Getting lazy!

Not in my playing, but in my posting.  I've played twice since my last post but have been too caught up in other things to write about them.

The first was just a pickup game.  The Whalers were a victim of bad scheduling, and had two weeks off in a row, so we organized a pick up game to keep ourselves from getting slack.  It was a fun game, typical pick up where you get a tonne of 2-1, and breakaways.  I played decent for the most part.  The part I was really impressed with myself for, was that I didn't allow a single goal on a breakaway!  That's a stat that doesn't happen for me very often.

Then on Monday this week the Whalers finally got back into action for real.  This was our first game post re-alignment, and were playing on of the teams that got moved down from a higher division, so we had no idea what to expect.

The game started off pretty good, with us scoring the first point.  Not too long later they came back to tie it.  It was a walk out from behind the net, and I played it well with a nice VH and made sure to make myself nice and tall.  He threw it at me, but then it tipped off one of my defenseman's sticks and skipped over my pad and trickled in on the far side.  I saw the whole thing happen but couldn't get my limbs in position to stop it.  Then I can't remember how it went, but we got two more, and so did they.  The first was a bad goal, if you can call any breakaway goal a bad goal.  I came out and challenged well, and read the deke, but for some reason I thought I was closer to my net than I was, and I didn't slide far enough.  He took the easy shot between me and the post.  The last goal was through a screen, and I had a piece of it between my glove and body, but enough got through and trickled into the net.

The team came back well after that, and scored two more for us to go on and win 5-3.  They had some good pressure at times, and it was a physically demanding game for me, but those are the fun ones.

I play again tonight, and will be looking to create a string of consistency.

Boing, boing!

That my friends, is the sound of me bouncing back.  Unfortunately it wasn't a game that meant anything, as I just rented some ice with the Whalers and some other friends.  Still, I had a really great night.  I stopped every single breakaway on me (and there were several), and made a bunch of nice positional and sliding saves.  My goalie counterpart commented afterwards how he noticed that my sliding seems to really have improved.  I also played around a little bit with a slightly different glove position during the game and it seemed to have big success.  My glove was pointed more to the side than slightly down how I used to hold it.  I made several glove saves with it in that position, and it just felt like I was covering more net with it that way, but that could be all in my head.

One of the big things I made sure to do this game was play VERY aggressively out of my crease.  I need to pay more attention to this in the future because it seemed to be a big factor last night.

Here's hoping I can continue this into next week!

Consistency

I realize that I missed a post from last week.  I had a game with the Tsunami on Friday night and it was one of my best games of the year.  I made two breakaway saves, several VH stops with the guy cutting across the net, and had good control of my rebounds.  We ended up tying the game 2-2 though.  One goal was off a giveaway that surprised me and I didn't get enough depth for the shot that went over my shoulder, and the other was a funny one where my own defenceman accidentally batted the puck into the net with his glove.  I think he was trying to grab it but instead knocked it.

Fast forward to this week and I have another game with the Tsunami (Whalers have had two weeks off - ya, our scheduling sucks).  I felt good going into this game, especially since I had come off a good performance with these guys not that long ago.  Warm up went well except for two shots, one each to blocker and glove side that I let in that I felt I should have been able to get.  Tried to brush them off, but I think they were eating at me a bit.

The game started a bit slow for me, as we controlled the puck in their zone for a while.  We even scored off the first shot (talk about confidence deflator for the other goalie).  They finally got themselves settled though, and the action was back and forth, with a good amount of action for me.  I handled the first several shots well with rebounds only to the corners, and even made a nice leg pad save on a shot that fluttered in through a screen.  It would have gone in but I kicked the right pad out to the post and made the block.  I was impressed with myself after that save and thought I was in for another good game.  Then it all came apart.  Goal 1; guy comes in on a breakaway, and I totally fudge the save and he ends up potting an easy one on me.  That bothered me a lot but I tried my best to ignore it.  Goal 2; I wasn't so unhappy with this one.  Pass from the corner goes to a guy in front with space.  I came out and challenged, but he snapped a wrister top corner glove side.  I was maybe not 100% square to the puck on this one though, and should try to pay more attention to that later.  Goal 3; Slap shot from the face off dot that I saw all the way, but still let squeak under my arm as I was going down.  Goal 4; weak shot along the ice that I bungled and let slip through my five hole.  This was incredibly frustrating for two reasons.  1 - I had just made the exact same save on a much harder shot and had congratulated myself for keeping the stick to the ice, and then let this much weaker shot in, and 2 - my team had a two goal lead that I just let evaporate in the last few minutes.  Full credit to my team as they didn't give up and managed to net another one with only a minute left.  Ok I thought, I can keep this net closed for a minute.  Then it happened.  The play started with a point shot that got deflected up high, and two of my defenceman tried to grab it out of the air.  It deflected off of them, to the other side of the net where there was a man waiting to pot it in.  I had gone down in case the puck got through my defensemen and was bouncy along the ice, and all I could do was a scramble dive.  No luck.  They scored with just 15s left in the game.

