Maimed and Mad Moose

Well, the great Moose come back was short lived. I wish I could say that it was because we just ran into some really good teams, but the fact is, bad reffing, injuries and the poor job our league does of creating equity was really the problem.

I've been sending mail on and off for the last 3 years warning league officials that the one really good player on our team was getting mugged game in and game out. What really sucked was, he was getting beat on by teams that were blowing us out; the top few teams in the league who have nothing to fear from us. I repeatedly warned the league director that sooner or later, if the refs didn't call things, D was going to get hurt, and without him, the Moose just aren't competitive.

It finally happened. We had one of the top 3 teams in the league in a tie game in the third period. The team is back-stopped by my friend Baboon, one of my very best friends, who I sub for all the time. We know each others players, and I'm always up for this game, even though we usually get killed by them. I was playing great, we were tied, and I was having a great time.

D got the puck and raced around their net, popping up on Baboons left post. One of Baboon's team mates decided (in his own words) that D "is just to good to give him that scoring chance." His cross check caught D across the throat, lifting him off his feet, pulling his helmet up, and sending D down to hit his head on the ice. D left the ice for the hospital. We lost. Power plays aren't any good without your best guy to play on them, and none of us really felt like playing anyway.

D came back a couple weeks later and tried to play again, and was again hit with a cheap shot, this one to his head. After the game, he sat quietly, and when I asked, D said "Maybe it's best if I don't play in this league any more."

The next game out, we faced a team full of acne-faced kids. Only myself and two skaters could really keep up with them, and by the middle of the game, it was clear that we had no chance. A team of A and B level kids will always beat a team full of 30-40 something guys with day jobs. With 2.5 minutes to go, one of the kids decided their 9-2 lead wasn't good enough, and cross checked my team mate M to the ice. He then hit M with a 2-handed slash that cracked his helmet.

Chances are, the Moose are done with our rink. Some combination of the officials and the rink management has added up to a league that's just not safe. The refs are irresponsible, and sometimes, they are just not good enough to keep up. The rink has lost teams because of a couple of major business closings in the area, and to keep the number of teams up, they are letting guys play in multiple leagues. Since the B league has some amount of A players already, and now guys in B can play C as well, we're seeing whole teams of B players with A guys mixed in, playing in a C league.

All things being sportsmanlike, I wouldn't mind facing B, or even A, shooters. I played B consistently for 3 years, and played A and BB on and off for a couple of years. I'm not going to steal games from A and B players any more, but I'm not scared of them, and I'll still give them a game on my good nights.

What I don't want to do is end any more games in fights, without handshake lines, and then go home mad at 2am. It's not good hockey and it's not good for my soul.

Moosing Again!

After some truly sad losses, including the great ref-gate incident, the Moose finally got back to winning hockey games.

The Moose spent about half the game short handed, which made for lots of work for yours truly. I played great, and I still gave up 4 goals. I also went back to playing my game; a couple of risky passes in my own zone, and penalties, penalties, penalties.

About 6 months ago, I fell flat on my face, stretched all the way out, and covered a puck. After the whistle went, this jerk from the other team hit my defenseman and threw her down on the back of my head and neck. It hurt a little, and it scared me a lot. Your neck ain't made for that kind of abuse, y'know?

So, jump forward to last night, and who should set up to screen me but the same guy. He was slashing at my defenseman, who, in all fairness, was slashing him back. As soon as the puck was cleared, my defenseman and I both hit the guy. He made a satisfying thump as he went down, quickly followed by the expected screech of the whistle. I held my hand up, to make sure they called me, not my penalty-prone defenseman. I figured it would be the only one I took, and this defenseman of mine tends to take lots. Four penalties in our league is an ejection from that game.

