Oops.....we played the Buzz and not the Bruins last week. We play the Bruins this saturday. Thanks for the pickup Larry!
-Kai #10
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Holy Crap what a fantastic weekend of hockey. We played outside for what may be the last time this year being that they stop flooding and maintaining the rinks after this weekend, which is crazy being that we have a month of cold weather at least. But there you have it. My gods we had a huge snowstorm in what...April last year? And March is always good for a storm or two. I love winter, I really do. But it's like anything else. I mean, I love a good scotch, but even I'd be lying if I did not admit that 3 of them or so are pretty awesome. But say....15 of them? Not so much. Thats kind of the way I feel about the entire month of March; to much of the winter I love so much. I guess that's what drinking is very helpful regarding.
Our AK Bars game was an 8-0 drubbing of the poor Bruins. We outshot them 37-8 and pretty much everyone scored a goal, including me. Actually it was a pretty good shot; hit the keep in the left shoulder and sort of fluttered up and over him and into the goal. I was getting rather irked with a teammate but it really didn't bother me much, figured that he's just denying himself the immense enjoyment of team comradarie by being--shall we say--not costructively critical. I'll give a more play by play account in a later post because, well, I kind of need the byline from the AHA to get the facts straight and they've not yet posted our game yet the bastards. BUT....I have to include this link because it's pretty funny and should make Trevor pissed but it's pretty good read.
http://diablohockey.blogspot.com/2008/01/diablos-4-ak-bars-2.html
Lets just say that it's an interesting--and different--take on our game with them :) And I swear to god to read it before we play them the last game of the season.
What else is going on here in my little world that nobody is going to read about? (It's funny, being that even as I tend to sadly trend in this direction, how breathtakingly self absorbed this "blog" phenomenon is).
I had another one of those fantastic well rounded days. After our skate this am...where I played shitty being that I was SPENT after our game last nite. Discovered a new thing tho. If I have a Chipotle burrito for lunch on game day I've got way more energy. They are about 1200 calories but they must be really bioavailable.(the rice probably) because I felt pretty good. However, I was dying this morning and could barely skate. Must be why the pros get on stationary bikes after games to work out the lactic acid. It was great tho, really, really great.
Then tonite was Book Club Nite. These are pretty new people to me, but I really like them. I facilitated our discussion of the book A Short History of Nearly Everything and even tho half the people read half the book it was still lively discussion-wise. Like I've said in RL a bunch of times (to parahrase) One Cannot Live On Hockey Alone. So this has been great for me so far and I encourage everyone out there to read more and find a group to get together with. Plus...it's nice to be hanging around nice smelling women for a change. The locker room stink has a certain manly authenticity but, well...you know. I'm sure there's a few hockey fans in the book club, maybe I should invite them. Never can have too many fans and I think Madame Boyko and the Ah-Nye-Hilator's gal are getting lonely up there. Schultzie's gal comes sometimes too, but as we keep saying, he's gone way too soft with all this feminine attention, so it's best she probably skip our games :)
Keep hitting the corners!
-Kai #10
Our AK Bars game was an 8-0 drubbing of the poor Bruins. We outshot them 37-8 and pretty much everyone scored a goal, including me. Actually it was a pretty good shot; hit the keep in the left shoulder and sort of fluttered up and over him and into the goal. I was getting rather irked with a teammate but it really didn't bother me much, figured that he's just denying himself the immense enjoyment of team comradarie by being--shall we say--not costructively critical. I'll give a more play by play account in a later post because, well, I kind of need the byline from the AHA to get the facts straight and they've not yet posted our game yet the bastards. BUT....I have to include this link because it's pretty funny and should make Trevor pissed but it's pretty good read.
http://diablohockey.blogspot.com/2008/01/diablos-4-ak-bars-2.html
Lets just say that it's an interesting--and different--take on our game with them :) And I swear to god to read it before we play them the last game of the season.
What else is going on here in my little world that nobody is going to read about? (It's funny, being that even as I tend to sadly trend in this direction, how breathtakingly self absorbed this "blog" phenomenon is).
I had another one of those fantastic well rounded days. After our skate this am...where I played shitty being that I was SPENT after our game last nite. Discovered a new thing tho. If I have a Chipotle burrito for lunch on game day I've got way more energy. They are about 1200 calories but they must be really bioavailable.(the rice probably) because I felt pretty good. However, I was dying this morning and could barely skate. Must be why the pros get on stationary bikes after games to work out the lactic acid. It was great tho, really, really great.
