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Okay, how do I approach this post without being all, “Whoo, I’m MVP!”?

Maybe I can’t. Whatever, it’s my blog.

Whoo, I’m MVP!

I have a bunch more to say, but I’d like to make clear that this post is neither an acceptance speech nor a well thought out reflection. I just want to document details for future searching. Welcome to my online brain.

Rewind to Sunday at the rink, where I saw our awards coordinator handing out MXP awards for last season. “Is this season’s tally done yet?” I asked. “I sent the e-mail for approval today,” she replied. “Ooh! Tell me tell me tell me!” I wanted to know who on our team had won. She paused, thought for a bit, and said, “Congratulations!” Cool, I’d won something! But what? I waited anxiously for the e-mail.

Monday came and went. No awards e-mail. Why was approval taking so long?

I didn’t spend much time thinking about it; I was too busy with work and school. Tuesday evening, during my school meeting, I got an IM from a teammate. I didn’t get to look at it until afterward, but when I did I saw “congrats” and “MVP”. Heeey, how come she knew and I didn’t?

Went home and sent an IM to another teammate, who said that the awards e-mail came out yesterday. I searched my inbox, trash, and spam folder. Nothing. What’s going on here?

In any case, thanks to the wonders of the internet, I was forwarded a copy of said e-mail. This is the part where I get to say again, “Whoo, I’m MVP!”

This is especially sweet because we had a great team with a lot of great players this season. I wasn’t the one with the best positioning, shot, passing, stick handling, dekes, or defensive stops. I wasn’t the one with the most hat tricks, goals, or assists. I played my ass off, though, and I hope that this award means that it showed.

This is also sweet because I haven’t won anything since I moved to up Maroon. Season after season I’ve played my ass off. Have I improved? Have I been positive? Have I made a notable contribution to the success of the team? At the end of each season (except maybe the first one) I’ve always felt that the answer to one or more of those questions was yes, but it’s really nice to see one of those yeses reflected externally.

But wait a minute, did I really win something in Maroon? Aren’t we R4? Did I just win another Red MVP? Oh, my braaain, it hurts! Someone please make it stop.

- – -

No acceptance speech, but definitely a thank you, thank you, and thank you to those of you who gave me an MVP nod. You know that big smile I get on my face when I step on the ice? I’m sitting here smiling it now. :)

I woke up this morning feeling really down. I moped around all afternoon, shopping and buying candy, until game time. I hadn’t had enough water, I’d been eating junk all weekend, and I felt like crap. I felt even worse on the ice, tiring early in the game, legs burning, head light, coordination not quite there. Still, I made it through the game, got a few shots on net, and didn’t do anything totally stupid. I’ll take it.

Before the game started, one of the refs asked me which team we were. “M… 4,” I replied, “No! Uh, R4!” She looked at me kind of funny. “R4! We’re R4! Or, uh, M… 1? I don’t know! I don’t know who we are! I’m so confused.”

We had a decent game, built up a lead like the last time we faced this team, and hung on to it this time for the win. Final score: 3-1. A nice way to finish off the season.

At Christy’s request, I searched again for decent lemons and found some at Trader Joe’s on Saturday, which meant lemon bars for the team after the game. Christy did her part and brought her Red division jersey, which we unfortunately aren’t allowed to wear because of some unsilly league rules.

So there it is, our last game of the season. It’s been fun, R4.

What? Who? I’m so confused.

Despite feeling mostly better, my knee was still bothering me enough to make driving uncomfortable. I ended up passing on go karting so I could stand a chance of skating later in the afternoon. The decision paid off; I was able to finish both games without too much pain in my left knee, although for some strange reason my right knee started hurting. Compensation? Neglect? Who knows.

Our team started off the game half asleep today, which seemed pretty out of character for us. The other team went up by 2 goals early, but we managed to tie it up by the end of the 1st period, the tying goal being yet another Lucinda-to-Viv play, this one a great lead pass for a breakaway. For the first time ever (Hooray, a first!), I had the presence of mind to tell myself to stick around for a rebound after my shot. It paid off; the goalie stopped the shot, but I was able to pop the rebound up over her stick and into the net. Yes!

We felt much more like ourselves after that. We went on to score 8 more goals. Final score: 10-2. That looks kind of ridiculous, I know. Our team discussed whether to change things up between the 2nd and 3rd periods, but decided not to, since we’ve been having a problem holding onto leads the last couple games. (We built comfortable leads early and either lost or tied after getting complacent toward the end.) We did, however, switch to quietly celebrating our goals in the 3rd.

I played D for M3 in the next game. Oh, how I miss playing D! I focused mostly on defending, keeping the puck in, and making good passes. My biggest concern was to not screw up, and I didn’t want to wear myself out by running the puck up and down the ice… at least until my final shift. One of the fun things about playing D is taking the puck from one end to the other, and when I got a hold of the puck deep in our end with one minute left on the clock, I took off toward the other net. I made it past 3 defenders and even remembered to curl around the last one and in toward the net. (Hooray, a second!) Actually, I was surprised at how easily I got around her. I don’t remember what kind of shot I took, but it resulted in a freeze, so I guess I got something on net. I haven’t played D in a while, so it’s nice to know that I can still generate some offense from that position. Final score: 6-0.

