Hockey-filled Sunday

Woohoo hockey day!

Peter and I started off going to Big 5 for one of those kickass water bottles with the long spout so that I can actually not die of dehydration while wearing the cage. Hooray!

While there, we get the bright idea to buy some rollerblades to practice puck handling in the big parking lot behind our house. Big 5 didn’t have any in my size (Peter already has some, thanks to Alan — thanks, Alan!), so we continued our Day of Consumerism over to Inline Sports, inexplicable home to hockey and rollerblading gear, go-karts, and patio equipment. I picked up some cheap-but-nice (blue!) rollerblades and some even cheaper knee and elbow pads.

We tried out the rollerblades by zipping up and down our street for a few minutes once we got home, even escaping with all limbs intact! I quickly realized that hockey stops weren’t going to happen at all with the rollerblades…I still haven’t figured that whole “stopping” thing out (the skates don’t have a heel brake). So I’ll probably break a leg eventually. I think I’m supposed to be doing a T-stop, but that seems like a groin pull waiting to happen. Hrm. In the meantime, I just aimed for bushes when I needed to stop. 😉

Our foray into rollerblading was short-lived as we had to hop back in the car and head up to East West Hockey to get Peter’s skate ball-popped. I entered a Retail Therapy Trance and bought a new cheapo wooden stick to trash with the rollerblades (well, heck, I’m not taking my $150 Mission stick onto the asphalt!).

Speaking of the Mission stick, the East West guys told me it was a little too short, so they put a small plug in. I can’t say I felt any difference, but hey, it’s not like it cost anything to try, and I got to re-tape the handle, which made my OCD brain very happy indeed.

Once I was done spending money that I don’t really have, it was time for NCWHL Green Evaluation #2! It was pretty similar to last time, though we didn’t really wind up doing much puck handling at all. That’s what I need the most practice on, so that was sort of a bummer…though an all-skating evening was ego-boosting. 😉

The only downside to practice last night was during the Superman drill (where you skate foward and then fall on your face on the blue line…basically just convincing yourself that falling with padding doesn’t hurt). Apparently if you have a existent shoulder injury, however, it does hurt. A lot. I managed to slam down on my left shoulder while the arm was outstretched, and it’s been a world of pain ever since. 1000mg of ibuprofen later, I can at least move the arm, if not sleep very well. So I think I’ll be opting out of that drill in the future.

Our first official team practice is tomorrow night, hooray! I think we’re going to have a really kickass Green league this season. Boooooya!

Oh, and CONGRATULATIONS to Andrea, who was voted Most Valuable Player in the Green league last season!! (though, huh, I wonder why Barb referred to you as “Two-Minute Andrea”? 😉 )

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