The Bridgton Academy Alumni Game

Though this is slightly off the topic of men's league, I feel like I have to write about it as it does at the very least relate to me, and to hockey...

Last weekend I took a drive that I haven't taken in fourteen years, to a place that I thought that I would probably never go to again.  Bridgton Academy, in North Bridgton, Maine.  

The motto of BA is "The year that makes the difference."  And I'll tell you something, for me, it did.  Both academically and athletically.  I know, without question that if it wasn't for my post graduate year there that I would have never been able to play college hockey, let alone get into college...  However, that is not the point of this post, what I want to write about is the Bridgton Academy Alumni game that I played in last Saturday.

The game was held at the Academy, though the closest thing that we had to a rink when I was there was a slab of cracked concrete surrounded by rapidly deteriorating boards and no glass.  About three years after my graduation, the school finally broke down and built a rink on campus, next to the football field and gymnasium.  The rink itself isn't anything special, though it is considerably better than a lot of the private school, and public rinks that I have played in. (Though it was a little dark for my tastes)  Plus, anything is better than having to dive, in a van, with your gear strapped into a plywood box on top of the roof of said van, I mean, fuck, we're talking about Maine, in February (and every other ice cold month of the winter) and the half hour drive to Hebron Academy just north of us made getting dressed for practice an uncomfortable experience.  Driving to somewhere like Vermont Academy was just plain cruel and unusual punishment.  Now the school is equipped with both a rink AND a coach bus...  Those lucky bastards.

Now Bridgton Academy is a different kind of private school...  First, it is the only all post graduate private school in the country.  Second, it is an all boys school in a very, very small town where it was absolutely forbidden of any of the academy students to "fraternize" with any of the local girls...  (Expulsion was the quick and immediate response for that.)  The school has been molding young minds for over two hundred years, so it is safe to say that they are doing something right.

Anyway, the on to the game itself.  Now, because of of the fact that it is school that exists entirely of post graduate students, unless a student from my graduating class '(96) showed up to play, the only people that I would know would be coaches and teachers.  Unfortunately, that was the case.  I was the only player from the Class of 1996 to make it to the game, but that did not in anyway take away from my enjoyment of the game itself.  It was basically like other charity/alumni games that I have played in, basically a glorified pick-up game with a ref and an announcer.  But god, it was fun.  There was a player there from the class of '58, there were a few more from the 70's, a couple from the 80's, but most of us came from a class in the 90's (reliving our glory years I guess).  And yeah, there were even a few whippersnappers that came from a class in this very new millennium.

There were some very solid players, and the game was relatively fast paced, and there were plenty of goals scored (we played twenty minute periods), indicated by the final score of 13-6 (and yes, we won).  I can honestly say that I felt like I was smiling the entire time I was playing.  It might have been the most fun that I have had while playing a "game," though calling it a game might be a bit of an overstatement...  But shit it was fun.  And it seemed like everyone else felt the same way, there were a lot of smiles out there on the ice, a lot of laughing, a lot of joking around.

After the game the Academy put out a nice spread in the student lounge for us, there was a tour of the new, and rather impressive Humanities building followed by a dinner back in the student lounge.  After dinner there was what amounted to a state of the school/hockey program address which took me back to all of those weekly chapel sessions listening to Coach Daily...  It was great to be back there, to see that even though there have been some huge changes (a hockey rink, the Humanities building), that for the most part, Bridgton Academy is exactly how I remember it.  The dinning hall, the dorms, the chapel...  Hell, it even started snowing while I was there...

I'm already looking forward to next years game...

Catching Up

I guess that I have a lot of catching up to do, so let me figure out where I should start here, hmmm...

My last post came after my last shutout out, so that's a gap of five games.  Collectively, we went 2-1-2.  (Jesus, I fucking hate ties, there is nothing worse than leaving points on the table.)  The Dennis team is playing really well, and all the guys have been making it to our games lately, which has given us some much needed consistency in a league that is a step up from the OMHL in terms of speed and skill level.  