End of the third we were up 5-4, and this big kid from the other team decides to come in from the side, carrying the puck, and run me. The exact same move that gave me a blown knee a few years ago. So as he hit me, I hit him, then I stepped over to him and asked if he had anything else to say. (Ok, that's not exactly what I said, but even I have limits on the profanity I'll use in my writing.) He declined, apparently not so thrilled by the prospect of hitting someone that hits back. One of his team mates came over and said some useless things to me that included "pony-tailed fagot," but he too declined my invitation to dance.

The result was a call on the guy who ran me, one on me for hitting him, and a second on me for unsportsmanlike conduct (which is what they do in our league if you invite someone to fight but there isn't actually a fight).

Half of my team mates were thrilled. They prefer that I do the fighting if I get run because most of them don't like to fight. (I don't like it, but I like getting hurt less.)

The other half of my team wasn't so thrilled. A 1 goal lead, last minute of play, and we're down a guy. The other team pulled their goalie, which put us at a two man disadvantage. Lucky for me, one of my team mates hit the empty net from about our blue line to make it 6-4.

Everyone was laughing and smiles in the handshake line except the two guys I actually hit. I can live with that. They still shook hands (as did I) and said good game (as did I). The kid that had called me a "pony-tailed fagot" got a big grin when he shook my hand, and we both had a laugh. I felt a little foolish for letting him bait me into a dumb penalty. It wasn't a smart one to take. I'll have to work on that.

After the game, one of the refs pointed out to me that I had taken 3. It took a second, then I asked, "4 and I'm out, huh?" Yup. "Would you really boot me? I mean, I am a goalie. Would you really boot me for the 4th one?"

The ref just smiled and said we'd certainly have had to have a serious talk about it.

Doing the Right Thing... and Losing

A few games ago, the Mighty Michigan Moose were the victims of some really awful officiating.

Really awful. Cost us the game aweful. Couple of guys hurt aweful.

In the process of losing the game, our players went ahead and gave the officials an ear full for the bad job they were doing. In the process of this, one of our players was ejected.

Jump to the next game. The head Moose was out of town, leaving me as the sort of, by default, manager for the night. Pre-game, I got a call from the rink. The call clarified for me who was and was not suspended, and the caller, a very nice young woman who works nights at the rink, asked me a favor. She didn't know if she knew the new player who was suspended, could I please make sure to tell him he couldn't play? Could I make sure to point him out if he tried to get on the ice? Yeah, ok, sure.

So when new player showed up, I told him. I wasn't exactly happy to do it, but I gave my word to the girl from the rink, and so I did what I'd said I would. I tried to get it through to the new guy: if he played and was found out, he'd sit longer; if he played and was found out, I could get booted as a manager that knowingly put on an illegal player; the girl who called and the ref that ejected him were going to be the scorekeeper and ref of this game and might recognize him; I wanted to make sure that if someone had to sit, they had the right person...

It went on and on. The gist of it being, new guy was pissed that I'd "blown it" and hadn't helped him lie to the people at the rink.

Then we lost, narrowly, in a game where the new guy would have been a big help.

Well, fuck me. What's a Moose to do, anyway?

It's not that I never lie. I do, once in a while. As Archie Goodwin put it, if I'm going to lie, it's going to be worth it. The kind of thing where I'm trying to serve some better purpose than just putting one over on some other poor schmuck. Give me a CEO or a government official, and I'd probably feel little remorse. Give me some person working a crappy job making minimum wage, and I can't bring myself to do it. There's enough injustice at the bottom already without me dumping petty lies on people.

So, I couldn't lie to that nice girl. I see her score keeping games from 10pm-12:30am, and then cleaning the building at 1am as we're leaving. She remembers most of our names, smiles and says hello, while doing what is really a kind of sucky and thankless job. I just wouldn't feel right lying to her. Call it fear of Karma or the Spirit whispering in my ear, or maybe just some human sympathy for someone who was honest with me and asked me to be honest with her.

The Moose are on a losing streak. That loss extended it, and that part really sucked. But what's a Moose to do? You gotta be able to hold your antlers up when you look at your reflection in the stream the next morning, right?

