Brick Wall...

My wife thinks I have a big head! (Come on, the one on my shoulders people! Filthy, filthy minds!) I try not to but sometimes it is hard to keep it deflated! I walked into the rink yesterday and one of the players on the other team asked me if I was playing goal. I told him I was (of course). I believe his response was "Crap! Crap! Crap!" You see last time we played this team he was frustrated by the sound of about 3 or 4 of his shots hitting the post! I love the PING sound! We ended that game in a 4-4 tie. NOW, this may not sound like much BUT the team I am playing for is NOT very good! I have played on good teams, even "great" teams. But I like to help out a team in need and these folks were in need. The teams goals against average (average number of goals scored against them per game) the session BEFORE i started playing for them was 7.2 . When I started playing for them my personal goal was to get that number under 7. We ended the session with a 4.5 goals against average. I was happy. The team was still pretty bad but headed in the right direction. Again, difficult to keep the balloon on top of my neck in check when I know I'm making a BIG difference to this team. I had thought that getting below 4 goals per game would be tough with this team but I've had a great session ... and the team has played fairly well. We are currently at 3.36 goals against with one game left in the session. This means that the next team would have to score 12 goals against me to make our goals against average higher than 4. That is NOT happening, there is NO way. I would have to be unconscious for that to happen. OK, so i'm trying to keep the swelling in check but then ... then ... there is last nights game. The team with Mr. Hit-The-Post-Too-Many-Times on it. I hope I made him happy, he didn't hit the post one time last night ... in fact ... every puck hit ME! He came to our locker room afterward and said his team was beside themselves. They would talk about shooting low, i was stoppping those, so they decided to try and shoot high, i was stopping those too! They didn't know what to do ... but the best part came when they actually had a GREAT chance. (Mind you we scored ONE goal early on, which is a feat for us. So, we were winning.) Guy with the puck coming down the rink on my left side. I'm almost up tight against the left post. He passes a perfect pass to his guy on my right side. That player received the pass, and with NO hesitation fired the puck at what he thought was a totally open net. As I dove across the net, almost soccer goalie style, I could hear the cheer on their bench winding up ... then ... when the puck hit me and DIDN'T go in, i heard the rushing of air as the life totally sucked out of their team. that was their best chance of the night and any other day maybe they score that one ... but i was determined. The players on our bench who are usually pretty quiet ... yelled out in unison, a cheer which, quite honestly startled me at first ... but put the biggest smile on my face !!!! I knew right there if we could hold off for a few minutes more ... that THAT save was the game saver!!!! SHUTOUT BABY!!!! I am SO pumped!!!!!

(I know i've used this picture before, and i apologize, but it's the only one i have of me on this computer ... so ... deal!)