Needless to say I am very frustrated with my lack of consistency.  I don't know what the key is to being consistent.  Here's hoping I figure it out and soon.

A win!!!... ugh wait, I mean a loss?

Friday night I played the fifth game of the season with the Whalers.  We went into the game with a 3-1 record, facing a team with a 3-0 record.  It promised to be a close match.

I felt good going into the game, had my lucky underclothes and all.  Warm up went well, although it was short as we were late getting on the ice.  I handled a few nice shots early, which is always good to get into the game.  The teams were well matched, which resulted in several periods in each others end, and some good work for both goalies.  My team got on the board first.  A few plays later and it was a 1 on 2, with my two defenseman hanging back a little too far and giving the guy room to shoot.  I didn't get a good view on the shot and it beat me between the blocker and legs.

After that I made several really good stops, including one toe save on a cross crease pass that should have been an easy tip in for them.  My teammates were commenting on my play and it really helped to pump me up even more.  I was getting to the point where I was begging the team to shoot on me.  In the second period I faced a breakaway, and while I didn't handle it perfectly, I did manage to get my pad down in time to smother it as he tried to tuck it in near my boot break.  There was a bit of confusion around that one since nobody really knew where it went (me included) until I moved my leg and it was under that.  Unfortunately a little after that a breakdown in coverage led to a point shot that bounced off a couple of players and found it's way onto the stick of a player standing on the opposite edge of my crease who easily tapped it in.  As soon as I saw the puck make it over to him I knew I was beat.

My team pressured to try and get the tying goal, but didn't have any luck.  In the dying seconds they made a pass to an open player directly in front of the net who did a nifty spin and backhand that tucked in under my blocker side arm.  The buzzer went just after the puck went in.

Despite it being a loss in score, I felt really happy with how I played, and it felt like a win to me.  Even when I think back about the game now I have to remind myself that we lost, because it really doesn't feel that way.

Disappointing Loss

Last night I played with the tsunami and had a disappointing loss.  It was my first game in over a week, so I was anxious to get playing again.  Even though it had been a week I still hadn't had a chance to wash my lucky under-clothes, so I decided that I wasn't so superstitious and just used other stuff.  Now I'm wishing I hadn't.


I didn't get off to a super solid start, with a shot that came into the crease area and bounced around off a lot of skates and sticks and eventually I found my way onto my ass and the puck between my legs.  It was a stop, just not a very pretty stop.  I felt a little shaky I could tell.  I made a couple of nice saves after that to try and settle down a bit.  On one of the next rushes I went to cover the post and knocked the net off.  Not a whole lot, but enough that it bothered me.  I made the stop on that side, and then when the puck looked like it was clearing the zone, I looked back to fix the net.  Little did I know it was stopped at the blue line, and when I glanced back the shot was already coming and I couldn't get over in time to stop it.  I complained to the ref but he wasn't having any of it.  It was stupid of me to look back at the post, but they also should have called that when it happened.

The second goal was a nice shot from a player streaking down the wing that rifled it top corner.  I am large enough that I should have that angle even when down, so I'm doing something wrong there.  Third goal was off a semi-breakaway.  The guy deked the defense out, and then I went down too early and he deked me out.  4th goal was another top corner, from an even worse angle.  I should have been down in VH, but wasn't.  5th goal was a nice pass out from behind the net to a player untouched in front.  I stretched out but just didn't quite make it.  The 6th and final goal was probably the worst.  My team had a valiant effort to come from behind and pull it to within one goal.  Time was winding down and I was starting to skate off for the extra attacker.  Then I saw the other team get possession and break out of their zone, so I quickly backpeddled into the net.  I wasn't sure of my angle though so I was quickly checking behind me to verify.  He blasted a quick shot low blocker side that I should have had, but butterflied awkwardly.  That was the final nail in the coffin as the time wound down in the game.

