GET SOME! I was like a wall tonight! A wall with only 4 small holes in it! We lost this one 4-3 but it was by far the best game I have ever played. I completely robbed a dude with my glove tonight. Like, Sports Center robbed. It looked freaking awesome and it felt even better. I had to act all cool afterwards so that it looks like something I will be doing more frequently… HA! This team was a really good team. I think they have the best offense in the league. I really was peppered tonight. I probably saw 30 shots. I went in expecting to lose but I honestly didn’t think I’d hold them to 4. Anyways, the past 3 weeks I have felt as if I am no longer the reason the team is losing so that’s a positive.

I bought my new goalie skates online today. RBK 5K’s in junior 5.5’s for only $150. Monkey has them for $240 and is out of size 5.5. They won’t be restocking as the new 2009 series is coming out. So, I am saving $90 plus the tax (no shipping charges). I hope to see them by Friday so that I can make love to them and then take them down to get sharpened in time for Saturday’s game.

Today I played as goalie in a 3 on 3 pond hockey tournament. It was basically iron man hockey. Two 10 minute running time periods with penalties resulting in immediate penalty shots. The nets were placed along the dashers and the playing surface was limited to the blue line on in. It was a really good time. As you can imagine you see a ton of action. A shot can be fired from just about anywhere on the playing surface.

I did ok actually. The first game was a 9-4 loss, second a 7-4 loss, third a 7-2 win, and then we lost in the semi-finals by a score of 4-3.  As I left the ice, one of the guys from another team asked if I’d sub in as goalie for their championship game. HA! I made it to the championship… well… sort of.  Of course I would never turn down ice time so I took him up. It was a very close game! I did a really good job of keeping the puck out but I ended up losing by a score of 4-3.

So, yeah, I got my first win but I am not counting it because it was in the tournament.

The guys that produced “The Website Is Down” have now come out with a second video called “Excel Hell”. It’s not quite as funny as the first but it’s still enough to make you do a number one in your pants. Check it out!

I am definitely improving! I held the opposition to 3 goals tonight. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough as we posted only 1 goal. My lateral movement (both up and in the b-fly) are improving. In fact, I stoned two guys on the back door last night. I am no longer retarded with my stick… just impaired.

I’ve got the hang of using the trapper to flex the shaft. The key is not to attempt to grasp the paddle with the trapper, but to apply pressure to the shaft with the palm of the trapper. It’s still very odd and nothing like using a regular stick.

The keys to this position are skating ability and flexibility. My skating is coming along (remember it’s much different than skating out) and I think that when I get my new skates I will see a huge improvement. I’ve also been working my way down in hollow (currently at 5/8″) which is odd to most old school goalies. It seems to be more accepted with b-fly goalies. In fact, I read a lot of guys are using a 3/8″ hollow which is more aggressive than I use on my regular skates! To address the flexibility issue I am going to buy this stretching aid (Stretch-a-Flex). Hopefully I’ll be doing the splits in a few months.

I played back to back games tonight (1st as a forward, 2nd as a goalie). Didn’t seem to throw my game off any (do I have game in net?). I had to leave 5 minutes early from the earlier game as it takes a bit longer to throw my goalie gear on. It worked out pretty good as I had just taken a deflected puck to the mouth. I am happy to report that I still have all my teeth. Anyways, that was the first time I’ve done both with no game in between.

Tonight was much better. I gave up no soft goals really. I’ve sealed off my 5 hole (so it seems) and my new problem is the upper portion of the net. I guess that’s to be expected given that I am a small guy and don’t cover a lot of that area naturally. I tend to give them a lot more than I should as I butterfly much sooner than I should. I got beat twice up high tonight but I really did a good job of staying up. I probably had 10 glove saves and a few blocker saves. The  remaing 3 goals (YES ONLY 5 GOALS TONIGHT!!!) were odd man rushes. Final score you ask? 5-5 Tie baby! Yeah! My first point!

