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Q&A Opportunity with Pro Goalie Mike McKenna

Goalie Mike McKenna

We have a Q&A session coming up soon with our in-house professional Mike McKenna of the AHL’s Albany Devils. If you’ve been reading his work here, you’ll know that Mike is a well-thought goalie who does a great job of communicating what it’s like to be a pro.

I put a call out to our subscribers first to send in their questions, as thanks to them for being regular readers. Of course, I’d still love to hear from you as well, so feel free to send in some questions for Mike. We’re going to do the session as a video piece so you can get to know Mike that much better.

I hope you’re having a great summer and enjoying some good training. Send your question to me today! David@inGoalMag.com.

Subscribing is free, I don’t bug you with anything but inGoal information and I never, ever share your information with anyone. So if you want to stay in close touch, please consider subscribing today!

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Nashville Fans’ Campaign to Sign Kevin Weekes

Kevin Weekes is a good friend of inGoal Magazine and one of the nicest guys you’ll meet in hockey. So when I saw a campaign starting (via Preds on the Glass) to have him signed as the Nashville backup this year, I had to share it with our readers. Jeremy Gover at Section303.com wrote a nice piece on the idea and if you discount the fact that Kevin has been off the ice for a year, much of it makes sense. I know that for most guys that year would be huge, but Kevin is a fitness fanatic and I have no doubt he could strap on the pads today.

This is no Rory Fitzpatrick all-star write in campaign. Jeremy is quite serious. What do you think?


photo credit: Rachel Addison

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24 Hours of Hockey

Hey all coming at you this week with a little change up. I will continue the ins and outs of goalie gear soon, but this was something I wanted to get out to the hockey community. It’s for a great cause and it is going to be a LOT of fun!

24 Hours of Hockey Logo

(www.24hoursofhockey.com)

What is it?

24 Hours of Hockey is a charity hockey event  that runs for 24 straight hours! This year it is slated to start at 8am on May 22nd, and continue to 8am May 23rd! At least 48 brave players  will hit the ice for 24 hours of non stop hockey action to show support for less fortunate children.

What’s it for?

The organizer, Robb Moody is now in to his fourth year running the event to help raise funds for the Aurora Children’s Hospital.  The previous 3 years he has been able to raise a whopping $115,000!! All donations go directly to help children who need it! Who could ask for a better cause?

Ian Lapperriere

Craig Anderson

Ian Lapperiere is just one of the NHL players that has stopped by to say hello and show their support.  This year The Colorado Avalanche’s starting goalie Craig Anderson will be stopping by to say hello!

Can you help?

There are several ways you can help.

  • If you live in the Littleton Colorado area (Event is being held at The Edge Ice Arena), stop in and show your support. Check out the event and say hello! Any support we can get for these kids will be awesome!
  • The 2nd way you can help is by donating to the Children’s Hospital. (Help raise funds here!) Even if it is $1 dollar, everything helps! Also for all of you that donate $10 or more, you are entered in a chance to win various items that have been donated to the cause (Prizes). All donations from the link above go directly to the Children’s hospital fund. They are tax deductible, and you get a receipt emailed to you immediately.

Are YOU Playing?

I will be out there bright and early Sat May 22nd at 8am!!! I am slated to play in the 8am-8pm shift on Saturday.

If you can make it out there, please stop by and say hello! I would love to meet any and all of you that are willing to show support for this cause! Look for me in the white and black Reebok gear. I will more than likely be wearing a tux for this cause as well (Look for the tuxedo jersey!)

I will also be handing out InGoalMag fliers at the event when I am not on the ice!

Hope to see some of you out there!!