All in all not a terrible game (like that 8-5 loss) but still one I'd like to have been better for.  I think we could have beaten that team and I hate to lose those ones.  Guess tonight I'll be making sure that I have my lucky under-clothes!

Another game, another W

Wow.  This season is starting off really well.  I had my second game of the season with Tsunami (their 3rd game) and my second win as well.  The game started off well enough, facing a few nice shots and making some good saves.  The first goal came around midway through the first period, and was a combination of my losing sight of the puck and lack of coverage in front of the net.  The player with the puck was near the right side of the net and tried to send on across the crease to his teammate.  I butterflied and stopped the pass with my pads, but then lost sight of the puck as it was in tight to my pads and I was off balance a bit.  Somehow it ended up squirting out to the player in the crease who wasn't covered and he made no mistake to put it in far side.

The second goal was again lack of coverage in front, and was kind of similar.  A player at the side of the net tried to throw it in front.  I made the initial stop, and the second, but after that I was too sprawled to be able to get my pad over to the blocker side post and he tucked it in there.  I was a little ticked at my D that he had all that time, but I'm not about to call out players.  If it continues then I will bring it up.  The third and final goal was a bad goal on my part.  The player took the shot from the top of the faceoff circle, and I guess I was a little off balance from moving because I didn't get my pad down flush to the ice, and it slid in under there.  Something was definitely off in my movement because it didn't feel like a natural butterfly.  I'll have to pay attention to if it happens again, and isolate what I am doing wrong.

After that I felt I played really well.  Most of the remaining shots were from the outside, and I got good sightlines on them, and played them with no rebounds.  I was impressed with myself for a nice reactionary glove save to a bullet that was just to the right of my head... it's amazing what reflexes can do when you just let them be!

Shutout!

Monday night I played the fourth game of the year with the Whalers.  As you may remember the last game with them was a disaster, ending in an 8-5 loss.  I shouldered the bulk of the blame for that one and was feeling pretty down on myself for not being able to perform the way I know I can.  Going into Monday's game I was worried about my mental state, and worked really hard on getting myself focused and thinking positively before the game.  One of the things I decided was that I wasn't going to look at my GAA anymore, because I found that I obsessed about it during games, and was paranoid of letting in more goals cause it would ruin my GAA.  Enough I decided.  I was going to worry about one game at a time, one shot at a time.

I did a lot of stretching at home, and when I got to the rink I focused on warming up my reflexes by doing some reaction ball work and juggling.  I put my equipment on and stretched a bit, and then tried to think about making saves, tracking the puck into my body, and directing rebounds into the corner.

In the warmup things went well, I was seeing the puck well and moving nicely, and found that I was challenging a lot without even thinking about it.  When the game started I was ready to go.  The first couple of minutes we were trapped in our zone, and I handled a couple not too difficult shots.  A much better start.  After that my team turned it up a notch and most of the play was in the opposing zone.  I didn't have a huge amount of work the rest of the game, but a few shots here and there that I handled well with either no rebound, or just a rebound to the corner.  The one time I let a rebound out in front I was able to scoop it with my stick and cover it up.

Nearing the end of the game I started noticing some negative thoughts coming into my head, and was almost fearing any shots because they might be the one that broke my shutout.  I also started calculating how the shutout would affect my GAA before I stopped myself.  I quickly tried to shove all those thoughts aside, and started telling myself I dared them to take another shot.  It seemed to help as I made a few other saves towards the end to preserve the shutout.  Maybe it's a fluke, but I really feel like all this mental stuff paid off.  We'll have to see how it works out in later games.

Season's first loss - and what a doozy!

I played my third game of the year with the Whalers last night.  Going in with two wins we felt pretty confident and managed to score the first goal pretty early in.  Then the wheels fell off... not for the team, but for me.  I let in a string of bad goals; cheating off the post too much, not having my stick square in my five hole, not keeping my stick on the ice while going down, not doing a proper pad slide on a breakaway.  My team responded well and increased the pressure on them and kept the game close, even trying it at one point, but I just couldn't keep my barn door shut and ended up letting in some pretty deflating goals at the wrong times in the game.  It was bad.