Then tonite was Book Club Nite. These are pretty new people to me, but I really like them. I facilitated our discussion of the book A Short History of Nearly Everything and even tho half the people read half the book it was still lively discussion-wise. Like I've said in RL a bunch of times (to parahrase) One Cannot Live On Hockey Alone. So this has been great for me so far and I encourage everyone out there to read more and find a group to get together with. Plus...it's nice to be hanging around nice smelling women for a change. The locker room stink has a certain manly authenticity but, well...you know. I'm sure there's a few hockey fans in the book club, maybe I should invite them. Never can have too many fans and I think Madame Boyko and the Ah-Nye-Hilator's gal are getting lonely up there. Schultzie's gal comes sometimes too, but as we keep saying, he's gone way too soft with all this feminine attention, so it's best she probably skip our games :)
Keep hitting the corners!
-Kai #10
Friday, February 15, 2008
This is a PG-13 blog so I'm not going to say it, but fill in the blanks with your favourite curse words
__________, __________, we lose _____-ing 2-3 against the _______-ing Ice Gators in my favourite _______-ing venue and we're now three (THREE!!!???) _______-ing, ________ games from the stupid ______, ______ Nemesis. _____! _____!!!
**breathe Kai.....breeeeeaathe.........**
Ok we lost a heartbreaker an extend our losing streak to 3 games. I think Libby said it really well actually,
"We had a lot of bounces go our way early in the season and now we're just not getting 'em"
The guy's short on words but not on acuity of observation. The salient point? We've not really been playing that bad. That being said, they are the three games in a row that I was playing forward, and as we all know my tendency towards self absorption...I'm sure that's the difference maker.
Highlights of the game include a beauty of a goal by Jahr on a cross-crease pass from the Drop-Pass Anderson. Dude absolutely buried it. Fact is, those close in "easy" shots are sometimes remarkably hard (Right Larry?? hehe). Let yourself get one little thought trickle into your frontal cortex and BAM you miss the easy goal. Literally everyone has done it. Like a lot. Later in the period Trevor got another close in one as well. How he gets all our scrum goals I cannot figure out. It's a gift really.
But apparently, we have, according to the Ah-Nye-Hilator, decided that we only score goals in the 2nd period. It's really crazy. We had a good game, he, Backhand and I, lot's of battling behind the net, pretty good play, but between us and the rest of the team we only put 12 shots up (as did the Ice Gators). I managed to get a weak hooking penalty. Again, what do I have to do to get an authentically goon-y penalty? I do all sorts of stuff ("Dude....watch the stick ...it's rec league"----yeah whatever.....) but I lift a guy's stick, he gets tangled and falls, I go to the box to feel shame. Either way however, we're in a slump, and it's pissing us all off.
A special thanks to our backup goalie, whom I think was called Susan. Wish we could'a given her a "W" but alas, we did not.
On a happier note, Grant "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!!" Olson has acquired the more appropriately effeminate "Goldilocks" moniker, which is more (but not a lot really) enjoyably insulting to his manhood, which is of course, a selling point in locker room banter as you all may (or maybe don't?) know.
Tomorrow we play the Buzz, and I hope we unleash the same sort of fury on them as we did in the Bucs a few weeks ago. AND we have what may be the last outdoor game on Sunday, as the stop maintaining the rinks in mid February (grrr).
And on a final note, I am now officially Diablo Cody's friend. Or maybe I should say "friend". As in MySpace "friend". Yep....myself and...are you ready?
........9199 other people. As of 33 minutes ago.
YEAH BABY!!!!!
Keep skating hard :)
-Kai #10
__________, __________, we lose _____-ing 2-3 against the _______-ing Ice Gators in my favourite _______-ing venue and we're now three (THREE!!!???) _______-ing, ________ games from the stupid ______, ______ Nemesis. _____! _____!!!
**breathe Kai.....breeeeeaathe.........**
Ok we lost a heartbreaker an extend our losing streak to 3 games. I think Libby said it really well actually,
"We had a lot of bounces go our way early in the season and now we're just not getting 'em"
The guy's short on words but not on acuity of observation. The salient point? We've not really been playing that bad. That being said, they are the three games in a row that I was playing forward, and as we all know my tendency towards self absorption...I'm sure that's the difference maker.
