Anyway, I learned to find some positives about the whole thing,and learned to just treat those games as kind of a drop-in hockey session: I learned to play my hardest, even though the odds were always against us, and to never give up on any shot. It showed through in the other three leagues I was playing in at the time, as well, as I had a renewed patience and appreciation for the game.

However, I lost all that once I quit the team. Now I’m back to yelling at teammates for blown assignments, cursing at myself when I let in the soft goal, tackling opponents when I have an off-night and someone pisses me off, and breaking goal sticks at an average rate of one every three months.

Oh well, the positives were good while they lasted.

After what was a less than stellar night on the ice for me we had returned to the dressing room. I took off my mask and upper body gear and was sitting quietly, head down arms on my pads, reflecting on how I had let the guys down in the game. All of a sudden I got an open handed SLAP across the chest from one of my teammates who had walked up beside me. I was so involved in my self evalution I had not seen him. I looked up and he shook his finger at me and very sternly said “cut that out”! I asked cut what out? He replied quickly “you know what I mean, cut it out”! I looked around the room and everyone was in full agreement.
At this point in our careers, we all still think we can be the game saver on any given night and we still can be. For those nights when we are not, God Bless good friends and John Molson!

Like all goalies, I always feel like I should be able to stop any shot, never mind how I wound up in a given situation. So if a guy walks out of the corner and beats me top shelf from the low circle, I’m not complaining that nobody picked him up, I’m just wondering if I should have played him differently, and acknowledging that it was a good shot.

At my age, my physical skills are no longer improving, so it’s all about the mental part of the game.

Randy