Vaughn Epics from Peranis

NEW PADS

There are a handful of firsts that are pivotal for hockey goalies. The first shot you stop, the first shot in the head, the first time you get run, and the first time you post a shutout. I’ve been through all those firsts. Recently, I got to go through another first: getting my own, new, custom made pads.

It started with a trip to Peranis in Flint. Peranis used to be a little place on Flint’s east side, near my grandma’s house. These days, Peranis fills a good size section of a small shopping mall on Flint’s Dort Highway. You would be hard pressed to find any place that has the same selection of hockey gear in every shape, size, color and price range. And that was part of why I went: I needed to try on pads, and I wanted to try on as many brands, as many models, as many variations as I could. Peranis is the only place I’ve found that actually has them on the shelf.

There was another good reason, though. These guys have been in the business for a while. While I was there, dozens of locals walked in, and the Peranis staff greeted them by name. They remembered which kids played for which local teams, gave words of encouragement, and in one case, even helped a young man get his tie done right. Not only are they one of, if not the, biggest hockey equipment dealers in the world, but I was confident that they would do everything they could to help me get what I wanted.

Step one to getting what I wanted was to talk with Matt Walker, who specializes in goalie gear. He can tell you about materials, features, possible changes and customizations you could do. He patiently pulled pads, one after another, for over two hours, while I tried on one model, then another, then another. He pulled down the models I expressed an interest in, then pulled down a few others he thought I should at least consider. After two hours, I settled on a model and a size. Then it was time to talk about the details. I wanted the thigh rises custom sized like a pro would have them, and, of course, custom colors.

I also had a special request. Some people have noticed I have been using a pair of pads worn by Marty Turco during the ’97-’98 season. The pads are done as mirror images, one mostly blue, the other mostly yellow. Watching Marty at UM was what inspired me to play in goal, plus, those pads won two league championships for me after Marty’s ’98 NCAA win. I thought it would be a cool nod to Marty and the old pads to stick to the mirror image theme. So, I asked Matt Walker if he thought we could get Vaughn to build me custom Epic pads with mirror-imaged black and white, plus a special touch of striping.

Vaughn builds a lot of their goalie gear right here in Michigan. While I picked their Epic pads because they were what fit me and worked best for my style, I have to say, it’s a big bonus to know you’re supporting folks doing business here in Michigan, especially when things are pretty tough here economically.

In the end, not only did the folks at Vaughn do the mirror image graphics, but they made sure that every piece, right down to tiny reinforcing bits of leather, were done as opposites in black and white. Even the straps are consistent with the theme: black straps on one leg, white on the other. The extra cost of the custom colors and thigh rises? Nothing. I did pay the small fee to have my name put on them. You can see how the folks at Vaughn handled that.

And how do they perform? Amazing! Right out of the box, with no break in, the pre-shaped pads almost totally closed up when I butterflied. A tiny bit of break in later, and they present a solid black, white and yellow wall along the ice. They weigh less than half what my old ones did. The fact that I get compliments from everyone that sees them is also a bonus.

I don’t usually give endorsements to stores or companies, especially because everyone has different needs. I can honestly say, however, that the service at Peranis, and the custom work done by Vaughn, put them high on my list of folks to do more business with. In the next few months, I hope to have custom gloves made to match the new pads. You can bet I will be visiting Peranis in Flint and giving serious consideration to Vaughn when I start selecting the new gloves.

And, of course, I’ll keep you posted on how they come out.

Officially Moosed

Well, last game sucked for a Moose like Republicans drilling in your refuge.

We played the team that was tied with us in the standings, which meant we had the chance to move up a spot. We were tied in the 9th/10th slots, and a win would have given us control of 9th place, dropped them to 10th, and it would have been the first 2 game win streak for us ever. We got really close. And we got screwed.

Nuts and bolts, nuts and bolts...

