It was a rough night last night.
With two minutes left in the Tigers game, which was first up, I got cross-checked in the back… a fist in my kidney area and the stick laid into my back. It was a major surprise because I don’t expect that at all, but in particular in D8 that aggression was a shock. I was charging down a Rockets player who had gone on a breakaway. I caught up to him and started to lean into him to keep him away from the net. I got the puck off his stuck and off to the boards. I got to the boards first to clear the puck and right after I made the clearing pass, he let me have it. The ref immediately called the penalty and I hobbled my way back to the bench with my back already feeling like it had a knot in it. I laid out on the bench for the bit of time left.
After the game the apology entailed telling me that he was sorry and that he thought I’d actually been against the glass (I was a bit off the glass, so he put me into it). I’m not sure what kind of an apology that is… had I been on the glass I think I’d be hurt worse. I have the marks across my back, still today, where the stick was rammed into me and a pain in my right side. Later the people in the locker room were very impressed with the marks and Robb took a picture for me so I could appreciate it what was going on back there (I’ll spare the blog audience the picture of the bruise that’s forming).
I have never been as angry as I was in the aftermath of that hit because it was so unnecessary. The good news: The Tigers shut down the Rockets with a score of 3-0.
In the 20 or so minutes between the Tigers and Wizards games I stretched out on the rink floor and iced my back. The Wizards had 12 players and if I hadn’t played it would’ve been down to a 11 against the top team in D7B, so I sucked it up and played keeping my shifts full of energy, but short so I could keep that energy going. Unfortunately the Wizards lost 3-1. I was playing wing again last night and I was on the ice for two of the goals against. I am directly responsible for those because coming off the face off in the offensive zone, I couldn’t keep the point man from sending the puck back in to the net. (This is why I don’t like wing, because I’m just not good at dealing with that… you’d think I could because I play D and that’s defense, but it’s just off for me.)
The Ordinals game has issues for me too. The final score was a great, a 5-4 overtime win for us, which we very much needed to pull us out of the bottom of the division. But, again, I was out (this time on D) for all four goals against us. John noted that I backed up too much last night and needed to be more aggressive. I think I got too gun shy from the Wizards, plus my injury which I felt through the game. I did have some decent plays, so it wasn’t totally bad, but I hate being out for so many goals against. Plus I got nailed by a couple pucks too, just to add to my injury count. It was an excellent Ordinals game overall and it was great to see the team pull together and get us to come from behind (we’d been down 2-1 for a while). The other cool thing was that some of our newest players were responsible for the goals.
Meanwhile, Ronnie’s in the morning was great. Even though it was later than usual, the crowd was pretty small and the drills and scrimmage were perfect. The scrimmage was four-on-four that was evenly matched so it was a lot of fun for me to play D and yet make some offensive rushes too. Even though it was later, I’m glad I was there.
Next week is the end of the regular season for the Tigers and Ordinals (I don’t get to play for the Tigers because the Ordinals game is at the same time). The Wizards may or may not close their season… depends on the playoff race, we may get one more game. Next week is also the Hockey: The Musical! road trip. Should be a fun Saturday.
