Week 8, game 10 and 11

In which we played vs the NorCal Crossovers. This game was at 10:15pm on the Sat after Thanksgiving. My sister, her husband, 5 of their 8 kids, Killian and my mom all came to watch me play. Too bad I was so nervous having an audience, I didn't do anything miraculous. It was pretty fun having a cheering section. One time I just threw the puck up to the other end...totally iced it, just to get it out of there. Whooo hooo! is what I heard. I felt cool and a little embarrassed at the same time. Cool because I was getting acknowledgement, embarrassed because, I just iced the puck. This is nothing great. But hey, I gave the D a little rest and it actually didn't warrant a whistle for icing, so it was a win/win.
The team as a whole played rather well and the score really doesn't do justice to our play. We ended up losing 3-6...I wrote it right this time. After the game we hung out drinking beer until 1am, talking about how great we did and how we had a great chance at winning our next game, tomorrow.
The Sunday night game, we played vs the Foothill Flyers. After our impressive bout with the Crossovers, how could we go wrong? Oh, it was ugly. Downright ugly. New Mike was all over the place, Alan could hardly move due to pulling something....I'll leave it at that. Bob was mostly standing around with a moment or two of brilliance. Shrunken head was lying down behind the goal when we were on D? What? Capitan kept getting the puck slashed away from him. Petey was timid. Kenny was trying. I made a killer blue line save to keep the puck in the offensive zone. I know, someone should have scored a goal off of that. I had another pretty good move, but all in all, skated like crap. My legs felt heavy and the Flyers seemed to be everywhere at once. Just swarming for the kill. We ended up only losing 2-6, but it felt worse than that. Old Mike is proud to say that he had a perfect game. No goals were scored while he was on his shift at D.
I texted Capitan the next game and vented my woes. We played like ass. Truly. We let the Flyers win. We handed them that game. And in other news...Blue Thunder lost to the Mutiny 1-5. We lose to the Mutiny by like 11 points or more. WTH? Ben is calling for sticktime tomorrow. I'm on the fence. Killian wants to skate this weekend. Might just wait until then.

Week 9, game 11

The entire team was really excited the week leading up to this game. We have been playing the top tier of the league for so long, and the losses were starting to get to us. Oh, believe me, we still all stayed for beer afterwards. Tried to find positive things to compliment each other on to take the sting off. This week was the minions of Jeff and we were ready. Just to refresh, Jeff was our 4th coach for Learn to Play class. When he got us, the class was almost over. There were definite holes in our learning due to being shuffled from coach to coach. He was easily annoyed at our level of skill and knowledge. I'm sure in his mind, he did us a huge favor trying to get us in some type of shape before the class was over. His regular class had weeded out their "dream team" and became the Blue Thunder.
When I walked into the locker room, I was so excited to see Alex! He had been out for weeks. If anyone is the heart of the team, it is our Sasha. We have missed him. What a great night to pick as a return. I knew then that we would win. Ricky Bobby questioned his placement at R wing. He has been playing D. I told him, no...we need shooters up front. Turns out that I  was psychic again.
Blue Thunder scored first in the 1st period, but the 2nd period was all ours. Sasha, Capitan, Ricky Bobby and Bob all getting goals. We were wild with excitement! We were winning. The Blue Thunder managed one more goal and it ended 4-2.
I did not get close to a goal. But I did get into the penalty box. Officially it is listed as tripping. I did trip the bearded asshole on the B.T. but did not get called for it. We had a small scuffle at sticktime during the week. He had a bevy of pucks in front of him at the end and I skated over and grabbed one. He said, Hey...these are mine, I collected them. I said, I brought one, so I'm leaving with one. He found his missing one in the net. I couldn't help it as I skated off I said, Told you I brought one. I think it was poetic justice that my stick got caught up in the top part of his skate and he splatted all over the ice :)
I was really in the penalty box for too many men on the ice. Stupid shrunken head skates so damn slow. Takes her forever to get from one side of the ice to the other. Not one end of the ice...side. Someone was videotaping the game, but I can't find it on youtube. I'm hoping that it gets posted later. I don't remember doing much beside hooking someone, the trip and generally trying to harass the BT players. I need to balance my aggressive moves with some real playing next time. I understand the concept of losing my personal space, but how to do that and play effectively at the same time? I seem only to be able to concentrate on one thing at a time.
Meanwhile, Alex was doing a Sidney Crosby imitation. I told him that he must have been moonlighting in Russia with the Kontinental League. His skating was beautiful for being gone for so long. If I took that much time off, I wouldn't even look as good as shrunken head and that is saying alot.

