Week 13, game 17

In which we play the Rush. Besides the Blue Thunder, who we love playing because we can actually win, we also love playing the Rush. Yep, you guessed it, because we had a chance to win. Too bad the refs saw otherwise. First of all, the website lists this as game 20...how in the hell did I miss 3 games? Writing about them, not that I missed playing them. Bear with me today, I'm a little tired. Went to sticktime early and I think I left my puck in the locker room...Damn it! The bad news is that we lost 2-5. The even worse news is that the refs waived off 3 of our goals. I had one incredibly brilliant moment when I stopped the puck with my foot to keep in in the offensive zone. I shot on goal, hoping that someone else would be there with a follow up shot. RB came in a little late and everyone else had fallen back too far to get to the play.
We switched things every which way in this game. People were moving wings, moving from defense to offense, but when you get 3 goals taken away, it isn't easy to recover. Morale was low in the locker room afterwards. I got dressed quick and ran to the pro shop to get my blade looked at. It had a snag in it.
Today at sticktime, my skates kept sliding out, so I ran to the car and switched them out with Killlian's. Thank goodness we wear the same size. His were better, but would grab in weird places, so my transitions were crap. Hopefully Scotty is working today. I need to get the skate situation....situated. Big weekend coming up.

Week 12, game 16

In which we play the Mutiny. The start of a 6 game stretch without Shrunken head...who had to report early for Coast Guard duty. I think all of us were relieved. I know that I was. I don't know that we were aware that we would be playing without the Lombard brothers for this game. This left us in a 1:1 rotation. The Mutiny has a large bench and are running neck and neck with Suicide Kings for first place in the league. It was apparent that we needed help in the first minute when they scored easily. El Capitan made some position switches, but it didn't seem to turn the tide in any way. The scoring just kept coming and coming. And the Mutiny fans kept cheering. You would think after it was 0-10, they would lose some enthusiasm....no.
Somewhere around 0-5 or 0-6, I decided this was a good time to win the bet with Capitan, so I tripped one of the Mutiny players and went smiling off to the penalty box. Hey, $20 is $20. Who wants to miss out on that? I played the rest of the game totally scared to trip someone again. I had tried to do this in other games with no success, but now that I knew how, I feared that I was just going to be some tripping assassin.
At the end of the second period, everyone was tired and pretty much over the game. The Mutiny never let up and we ended up losing 0-17. It was dismal. I did get some kudos from one of the Mutiny players which I thought was totally cool. I needed that. Having a hard time finding anything positive out of the loss. The Mutiny looked twice as good as the last time that we played them, leaving me to wonder....have we gotten worse? Or are we just the Green Bay Packers? Too rusty after the bye week?
After the game, I poked my head into the Mutiny locker room and apologized to the guy that I tripped and told him how he helped me win the bet. The whole team ate it up! I guess if we are going to lose to another team so badly, it should be the Mutiny. Who else tells you that you made a good play or laughs about you tripping them? Good luck to them on their road to the championship game.

Week 11, game 15

In which we play the Auburn Alehouse on New Year's Day missing 4 people from the team. How do you think it went? I was on a 1:1 rotation with shrunken head. Sometimes I lost complete track of time. How long had I been on the ice? Did I just get on? or was it time to come off? Frankenstein was still battling the groin injury, Capitan was a little under the weather from mixing on New Year's Eve...rookie mistake. The rest of us were just trying to survive. Sasha and Ricky Bobby played admirably, as usual. I had some great moments, some not so great moments and a new bruise on my right arm from getting hit with the puck. Ben had to wade through 50+ shots on goal. He is a champion. We lost badly. I think it was 13-2. What kind of team keeps running up the score after 10? I wish that team was us!
I had a moment of irritation when shrunken head wanted to skate the last minute after already being out for 2, because it was her last game. Then she tries to switch with me when there was 13 seconds left. Hell no, stay the fuck out there. 13 seconds my ass. Better to just sit on the bench at that point and contemplate getting some french fries later.
My Ash came to watch me. Too bad she didn't know which player I was...oh well! Off to the Boxing Donkey for a cider and to listen to her man do a little chit chat. That accent is adorable!
Only a few more games left. Will I reach my goal? Getting a little nervous now. It totally seemed attainable at the beginning of the season. Now it seems not quite as easy as it had first seemed to be. Stay tuned...