Highlights of the game include a beauty of a goal by Jahr on a cross-crease pass from the Drop-Pass Anderson. Dude absolutely buried it. Fact is, those close in "easy" shots are sometimes remarkably hard (Right Larry?? hehe). Let yourself get one little thought trickle into your frontal cortex and BAM you miss the easy goal. Literally everyone has done it. Like a lot. Later in the period Trevor got another close in one as well. How he gets all our scrum goals I cannot figure out. It's a gift really.
But apparently, we have, according to the Ah-Nye-Hilator, decided that we only score goals in the 2nd period. It's really crazy. We had a good game, he, Backhand and I, lot's of battling behind the net, pretty good play, but between us and the rest of the team we only put 12 shots up (as did the Ice Gators). I managed to get a weak hooking penalty. Again, what do I have to do to get an authentically goon-y penalty? I do all sorts of stuff ("Dude....watch the stick ...it's rec league"----yeah whatever.....) but I lift a guy's stick, he gets tangled and falls, I go to the box to feel shame. Either way however, we're in a slump, and it's pissing us all off.
A special thanks to our backup goalie, whom I think was called Susan. Wish we could'a given her a "W" but alas, we did not.
On a happier note, Grant "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!!" Olson has acquired the more appropriately effeminate "Goldilocks" moniker, which is more (but not a lot really) enjoyably insulting to his manhood, which is of course, a selling point in locker room banter as you all may (or maybe don't?) know.
Tomorrow we play the Buzz, and I hope we unleash the same sort of fury on them as we did in the Bucs a few weeks ago. AND we have what may be the last outdoor game on Sunday, as the stop maintaining the rinks in mid February (grrr).
And on a final note, I am now officially Diablo Cody's friend. Or maybe I should say "friend". As in MySpace "friend". Yep....myself and...are you ready?
........9199 other people. As of 33 minutes ago.
YEAH BABY!!!!!
Keep skating hard :)
-Kai #10
Monday, February 04, 2008
Remember that Movie "Babe"? They had these chapter cuts with the little mice and a title card? Well;
***cut to title card and cue the mice***
"A Terrible Day"
They beat us. The frakking Nemesis beat us. Not "We lost" but "Got Beat". The score was 1-5, which in hockey is quite a shellacking. Truth is we actually played pretty hard for the whole game, but sometimes that simply is not enough. This will put us into third (THIRD!!!???) place 2 points behind the Nemesis but a crucial 2 wins behind them. Those ties are gonna come back to bite us standing-wise. But we still have 6 games to go. Plenty can happen.
I myself played forward this time. Back on the left wing with the Canadians, "Backhand" Boyko and of course, The "Ah-Nye-Hilator". Unfortunatly, the night had an ominous start; the "Ah-Nye-Hilator" had forgotten---of all things---his helmet. Now this sort of thing does happen. I myself forgot my Cup once, which is a rather vital item you might say. Fortunately, Pavel was able to loan me his (extremely, extremely tiny) spare. As luck would have it, I also didn't come down with the clap or anything, knowing Pavel's social life :) Anyway, the Ah-Nye-Hilator took off for home to get his noggin armour, wearing his full kit otherwise, excepting the skates. Glad he didn't get pulled over on the way being that would be an odd thing to explain to a lawman. He got back in time for the second period.
The first period was a real battle. Back and forth we went and nobody could seem to get an advantage. The Nemesis really came to play, and I think they had it for us, especially being we scored the game winner against them last time with less than a minute left on a spectacular shot by Garrett from the left point. This was turning into a very physical game as well, just as I like it really. They would end up with 20 minutes in penalties to our 4, although we couldn't seem to leverage the five-fold difference into any freaking goals.
Just as the period ended, the Ah-Nye-Hilator" arrived and Captain Curtis moved back to the "D". Again, the battle was joined and again we held on. But about 5 minutes in they score off a scrap in front of the Tree (that's Trey "The Tree" Cain--our goalie. He's 6-6 and about 300 lbs BTW). Then less than a minute later, Garrett gets a nice little bounce pass from his point off the wall to me, I manage to get it to the Ah-Nye-Hilator, and he does a splendid little deke from left to right in front of their goalie and puts a nice little backhand right in. We're in this baby!! Sadly, less than 40 seconds later, they respond again and we're down 1-2. I started to get a bad feeling about this. about three minutes later, it got worse. They took a shot from about 4 inches off our redline and somehow it threads the needle and goes in without touching a damn thing. (For those not familiar with hockey, the redline is basicly the goal line extended outside the actual goal. To score from there is almost impossible even without a goalie in the way. It's like throwing a football through a hula hoop---lying on it's side. It was a great shot)So the AK Bars was down 1-3 and we're heading the third.