Here’s (to) hoping that I’ll wake up with magically healed knees tomorrow.

Does anyone know whether it’s “here’s hoping” or “here’s to hoping”? The former seems more correct to me, but the latter seems a lot more prevalent.

Played what felt like a very speedy game against M3 today. We had a strong start, and, again it seems, a not so strong finish. Fortunately, we were able to hang on for a tie. Final score: 3-3. I totally forgot to find out about shot count. I didn’t see the score sheet floating around after the game. Out of sight, out of mind…

Claire started off the scoring for us, stepping in from point and sending one in through traffic. Lucinda and I then scored on yet another Lucinda-to-Viv 2-on-1 for the second goal. Then came THE SLAPSHOT. Christy, from point, wound up, whaled on the puck, and put it into the back of the net so fast the goalie didn’t even see it. Not a flinch. I didn’t see it either, and not for lack of trying. All I remember is (1) wind up and (2) back of net. What an awesome shot.

Burninator teammate Becky was on the other team playing D on my side. She has really improved a lot. I remember thinking that while watching her play in Vegas, but having to play against her really drove it home… literally. I tangled with her all game. At one point, I tried to get by her on the boards and was stopped so hard I had to get off the ice after I picked myself up. Uffa!

Andrea and Val were in attendance tonight, which made for much waving and flapping between shifts and before faceoffs. At one of the faceoffs the ref seemed to pause for a moment to allow me to finish waving. I don’t know if that’s what she was really doing, but if it was, thanks ref! :-D

Well, no, losing in itself is not fun, but even though we lost today, I still had a good time.

We started off the game strong, scoring 2 goals in one shift early in the game. Julie scored one off a rebound in front of the net, and I followed suit on a 2-on-1 with Lucinda shortly afterward. Then the other team woke up, and the game got exciting. We had lots of great shifts, but weren’t able to get any more past Cara. The other team scored 3, and when we pulled the goalie at the end, they put another one in for good measure. Final score: 2-4. The shot count wasn’t bad, at least. 34-25 (+/-2) or something.

When we pulled the goalie, I hopped onto the ice. We had the puck in their zone, I was wide open in the high slot, and Christy sent me a perfect pass. I sent a hard shot at the net (I was fairly surprised and somewhat pleased that it sailed so wobble-free) toward what I hoped was the gap between Cara and the right post, and watched as she snapped her glove out and plucked the puck from the air. The motion was so quick and effortless. What a great grab. It sucks to be denied, but it’s damned cool to watch a pretty save. Nice, Cara.

Someone on the other team (they are this season’s cookie team) brought heart cookies for everyone. So cute!

My right shoulder kind of hurts. I landed on it after I scored, then slid feet first into the boards. On one hand, it was kind of amusing because I don’t think I’ve done that since Green Division, but on the other hand, that hurt!

Wendy scorekept this game, and she brought with her a CD with videos of me from a game earlier this season. (Thanks Wendy!) Out of 13 videos, there’s only one in which I sprinted for the puck with knees bent. It was amazing how much faster I looked when I did. I don’t know if it was actual speed, but even if it doesn’t make me faster, it sure makes me look like I am! I must remember to do that more.

Speaking of knees, my left knee that doesn’t like scuba or cycling is fine with hockey. Um, hooray?

The paragraphs in this post seem all out of order, but I’m not fixing it, so deal… me.

I was reminded by a picture on Flickr just now of my favorite moment from last Friday’s game.

Ahem…

My favorite moment of last Friday’s game was when I missed a faceoff because I was too busy standing at the glass waving and making faces at Val.

After a half-team showing last week, 13 out of the 14 of us made it to tonight’s game. It’s nice to get to play with no subs; you get to see how good your team really is. How good were we? Good enough to outshoot the other team 47-17 and win 5-0. Yikes, not bad.

Christy opened it up for us early on, scoring 2 in the first period. We followed up with 2 more in the second when Karolyn threaded the needle through a 6 inch gap and Julie put one in after many great plays and almost goals throughout the period. We then mixed things up, swapping 3 forwards for D and changing all our lines. Despite the change, I converted on a breakaway in the 3rd, bringing the tally to 5 goals.

In retrospect, perhaps I shouldn’t have gone for the goal. It was late in the game and we didn’t need it. It’s hard to think about that, though, when all you see is open ice between you and the goalie.

I guess we kind of annoyed certain members of the other team with our cheering toward the end of the game. Some of us, myself included, always cheer for our teammates when they make a good play or have a scoring opportunity, regardless of the bigger picture of the game. Kind of like with the breakaway, I find it hard to extract myself from the moment to think about whether it’s something the other team would appreciate. I guess if I were in the other team’s shoes (skates?) I might find such cheering to be a little excessive, too. So, other team, if you’re reading this, sorry if it came off as unsportsmanlike. The cheering was meant to be teammate supportive, not “Yeah, let’s kick the other team’s ass.”

Next game isn’t for another week an a half. Hurry, hurry!

And who the hell is R Four?