Coast to Coast

Digging through the garage trying to locate all of the miscellaneous pieces of non-goalie hockey equipment that I have gathered throughout the years, stumbling across many memories in the process. My first goalie jersey, my first team jersey, a jersey that I designed for a team, my first helmet, my first trapper, the pieces of my first blocker, etc. . . I had just about everything I would need to make the jump to right wing, and create another memory.

Virtually every minute of my hockey "career" has been played in the crease- well, scratch that, as a goalie. Including this past Saturday, I have played out two and a half times. The first time I was ejected halfway through the game for wearing goalie skates (a safety hazard!). The previous time, I played "D", I didn't have any elbow pads. If you combine your first time on player skates with no elbow protection, you end-up with some bruised elbows. This time I would play as a forward, with elbow pads.

Playing as a forward means no responsibilities, and that's what I wanted to try.

The Patriot's game ended just as the zam was leaving the ice for the Grave Diggers, so I missed the shoot-around. This was a little disheartening, I was looking forward to taking a few shots at Bob's noggin, oh well. When the first shift ended, I skated to the bench and made a u-turn for the face-off. When the puck dropped I jumped out to the blue line looking for the outlet pass, then realized we didn't have possession anymore and fell down. I repeated this same sequence throughout the night. I definitely had some hustle. . . I must have fell down on every square inch of the ice.

Trying to find the right time to hit the bench was not as easy as I thought it would be, we were rolling forwards due to our odd number. I have heard that people can get pretty upset about their ice time, I am not used to worrying about that, but I didn't want to take anything away from anybody. I made an effort to be generous with my ice time, I don't know if it came across or not, I really wanted to be out their the whole game. I'm a goalie, it's in my nature.

Somehow, I was credited with the primary assist on the first goal. If this actually happened or not, I can't say. I got in one other good pass to our center, right in front of the goal, it was deflected into his skates, unfortunately. Several times I made some good efforts at forechecking- meaning, into position, try to move stick onto puck, fall down. But, what should have been my shining moment. . . I caught the pass from my defenseman as I started my break for the goal. It was just me and Ryan Haley. I was struggling to keep the puck in the spot I wanted it to be, while watching her position in the net. Soon I was about fifteen feet from the net on her glove side, too low to have much of an angle for a shooting chance, when I saw my center in the middle of the slot. With Ryan already dropping, all I had to do was throw the pass out to my team mate for the go ahead goal. So what did I do? I fired it right into her belly, of course. I have relived this moment over and over, I am so ashamed of myself.

One other highlight, as I made a streak down on the forecheck, behind the net, Brooks gives me a head fake, looked over his shoulder to make eye contact and casually feigned recognition, "Oh, I thought it was actually somebody on the forecheck". I was cracking-up.

Career face-off win percentage- 0%, dang it Chris.

I didn't fulfill many of my goals for the game but we played well enough to win, and I had a lot of fun.

It seems I have had several opportunities this year to make some of my dreams come true, especially on the hockey front. There is still one that I haven't had a shot at. . . I have had some shooting sessions with some very talented players, even took a slapshot from a Hull, Bobby Jr., but still pretty cool. This week Bob Sturm made me very jealous, as he faced Mike Ribiero in a breakaway competition. Maybe, someday. . .


Of course, the game was also the triumphant return of Bob Sirkis to the net. He has borrowed my gear to play the goal before, but I never got to witness it. He is a very aggressive goalie (surprise, surprise!), and he lives and dies by his stand-up goaltending style. It was very interesting also to hear the reactions of the team on the bench as Bob made a high risk play. I fully supported his play. No one seemed shocked by that.

Bob enjoys the change of pace, playing goal, but I don't think he is a day to day goalie. But if you think you could be, or maybe you already are but need some help developing your game, the goaltending clinic is practically a reality. I still don't have the details: time, date, cost, number of spots, etc. . . but I need to hear from all of you out there that are interested in making use of this unique event. There will probably be one spot for the wannabe goalie that has little or no equipment of their own, so make your case.

stickysaves@gmail.com