Tales from the beer league part 2

[beedee]

Nice job on finishing the regular season with a convincing win fellas! And yes, 3 lines sucks, because no matter how hard (or not) people try to take short shifts, it just doesn't ever work out that way! That is a bummer about not being able to put one in for yourself, but it will come, and when it does, that chic on your team toes will curl so hard they bust out of her skates!!! What time is your guys game next weekend?

So on to our game. Got to the rink around 9:00pm 50 minutes before game time (9:50pm), my usual arrival time. Our goalie was there and I noticed the other game had just started, he said they were running about 30 minutes behind...great. Anyhow, we lost 7-4, goalie gave up his usual 3-4 soft goals. I had another goal go off my skate and in.....for the other team.

Overall, our team seems to be picking up and meshing really well. We had 10 skaters again, so two even lines. In the 2nd period we had a power play that actually looked like a power play! Truly a unicorn in Beer League.

During the PP, I got off 3 shots from the point, two clappers and one wrister. The wrister was cool because it was all one continuous motion as i got the pass from down low, back out to be on the point. As it banked off the boards, I was coasting backwards along the blue line (from the left point) and received the pass, walked the blue line with a couple backward crossovers and ripped it. I was hoping for a redirect, in which it did, but went wide. The other two clappers felt great as well, I got all of them, and nailed one of our guys just below the knee, he apologized profusely for blocking it (he was a few feet in front of the crease). The next shot I had all the time in the world to set up, I was trying to go high blocker and went about medium blocker, the goalie managed to save it in between his arm and torso. I had many of those as a goalie, and they are heart stoppers, because they were millimeters from squeaking through!

Even though we lost, it was nice to continue to get goals on the board for our team. We are now 4-5 on the season. Two of our top players will be out next week, one center and one defenseman, this will hurt. Speaking of hurting, me feet didn't hurt in my skates, stoked they are breaking in quite nicely!

 

[xLAxKingsx]

Yea no one was taking short shifts after first period when i only got 3mins of ice time i said **** it and took it upon myself to play 4:30 next 2 periods of ice time and split it up. I didnt mind the time but only having 1 shift a period sucked but at least it was equal time. Ill get my goal one way or another and i would not mind seeing her burst out of everything when i do.

As long as its not [MENTION=19179]Peggy_GKG[/MENTION] dont wanna get back to the locker room and...

Btw thats good that you guys are getting some scoring in! Its gotta be tough when you have a pretty bad goalie. Team we beat 9-2 ended 1-8 every game was a minimum loss of 5 GA. Sure its rookie league but im sure people still wanna win and knowing your goalie is gonna get blown out sucks. Hopefully you guys turn it around in upcoming games!

Also we play at 850pm this coming Saturday i believe.

 

[xLAxKingsx]

Thats how yesterdays first playoff game felt. We had both our centers that are good not be able to make it to the game. We played the 2nd place team which we barely edged out for 1st place so they are good. We had a decent game for being short players at a point we had a 2 goal lead. Of course at that moment they went hard playing all their top guys and tied it up. We went back up by 1 and they tied it on a shot I went for a block and i felt it hit my shin guard and not sure if that got misdirected and went in or got it stuffed in. Either way i screwed that up should have taken a better lane to block the shot. We went to SO and we couldnt bury one and they finally got a goal in and that was that. Everyone had a rough/good game now its on to the next in about a week and a few days.

 

[beedee]

I missed our game Sunday night due to this cold/flu that I am finally recovering from. Looked up the scoresheet to see how we did, we lost.....12-0.

 

[LetTigerIn]

I missed our game Sunday night due to this cold/flu that I am finally recovering from. Looked up the scoresheet to see how we did, we lost.....12-0.

Dang. Strangely enough, I missed a game Sunday due to my little cousin's birthday, but several of our other players, including our top scorer, were also out sick. I just checked our score, too… lost 11-0.

 

[beedee]

Dang. Strangely enough, I missed a game Sunday due to my little cousin's birthday, but several of our other players, including our top scorer, were also out sick. I just checked our score, too… lost 11-0.

thats crazy! i guess we only had one sub on the bench as well.

 

[jammer06]

So I tried out the "rec" league that's at a rink lots closer to my house....Hooooly **** those guys are good. On our side there was 5 kids about 20 years old straight out of High School/College hockey. On their side there were at least 5 more of the same and these 2 old timers that looked like former pro's. Anyway our side got pounded but it was awesome for me. The boys on the team invited me back for next week so I must not have been as terrible as i thought. It's a refreshing change to be a winger on a team and if I can stick I'll finally feel like i'm getting better again for the first time in a long time. I will say I ended up playing center more and more as the night went on and I'm pretty certain I didn't lose a draw...so I had that going for me.

