Hoisted On Our Own Antlers
Monday night. Ouch. We played my old friends on the Good Sports (who I still think are the best team in the league over all). I played great. Stunning at times, in fact. And when I lost, it wasn't me, or even the other team, that beat me. No indeed, it was my fellow Moose, and the really aweful officiating. And it sucked.
The first face off was won straight to our manager (a defenseman), who turned it over to the best player on the other team, so I started the game by facing a very sudden breakaway that I got beat on. 1 shot, 1 goal. Even after that crappy start, I managed to make a bunch of big saves in the first period. My favorite was one I made off the shaft of the stick, just above my right hand.
Second period, one of the refs blew a call, waving off a goal that he said was a high stick. I had a clear view of it, and if it hit something above the cross bar, it wasn't a Moose. Even then, we were battling pretty hard, and we ended up still in the game going into the third. We ended up down 2-3, but pressuring the other team.
I made a couple of great, game-saving stops in the third, including one on the young kid on their team. This kid was great to play behind when I filled in for these guys, and he's almost more fun to play against. Never dirty, never a head-shot, and always ready to give you credit for stopping him. Which I did, with a really nice glove save. I caught the puck with my glove against the junction of the vertical and cross bar. The puck actually hit the corner of the pipes through the webbing. The kid that shot it was the first person to swing by the net and slap me on the helmet and tell me what a great save it was.
But, like I said, my own Moose and the refs screwed it up for me.
Right when we should have been scoring the tying goal, the other Moose were busy yelling at the refs. The refs were busy growing rabbit ears and giving us a penalty every time they even thought we were questioning them. The result? I had to defend a long 5 on 3, then a 4 on 3, to end the game. I finally got beat, making it 2-4, with about a minute and a half in the game. I was pissed. So pissed that when one of the Good Sports came down and took a slap shot in close with about 30 seconds left, I just stood with my pads together and let him see if he could hit a corner. He did, which I really didn't care about. It was kind of an asshole shot to take that late, when you were assured of a win, and it was also kind of meaningless.
I gave my ten cents worth of advice to our manager after the others had gone. Some nights, you're going to get screwed by the refs. Yelling at them, no matter what you may think, will not help, it will only hurt. I've never seen a ref that was doing a bad job start doing a better job because you yelled at them. What I do see is refs, who are often cranky and twitchy to begin with, who get tired of being reminded that they are screwing things up, and who take it out on the players the more you bitch. The best way to deal with a bad official is after the game, off the ice, in a civil conversation, when you have some chance of getting them to listen.
This is the first time that the Moose have really sort of pissed me off. I don't mind that they're not that good. Hey, I'm out of shape and not always playing well either, so there are more than enough mistakes to go around. I'm just pissed that we wasted a great game by me.
The new stats:
Team GAA: 4.81
My GAA: 4.75
Team GFA: 2.33
The first face off was won straight to our manager (a defenseman), who turned it over to the best player on the other team, so I started the game by facing a very sudden breakaway that I got beat on. 1 shot, 1 goal. Even after that crappy start, I managed to make a bunch of big saves in the first period. My favorite was one I made off the shaft of the stick, just above my right hand.
Second period, one of the refs blew a call, waving off a goal that he said was a high stick. I had a clear view of it, and if it hit something above the cross bar, it wasn't a Moose. Even then, we were battling pretty hard, and we ended up still in the game going into the third. We ended up down 2-3, but pressuring the other team.
I made a couple of great, game-saving stops in the third, including one on the young kid on their team. This kid was great to play behind when I filled in for these guys, and he's almost more fun to play against. Never dirty, never a head-shot, and always ready to give you credit for stopping him. Which I did, with a really nice glove save. I caught the puck with my glove against the junction of the vertical and cross bar. The puck actually hit the corner of the pipes through the webbing. The kid that shot it was the first person to swing by the net and slap me on the helmet and tell me what a great save it was.
But, like I said, my own Moose and the refs screwed it up for me.
Right when we should have been scoring the tying goal, the other Moose were busy yelling at the refs. The refs were busy growing rabbit ears and giving us a penalty every time they even thought we were questioning them. The result? I had to defend a long 5 on 3, then a 4 on 3, to end the game. I finally got beat, making it 2-4, with about a minute and a half in the game. I was pissed. So pissed that when one of the Good Sports came down and took a slap shot in close with about 30 seconds left, I just stood with my pads together and let him see if he could hit a corner. He did, which I really didn't care about. It was kind of an asshole shot to take that late, when you were assured of a win, and it was also kind of meaningless.
I gave my ten cents worth of advice to our manager after the others had gone. Some nights, you're going to get screwed by the refs. Yelling at them, no matter what you may think, will not help, it will only hurt. I've never seen a ref that was doing a bad job start doing a better job because you yelled at them. What I do see is refs, who are often cranky and twitchy to begin with, who get tired of being reminded that they are screwing things up, and who take it out on the players the more you bitch. The best way to deal with a bad official is after the game, off the ice, in a civil conversation, when you have some chance of getting them to listen.
This is the first time that the Moose have really sort of pissed me off. I don't mind that they're not that good. Hey, I'm out of shape and not always playing well either, so there are more than enough mistakes to go around. I'm just pissed that we wasted a great game by me.
The new stats:
Team GAA: 4.81
My GAA: 4.75
Team GFA: 2.33
Record: 2-16-3 (7 points)
posted by Micah at 6:00 PM
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