The game started in the usual Moose fashion, with my team giving up a lot of chances, and me making some stops. I made a couple of great ones, including one against a one timer passed from low-left of me to someone right between the hasmarks. The shooter was smart enough to shoot for the post I was leaving, and I still got my pad back to snag the shot, then covered it. As the ref took the puck from me, fellow Moose were thanking me for covering them when they'd blown the defensive coverage.

Ref, in funny mocking voice: "Hey, great save goalie! Sorry we couldn't bother to get back and help you!"

I appreciated the humor.

I held them off the board, and we finally got one. Then we got two. Things were looking good.

...We got screwed!

Late second period, we got scored on by one of those cluster-fuck plays that happen sometimes: three people swat at a loose puck, it pops off of two stick funny, goes up and over you, and manages to hit the top corner of the net. Just nothing but really bad luck.

Then came the penalties. The refs started calling us tighter once we had a lead, which isn't fair, but is about par for the course. The big problem was, they weren't calling the other team at all. They threw one Moose after another in the penalty box. The other team started the third period with 6 minutes of power play time, all back to back. They tied it when my D blew coverage in front again, same play I'd had to stop earlier, and this time the shooter shot to the top corner of the side I was sliding away from. That tied it.

The go ahead go was another blown call. The refs let the other team hack away at a puck that I had covered until they knocked it loose and in. That made it 3-2.

We then got to suffer through 10 minutes of icings, plus a number of really blatent body checks and trips that didn't get called. It was some of the worst officiating I've ever seen, made worse by a lot of pissed off Moose yelling at the officials.

Empty net goal, a flooky shot that went the whole length of Olympic ice, deflecting off someone half-way down to end up in the net, made it a 2-4 final.

On the good side, I looked great for the third or fourth game in a row. My form is starting to come back. Now, I just gotta try and work on my team mates and the refs.

The latest numbers:
Team GAA: 4.61
My GAA: 4.50
Team GFA: 2.35
Record: 3-17-3 (9 points)

Once in a Blue Moose

The Moose have added another "W" to the list. Last night's game, a painful 11:20pm start, ended with a 3-1 victory.

We had music durring the game for the first time in a very long time. The girl in the box doing scoring and clock played various things durring warmups, and also durring stoppages in play and between periods. Apparently U2 and Green Day (among other groups) are very good for my game. There's something kind of surreal about being on the ice at 12:30 in the morning, listening to Bono sing "Sunday Bloody Sunday," while stopping hockey pucks.

Whatever it was, it worked. I was so focussed on figuring out what some of the songs were (Who was that doing that aweful cover of that old Beatles tune?!?), that I wasn't thinking about what I or the team were doing right or wrong durring all those stops in play. I started the game by stopping a breakaway (made the big Hockey Night in Canada glove save on an old buddy from the other team), and I just never looked back. Turns out I am still a decent goalie, even at this age and out of shape, as long as I don't think about things too hard.

The refs were in a good mood, the other team was good natured, and Baboon was in net for them, which always adds a little pressure for me to step up my game. Baboon was a little off, but he played better than any of their "regular" goalies play; it is Baboon, after all, and anytime you see him at the other end of the ice, you have to worry. We got one on him in the first by picking up the trash in front of the net, and two on him in the second on power plays, but other than that, he was his usual, pain in the ass, self.

I played a great game, and had them shut out until about 1:30 left in the game. They scored on a screen shot that I can't possibly consider my own fault (never saw the shot, it went through 3 people in front of me, and I still got a piece of it before it went in). I'm also not that concerned about the shutout. It's not that useful of a stat; they are often luck as much as skill. What I care about is wins (above all), getting my GAA down (so I know I'm playing well and giving the team a chance), and my own satisfaction and knowledge that I left it all on the ice.

We definitely left it all out there last night. It was a much needed team win after the bad game the other day.

The new stats:
Team GAA: 4.63
My GAA 4.57
Team GFA: 2.36
Record: 3-16-3 (9 points)

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

Record: 2-16-3 (7 points)