Week 8, game 10

In this week, we played Auburn Alehouse for the first time. The are not bottom dwellers, or top of the league, so we hoped for the best. Well, we got 10-0. Or should I say 0-10? Everyone and their dog was getting in the penalty box. I decided that this week would not be an optimal time for me to try and do so. I was definitely more aggressive, however. I'm trying really hard to lose that personal space gap that I've set up for myself. I was back on rotation with Kenny and shrunken head and that went well. I think Kenny does much better at D, but unfortunately, I never get to make the line up. He ends up playing D at L wing anyways, so he might as well play D. Shrunken head just skates in slow motion and sometimes gets tangled up with other players. I wish that I could say that I did something brilliant, but I did battle for the puck a lot more. Plus, I was trying really hard to watch where the pass was going and to cover the open man in my zone.
Went to sticktime this am. New Mike, Ben, Eric and Pete were there. I had the most fun. I didn't want to leave. Plus at the end, I skated backwards from one end of the rink to the other. What an amazing feeling. Oh, and I scored 3 goals on Ben. I've really been trying hard to get the wrist shot going. My floor is black from my stick tape rubbing. I caused a little bit of irritation at the end of sticktime by grabbing up a puck from 2 other guys who had a pile of pucks in front of them. Hey, I brought one, I should leave with one. They found their last one in the net, so all's well that end's well.
I'm off to Tahoe this weekend and getting back sometime during the day on Sunday. The game against the MOJ, minions of Jeff isn't until 8:15, so hopefully I'll have time to get in a nap. Pretty excited to play a team that is more at our skill level. Go Hawks!

Week 7, game 9

I know. I missed a week. I might go back and fill in and I might not. Probably not. It was an off game for me. This game we versed the Suicide Kings of death...again. Oh, something to keep in mind. Capitan decided last week that switching all of the fast players to D was a great idea. It was, but then we had no offense. This week, he kept Ricky Bobby back at D. Moved Old Mike back to D, moved Kenny to D, Alan and Pete to L wing with me. It was interesting to say the least. I was rotating with 2 new peeps. At first it went well. We were only losing 3-1 at the end of the first. 6-1 at the end of the second. The curly haired ref even came over to tell us that we looked better.
Then the evil third came and we ended up 12-1. We die in the third. Part of the reason is fatigue. Now on our team, when you get tired, you forget to rotate. I started the third and didn't get back in until the fourth minute. WTH? Seriously. That is taking way too long. The whistle blew 3 times to stop play and still Alan stayed out. Pete was cool and let me take his last shift because I got so jipped.
I still feel like we are not finding the right combinations, but are starting to look more like a team :)
Kenny had  a monster game and I was totally proud of him. Ben looked great, but 53 shots on goal? We need to keep it out of his zone better. Joe from the Mutiny said that we need more players. We were down Tammy, so the SK's had 5 more players than us. No wonder they had a great third. They weren't even tired at all. Getting Capitan to let more players on the team has proved difficult. He wants us lean and mean. Or he just doesn't want to give up his 1:1 rotation.
At beer he bet me $20 that I couldn't get in the penalty box next game....what do I have to do to get in there?
Is there a book for me? Getting into the penalty box for dummies.
Stay tuned...