Our best player has been playing like our best player, and the supporting cast around him has been equally good.  Some of the goals that the guys have been scoring lately would be highlight reel goals in any league.  In the games that we have won recently, our passing has been crisp and on target.  There is something about a perfect pass that's like a work of art, and when our first line gets the passing going (without sacrificing open shots) it's a nearly impossible line to defend.  Our second line on that DMHL team is a perfect second line, a grind it out, hustle the entire shift line.  That line makes it hard on other teams to really get anything going, they forecheck hard, take away passing lanes, and backcheck equally hard...  

Defensively we're solid, with one standout defenseman (I've said it a million times, and I'll probably say it a million more, I would take an entire team of guys just like D.O.), two very solid younger defenseman, and a slightly aging vet.  The good thing about our D is that they've been playing together since the beginning of last spring, which means as a group, we've all been playing together since last spring.  They know my tendencies, and I know theirs.  It's just like consistency up front for the forwards (who I barely pay attention to), I mean goalies and there defense really are a unit, and it's important to know how we'll play off of each other.

We've won two out of our last three in Dennis, and the loss was an incredibly close game, which was lost on a fluke goal.  We lost a faceoff in our zone on the left side, which was won on a clean draw back to the left wing, who had slid over behind the center, and managed to get a quick shot off, which I made the save on with my blocker...  The puck, somehow, went straight up in the air and we all lost track of its location, and when it came back down, it hit me in the back and went it the net.  It was a back breaker for us, and it really gave a lift to the other team.

In the first win of this five game stretch I got to stop a penalty shot.  God, I love penalty shots.  And I love stopping guys cold who get to take them.  It ended up being an important save, as we won that game by the narrowest of margins, 2-1.  It was a good game, and surprisingly not as chippy as I expected it to be since the last time that we played them there was a huge fight, I got run twice, and there was a ton of stick work going on throughout the game.  Like I said, this most recent game against them was definitely on the tame side.

Our second win came against the team that also gave us our loss in this three game stretch.  We had a short bench that night, and having played them all spring/summer/fall I was a little on the worried side about our chances.  I played well, and the boys buried all of their chances.  The second time around went a little differently, it was a back and forth game, we got up, they got up, we tied, and then the back breaker fluke goal.  Can't win them all right?

Now, in Orleans, things are going a little differently...  Two fucking horribly stupid ties.  I HATE TIES.  

AND

We lost our best player to a nasty foot injury, which occurred in the first tie when he took a shot off the laces on the top of his foot.  From what I understand, was so swollen it looked like he had a baseball under the skin on that foot.  Thankfully, nothing was broken, or even fractured.  However, a particular revelation reared it's ugly head about Jake being out of the line up.  We can't score without him.  At all.  From the point of his departure, which came in the first ten minutes of the first tie (in a game that we were winning 3-0 at the time of the injury) we have only managed two goals.  TWO GOALS.

Things are not shaping up in Orleans like I thought that they would at the start of the season.  We haven't had nearly enough consistency in our line up, and too many of the guys only skate once a week, making us, as a team, susceptible to running out of steam when we need it most, the last five minutes of any game.  Also, in the game that we lost Jake, most of the remaining players were in their forties, while our oppositions core was somewhere in their mid to late twenties.  They managed to tie the game with a minute and a half left.

And last nights game wasn't any better, as it was another game that ended in a tie with a team that didn't resemble the team that took the ice the week before (in terms of the players on the bench).  And you could really see that last night, none of the passes were connecting, the guys looked a little confused out there actually, even running into each other. It didn't help that I played like a donkey myself.  Somehow, it the first period, I managed to kick the puck into the net while I was making every attempt possible to get out of the way of it.  As soon as it hit my skate I knew it was is...  It's one of those deals where you just have to get up, take a drink of water, and act about as nonchalant as you can humanly manage to.  I mean, shit, you don't what to ever let the other team see you get down, because if they do, if they pick up on it, you're dead.  You might as well head right straight into the locker room.  So I had a drink of water, squirted a little on my face, and tried, as manly as I could, to forget all about it.  Overall though, it was a good game, and ended 2-2.

So there you go, all caught up, for the time being.  Here are the numbers, 14-7-5, 2.38 GAA, 3 SO

Zeros

Ahhhh, shutouts.