The funniest part of it all is I've been having lots of trouble with my feet in my skates since the move. Last night, I was skating so hard there was no trouble at all. My feet never even felt tired. I honestly think most of my trouble was the fact that I was standing around so much on the ice with the other guys.

 

[mudfisher]

So I tried out the "rec" league that's at a rink lots closer to my house....Hooooly **** those guys are good. On our side there was 5 kids about 20 years old straight out of High School/College hockey. On their side there were at least 5 more of the same and these 2 old timers that looked like former pro's. Anyway our side got pounded but it was awesome for me. The boys on the team invited me back for next week so I must not have been as terrible as i thought. It's a refreshing change to be a winger on a team and if I can stick I'll finally feel like i'm getting better again for the first time in a long time. I will say I ended up playing center more and more as the night went on and I'm pretty certain I didn't lose a draw...so I had that going for me.

The funniest part of it all is I've been having lots of trouble with my feet in my skates since the move. Last night, I was skating so hard there was no trouble at all. My feet never even felt tired. I honestly think most of my trouble was the fact that I was standing around so much on the ice with the other guys.

Sounds awesome.

Good Luck!

 

[beedee]

Nice Jammer! Sounds like a positive and refreshing change, good stuff!

 

[beedee]

We won last night, in OT, 3-2!!!

The opponent was a Bronze A team, we are Bronze B. This is the second time we have beat an upper level team, pretty sweet. To be honest, they only had 2 players that clearly should be on a Silver level team, but that was about it. Our team got off to a quick 2-0 in the first period, and that was it for our offense. They scored both of their goals in the second period. No one really dominated puck possession and I can count on one hand how many times I was set up on our blue line while play was in their zone. To make matters a little more frustrating, their goalie was terrible, had we been able to really get a bunch of shots on goal, we would have certainly had more than 3 goals! Nothing significant to report about my individual efforts, no shots on goal for me, I take that back, I did have one back hander from about 10' inside the blue line as I moved from my left to right. I was kind of shielding the center with my body as he was reaching for the puck, I was able to get pretty good velocity on it and it came in about 2-3' off the ice, went off someone's arm and then up and over the net. I wasn't on the ice for either of their goals, so that was a good thing. The last 5 seconds were a nail biter as their ringer had the puck and a few steps on my weak D partner, he got beat around the outside and was coming in from the left wing boards to cut across the slot to get a shot off. I managed to get back, BARELY and gave him a hefty hook across the gut, just enough to disrupt his shot. Our goalie made the save and we were headed into OT.

14 seconds into OT, we score. I blinked, so I missed it.

This win puts us at 5-6, with a solid hold on 3rd place with 10 points, lmao. First place has 20 points and second place has 14.

Oh yeah, did I mention that our regular goalie wasn't there??? And we had Cal State Long Beach's goalie playing for us!

 

[jammer06]

Monday night we played the same damned team again, still undefeated and again they beat us by one goal, 2-1. We carried a lot of the play and honestly deserved the win. The pisser of it all is again the game winning goal came when I forced their best player wide, he shot from below but outside the dots, our goalie blocked it straight up, and it came down on his back and rolled in. It was a bit demoralizing and it again happened with about 130 to go in the game. I did manage a rush right after that but I was so dog tired all I could do was get off a quick wrister that I thought would handcuff him blocker side but he managed to squeeze down on it. I did get our sides only goal to tie it up, wrap around that I swear never works i managed to open my hips up and actually get out in front of the net and it felt amazingly easy. It also helped that the D had crashed into the goalie when I went around so there was nobody waiting far post to blow me up.

One more game to go with this team and then I really have to decide what I'm going to do. Tough decisions but we'll see how it goes.

 

[LetTigerIn]

We lost a closely skated game Sunday. Score was 2-4. I didn't think I was going to play, because I got sick a little before I was to leave the house. My gear was already in the car, so I went to the car to retrieve it, but instead hopped in and drove to the rink. I felt a lot better after the skate, so, at least in this case, hockey is the best medicine. It was a close, competitive and fun game to skate. The other team seemed to play us a little physical, but nothing out of control until near the end when one of their guys kept jamming on our down goalie after the whistle. Our captain picked up a double minor for his reaction, but I think he did the right thing to stand up for the goalie.