By this time the game was getting really fiesty. Pavel elbowed a guy in full view of our bench and the guy goes down; no penalty but howls of protest from the other bench resulting in unsportsmanike conduct calls and much bedlam. I myself had a guy clamp is elbow over my right hand and hang on like a drowning man, a clear holding penalty; left uncalled, alas. But even on a 5-3 power play we couldn't score. Things were not going our way at all. On a shift of ours about midway thru, one of their guys comes in down the middle, I was covering Davey's point, and Backhand and the Ah-Nye-Hilator converge on the guy mid-ice. He gets thru and past us, but only just. He's about 2 strides into our slot and I'm trying to maul this guy from his right side. I've got my stick inverted with the blade down and I'm hacking at first is stick, then his legs, and by about his 4th stride I'm actively trying to hook this guy below his knees to get him freaking fall the hell down. Meanwhile Backhand and the Ah-Nye-Hilator are wailing away from the other side but somehow; SOMEHOW...he puts it over the Tree's right shoulder. We battled to the end but they put one more in for good measure. We lost. We're in third place. I wanted to kill something.
But pretty quick I got over that. I try to take things philosophically, and I guess the thing I try to remember is that the fact is everybody loses from time to time. The trick is to not act like a loser. And the thing is, you really do have to lose to realize how amazing and sublime and awesome winning really is. Otherwise, you think that winning is your birthright, something you're owed and deserve, when in fact it is not. Winning, at hockey and in life really, is about a lot more interesting stuff. Stuff like effort, and heart, and comradarie, and ab out a zillion other things that matter so much more. But it's not free, that's for sure.
I'm not being blase about it. I HATE losing and it really really sucks and pisses me off. But I have confidence in myself and probably more importantly--my AK Bars teammates. We've got a tough opponent coming up; the surging Ice Gators. We beat them 6-1 on Opening Night and I think they will be coming at us looking for payback. But we're playing at the Colliseum. I love playing at the Colliseum. And our ever growing fan base (ok; mostly wives and girlfriends that I affectionately refer to as the AK Bars Hottie Corp) look awesome in that huge space! So next week will come soon enough and I think we're gonna be ready to take it back at them.
I'll end this one with this little funny bit. I skated over to the goal after the handshake line to chat with the Tree and just, you know, say the stuff you say at that time and one of the refs was standing there getting ready to move the goal out of the way for the Zamboni. I say to him,
"Man those guys REALLY play DIRTY over there"
and he laughs and goes,
"That's what they were saying about YOU guys"
to which I say with as straight a face as I can muster up,
"Well...I know that we play dirty--or at least I try to, thats the best part! I'm just saying is they are. What WE do doesn't matter to me! I mean what do I have to do to get a penalty from you guys??
We laughed.
See you all soon
-Kai #10 AK Bars
***cut to title card and cue the mice***
"A Terrible Day"
They beat us. The frakking Nemesis beat us. Not "We lost" but "Got Beat". The score was 1-5, which in hockey is quite a shellacking. Truth is we actually played pretty hard for the whole game, but sometimes that simply is not enough. This will put us into third (THIRD!!!???) place 2 points behind the Nemesis but a crucial 2 wins behind them. Those ties are gonna come back to bite us standing-wise. But we still have 6 games to go. Plenty can happen.
I myself played forward this time. Back on the left wing with the Canadians, "Backhand" Boyko and of course, The "Ah-Nye-Hilator". Unfortunatly, the night had an ominous start; the "Ah-Nye-Hilator" had forgotten---of all things---his helmet. Now this sort of thing does happen. I myself forgot my Cup once, which is a rather vital item you might say. Fortunately, Pavel was able to loan me his (extremely, extremely tiny) spare. As luck would have it, I also didn't come down with the clap or anything, knowing Pavel's social life :) Anyway, the Ah-Nye-Hilator took off for home to get his noggin armour, wearing his full kit otherwise, excepting the skates. Glad he didn't get pulled over on the way being that would be an odd thing to explain to a lawman. He got back in time for the second period.