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Girl Goalies and Guys’ Egos

Guys: Don’t get caught staring at those eyes or you’ll lose the puck! (photo by Paul Szabo)
This article had its start as a (hopefully) humorous first hand account about what it’s like to play in a garage league against a girl goalie every week.  A tall, blond, attractive girl goalie with a faster glove, better positioning and a swivel hips flexible enough to flare the pads in a perfectly straight wall along the goal line. To soothe my fragile male ego, at this point I could perhaps throw in an excuse like being 20+ years older than her, or making it to the second round of the TV reality show La Série Québec-Montréal when she didn’t survive the first cut.  Nevertheless, though I would never admit in the dressing room, “la fille” (“the girl”, as she is often referred to by the guys) has got me in a sweat more games than not.  And that’s before the puck even drops.  Man, hope her English isn’t good enough to read this article…
My idea for the story came into sharper focus after reading a news report last week that the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) will allow girls in high school to try out for and play on any boys team.  The decision was made following a formal challenge filed by a 17 year old female soccer player from Waterloo, one which the athletic association felt it would lose if the case went before a human rights tribunal.  Rather than risking a divisive public debate, OFSAA pre-emptively put an end to the controversy by changing their own rules.  Up until that point, girls had been allowed to try out for boys teams only when a school did not have a girls team in the same sport.  Whether or not they made the right move remains to be seen.  Already the media has seen a number of articles and editorials defending and condemning both points of view.
Where this all fits into the hockey context is, of course, with regards to goalies.  If any sport is likely to see the regular presence and eventual full integration of women into the men’s game, in my estimation it will almost certainly be in goal before anywhere else.  Some might even argue that this change has already taken place. Consider: whereas a woman’s smaller size and muscle mass is not likely going to allow her to go toe to toe with Shaq under the boards (although point guard might be another story) or hit a service ace as powerfully as a Roger Federer, in hockey the criteria for a standout goalie are significantly different from those of a star player.  Muscle mass is not an issue (Ryan Miller, a Vezina candidate, hangs a mere 175 lbs. on his 6’2” frame) and arguably even size cannot said to be the most critical factor (while average goalie height has increased along with player height, the most successful goalies in any statistical category aren’t necessarily the tallest ones).  Moreover, in other critical categories like visual acuity, anticipation, reflexes, balance or flexibility, women are the equals of men or perhaps even superior in some cases.
Over the last several months, Ingoalmag.com has featured a number of articles profiling women goalies, and the interviews given recount how the elite goalies of the women’s game played parts or even the entirety of their goalie careers in boys’ and mens’ leagues.  This in spite of the predictable but unfortunate cabal of naysayers that plagued goalies like Shannon Szabados or Charline Labonté almost every step of the way up the ladder.  In my own discussions with both of these women, there was a strong suggestion that harassment aside, it was necessary for them to win a place in the men’s game for their level to increase to where it is today.
Going back to my story about playing against “la fille”, I can begrudgingly attest that there isn’t much doubt about this girl keeping up to a bunch of 30 and 40 something garage leaguers (even the ones who used to play AAA or major junior).  My particular area of interest, moreso than her play, is how we guys play against her.
Way back in high school I had a trivia buff history teacher who told us that during the two world wars, the Russians created all female combat battalions, mostly out of pure necessity.  As it turned out, the problem wasn’t how they fought, since according to reports they did just fine.  It was, rather, how men soldiers fought against them.  Apparently, when men found out they were fighting against women, their egos made them go way harder, fearful of the loss of face should they lose to a bunch of women (surprised, anyone?).
Maybe my analogy is stretching things a bit, but I am convinced I’ve witnessed this phenomenon on the ice.  If I get down a couple of goals to “la fille”, the guys on my team will go like gangbusters to mount a comeback.  Conversely, the guys on her side frequently seem to be in awe of her stuff, almost letting her get more action on purpose to see if she can handle it.  Then, if they win they seem just as likely to chalk it up to their great goalscoring rather than her goaltending.
This past winter I watched all of the games in the TV reality series “Québec-Montréal” (where non-professional players, including 4 women, were chosen from 10 000 hopefuls to play an 8 game exhibition series in front of a packed-to-the-rafters screaming Colisée full of fans nostalgic for the old Nordiques-Habs rivalry).  Montreal’s starting goalie was no more than average and his errors cost at least a game or two.  Nevertheless, his female back-up seemed to have the toughest time to get the net, subbing only when he became injured (and subsequently taking the game into overtime and an eventual shootout loss).  Meanwhile, Québec’s starting netminder, a former major junior goalie, was simply outstanding.  When his female counterpart finally got to play (after allegedly lambasting Quebec coach Michel Bergeron for not playing her), she had her bell rung for 5 goals.  However, despite getting pulled she ended up winning the game’s first star (!)  Go figure.
In conclusion, I don’t think there is much doubt that mixed gender hockey, at least in the garage league sense, is here to stay.  The professional level may be another story, at least for now.  You goalscorers just be ready on that next breakaway and try not to lose concentration when you spot those thick Cover Girl lashes and mascara staring you down from behind the goalie mask.