I don't know why it was so bad.  I mean I know what I did wrong in most scenarios, but they were things that I'm normally really good at - getting the angle, challenging aggressively, keeping the five hole closed.  The warm up went really well, so well in fact that I stopped early cause I wanted to leave it on a good note.  I kept trying to re-focus myself and get back to playing my game but something just wasn't working.

I'm not gonna focus on this for much longer.  I'm not gonna do the goal by goal analysis that I have normally done, and I'm not gonna try to come up with an excuse.  It was a bad night.  Done and gone.  I'm gonna bury it in the ice before I start the next game and move on with a better performance.

Another (fairly) easy W

Friday night I had my second game of the season with my team, The Whalers.  Coming off a 6-1 win in our first game, we felt pretty confident for this game.  I had just come from a Senators autograph session where I got the chance to meet Pascal Leclaire, and I was pretty charged up to hit the ice.  I went through the warm up following my usual routine, fared pretty well against the shots from my team, and started the game feeling good.  Then the game slowed down... large.

The other team had a hard time putting any sort of rush together, and my team was really on their game defensively, resulting in a lot of time spent in the other team's zone.  I handled a few shots in the first period, but most were either really slow along the ice shots, or way wide of the net.  We went into the break up 3-0.  That's when the refs decided they didn't like how we were playing.  We got a string of penalties in the second period, resulting in multiple 5 on 3s.  We killed off the first one completely with only a few shots on net, from pretty far outside, so lots of time to see them.  They weren't putting up much traffic in front of the net with all those extra bodies.  It wasn't until the second 5 on 3 that they finally sniped a nice shot high glove side that just tucked in under the post.  I had tipped it with my glove, but not quite enough.  The shot came from around the face off dot on the right side.  I was disappointed, but at the same time had to acknowledge it was a very pretty shot. 

Only a couple minutes after that, almost the exact same play happened, and this time I got beat blocker side.  I maybe should have challenged more (but they had another guy rushing to the other side of the net for the pass) or paid more attention to the shooters hand.  This is one aspect I don't find myself watching so much and it burned me as they closed the gap to just one.  I was a little nervous at this point because they had closed the gap so quickly, and with several minutes left were really pressing to tie the game.  I wasn't called on to do many large saves after that as my team responded with a good effort and wound up getting an empty net goal to suck the life out of them.  Another good win that I know I should be happy with, but these low shot count games are really draining on me... I want a chance to really shine and show how much I feel I've improved this past year.  I play again tonight with the same team, so hopefully this game will be a little more evenly matched.

Stuggle and success with confidence

Last night I had an 'exhibition' game between my team and another team they knew since we had no regular game scheduled this week.  In reality it turned out to be a handful of players from my team, mixed with a handful from a third team.  In the dressing room one of the guys (from the third team) was going on about how the team we were playing against were all old guys, and going on about how many players from the third team were out, basically bragging that this third team was really good and that it would be extremely unfair on the old guys.  "Oh well he said, they have Dave at least" talking about the other goalie.  For some reason this got me into some negative thinking, worrying about how I was playing against such a hot shot goalie and was I gonna be able to keep up...  I quickly tried to nip that line of thinking in the butt, and reminded myself that I had played one game with this team already and had turned in a good performance, and that I've been playing really well lately and if I just kept to the basics I would be fine.

When we get out onto the ice I do my usual warm up, and then head into the net for a few shots.  The players from this third team start taking shots at me, and I was out challenging well, square to the puck, but every shot was getting past me.  At times I was in disbeleif... at the depth I was at, and the position I was in, most of them I expected to fly wide of the net, but somehow they were picking just the right position and it was hitting twine.  The players from my own team start taking shots and I stopped those, but then again the third team comes at me and I'm swiss cheese.  I have a bit of a superstition that the way I performed in the warm up was indicative to how I would play the game, and so I was starting to really question myself big time.  I jumped out of the net for a bit, skated around and tried to calm myself down.  Finally the game starts and I try to reassure myself that I just need to stick to my basics and I'll be good.

