Monday Musings: Untripodlike Conduct

It’s funny how things work sometimes.

During the day before our game against Norcal Crossover A last Friday, I was contemplating putting up a post about being in the midst of another long goal-less streak. While not as bad as my nine-month one, as of last week I hadn’t scored a goal in about three months. Coincidentally, the last goal I scored was last season against the very same Norcal Crossover A.

I didn’t get around to writing that post before the game and it turns out I wouldn’t have to as I ended up scoring a goal on Friday night. In some strange conspiracy of fate and circumstance, I somehow found myself with the puck on a breakaway during the game, and that normally doesn’t happen to me.  Most of the time, I’m checked before I can take two strides, or I freak out and throw the puck away. But on this play, I picked up the puck around center ice and I still had the puck when I got to the slot.  I decided to try and make a move on the goalie instead of taking a shot. After a little deke, the puck made its way through the goalie’s five-hole and the next I saw of it was in the back of the net.  My slump was over.

On to the next goal-less slump!

Personally, it was nice to score the goal but what really makes me feel good is that with my goal we now have twelve out of sixteen skaters on the Hogs who have registered at least one goal this season (excluding our goalie of course). I’m hoping we can make that 16-for-16 by the end of the summer.  I’ve gone through a season where I didn’t score a single goal and while not everything you do on the ice can be counted in goals, it’s still an empty feeling when you have a goose egg in that category.  When you score, it’s not so much about stats as it is knowing that you’ve contributed to the team effort on the ice.  This is why everyone on our team gets a chance when we do shootouts.  And besides, scoring goals makes for good stories to friends and family.

Some players from another team who shall remain nameless (mostly because I think I’ve run out of names to call them) have been coming out to watch our games for the past few weeks, and they were there again on Friday to see my breakaway.  One of those players cheered when I scored, which was very nice of him.  I definitely appreciate the support.

However, I heard that his captain – who was also there watching our game - made him stop cheering. I’m not sure if the silencing of that player by his own captain (not all nations permit freedom of speech) was related to that captain’s dislike for me or if it was out of concern for Skatetown’s boards and glass (they must be more fragile than I thought).  Something tells me that if the person who scored was someone other than me, there might not have been the same concern about kicking the boards or pounding the glass.  Regardless, that a team would go to the extent of censoring their own players who cheer for me is rather flattering.

I have already “stirred up the hornet’s nest” enough with that team this season and apparently they’re still fuming. When the story of the censoring was conveyed to me, I was advised that it might not be a good idea to write about it on the blog.   So, let’s just pretend that I didn’t write about it.

Singh10.