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Stickers are SOOO cool: custom goalie masks for cheap

special thanks to James Demarco for his cartoon

If you’re anything like most members of the goalie nation, chances are that a big part of your fascination with playing the position has to do with the coolness factor of strapping on all that equipment.  At the very top of the coolness factor scale, the goalie mask surely comes in first place.  Old guys like me remember sticking black and white hockey tape over that Johnny Boweresque clear plexi mask for the zebra effect, or etching fake scars with magic marker a la Gerry Cheevers.  For others, the marque de commerce that evokes the best memories might be the Palmateer blue zig-zag or Dryden’s CH bullseye, Eddie Belfour’s screaming eagle head or Stephane Fiset’s impregnable ice cube wall, Felix Potvin’s stylized cat or Grant Fuhr’s gushing oil well.  The bottom line is that almost all of us love the way the mask gives its wearer a particular character and mystique.

Moreover, the proof that this notion has carried over into the current era is the literal explosion of high-end mask painters.  Today Atom and Pee-Wee kids are getting custom lids.  Pro goalies now have taken to wearing different masks for special games or to support charities.  inGoalMag.com has featured many of the talented artists who have turned the humble brain bucket into a literal canvas for the most varied and evocative of designs.

Of course, as in all things, excellence has a price.  In the case of the custom air-brushed paint job with a favourite rendition of your-late-Aunt-Mildred-flexing-her-tattooed-biceps-as-she-wields-a-pointy-Sher-Wood-and-flashes-a-toothless-hockey-grin, the final bill can easily run into the $500+ range.  No small amount, especially for a dad on a budget or a beer leaguer (I’m both of these) who fixes his goalie sticks with duct tape to make them last longer (or is that to make them heavier when used as a club…?)

James Demarco poked fun at those of us financially challenged goalies with the cartoon featured above. For me, a guy who had for 20 years been wearing a garage-sale Jofa birdcage combo, it was a provocation to find out whether there was a way to have my cake and eat it too:  get a cool mask and a cool graphic without having to take out a second mortgage.

As it turns out, one of the hockey dads I know happens to own a company that does giant size industrial vinyl graphics, banners and publicity.  His company, Groupe Tetu, started out with his dad doing handpainted signs, just like everyone else did years ago.  Since that time, the business has evolved into a high tech service that, among other things, is able to make computer cut vinyl stickers that can cover 100% of the surface of any taxi or panel truck, or can produce 4 story high posters of Roberto Luongo for the world championships at the Colisée de Québec.

If you need BIG, Groupe Tetu has you covered!

For somewhere between $100-150 bucks, Jean François Tetu can take a Photoshopped design, submitted in jpeg format on a cd, and print them on a high tech 3M vinyl sticker that comes with a protective gloss finish layer bonded to the full colour graphic underneath.

Here’s the amazing part of the process.  I had always thought that stickers were cheap and fragile compared to a real paint job.  My scepticism was won over when we applied them in Jean-François’ kitchen.  First of all, he stretched a white decal over the entire surface of my black helmet so I wouldn’t have to paint it.  I honestly couldn’t tell that it wasn’t painted in an auto body shop.  Next, we spent an hour (!) getting the middle stripe correctly adjusted without folds, bumps or air bubbles.  What amazed me was how much he abused the sticker, stretching it, peeling it off at least a dozen times, heating it with a hair dryer, placing it again and again until it looked right.  Every time we pulled too hard and overstretched the decal, all we had to do was pull it off, lay it flat and heat it.  It would instantly shrink back to its original shape and size.  Remember, this is the same quality of decal used to decorate panel trucks and taxis that run outdoors in the mud, rain and snow year round.

Take a look at the final result and decide for yourself.  While it must be pointed out that the stickers are not dollar-store cheap, and that they are quite tricky to apply without screwing the job up (especially on the top of the helmet where the curve is most pronounced), they provide an option that is worth consideration.  Moreover, you could make a sticker of anything that can be photographed, from the Mona Lisa to a Mandinka Warrior to your late Aunt Mildred.  There are artists out there who can air-brush with accuracy that is photo-real, but that kind of skill comes at a premium (as it should, since these guys don’t come a dime a dozen).

Hasta la victoria siempre! (Forever onwards until victory!)

Groupe Tetu’s specialty is certainly not goalie masks, but if you wish to contact Jean François, he is open to inquiries (www.groupetetu.com).  If your French isn’t up to speed (though I do believe they do business in English as well) then try contacting me through inGoalMag.com and I can inquire on your behalf.  Or try leblancdesigns.com, signspecialist.com or check on Ebay for Troy Lee sticker packages.

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