Is there a greater achievement for a goaltender than getting a shutout in a men's league game, in a game generally devoid of any sort of defensive play?  (Well, truth be told, both of the teams that I play on are, for the most part, very solid defensively.)  Shutouts are generally few and far between, because, as it was once said, "Hockey is a slippery game, it's played on ice..."  the puck can take funny bounces, there are usually big hulking goons standing in front of me, attempting to obstruct my view, pucks deflect off of players, both friend and foe...  In fact, most goals don't go in clean, they go off something, or someone, because most goalies, if they can see it, they will stop it, myself included (most of the time).

I would have to say that this year I have been very fortunate, in twenty one games we have managed to shutout three teams.  A shutout is commonly thought of as a goaltending achievement, but it's not, it's a team achievement, no goalie could possibly ever shut another team down on his own.  You need your defense to be there to handle the occasional bad rebound, you need your forwards to back check...  In order to shut a team out, everything has to go just the right way, all the bounces, most of the calls, and you have to get away with some shit, or rather, you have to get lucky a few times.  (My father always used to tell me as a kid, "Goaltending is 90% skill, and 10% luck," but I tend to think that it might be more like 75/25)

For me, there has been a common thread linking all of the shutouts that I have been a part of this season.  In each of them I have played "big."  Now I don't mean that I was playing like an all-star, but rather "big" in the physical sense.  Also, I feel like on each of these particular nights, I have really been challenging shooters, which is easy to do when my defense is forcing them to take low percentage shots from the outside.  But again, when I play "big," when I challenge shooters and play the way I'm supposed to, the game slows down for me, it becomes easier.  I don't have to scramble, I don't have to put myself out of position to make saves...  I'm where I am supposed to be, and when I am playing like that it means that I am not leaving my opposition a lot to shoot at.  It's a good feeling...

Up until maybe a week ago, I was scuffling, three weeks of trying to figure out what the hell I was doing wrong, and as a goalie, that is a tough place to be in your head...  Self doubt and goaltending don't mix well.  So having last night go well, and feeling like I had a very solid chance for a shutout last wednesday night, I feel like I may have found a good grove again to be in.  The additional bonus of a shutout, aside from good mental heath for me, is that it says, very clearly, that the defense played collectively outstanding.  It picks everyone up and there is generally a carryover effect.  Hopefully it sticks with us a few games.

Anyway, here are the current stats  12-6-3, 2.43 GAA, 3 SO

A Little Off...

Being a goalie means being, well, a bit of a freak show.  A weirdo, an odd duck.  Nothing that a goalie could ever say could possibly get anyone to ever think otherwise.  And you know what, it's completely true.  

What kind of person volunteers to get in the way of six ounces of vulcanized rubber screaming at speeds somewhere between 50 and 80 miles an hour?  What kind of sick fucker does that?  

"Hey, you're going to fire that little black disc at my head?  Really?  WOW, that sounds like a great time, where do I sign up?"

It's just not normal.  Truth be told however, most kids (well, at least when I was a kid) didn't choose the position, it chose them.  For me, well, I didn't start playing hockey until I was twelve, although I had been on skates from the time that I was three.  Somewhere around that particular age it began to dawn on me that the kid that hid himself in the back of the classroom, sketching away, not paying particular attention to anything was never going to get a girl.  Period.  But the kids that were playing sports, yeah, the girls liked them...  

It seemed like a good idea to me, play hockey, get girls.  It started out simply enough, I wanted to be a defense man, I wanted the three "Gs,"  Girls, Goals, and Glory...  Hell of a plan, but my father was my first teams head coach, and as it goes with so many kids who end up being goalies, he didn't want to ask anyone else's kid to play goal, knowing full well that no other parent would go for that deal.  So I got the job, by default.  And I hated it, absolutely loathed it...  I was terrified the first couple of times, mortified that I was going to get hurt, end up a vegetable, eating my meals intravenously...  By the third time though I realized that it seemed virtually impossible for me to get hurt, with all of the classic (and borrowed) 1970's old school leather Cooper goalie gear on I was invincible...  (Clearly, this is when the "goalie psychosis" set in)

I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker...  The equipment, the opportunity to be out on the ice for the whole game, the ability to take a penalty but not have to serve it...  The occasional flashy glove save, and even the one "A" didn't seem to bother me, the ABUSE.  The timing must have been just right for me, and possibly the fact that I had no idea what the hell I was actually doing, but I was able to move quickly from the "In-House" program to the travel hockey program where I had the good fortune of skipping an entire age classification.  So at thirteen I was playing Bantams instead of PeeWees.  Talk about learning on the job.  We lost every single game that season except for out last one, we tied that one, and it has been the only tie of my life that has ever felt like a win.  That was hands down my favorite team.  We were the Bad News Bears of hockey, and you would have thought that after getting my ass handed to me every game that I would have come to the conclusion that this goaltending bullshit had to go...  Nope, not quite.

