I did all right. Our goalie coordinator was there to watch, and I got a thumbs up from her toward the end of the session. Ooh ooh, does that mean I get to keep my Red jersey?
I sure hope so!
I had a lot of fun in net today. I got a lot more variation in shots, and everything moved faster. The players shoot harder and actually manage to lift the puck most of the time, which means my latest investment in protection for parts that are nonessential to hockey but very essential to the overall enjoyment of life will come in handy.