Before I mention the final outcome of tonight’s game I will tell you that I made significant progress. I owe most of it to the one hour session on Thursday. I concentrated on my form tonight. I kept my blocker and glove out in front of my pads as I am supposed to. I also tried my best to seal off that five hole by squeezing those knees. I did pretty good!

Steve also pointed out that my pads were not resetting when getting up and he said it was likely due to the amount of slack on the toe bridge ties. Instead of just re-doing the laces I bought a neat little thing called Flex Toe. It essentially replaces the laces with a shock cord. It works like a champ! I had no problem with the pads resetting tonight. I *think* that actually helped my butterfly too.

Anyways, the game was a 10-5 loss. It sounds really bad but I was quite happy with my play. I only made one really foolish mistake. The goal count was excessive as there were lots of odd man breaks in my direction. Not a lot I can do with two on nones. I saw a lot of shots. I sucked up pucks that surely would have been fat rebounds just a week or two ago. Definite progress!

I am pawning off a lot of crap that I am not using right now. My goal is to replace the skates and mask at some point down the road. Skates may come very soon if my ebay auctions go well! That’s all for now!

I took my first lesson today. For $60 bucks I’d have to say that I did not get my money’s worth. The dude was really cool and I got a lot from his instruction but the situation sucked. There were probably 50-60 kids on the ice split into 6 groups (one inside each blue line and four in the neutral zone). We were stuck in one quarter of the neutral zone! He had 4 goalies out on the ice that he was instructing. He basically rotated through and gave each of us a little instruction. I only saw the net twice in the hour. I don’t mind that as I had other things to work on but that gives you an idea of how F’d up the situation was. Anyways, from this, I now have a bunch of crap to work on. For $60 I would likely not do it again. I would pay $25 to $30 for what I experienced today. The guy is opening a small sheet of ice (20′ x 40′) near the end of April so things should get MUCH better.

Ok, at the rate I am going my teamates are going to vote me off the island. Holy shit this weekend was bad! My GAA has now soared to 6.33 with the latest 8-3 loss. I let in two REALLY soft goals. They were essentially passes… no steam on them…. and they trickled in between my legs. I have a real problem closing the five hole when dropping and I am still quite retarded with my stick. To add insult to injury Brad scored his second hat trick in as many games on me. C’mon… this is Brad we are talking about! Ha!

One thing is for sure… it takes a mental toll on you as well. You are (to some extent) the reason your team wins or loses. Right now, I am doing all the losing for our team. Depressing eh?

This weekend was pretty incredible… I was on the ice 6 times! That’s what my next 16 weekends look like too! I am liking that even if my body says it doesn’t come Monday morning. I’ve also found a dude who teaches goalies. He’s expensive at $60 an hour but I figured I would give it a shot. I DEFINITELY need some instruction. If it goes well I’ll probably do an hour or two every month. Anyways, my first session is this Thursday at 5PM. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes…

Two games into my goalie career and I am sporting a 5.50 GAA (Goals Against Average for the hockey illiterate). Not so good… but I am actually ranked number 3 of the 6 goalies in the league with regards to that stat. Unfortunately they don’t track shots so I have no idea what my save percentage is. I think that’s the most important stat as it factors out defense. I almost got my first W last night. We ended up losing 5-6. I let in a few really soft goals.

I did make a significant improvement in my play though. I attribute some of it to the ice time I got last Sunday night but, I also have to give credit to the new pants I bought this weekend. I have been playing in ‘hand me down’ pants which are several sizes larger than they should be. Yesterday I purchased a pair which fit me correctly and that made a huge difference. Before, I would go down into the butterfly and have difficulty getting back up because the pants would get hung up on the leg pads. If I ended up on my back for some reason, then it was a huge issue getting back up. The new pants didn’t hang up once last night.

I am slowly getting the hang of T-pushing across the crease to cover those cross ice passes and shuffling along the blue paint to cover the angle. However, last night I was giving up some FAT rebounds. It was really bad… to the point where I’d make a nice glove save but the puck would pop right back out. I guess that’s just another thing to work on.