I arrived at the rink this week sad to see that there were no college scouts around this time, which clearly indicated that they'd seen all they needed to the week before and that my scholarship must have gotten lost in the mail. A combination of no traffic and actually leaving work on time made me some 40 minutes early, giving me the rare opportunity to take my time getting dressed.
I somehow managed to turn what usually takes me a rushed five minutes into 35, a remarkable feat. As I was getting dressed, I noticed my goalie friend, he of the powder blue Plymouth Whalers jersey, didn't have a goalie pal dressing with him.
"Maybe he's late," I thought.
As the Zamboni finished resurfacing the ice, however, no other goalie emerged.
"Great," I muttered to the kid next to me. "We've got two refs and one goalie. This should be a blast."
"Hey, maybe one of the refs can get in net," he said, instantly becoming my dear friend.
We had time to take some laps and do some stretching, during which I decided it'd be time to try to stop again. I started by gliding around then turning my foot to try to simulate the sliding feeling of stopping. My reasoning was that if I could get myself to that point and get comfortable with the slide, I'd be one stop closer.
In what had to be one of the most shocking moments in Milk Crates history, it actually worked. I managed to do a little sliding, then, full of vigor and enthusiasm, decided to try to stop fully, and...just spun around and flailed like I usually do.
That's OK. Baby steps!
As we were about to begin, the Gold coach called us all over and apologized for the lack of goalie, saying in a voice filled with disdain and disgust that this was going to be our last scrimmage, because goalies were too hard to come by.
His solution, for the night? Two 25-minute halves, and the goalie would switch ends at the 12-minute mark. The team that wasn't shooting on a goalie would be playing bumper pool hockey again, banking the puck off of the end boards and into the backwards-facing net.
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| Pool hockey is BACK! |
Guy 1: "So uhhh...who wants to be center?"
Myself and Guy 2: *Silence*
Guy 1: "No preference?"
Me: "I mean, the center is supposed to be the best skater, and I can't even stop."
Guy 1: "OK, I'll take center then."
Myself and Guy 2: *Skate away to the wings in shame*
My response to "hey, wanna be center?"
Our first shift started off with a faceoff win, and the puck worked its way into the attacking zone. I lurked around my left wing position, eventually getting the puck and working it up the boards and back to the point. Our defenseman flipped a shot on net, one that skittered into the corner. A Gold defenseman picked it up, and I didn't move. I've learned that a lot of the guys who play defense will make pretty silly passes, either not knowing any better or assuming we don't have the coordination to intercept them.
This defenseman attempted a pass up the middle of the ice that I knocked down somewhere near the slot. How bad was his error?
His response, as he was hustling back into position: "AHHHH, SHIT, SHIT!"
I weighed my options and eventually flung a shot towards the goalie, one that Powder Blue (though sadly, he wasn't wearing that jersey) easily stopped. However, the rebound went to a Teal teammate, and he put the puck back on net. I was down by the crease at this point, and lo and behold, there was the puck, by the goalie's right skate.
I whacked at it two, three, four times, finally getting it off the ice and into his pad. The defenseman who started the play with his egregious error eventually stepped in and held me off, giving the goalie enough time to cover.
I missed a real life goal by about an inch, probably less, but it was a good start for our line.
We didn't get many more chances on the goalie, and eventually had to switch to bank shots. However, our teammates had managed to get one on the board for us, giving Teal a 1-0 lead.
In what I guess counted as the second quarter, I found myself parked near the crease while one of our defensemen (she was a defensewoman, actually) carried the puck around the zone. I found myself some space near the left post of the backwards-facing net and camped out halfheartedly, because passing isn't usually in this teammate's repertoire.
Imagine my surprise, then, when a pass came from the opposite boards. My reaction was something like finding a bug in the shower: "Gah! GET IT GET IT GET IT!" and I shot, instinctively.
When the dust settled, I had kind of flubbed my attempt at a one-timer. Because of that flubbing, I hadn't shot it as hard as I wanted to, and it had gone off the boards, back towards the net and across the goal line just before a Gold guy could pull it back.
A goal. Cue the music!
I sheepishly raised both arms in the air and glided towards the end boards, not wanting to celebrate my pool hockey goal too vigorously. However, my teammates offered me fist-bumps and helmet taps of congratulations, and we were up 2-0.
In the second half, we shot on the backwards net first. Early on, I was hanging around the faceoff circle when I spotted a loose puck around the goal line. I gathered it south of the goal line (closer to the boards), and paused.
Earlier on, myself and a linemate were talking on the bench about what the rules were. Both of us thought you had to be north of the goal line to shoot, and that shooting from south wasn't allowed because it was kind of like a slam dunk. It was for that reason that after my pause, I flipped the puck back out towards a teammate much, much further from the net.
I probably should've asked, because the next thing I heard was my coach yelling (from the bench at the opposite end of the rink), "Jesus Christ, shoot the damn puck! What the hell are you doing?!"
Turns out we ARE allowed to shoot it from wherever after all. Noted.
Later in the fourth quarter, we were shooting on the real live goalie again. I was kind of cherry picking, hanging out in the neutral zone like our coach told us to so that our defensemen would have an outlet. This time our defenseman went up the boards, but the puck snuck out and onto the stick of my linemate, and we had a 2-on-1. I stayed onside, and headed in with him, hoping for a pass.
The pass never came, and instead he took a low snapshot that snuck either through the goalie's legs or between his leg and the post for a goal to make it 3-0. We were coming around the net at the same time and I wanted to offer my congratulations, but remember, I can't stop, and it probably would've looked like the celebration below.
I elected to offer a mere fist-bump and keep skating, avoiding a big collision.
However, I failed to avoid a big collision just a few minutes later. Similar to my first big collision a while back, myself and the other skater had our heads down, looking for a loose puck. Unlike that first collision, this person was smaller and lighter than me, and was a girl. She went flying, I fell down, KA-BOOM! I offered a "my bad" on the way up, but she had already gotten to her feet and skated away. Tough.
I approached her after the game to make sure she was OK, and she shrugged it off, saying no harm done, no big deal, etc. Which, now that I think of it, was probably an insult to me. Oh well.
We ended up scoring once more, pushing our lead to 4-0, having scored three times with the goalie in the net and once on the much harder, trickier, super difficult, "how did he do that?!" bank shot goal scored by yours truly.
A goal and a plus-3 rating. Hey, at least I'm making progress.
Now, about that stopping thing...
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