The first period was a real battle. Back and forth we went and nobody could seem to get an advantage. The Nemesis really came to play, and I think they had it for us, especially being we scored the game winner against them last time with less than a minute left on a spectacular shot by Garrett from the left point. This was turning into a very physical game as well, just as I like it really. They would end up with 20 minutes in penalties to our 4, although we couldn't seem to leverage the five-fold difference into any freaking goals.
Just as the period ended, the Ah-Nye-Hilator" arrived and Captain Curtis moved back to the "D". Again, the battle was joined and again we held on. But about 5 minutes in they score off a scrap in front of the Tree (that's Trey "The Tree" Cain--our goalie. He's 6-6 and about 300 lbs BTW). Then less than a minute later, Garrett gets a nice little bounce pass from his point off the wall to me, I manage to get it to the Ah-Nye-Hilator, and he does a splendid little deke from left to right in front of their goalie and puts a nice little backhand right in. We're in this baby!! Sadly, less than 40 seconds later, they respond again and we're down 1-2. I started to get a bad feeling about this. about three minutes later, it got worse. They took a shot from about 4 inches off our redline and somehow it threads the needle and goes in without touching a damn thing. (For those not familiar with hockey, the redline is basicly the goal line extended outside the actual goal. To score from there is almost impossible even without a goalie in the way. It's like throwing a football through a hula hoop---lying on it's side. It was a great shot)So the AK Bars was down 1-3 and we're heading the third.
By this time the game was getting really fiesty. Pavel elbowed a guy in full view of our bench and the guy goes down; no penalty but howls of protest from the other bench resulting in unsportsmanike conduct calls and much bedlam. I myself had a guy clamp is elbow over my right hand and hang on like a drowning man, a clear holding penalty; left uncalled, alas. But even on a 5-3 power play we couldn't score. Things were not going our way at all. On a shift of ours about midway thru, one of their guys comes in down the middle, I was covering Davey's point, and Backhand and the Ah-Nye-Hilator converge on the guy mid-ice. He gets thru and past us, but only just. He's about 2 strides into our slot and I'm trying to maul this guy from his right side. I've got my stick inverted with the blade down and I'm hacking at first is stick, then his legs, and by about his 4th stride I'm actively trying to hook this guy below his knees to get him freaking fall the hell down. Meanwhile Backhand and the Ah-Nye-Hilator are wailing away from the other side but somehow; SOMEHOW...he puts it over the Tree's right shoulder. We battled to the end but they put one more in for good measure. We lost. We're in third place. I wanted to kill something.
But pretty quick I got over that. I try to take things philosophically, and I guess the thing I try to remember is that the fact is everybody loses from time to time. The trick is to not act like a loser. And the thing is, you really do have to lose to realize how amazing and sublime and awesome winning really is. Otherwise, you think that winning is your birthright, something you're owed and deserve, when in fact it is not. Winning, at hockey and in life really, is about a lot more interesting stuff. Stuff like effort, and heart, and comradarie, and ab out a zillion other things that matter so much more. But it's not free, that's for sure.
I'm not being blase about it. I HATE losing and it really really sucks and pisses me off. But I have confidence in myself and probably more importantly--my AK Bars teammates. We've got a tough opponent coming up; the surging Ice Gators. We beat them 6-1 on Opening Night and I think they will be coming at us looking for payback. But we're playing at the Colliseum. I love playing at the Colliseum. And our ever growing fan base (ok; mostly wives and girlfriends that I affectionately refer to as the AK Bars Hottie Corp) look awesome in that huge space! So next week will come soon enough and I think we're gonna be ready to take it back at them.
I'll end this one with this little funny bit. I skated over to the goal after the handshake line to chat with the Tree and just, you know, say the stuff you say at that time and one of the refs was standing there getting ready to move the goal out of the way for the Zamboni. I say to him,
"Man those guys REALLY play DIRTY over there"
and he laughs and goes,
"That's what they were saying about YOU guys"
to which I say with as straight a face as I can muster up,
"Well...I know that we play dirty--or at least I try to, thats the best part! I'm just saying is they are. What WE do doesn't matter to me! I mean what do I have to do to get a penalty from you guys??
We laughed.
See you all soon
-Kai #10 AK Bars
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
