Monday Musings: Goals, and the people who score them

I haven’t scored a goal in months.  In fact, the last time I scored was last season, on January 20, 2008, against  now-extinct APL.  I guess it’s now six months since I’ve put the puck in the net.  I didn’t have a great game against the Ice Dawgs last Saturday – I made a lot of mistakes and just couldn’t get my head nor my legs in the game.

It didn’t seem THAT long, but looking at my stats and counting the number dry months was a shocker (and then not so much of a shocker).  I’m not a prolific goal scorer by any means, but this might be as long a drought that I’ve ever experienced.

I’ve come close to scoring several times this season but I haven’t been able to get one by a goalie yet.  I do think that I am playing a bit better now than I have been in the past but since Silver B has started, I’ve only really been playing once a week.  The limited practice time, combined with the increased difficulty level of Silver B, and you get one long goalless streak for Singh10.  Sometimes I think I should have joined up with a Bronze team and played twice a week, but I didn’t want to commit two weekend nights to hockey.  Perhaps I should consider getting in some practice time between games.

Now, while it would be nice to break the slump, scoring a goal here or there won’t necessarily make me happy.  If I’m playing much better but am not scoring, I could still be happy with that.  But, as I said to another player in our league, the difference between me playing like crap and me playing a good game may only be perceptible to a few, and mostly me.

Speaking of breaking slumps, I want to congratulate a former teammate of mine for scoring her first goal in her rec hockey career.  We started on the Foothill Flyers together back in the Summer of 2005, and this past Sunday she scored her first goal ever.  So, congrats to Gina for finally breaking the goose egg!

This week also marks the second anniversary of the death of Bryan Klein, another former teammate of mine from the Foothill Flyer days.  I’ll have more to write about him a little later in the week.

Singh10.

Wednesday Wusings: Unsportsmanlike conduct

Well, wasn’t our game against the Kodiaks on Sunday night interesting? There were over 40 minutes of penalties awarded in the game, and three quarters of those were awarded in just the last 10 minutes of the third period.  At one point our penalty box was standing room only.  It’s also amazing that no fights came out of the game, but it probably came close.  This was not a typical Puck Hogs-Kodiaks match (I used to say that the Kodiaks were one of the classiest teams in the league), which used to be very clean and competitive.  I’m not entirely certain as to what’s going on with the Kodiaks, but their captain seems worn out. 

Additionally noteworthy is that apparently the game before us – Volcanoes vs. Ice Dawgs – also had some issues with officiating, and we had the same set of referees.  I’m not going to go on a diatribe about officiating here because I said enough in an e-mail to the hockey director this week.  The officiating is what it is, and you know what you are likely to get into when you get on the ice and see who is calling your game.  Referees are not perfect and you need to cut them some slack, but when for some officials games consistently seem to get out of control, I think there is an issue there that must be addressed. 

Competition in the league seems to be getting much more intense, and I’m wondering if it’s to do with the impending playoffs (now two weeks away), or if there’s an overall declining trend in good sportsmanship.  At the end of our game against the Kodes, our teams did not even line up to shake hands – a few did, but others swore to “bring it next game”.  The Pirates won their game against the Phantoms (what did I tell you, people!?), and it seems Team Second-Coming-of-Christ (at least that’s what it sounds like if you read their website) were more sour than the team they beat.  And finally, apparently APL forfeited their game against the Flyers after trying to sneak in an illegal player.  We are not amused, APL.

What this league needs is one big giant group hug as a gesture of peace and togetherness – or maybe, just the captains of the top three teams should.  I wouldn’t mind that so much.

Singh10.

Monday Musings: More rough, rough.

I was off for a week entertaining guests, so I didn’t get a chance to do much hockey blogging.  But, my inactivity wasn’t an indication that there was nothing to write about, because there certainly was.

In my last blog post, I wrote about some of the physical play that we saw when we played the Ice Dawgs.  I’m beginning to wonder if this is the start of a trend.

Monday Musings: Back to the future

How interesting…

Not to keep harping on our early exit during last season’s playoffs, but here’s more harping.  Last season, had we gotten by the Kodiaks in the first round, we would have played the Volcanoes in the second round of the playoffs.  But, of course we were knocked out by the bears.  They went on to play the Volcanoes instead of us, but lost and were eliminated.

This time, having beaten the Kodiaks (who actually were missing some key players) in our rematch, the schedule has us facing the Volcanoes.  It’s too bad it didn’t work out this way in the playoffs but I think next Sunday should be a great game and a test of two strong teams.  Both of our teams are undefeated, and so whoever wins this game gets to sit in first place all by themselves.  This motivation will only add to the rivalry between our teams.  We were the only team that the Volcanoes couldn’t beat last season, and we’re hoping, of course, that the trend continues. It won’t go our way, however, without a huge determined effort by our team.

As for my triumphant return to the ice, it didn’t go as badly as I thought it might.