I got a few terrible shots off, generally skated well, and caused a lot of havoc, but the big takeaway for me, probably, is that I nearly crushed some girl a third of my size, probably literally. She was playing D, coming out with the puck from behind the net, and I was coming hard on the forecheck. I mainly was trying to force her into making a bad pass, but she kept the puck until I was right on her. It was not a hard collision, but the size difference was palpable. I had stopped, so she did not go backward, just straight down, but she stayed down for a ten count before getting up. She was okay, but it was still a little scare.

 

[jammer06]

If it makes you feel any better I had my own scare where I got on a contested breakaway and a dude dove behind me to swipe at the puck, I got my skates tangled up there but thought I had it under control, lifted a backhand and immediately realized I had no skates to turn with and plowed the goalie right in the chest. His head went into the center bar and it was scary for a moment. I asked the guys back on the bench what happened and they all said the goalie poke checked my legs right out.

The other scary part of the game for me was transitioning back on D I hit a rut cutting back and sliced my own damned leg with my skate. It was just a scratch but my socks a goner.

 

[xLAxKingsx]

Tonight at 850 on a ****ing tuesday! We have a do or die game. Its a must win if we trying to play in the final we currently sit in 3rd place with 1 point and 2 games left. Need to win both to advance. Looks like we are also gonna be short a few players and we are playing a team that isnt great but isnt bad so its gonna be a toss up. Hope we get the W. Plus im still scoreless hope today that changes.

 

[LetTigerIn]

If it makes you feel any better I had my own scare where I got on a contested breakaway and a dude dove behind me to swipe at the puck, I got my skates tangled up there but thought I had it under control, lifted a backhand and immediately realized I had no skates to turn with and plowed the goalie right in the chest. His head went into the center bar and it was scary for a moment. I asked the guys back on the bench what happened and they all said the goalie poke checked my legs right out.

The other scary part of the game for me was transitioning back on D I hit a rut cutting back and sliced my own damned leg with my skate. It was just a scratch but my socks a goner.

Ouch for the goalie, and ouch for you! Sometimes, I'll find some slices in my socks. No cuts yet from blades, but my skates will gash my calf pretty deep if I don't wear Kevlar skate socks.

 

[LetTigerIn]

Tonight at 850 on a ****ing tuesday! We have a do or die game. Its a must win if we trying to play in the final we currently sit in 3rd place with 1 point and 2 games left. Need to win both to advance. Looks like we are also gonna be short a few players and we are playing a team that isnt great but isnt bad so its gonna be a toss up. Hope we get the W. Plus im still scoreless hope today that changes.

Good luck!

 

[xLAxKingsx]

:/

 

[Nyssa42]

well, I have dropped down a level this season....to the newly-created D7 at Pano....so far my team is 0-2 with me playing, although last week we came back from being down 5-1 at the end of the first period to pull ahead 6-5 with 7 mins left. Gave one up for the tie late in the game and lost in the shootout (no OT in this league) because our goalie had BROKEN HER ARM in the first period!!
This week I was assigned to be the #2 winger....yes, sad but true, that is where I would place myself on this team as well. Had several good chances, including a great SOG at the end of the game, but we just couldn't get any momentum and lost 3-1. Next game I'm getting a goal!! (I've been playing D for the past year, so not quite used to hanging out around the net)

 

[xLAxKingsx]

Tough loss last night. Game as usual against this team was tight and it came down to SO this is the 3 time out of 4 games we have gone to SO against this team. The goal karma worked slightly as i had some great opportunities 1 clear shot went right behind the the goalie. I was to parallel left post side and hoped for a bounce of his back but it went right to the other side.

Now we are out of the Final picture unless 1st place team loses in regulation next game and we win our final game. It would tie us for 2 and we own the tie breaker. Its been a fun season with only 2 more games to go ill def be back next season. Being on the ice constantly has helped me greatly. I still need to work on my stopping and skating with a good knee bend

 

[beedee]

Tough loss last night. Game as usual against this team was tight and it came down to SO this is the 3 time out of 4 games we have gone to SO against this team. The goal karma worked slightly as i had some great opportunities 1 clear shot went right behind the the goalie. I was to parallel left post side and hoped for a bounce of his back but it went right to the other side. Now we are out of the Final picture unless 1st place team loses in regulation next game and we win our final game. It would tie us for 2 and we own the tie breaker. Its been a fun season with only 2 more games to go ill def be back next season. Being on the ice constantly has helped me greatly. I still need to work on my stopping and skating with a good knee bend

But did [MENTION=19179]Peggy_GKG[/MENTION] drop the gloves?

In all seriousness, bummer about another SO loss. That is crazy how many times you guys have gone into the SO with that team!