I got my first job that summer and saved all of my money to buy newer, fancier equipment.  Well, as fancy as my five dollars an hour could afford.  The first thing on my list was a new chest and arm protector, because the one that I had basically amounted to a quilt with sleeves, not a whole lot of protection there.  I bought a D&R CA, it was all white and offered light years more protection than the circa 1972 CA that I had been wearing to that point.  I also managed to scrape enough money together to buy a brand new Cooper GM9 blocker (all white, which was a big deal as goalie equipment had just begun the "color" trend, up until then you were stuck with the all brown leather classics...) because my previous blocker, which was used had several flaws, one, there was no palm whatsoever, and two, it reeked of cat piss.  The new GM9 was a huge improvement.  I managed to get my hands on a used pair of Vic leg pads (tan and black), the boxy ones like Tom Barasso used to wear, and a slightly used GM9 catching glove (tan and black).  

I started to get a little crazy at that point, pouring over hockey supply catalogs, checking out every single new piece of gear, dying to get my hands on it...  A couple of years after my first Bantam season I was facing much bigger guns at the high school level and needed to procure some equipment with an even higher standard of protection, so by my sophomore  year I had moved up the equipment ladder to the Vaughn Legacy series...  Holy crap, this was the stuff that guys like Andy Moog and Mike Richter were wearing...  I spent the entire summer saving to buy my first brand new pair of Vaughn Legacy 3000, 34" leg pads, (I had already bought the 1050 blocker, and had gotten the T2000 glove for christmas) and when they finally arrived I couldn't wait to get out on the ice with them.  They were black and white, and I can still remember how they smelled brand new out of the box.  They were perfect.  I was also one of the first goalies locally to get my hands on a "pro-style" goalie mask, which was HECC certified and allowable for use in youth and high school hockey.  It was made by Van Veldon...  It was a little ill fitting, and I wasn't thrilled with the HECC approved wire cage, but at least I had a cool looking mask...  

I could go on and on about what I bought or received as a gift, what color it was, when I got it, but I need to get back to my original point, goalies are freak shows...  And like I said, for a host of different reasons, but the primary reason that I am such a nut job, I have to match the team that I am playing with, so I have two sets of  Bauer Supreme SE 2 all white, and an all black set.  The sets are identical in every way, leg pads, gloves, blockers...  I have two identical ITECH 960 goalie masks, one all white, and one with a design on it in blue (my OMHL team wears blue and white).  I have two pairs of goalie pants that I use regularly, one royal blue pair of ITECH pants, and one black pair of Vaughn pants and a John Brown 2100 chest and arm protector.

Now, I have more gear than that, two more Bauer gloves (black/red, black/blue), another Bauer blocker (black/red), an additional pair of Vaughn leg pads (white), another pair of Vaughn pants (red), and two more helmets (all black, and mostly red with a design) a Brian's CA, and a Sher-Wood CA.  I mention all of this stuff to illustrate a particular sickness that infects most goalies, the want and desire to match everything, all of the time.  Now there are some players who feel the same way, my father was like that, but for the most part, the don't seem to give a shit one way or the other...  Shit, I paint my goalie sticks to match the teams I play on...

Now if I was married, had kids, shit like that, I probably wouldn't be out buying up goalie equipment everywhere I looked, I wouldn't be painting my sticks to match my team colors...  But I am not married and I don't have any kids, so that means I get to do whatever the hell I want to do.  Part of me spends a lot of time trying to convince myself that I buy all of this shit because I am a "team first" guy.  I think the truth is, well, I just love goalie equipment, hell, if I could, I would open my own store selling hockey gear.  Think about it, that might just be the most perfect job in the world...  Sitting around, talking about hockey, playing with new gear, testing out new sticks, sharpening skates all day...  I hope that is what heaven is like when I finally shit the bed.

