Just Moosing Around
Two very interesting games this week.
In the Monday game, I played the team that some old friends are on. One of them (one of the few guys on the ice much bigger than me), came flying in on a breakaway that he didn't have enough time to pull out of, but he did manage to swerve to miss me. Mostly.
My buddy clipped my leg, but just barely. I was already off balance and started to fall and catch myself on the net. As he hit the net and knocked it off, I just rolled back, more out of loack of balance than from the actual impact. "Don't worry," said the ref standing over me, "I've got him! Number 17's going in the box!" And away he went, protesting his innocense.
After the game, we met in the handshake line, and laughed about it. The first thing my old friend said was, "I didn't really get you, did I?" "No," I told him, "you barely bumped me, I was just losing my balance and tipped over. I figured I might as well lay there and see if they'd call you."
He wasn't too upset. His team beat us 7-1, and he had 2 or 3 goals. Not a great game for us, especially on D, but a good time. Also playing for them was a goalie that is another friend, and it was good to see him back and rehabbing after a pretty serious injury to his hand.
Then, there was last night's game, which was not a friendly affair.
Monday night, the (now) top team beat Baboon's team. That, in and of itself, is neither here nor there. What did piss me off is that this team had a few yound punks that are wayyyy too good to be in this league, and they were being jerks, show-boating and scoring a lot of goals. They scored 9 on Baboon, which is just not done. Behind an A league team, Baboon shuts down A league players. Behind a C league team... not so much.
Jump to last night, when we had to play the new top team. Two of their young guys started out gunning, and got progressively more agressive as I managed to shut them down. Neither could manage to beat me clean, although they did get a couple of goals from screen and tip plays. All of that was fine, I guess, until one of them decided to bump me. I don't think that bumping a goalie when he's playing well is a legit tactic at our level. Too many ways to get hurt, by pucks or collisions.
Second period, one of the young punks came in, had an open shot, and decided to just wind up and hammer one at me. I was dead-on with the angle, and it hit me square in the middle, I held it, the whistle blew. And the guy rushed me. He did one of those cutesy, young asshole things, where he raced at me and was (well, maybe he was) going to swerve at the last minute.
I decided not to see if he really would swerve.
We now have proof: in a collision between a 300lb Moose (me in goalie gear), and a 150lb jerk, the Moose comes out a lot better. Especially when he has time to throw a punch as they collide.
I almost, kind of, but not really, feel bad. Someone told me he actually was (briefly) airborn. Someone else told me he dove, which makes more sense, since I don't think I hit him that hard. What is sure is that he ended up lying on the ice for a minute, and the other young punk rushed me.
Young Punk: "What the fuck was that for?"
Moose: "Why'd your little bitch rush me?"
YP: "What the fuck was that for?"
M: "Why don't you guys go play your own level?"
YP: "What the fuck was that for?"
The end result was one penalty for me (first of the year, believe it or not), and one each for the young punks. Moose advantage, us. One team mate skated up and asked (sounding concerned), "You ok? You're alright?" but under his mask, back to the other players, he was grinning. There are many ways to Moose some jerk. As Bugs said, "I do this kind of thing to 'em all through the picture."
30 seconds into the power play, we scored. I made sure to look over and wave to my two friends in the penalty box. I'm friendly like that.
I spent a lot of the third period getting hit, which was no surprise. At one point, my new friend from the other team came barrelling in, only to get planted into a goal post by my D. As the kid laid there, I made sure to say, "Aw look, it's my girlfriend come to pay me a visit!" He didn't seem to think my affection was genuine for some reason...
At the end of the game, one of the young punks lost his cool and went after a couple of my guys, which got him ejected. We managed to hold on for a very hard fought, and well earned, tie. When their goalie and I met in the handshake line, he was grinning broadly and wished me a good game. He almost seemed to find it as funny as I did. I found out after the game that he had told Baboon, "Yeah, I'm not worried about the Moose. We're going to crush them." I like a guy that can laugh when the jokes on him.
So, the Moose, second from last in our league, just tied the number one team, and nearly beat them. We might not be the best team, but you have to give a Moose credit, we have our moments.