So to balance the teams, some players from this third team went over to play with our opponents, but I have to say, I'm not sure that they really needed the help.  In the first 10-15 minutes I'm getting pelted with shots, but I'm playing my angle well and challenging aggressively so I'm stopping them all.  A few flashy saves here and there help me get my confidence back up and suddenly I feel in control again, begging for shooters to give me a try, I dared them.

Unfortunately the first goal came against me, from a breakaway.  I came out far to challenge the guy, and then started slowly moving backwards to my net.  As the guy came to the 'decision point' he decided to shoot rather than deke, and I butterflied and stopped the shot with the blade of my stick.  But the shot goes straight up into the air, and sails over me, landing just in from of the goal line and trickles in... hard luck.  The second goal against was a good shot from the corner that beat me blocker side.  I had a pretty good sightline, so it's one I should have stopped, but I will give the guy credit for a nice shot.

Third and fourth goals were a little more ugly.  A player was coming down the wing to my left, and looked like he was going to try and cut across in front of the crease.  When he got to the bottom of the face off circle I VH'd and then when he looked like was about to cut across, I paddled down.  Then he sends a pass across the crease to a guy there waiting.  What!  Where did he come from?  I guess I hadn't paid enough attention to the rest of the players cause I was pegging this as a single handed cut-across the crease play.  I tried to push off from my VH, but my skate slipped out and I ended up just half sliding, half turning just enough to watch the guy tap the puck in on the other side.  The last and final goal was a wrap around that I didn't get my leg around in time for.  It didn't help that my stick got caught up with another player who was cutting across the crease, but I also didn't have myself in a good position for the push anyway.

So we ended up losing 4-2 if people were keeping track, but I was happy with my play for the most part.  I was most proud that I was able to get over my dips in confidence, and prove to myself that if I play my game, I can be very successful.

2 Ws to start the season

Last night I had my season opener for both my winter teams, one right after the other!  Our league scheduling is a joke, even though the convenor knows I am on two teams and promised to do her best to avoid conflicts, I have two conflicts in the first five games!

Anyway, the season couldn't have started better with a 6-1 blowout win and a close 3-2 win.  I felt really good in both games, and thought I was challenging well and had my angles covered (for the most part).

The first game started slow for me, with most of the action in the other end of the ice, but got off to a bang with a breakaway.  It was a stretch pass to the forward who only caught up to it shortly before he reached the hash marks at the face off circles.  I came out pretty far and he didn't have much time to deke, although I expected a deke to the blocker side.  Instead he fired a quick shot that I was able to get the pad down in time for, and directed the rebound out to the corner.  The only goal against in that game came from a really strange shot.  It was almost like a knuckle puck.  I think I was a little off on my angle, and gave him too much space on the blocker side.  My defenceman was in front of him trying to cut him off from walking in, and the guy fired the shot just to the right of the defender, and was almost like a sinker pitch.  It was about mid net height when it was shot, but then sunk to the bottom of the net and bounced off the bottom post and right back out into play.  I almost didn't even realize that it went in.  Even though the shot was strange I think I still should have had it had my angles been right.  I was a little too much in the centre of the net even though the puck was a little to the left of centre.  The rest of the shots in that game were fairly easy perimeter shots, with not too much traffic in front, which made for fairly easy saves.


The second game was a much faster paced game, and seemed more skilled even though it was a lower division.  The guys shooting at me had some pretty nice shots, and a couple of them had cannons.  That being said the defencemen did a really great job keeping the shots to the perimeter and I had lots of time to get in position.  The first goal was a bit of a flukey one, as the opponent was streaking down the wing and wound up and took a slapshot.  I saw the shot the whole way, and snagged it in my glove, but somehow I guess it popped out and trickled into the net.  I need to get better at watching the shot go into my glove because this isn't the first time I've lost one out of my glove.  The second goal was off a bad rebound out in front that went straight to an opponent who had me out of position and lifted a nice one just past my reach.  The initial shot was from a guy cutting cross crease, and I made the save with the toe of my pad, but the rebound bounced straight out into the slot.  Not sure what to do about these as ones off the boot seem to really rocket out of there, and the angle that my boot is on when I'm down usually puts these straight back in front.  The rest of the game I felt I played a really strong positional game, and made several nice saves to keep the team in the lead.  Overall a good start to the season, and a good place to build from for the rest of the season.  Next game isn't for a week and a half, but thankfully I have a goalie session on Saturday to get some time on the ice.