Anyway, yeah, I'm a fucking wing nut, fine, I can live with that, I'm a goalie.  I'm supposed to be crazy and a little weird.

So here are the stats after 20 GP, 11-6-3, 2.55 GAA, 2 SO...

Overconfidence is a Killer

So lately, it seems as though something, collectively is off, way off, for both teams.  Strangely it almost seems like overconfidence.  Very concerning to me.  If there was on thing that I learned during my very short lived poker career, never, EVER, underestimate anyone at anytime.  It always leads to big, pathetic, wildly embarrassing loses (and sometimes ties).

Now, in the DHML, we've been pretty consistent with our lines over the last five to six weeks, everyone has been healthy...  We've been able to roll over some of the lesser teams, as we should, but now I feel like because of a few weeks of having a "soft" schedule that the boys seem to think that they can walk all over every other team in the league, which is NEVER the case when you have one defense man who is over 50, and another that just got back onto the ice this past spring after a ten year absence...  Defense is paramount to being successful, and without it, we are at best, average.  And that goes for both teams...  Average.  

Fuck average.  The thought of that, the idea of being average pisses me off to no end.  WHo the fuck wants to be average?  Ok, I get that it's just men's league, shit, we're paying to play, no one is getting paid, none of us are superstars, but come on, you never lose the want, that desire to win, to compete.  That's why we're out there, not for fun, not for exercise, to compete, to go out there and kick the shit out of the team that your playing, to win.  I cannot stand when someone says to me that it's just a game.  Go eat shit. I've been playing hockey for twenty years, and not for fun, I play because I have a desire and a need to compete.  People who know me even only peripherally know this about me.  I hate losing.  Only losers are ok with losing, I do not fall into that category.  The "loser" category.

Two games ago there was a play where an opposing player absolutely undressed everyone on my team, including myself, and after the play was over, and the goal was scored one of my defense men was laughing about it.  I wanted to kill him. Laughing really.  That guy just embarrassed you and you're laughing about it.  I don't have any desire to play with guys like that.  None.  I'll tell you what, there is a team in the league that has no wins, and probably won't win a game all year, go fucking play with them.  You want to laugh about getting your ass handed to you, well, you'll have plenty of opportunities to do so playing for those bums.  Yuck it up over there.  I don't need defense men like that in front of me, the game is hard enough as it is.

Again, this all goes back to my competitive nature...  Now some people have a hard time accepting that about me.  That's their problem.  Not mine.  Winning is fun, I smile when I win, the world is all rainbows and sunshine when I win, and when I lose, stay the fuck away from me.  There has never been a time that I have taken the ice and thought "We're fucked, there is no way we're going to win..."  I ALWAYS EXPECT TO WIN.  ALWAYS.  Don't show up if you don't think that you're going to win, seriously, do me a favor, stay at home sitting on your couch watching television eating junk.  OR, go play for the team that blows cock, hey, at least you had "fun" and there is always beer after.

I seem to have gotten slightly off track, but only slightly.  I was talking about both teams going into games being over confident, and you're probably thinking, "Didn't this asshole just say that he ALWAYS expects to win?"  Yes, I did, now, there is a difference between being overconfident, and just plain expecting to win...  I expect to win because I always leave it all out on the ice.  I will do whatever it takes for my team to win, giving them all I have to give and a little extra if I have to.  That is why I always expect to win, because I know that I am never out there dogging it, I can't, I'm the fucking goalie for fuck's sake.  I believe 100% in the old "A good goalie makes all the saves that he's supposed to make, and some of the ones that he has no business making..."  So in order to make the semi-impossible saves, I have to give every last ounce of whatever I've got in the tank that night.  And I always do.

So after 19 games, I am collectively 10-6-3, with a 2.53 GAA, and 2 SO.  

Back on track...

It's been roughly a month since I last made a blog entry so I thought that it might be time for an update. 

In the last month my combined record between the two teams that I play for has been less than sparkling...  3-3-2, with a robust 3.13 GAA, and 1 SO.  So yeah, I had a couple of absolutely terrible games, and I even made some attempt within the confines of my simple little brain to make an excuse for my poor performances in the early going of that stretch, like "I was sick, which screwed up my timing," or "My D was hanging me out to dry..."  Bullshit like that.  The fact of the matter is, as a goaltender, my job is to stop the puck.  Simple.  Make ALL of the saves that I am supposed to make, and some of the saves that I have no business making.  