The latest stats:
Team GAA 4.79
My GAA 4.72
Team GFA 2.47
Record 2-14-3 (7 points)
In the Monday game, I played the team that some old friends are on. One of them (one of the few guys on the ice much bigger than me), came flying in on a breakaway that he didn't have enough time to pull out of, but he did manage to swerve to miss me. Mostly.
My buddy clipped my leg, but just barely. I was already off balance and started to fall and catch myself on the net. As he hit the net and knocked it off, I just rolled back, more out of loack of balance than from the actual impact. "Don't worry," said the ref standing over me, "I've got him! Number 17's going in the box!" And away he went, protesting his innocense.
After the game, we met in the handshake line, and laughed about it. The first thing my old friend said was, "I didn't really get you, did I?" "No," I told him, "you barely bumped me, I was just losing my balance and tipped over. I figured I might as well lay there and see if they'd call you."
He wasn't too upset. His team beat us 7-1, and he had 2 or 3 goals. Not a great game for us, especially on D, but a good time. Also playing for them was a goalie that is another friend, and it was good to see him back and rehabbing after a pretty serious injury to his hand.
Then, there was last night's game, which was not a friendly affair.
Monday night, the (now) top team beat Baboon's team. That, in and of itself, is neither here nor there. What did piss me off is that this team had a few yound punks that are wayyyy too good to be in this league, and they were being jerks, show-boating and scoring a lot of goals. They scored 9 on Baboon, which is just not done. Behind an A league team, Baboon shuts down A league players. Behind a C league team... not so much.
Jump to last night, when we had to play the new top team. Two of their young guys started out gunning, and got progressively more agressive as I managed to shut them down. Neither could manage to beat me clean, although they did get a couple of goals from screen and tip plays. All of that was fine, I guess, until one of them decided to bump me. I don't think that bumping a goalie when he's playing well is a legit tactic at our level. Too many ways to get hurt, by pucks or collisions.
Second period, one of the young punks came in, had an open shot, and decided to just wind up and hammer one at me. I was dead-on with the angle, and it hit me square in the middle, I held it, the whistle blew. And the guy rushed me. He did one of those cutesy, young asshole things, where he raced at me and was (well, maybe he was) going to swerve at the last minute.
I decided not to see if he really would swerve.
We now have proof: in a collision between a 300lb Moose (me in goalie gear), and a 150lb jerk, the Moose comes out a lot better. Especially when he has time to throw a punch as they collide.
I almost, kind of, but not really, feel bad. Someone told me he actually was (briefly) airborn. Someone else told me he dove, which makes more sense, since I don't think I hit him that hard. What is sure is that he ended up lying on the ice for a minute, and the other young punk rushed me.
Young Punk: "What the fuck was that for?"
Moose: "Why'd your little bitch rush me?"
YP:
M: "Why don't you guys go play your own level?"
YP:
The end result was one penalty for me (first of the year, believe it or not), and one each for the young punks. Moose advantage, us. One team mate skated up and asked (sounding concerned), "You ok? You're alright?" but under his mask, back to the other players, he was grinning. There are many ways to Moose some jerk. As Bugs said, "I do this kind of thing to 'em all through the picture."
30 seconds into the power play, we scored. I made sure to look over and wave to my two friends in the penalty box. I'm friendly like that.
I spent a lot of the third period getting hit, which was no surprise. At one point, my new friend from the other team came barrelling in, only to get planted into a goal post by my D. As the kid laid there, I made sure to say, "Aw look, it's my girlfriend come to pay me a visit!" He didn't seem to think my affection was genuine for some reason...
At the end of the game, one of the young punks lost his cool and went after a couple of my guys, which got him ejected. We managed to hold on for a very hard fought, and well earned, tie. When their goalie and I met in the handshake line, he was grinning broadly and wished me a good game. He almost seemed to find it as funny as I did. I found out after the game that he had told Baboon, "Yeah, I'm not worried about the Moose. We're going to crush them." I like a guy that can laugh when the jokes on him.
So, the Moose, second from last in our league, just tied the number one team, and nearly beat them. We might not be the best team, but you have to give a Moose credit, we have our moments.
The latest stats:
Team GAA 4.79
My GAA 4.72
Team GFA 2.47
Record 2-14-3 (7 points)
posted by Micah at 2:27 AM
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