Hockey

It took until February, but I have finally put on my ice skates this season. Just over a week ago was my first time out this year, and it was a beautiful day on Occom Pond. The temperature was perfectly warm for skating, but plenty cold to keep the ice solid. And the sun was shining so I got to wear my amazing pink sunglasses. What more could I have asked for?

Greg and I had been planning to go skating, mainly so I could get my ice-legs back, but we found out a visiting priest had brought his skates along, so we headed to the pond with him. I borrowed a stick, and we ended up playing a game against two kids.

They were basically skating circles around me, but I got a breakaway once and scored a goal. Take that kids.

Last weekend we were at Lake Morey for a pond hockey tournament that Greg was playing in. The ice was in beautiful condition, but I never really got inspired to put my skates on for that one. I did get some amazing pictures though!

The "pond" is huge and has a 4.5 mile skating loop around the perimeter.

So I skipped the good pond ice, but last night I got to skate again, this time at the fabulous Thompsen Arena. Our intramural hockey team had a game, and we were very short-handed, and no one wanted to be the goalie, so I got to have my first experience with that. In case you were wondering, it is not possible to obtain goalie skills by osmosis. That would have been really nice though.

It was kind of a scramble to get the gear on before the game started, so it ended up that I only saw one shot for warmup, which mostly was a test of whether or not I could stand back up after falling down while wearing gear. Luckily I could. It just took awhile. Then the game started, and the first two shots I saw made me feel invisible. I couldn't even move with all the padding I was wearing, and yet somehow, it was not enough to keep the puck from going right through me! After the second goal Sam advised me to keep my stick out in front of me a little further to "cut down on the angle". Oh yeah! I know all about angles! And for that matter, why was I standing as close to the goal as possible? At this point in the game I started to make more of an effort to keep my whole body a little further in front of the net to cut down on that angle too. Shots number 3 and 4 I blocked and it was amazing! In my head, the quintessential hockey goal song was playing, in celebration:

Unfortunately on the fourth shot that was a block, I also gave up a rebound, which was another goal. We ended up losing the game, and I ended up letting in more shots than I blocked. But the fact that I blocked any shots at all was a victory in my mind. I also felt accomplished once when the other team's good skater had a breakaway, but his shot was just outside of the net. I'm pretty sure that happened because I was playing so good positionally, I didn't give him any open net :)

And I was so wired after the game that I basically did not sleep at all last night.

And because I see them all over and finally took a picture, a gratuitous photo of a dog running on ice:

Safety First

Today after work I went to State Line Sports for the special purpose of purchasing a hockey helmet. This will be handy for two things:

1) Being safe while skating on the pond.

2) Not having to wear the stinky helmets they provide for intramural hockey.



Here is me, posing with my new gear. I got this sweet helmet for a mere $55, which is about the best price you could ask for for a new adult helmet, especially considering this baby was on sale from $119.99. This is the kind of amazing deal you can get when you walk into a store and upon asking if any help is needed you proclaim, "I'd like the cheapest helmet you have!"

My helmet purchase was largely inspired by a very sad horror story. One of the guys Greg skates with was playing pond hockey, and hit a crack or something when he was changing from skating forward to backwards and fell straight back. He cracked his skull and was bleeding from his ears. I do not EVER want to be bleeding from my ears. He is recovering and doing better every day. But still. If a guy who knows how to skate well can have such a terrible thing happen to him, who am I to go skating around without a helmet? So there you have it folks, always wear a helmet when you skate. ALWAYS.