Get that?  I am supposed to make saves, not excuses.

Now, aside from games, and poor play, and a boatload of excuses, I have actually managed to complete my second set of equipment...  I now have two completely identical sets of gear, one which is all black, and one which is all white.  This makes me happy, if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, and died, I would die a happy guy for two reasons, one being the equipment, and the other being that my overall GAA is currently under 3.00 for the season after 17 games.  Anyway, back to the gear, identical...  This was not an easy task for several reasons, one, my absurdly anal nature which makes it impossible for me to settle for less than exactly what I want.  Also, I had to chase down gear that has been out of production for the last two years, and it had to be in near new condition.  I will say this though, it was worth the effort.  The Bauer SE2 line was, in my opinion, perfectly made for a goaltender who plays somewhere in between the current butterfly style and the mid-nineties butterfly style (Think Roy, Brodeur, and maybe even Moog).  The glove has the perfect break, and the blocker has the palm set back more toward the wrist and slightly off center, which aids in my ability to handle the puck.  Plus the shit is super light weight... 

So to date, my cumulative record is 9-5-3, 2.65 GAA, 2 SO.  

All of those expectations...

On Monday night we played the Advanced Embroidery Eagles team, and it was a fucking great game.  The best game that we have played this season.  

The Eagles lived up to my expectation of what kind of team I though that they were.  They were fast, they moved the puck well, and have solid defense and goaltending.  Their forwards were smart and screened me well and often.  They used their points often and seemed to have a solid power play unit (they managed to go 1 for 1 on the PP).

We managed to put a pretty damn good game together ourselves though, we had our full compliment of players (for a change) and as long as we continue to have everyone show up consistently, we (in my opinion) can only continue to get better.  Our lines have changed up a little bit as we moved one of our forwards (who had always played defense up until three years ago) back to help shore up our defense.  He's been back there for the last two games, and its helping, a lot.  Danny has speed (he can rush the puck when he has to), good hands, quick feet (an import attribute for a defense man) and an extremely high hockey I.Q.  Seldom does he ever do something foolish, and he never makes panicked reactions in our zone.  He is the kind of player that, from my stand point, puts me at ease, and allows me to truly focus on the puck/play in front of me because I never feel like I have to cheat to make up for a defense man that I don't completely trust.  For our first few games we only really had three true defense man, meaning that were were always throwing someone into the fire on D who wasn't totally comfortable with the position.  Moving Danny back on D makes us a very solid team defensively, giving us two very good defensive pairings.  

Our offensive players have always been very talented, so moving Danny back doesn't really hurt us up front, and now, he becomes a threat from the blue line, where I think he is much more comfortable.  Our first line is, in my opinion, as good as any other line in the league, and our second line is no joke either.  We have a team who understands how to grind out a win, we don't have guys who are prima donnas that won't go into the corners and muck it up for the puck.  They will, and they do, and when they go in the corners, they usually come out with the puck, and because of that kind of play we managed to score the first two goals (well, sort of, the first two goals were lasers that found there way just under the crossbar on glove side).

Like I said before, the Eagles scored on the power play, although it was kind of a bullshit/lucky goal.  With about thirty seconds left in the PP, one of their forwards fired a shot from the left wing boards that barely missed the net, but managed to ricochet off the end boards behind the net out front on the opposite side to the other winger who fired the puck, I managed to get a piece of it, but not enough, and that made it  2-1.  We picked up another goal off of some solid work in front of the net, and with about six minutes left in the game they scored again off of some of their own solid work in front of me.    

I felt good though about my play overall, despite the two goals, because as I said from the start, those guys lived up to my expectations as to just how good they are.  They were definitely relentless, they took a lot of shots, several of which came through screens.  I started using my height to my advantage in the last couple of weeks though, so instead of trying to look through the screens by getting down in the butterfly and looking through a tangle of legs for the puck, I have been looking over them, allowing me to maintain my focus on the puck, and it also allows me to see what other aspects of the play are developing... 

The game ended with us on top 3-2, getting us a game over .500, putting our record at 3-2-1 in 6 games, and putting my GAA 2.50.  We play Shepley's next week at 10 PM Monday night...