One to Know One (and One on One)

Hockey post!

First - some numbers:

4th place (4-way tie at 2-2)
5.5 gaa for yours truly
Goals in the 3rd period: 2 for vs. 10 against
Goals in the first two periods: 22 for vs. 12 against

Gee wiz, those 3rd periods are absolute game killers! Last night I finally blanked them in the 3rd, which would make it 1 vs. 9 in three games when they score in the 3rd. And it was against Eternal Underdogs, a team that we have always (that I can remember) struggled against. Funny that team with such a name would make us underdogs in every game against them... Anyway, that combined with it being our best showing of the season gives me some hope that we'll start playing very well, which would get us up in the standings and hopefully carry into the playoffs.

My goaltending has been getting better with each game. Still, I should have kept 2 of the 3 goals from going in last night. The first goal: one on one after a defensive blunder - I committed too early, hoping to poke check the puck off his stick, but he was far enough away that he could drag it out of reach and then have an easy open-netter. Second goal: powerplay for them - open man in front gets the puck from a passer behind the net - I follow the puck with my head and see the goal before the puck even reaches the shooter. However, if I would have went down for a kicksave (visualize a stationary feet-first slide into second base that ends with a padstack). Sure, he could have put the puck up high, making all that sweat-inducing effort worthless, but when the shooter is just going to shoot the pass (aka, one-timer), the puck usually goes low, so I wasn't as useless as I looked. Just lazy as I looked.

The third goal? Bounced off my mask from a backhanded rising shot. I could've sworn my fat head deflected the puck up into the netting behind the goal (and swear I did), but even my own teammates confirmed the puck went in the net and not above it.

So, we're on pace for a 5-5 season with a 6 goal differential in our favor.

I'll post updates after every few games, so we'll see how accurate that pace is once all is said and done.

Et cetera details:

Watched The Expendables this past weekend - my wife got bored with it early - the action scenes were too choppy to be truly enjoable, but anytime you have a bunch of action stars wailing on each other in glorious fashion with everything from fists to missiles (seriously!) and unlimited ammo, there is a bit of guilty entertainment to be had.

Jill and I whipped up some good food from canned and jarred goods just laying around our pantry - spicy too! Currently chowing down a black bean soup completed with diced tomatoes, corn, green peppers, and chipotle peppers! I'm sure there are probably red pepper flakes in there somewhere, but with the chipotle, who can tell? Goes great with tortilla chips, taco cheese, and - according to Jill - sour cream. I didn't want to cool off the soup with the sour cream. But beware - about two hours after eating, Jupiter has a rival for who has the most gas.

And on that note, I'm out.

Learn How To Make A Kick-Save Meatface!

Summer hockey has started: in other words, sweat-your-arse-off hockey has started. There's nothing the says summer hockey like that suffocating feeling of drowning in your body heat after a game. And then you just keep sweating straight through the next several hours if you don't have the A/C cranked to higher than high. Even after stepping out of the A/C, the sweat keeps sweating. That does nothing but misery for those late games, because I hate going to bed already sweating. My pillow doesn't need that kind of treatment, to say nothing about my poor wife.

I'll stop that topic before it gets uncomfortable for all. In the meantime, we're 1-1. Won a game we should have lost (let up 5 goals in the 3rd after letting up 3 in the first two periods - yikes!), and lost a game that I guess we should have lost (even if the ref did give them a goal just for kicks), just because we didn't get the goals, but the defensive sieve was taken care of, and I was more on top my game. Never played a game where the other team kept congratulating me on my saves. Weird. I like it better when they start cussing up a storm and banging their sticks against the boards. Opponents having tantrums are fun.

On the plus side, my goals against is better after two games than last season! Down from 8.5 to 6.5, which is still hideously and grotesquely awful, but I'll take the little things at this point.

New soundtrack. I decided to stop being OCD about filling out all 80 minutes of available CD space and just put on what I wanted. No more girly music. No more pop sensations. Just the stuff that gets my psyched to play my tuchis off. Here it is:

1) Action - Powerman 5000
2) Fuel - Metallica
3) Indestructible - Disturbed
4) Shoot to Thrill - AC/DC
5) Won't Back Down (Bring You Hell Remix) - Fuel
6) Blow Me Away - Breaking Benjamin ft. Valora
7) Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO
8) Bangarang - Skrillex
9) Doomsday - Nero
10) Fever - Bullet for My Valentine
11) My Best Theory - Jimmy Eat World
12) The Sound (John M. Perkins' Blues) - Switchfoot
13) Guilty By Design - Rev Theory
14) Dead Living - Sugarcult

I've labelled the new soundtrack "Lean Mean Save Machine" with the slogan: learn how to make a kick-save, Meatface!

Inspired by this, of course:

You're welcome, Tim.