Winding Down

I always have a rough time winding down after the Tuesday night hockey games.  I played as hard as I could, got a lot of shots, a goal, and a lot of assists.  I was playing on a team with a couple of college guys who play Division 1 hockey for Iowa State University and Missouri University and they happen to be home for Christmas.  Another guy on our team grew up playing hockey with these guys in high school, and probably before that.  I ended up cycling back to cover the point for him a lot.  These guys had a tendency to put passes just outside my reach, assuming I would read the pass and accelerate in time to intercept it.  Not knowing their systems, I would tend to zig when they expect me to zag.  By the end of the game we were hitting on all cylinders, though, and made up most of a deficit from the first period when our goalie took about 9 shots and let in about 9 goals.  I've never seen a goalie get an 0-fer.  He blamed the brittle outdoor ice surface and his dull skate blades.  He was slipping all over the place.  We would have done better just setting up some pylons in the crease.

The rink at the Carriage Club has a small parking lot full of very expensive cars on one end, and State Line Avenue at the other end.  I've seen some near misses.  I would hate to be driving up State Line Avenue and take a puck in the window, or worse, get a massive dent.  There's not much traffic on that street during the late hour when we play, anyway.  Shots that go over the glass on that end of the rink end up in Kansas.  The pucks that go over the glass into the parking lot, so far, haven't inflicted any known damage.